"Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth"
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Recently, Tucker Carlson hosted the podcaster-cum-historian Darryl Cooper on his show. Though introduced as the “best and most honest popular historian in the United States,” Cooper spent his time peddling ahistorical conspiracies and factual errors. Gaining over thirty-four million views on X alone, such assertions need to be challenged. Most of all, his attacks on Sir Winston Churchill.
Cooper calls Churchill “the chief villain of the Second World War,” viewing him as “primarily responsible for that war becoming what it did, becoming something other than an invasion of Poland.” Such reasoning makes little sense, given the chronology of events.
When Great Britain issued its guarantee of Poland’s independence in April 1939, Churchill was out of office. Neville Chamberlain was Prime Minister when Great Britain declared war on 3 September 1939.
Hitler’s Directive No. 6 for the Conduct of the War ordered planning for the invasions of France and the Low Countries in October 1939. Even on the date Germany launched these invasions (10 May 1940), Churchill was not made premier until that evening—after all attacks were initiated.
Cooper’s claims about the timeline of the conflict are erroneous. His subsequent point that Churchill wanted to go to war because “the long-term interests of the British Empire were threatened by the rise of a power like Germany” is ridiculous, as the British Empire had no borders with Germany. [...]
