Andrew Roberts hits back at Churchill revisionist Darryl Cooper from the Tucker Carlson show

The historian Darryl Cooper appeared on the Tucker Carlson show last week to reveal why he thinks Churchill was the 'chief villain' of the Second World War and why Churchill, not Hitler was behind mass murder, terror and war crimes. Historian Andrew Roberts joins the Spectator's editor Fraser Nelson to unpack each accusation and explain why they are baseless.

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[mr.mayhem]

The reason why Darryl Cooper won't discuss his assertion with a historian who knows what he's talking about is because he's not a historian and doesn't know what he's talking about.

[notmyrealnameyo]

The most appalling point Daryl makes to me, as a Dutch person, is after invading our country he said Britain should have mind their own business and leave it be. Good lord am I thankful for people like Churchill for standing up for our sovereignty.

[TerryTerryTerry]

‘Morally bankrupt’ is a spot on description of Cooper.

[Catherine-]

The fact that Darryl won't debate Andrew tells you everything you need to know about Darryl's belief in his own arguments.

[sj]

Roberts is a master historian, Cooper is a clown

[abuyusef]

When we have to listen to yet another gormless attack on Churchill, I am always comforted by the fact that Churchill himself, constantly attacked by political opponents throughout his life, would have been entirely up for a fight ridiculing these dummies.

[IvanLeonard-by]

I watched the entire interview with Daryl Cooper. He claimed to have read countless books about WW2, but in the end I was left with the impression that he had never read a book.

He was vague and meandering throughout. He seemed to be very confused about exactly what time periods he was discussing. He always seemed to be attempting to make a point but never actually made his point.

My firm impression was that he had perhaps read a Wikipedia article about the war but had in fact skimmed through it too quickly and so was confused about the actual facts of the war.

As for the claim that Hitler never intended to invade Hitler outlined his plans to invade Russia in a conference with his generals in 1937. That would be an odd thing to do if you did not intend to invade Russia.

[DanLetts]

Tell me, what did Churchill have to do with the Nuremberg laws? The night of long knives? The holocaust?

[charlesiragui]

Hitler didn't have a plan? That's a very odd statement (Mein Kampf??). Prior to the invasion of Poland, the German government had created concentration camps, they had expropriated all of the wealth of the Jewish citizens. Quickly as Europe was occupied the German authorities set up camps to control the population. The Schwansee Conference was literally generating a plan. When the Soviet Union was invaded and millions of soldiers taken prisoner, they were immediately put in slave labor conditions. There is no clear line of delineation between before and after the invasion of Poland.

[andrewhotston]

Daryl Cooper isn't a historian.
He is a liar.

[edoboleyn]

Having claimed the Germans caused the deaths, violation, torture, and plunder of millions because they found themselves with prisoners they hadn’t planned to have, Cooper should be made to debate Heinrich Himmler or Adolf Eichmann. The architects of the Shoah and the Reich’s other crimes would be alarmed to hear their hard work, preparation, and innovation was being dismissed as unintentional.

[williamsnowden]

" A popular historian. .. Darryl Cooper ... who made some quite serious points..."
He may be "popular, " but he's not a "serious" figure, but merely an ill- educated, self- promoting attention seeker.
Andrew Roberts is a genuine historianl who engages in serious research of not just secondary but primary sources.
So, I can appreciate why master Cooper declined your invitation to debate with Andrew Roberts.

[JohnSmyth-li]

I KNOW it is commonplace to say these days " you couldn"t make this rubbish up". But Darryl Cooper has .

[macswad]

I'm just absolutely amazed how Darly Cooper's argument & thought processes are 100% incorrect.

[vincentcooper]

Darryl Cooper's moral logic is truly silly. He compares the dilemma facing the Germans in Russia (with thousands of prisoners) with Israel's dilemma in Gaza with civilians. The Germans invaded Russia in an act of pure aggression. Israel invaded Gaza in an act of self-defence. The moral difference is obvious.

[MyloBgood]

I can't help but think that Tucker Carlson's integrity as a journalist is completely up in the air for even entertaining this type of scholarship, which is really the lack thereof.

[drm]

Man, fantastic interview, interviewer and guest.

Absolutely dismantled Cooper.

[boomerreb]

Well done! As an American citizen I apologize for the tripe from Cooper and Carlson.

[Alcibiades]

*At least we aren't speaking German!*

[daviddougall]

Cooper is totally wrong about Churchill and needs to educate himself about a historical figure he doesn't understand. However, why can't you discuss Churchill and his part in WW2 without mentioning the Holocaust? (Roberts must have known this.) Churchill wrote his six-volume history of WW2 immediately after the war and didn't mention the Holocaust. He barely referenced the Jews in his writings, relegating their part in an enormous world war to a few sentences and mostly in regard to Palestine and its implications as a colony of the Empire. He does however reference the crimes against Jews in Hungary and calls it the greatest crime against humanity in history (I paraphrase), and goes onto say that it would result in the prosecution of those involved. So Cooper may be guilty of much, but this isn't one to hang around his neck. The lack of reference to Jewish issues in WW2 by Churchill does tend to confirm that he was not a pawn of any Zionist conspiracy.