Churchill, “satisfied nations”

Toward the very end of his Edward Said Memorial Lecture: The Unipolar Moment and the Culture of Imperialism (61:45 minutes into the clip) Noam Chomsky mentions that after WWII

“the U.S. shouldered the responsibility that was eloquently described by Winston Churchill, the responsibility to protect the interests of the satisfied nations whose power places us above the rest, the rich men dwelling in peace within their habitations to whom the government of the world must be entrusted”.

Chomsky is quoting from Churchill’s 1951 book, Closing the Ring, p. 336. Here is the paragraph:

Stalin then asked what could be done for Russia in the Far East. I replied that Russia had Vladivostok, but he pointed out that the port was ice-bound, and also depended on the Straits of Tsushima. At present the only exist that the Russians had was Murmansk. I answered that I wished to meet the Russain grievance, because the government of the world must be entrusted to satisfied nations, who wished nothing more for themselves than what they had. If the world-government were in the hands of hungry nations there would always be danger. But none of us had any reason to seek for anything more. The peace would be kept by peoples who lived in their own way and were not ambitious. Our power placed us above the rest. We were like rich men dwelling at peace within their habitations.

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