The historian Neville Thompson discusses his book The Third Man: Churchill, Roosevelt, Mackenzie King, and the Untold Friendships That Won WWII (Sutherland House, 2021), with Joseph Planta.

The Third Man: Churchill, Roosevelt, Mackenzie King, and the Untold Friendships That Won WWII by Neville Thompson (Sutherland House, 2021). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Third Man

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

A new book from the distinguished historian Neville Thompson looks at the life of William Lyon Mackenzie King in the context of his personal and professional friendship with both Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. When the three got together at the height of the Second World War, they weren’t the Big Three, but Professor Thompson makes the eminent case that Canada’s prime minister was indispensable as the relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt was necessitated after 1939, and certainly as the United States entered the war after 1941. King knew both men, and he saw up close the personalities and the makeup of each, physically or otherwise. He was a confidante to both, and King’s voluminous diaries capture so much that do not appear elsewhere, and as Neville will tell me, might have been lost. I’ll ask Professor Thompson about King, his priorities as prime minister, how he balanced Canada’s loyalty to the Crown in England and by extension His Majesty’s government headed by Churchill, as well as the geographical proximity to its closest neighbour, the United States. The book is highly readable and engaging. Neville Thompson is professor emeritus of history at the University of Western Ontario, where he taught modern British and European History. His previous books include The Anti-Appeasers, Wellington After Waterloo, and Canada and the End of the Imperial Dream. This new book’s full title is The Third Man: Churchill, Roosevelt, Mackenzie King, and the Untold Friendships That Won WWII. It is published by Sutherland House. He joined me from London, Ontario last week. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Neville Thompson; Professor Thompson, good morning.

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