WASHINGTON: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the US Congress on Wednesday as a wartime leader appealing for American support, as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill did more than 80 years before.
Zelensky’s visit to Washington — much like Churchill’s in December 1941 — came with his country under relentless attack and international aid essential to its ability to fight on.
“Ukraine holds its lines and will never surrender,” Zelensky told Congress, echoing one of Churchill’s most famous phrases and earning a standing ovation.
Zelensky earlier this year channeled Churchill in a video address to Britain’s House of Commons, pledging to “fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets”.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was among US politicians drawing parallels to Churchill, saying Zelensky was leading his country with “Churchillian courage and resolve”. “Our message now must be the same from all quarters as it was then: We are with you,” she said.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi recalled that her father was a lawmaker when the British leader made his famous address to Congress.
“This is a moment fraught with meaning for me. My father, congressman Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., was a member of the House in 1941 when Winston Churchill came to the Congress on the day after Christmas to enlist our nation’s support in the fight against tyranny in Europe,” Pelosi said.
Limits of US support
The comparison between Churchill’s and Zelensky’s trips to the United States has its limits, however, including in the length of the Ukrainian leader’s stay.
Churchill spent three weeks in Washington at the invitation of president Franklin Roosevelt — a lengthy visit that historians say wore on the nerves of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who did not enjoy the two men’s late night cigar and brandy-fueled conversations.
Zelensky’s trip lasted only a few hours, and included a meeting in the Oval Office, a joint press conference with President Joe Biden, and the speech to Congress.
Churchill ventured across the Atlantic by ship despite the threat of submarines, while Zelensky made the journey via aircraft.
When Churchill arrived in the United States, he found a country shaken by the Japanese attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor and drawn into an international conflict it had sought to avoid.
While Biden is willing to be compared to Roosevelt for his ambitious economic reforms, he does not want to be drawn into a third world war, making clear that he will not send troops to Ukraine, nor even certain types of weapons, in a bid to avoid escalation.
Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2022