The Dacre Lecture 2021: Thinking the “Unthinkable”: Churchill and the Coming of the Cold War

Wednesday 27 October, 17:00 (BST)
Al Jaber Auditorium, Corpus Christi College
Yalta summit in 1945 with Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin

Yalta summit 1945 with Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin. Wikimedia Commons


This year's Dacre Lecture, held in association with the Faculty of History, will be given by

Professor David Reynolds FBA (Christ's College, Cambridge)

Thinking the “Unthinkable”: Churchill and the Coming of the Cold War

Operation ‘Unthinkable’ was a contingency plan for war with the Soviet Union that Prime Minister Winston Churchill instructed his military planners to draw up on 18 May 1945, less than two weeks after Allied victory over Nazi Germany. David Reynolds reflects on this intriguing document – on what it reveals about Churchill and, more generally, about the challenges of historical interpretation.