Winston Churchill and Me

In my safe deposit box at the bank is a telegram dated November 24, 1943, from Aunt Lillian to Daddy serving in the coast artillery in Hawaii. It announces my birth about 6 that morning. Mother and baby are doing fine. 

I was born pretty much in the middle of World War II, and my own creation myth is deeply tied to that worldwide cataclysm. That may explain my enduring interest in the history of the period and my attachment to the heroes of the battles - political and military. 

I have read five of Churchill's 6-volume history of WWII. I stopped at that point because the story it told no longer seemed relevant. As the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union fell apart, the agreements that came out of the Potsdam Conference of 1945 were being superseded by current events. The map of Europe was changing once again.