Offstage: The Untold Stories Behind History's Greatest Speeches

just after winston churchill gave his most famous speech he privately told a general poor people poor people they trust me and i can give them nothing but disaster for quite a long time it's an incredible line and it gets right to the heart of what we talked about last week that gap between the podium and the person what the nation heard was defiance what he felt was the crushing weight of that trust so take us there it's 05/13/1940 what is happening in that room in the house of commons it's chaos utter terrifying chaos neville chamberlain's government has just collapsed churchill only became prime minister three days earlier on may 10

and on that same day germany invaded belgium the netherlands and luxembourg the war wasn't coming anymore it was here so he's brand new to the job and the world is literally on fire exactly and he walks into a parliament that doesn't even fully trust him many in his own conservative party still preferred chamberlain they saw churchill as a warmonger a political maverick he had to form an all party coalition government just to hold things together the atmosphere wasn't celebratory it was tense desperate so what does he do how does he face a room like that he does something that politically sounds like madness he offers them nothing no promises of a swift victory no easy

reassurances he stands up and says i have nothing to offer but blood toil tears and sweat wow i mean we all know the line but hearing it in that context that's not a political speech that's a declaration of suffering it is he's telling them to their faces that the road ahead is awful he says we have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind we have before us many many long months of struggle and of suffering he's managing expectations in the most brutal way imaginable so how did the room react you'd think telling people to prepare for disaster would cause a panic you would think so but it was the honesty of it that

cut through for months they've been told things were under control while germany just kept advancing churchill was the first leader to look them in the eye and tell them the unvarnished truth he wasn't just a politician anymore he was a wartime leader defining the terms of survival and those terms were stark unbelievably so he laid out the government's policy in a single sentence to wage war by sea land and air with all our might and the aim he was just as clear victory he said victory at all costs victory in spite of all terror victory however long and hard the road may be so there's no plan b there is no plan b he finishes

with this appeal for unity come then let us go forward together with our united strength and the response is immediate the house of commons the same one that was so divided just days before gives his government a unanimous vote of confidence unanimous even the ones who didn't want him even them because he changed the question the question was no longer do we like winston churchill the question was are we willing to do what it takes to survive by promising nothing but a fight he gave them the one thing they desperately needed a cause it's such a paradox the most hopeful speech is the one that promises the most pain where have we seen

that pattern before a leader who rallies people not with optimism but with a brutal assessment of reality you see it in moments of extreme crisis you see it in explorers heading into the unknown or entrepreneurs trying to build something from nothing it's the shackleton in the antarctic model of leadership he didn't promise his men they'd get rich he promised them hardship and a chance at glory churchill's promising hardship for a chance at survival and that private comment to his general hangs over all of it i can give them nothing but disaster for quite a long time it's the key to understanding him i think the public figure offers defiance and resolve the private man understands

the catastrophic cost of that resolve he knew the bombing of british cities was coming he knew the casualty lists would be long the speech wasn't theatrical for him it was a promise and he knew he would have to keep it so the speech wasn't the end of the story it was the beginning of the disaster he knew was coming yes it was the sound of a nation taking a deep breath before plunging into the abyss he wasn't promising they would win easily or even that they would all live to see it he was promising that their struggle their blood their toil their tears would mean something in may 1940 that was the only thing worth

fighting for