Monday July 23 1:11 AM ET

English Whirlwind Invades White House

By LAWRENCE L. KNUTSON, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Winston Churchill has established a presence at the White House for the first time since his World War II visits turned the executive mansion on its stately ear.

A bronze bust of the late British prime minister now glowers from a side table in President Bush (news - web sites)'s Oval Office, just under the cloud-streaked sky of a favorite west Texas landscape.

Bush accepted the Churchill sculpture on long-term loan from the British government last week after dropping broad hints that a bust of Sir Winston was just what was needed to give the Oval Office an air of conviction and determination

``I look forward to visiting with him,'' Bush joked. ``Sometimes he'll talk back, sometimes he won't, depending on the stress of the moment. But he is a constant reminder of what a great leader is like.''

The flesh-and-blood Churchill hit President Franklin Roosevelt's White House like an English whirlwind in late December 1941, just two weeks after Pearl Harbor.

Churchill's doctor found the prime minister had left his mark only hours after his arrival: His bedroom was heavy with cigar smoke. The bedclothes were crumpled. The floor was littered with discarded English and American newspapers.

``The White House never adjusted to Churchill, although he was to return several times,'' writes William Seale in his two-volume history, ``The President's House.''

``The most difficult of guests, his rule was late to bed and late to rise, and he wandered the house at will, often in an air force jump suit, interrupting the usual decorum of the place.''

At times, Churchill didn't wear as much as the jump suit.

One of his male secretaries recalled Churchill dictating while submerged in his bath.

``Eventually he got out of the bath and (his valet) draped an enormous bath towel around him. He walked into an adjoining bedroom, followed by me, notebook in hand, and continued to dictate while pacing up and down the enormous room. Eventually the towel fell to the ground, but quite unconcerned he continued pacing the room dictating all the while.''

At this point Roosevelt entered, took one look and tried to back out.

The prime minister, a study in pink, stopped him: ``You see Mr. President, I have nothing to conceal from you.''

As the visit proceeded, Alonzo Fields, the White House butler, found himself amazed at Churchill's capacity for strong drink: a glass of sherry before breakfast, scotch and soda at lunch, champagne and brandy at dinner, and more scotch and soda through the evening.

``I hope you will come to my defense if someday someone should claim that I am a teetotaler,'' Churchill remarked. The prime minister could rely on him, Fields replied.

Roosevelt and Churchill got along well. They cemented their wartime alliance, coordinated American and British strategies and discussed plans to counter and roll back the Axis powers.

The day after Christmas, Churchill won over Americans in the first words of his address to a joint meeting of Congress: ``I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British, instead of the other way round, I might have got here on my own.''

Churchill's staff installed a mobile map room in the White House so the prime minister could follow the war news. Roosevelt loved it, and soon had a map room of his own.

Some evenings the two leaders watched movies. One night it was Humphrey Bogart in ``The Maltese Falcon.''

When the visit was over and Churchill had returned to London, the president cabled: ``It is fun to be in the same decade with you.''

The Churchill bust was presented to Bush last Monday by Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain's ambassador to the United States. He noted that during a 1943 visit, Churchill was given the run of the White House while a trusting Roosevelt went home to Hyde Park, N.Y.

With an eye to the events of the War of 1812, the ambassador said: ``Leaving Churchill alone at the White House might have been judged a risk, since the last time the British had the White House to themselves they burnt it down.''

Bush was still thinking about the Churchill bust later in the week when he spoke with reporters in London at the beginning of his European trip.

``Churchill is now watching my every move,'' the president said.

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EDITOR'S NOTE - Lawrence L. Knutson has covered the White House, Congress and Washington's history for more than 30 years.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001