• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 100 0

strength of all threatened states. That unity had not been created, nor had those who were most in danger built up sufficient armaments to be able to deter an aggressor by themselves. From 1946, when he spoke at Fulton, Missouri, about the “Iron Curtain,” Churchill used his experience of the pre-war years, and his knowledge of how hard it had been in wartime to secure victory as a result of pre-war neglect, to advocate direct talks with the new adversary, the Soviet Union. These discussions should be held at the highest level, he said, and be based on Anglo-American (and, in due course, European) unity and strength, to secure an amelioration of international tensions. In both war and peace his leadership bore the hallmarks of clarity of vision, strength of purpose, and faith in the ultimate victory of decency and goodwill.

The comments of those who saw Churchill in action at close quarters during the war give an insight into his leadership qualities during those five hard years. From these contemporary remarks, made in the first year and a half of his premiership when the dangers were greatest— remarks that Churchill himself never saw—I have chosen sixteen that reflect his qualities in all their variety, and mark out his leadership as something rare among the twentieth-century war leaders: “galvanizing people at all levels,” “a manifestly humane person,” “no rigidity of mind,” “nothing can frighten him,” “a gentle, almost paternal smile,” “ready as always with confident advice,” “ceaseless industry,” “strength, resolution, humour, readiness to listen,” “a wonderful tonic,” “enough courage for everybody,” “really he has got guts,” “in wonderful spirits, and full of offensive plans,” “innately lovable and generous,” “amazing grasp of detail,” “full of the most marvellous courage, considering the burden he is bearing,” and, in tandem with this last and at the centre of all Churchill’s leadership struggles and decisions, “carrying the heaviest burden of responsibility any man has ever shouldered.”

Reflecting towards the end of his life on her father’s war leadership, Churchill’s daughter Mary summed up a nation’s feelings when she wrote to him: “I owe you what every Englishman, woman & child does—Liberty itself.”

Note on Sources

The material in this lecture is taken from my book Churchill: A Life, as well as from the six volumes of the Churchill biography, Winston S. Churchill, covering the years 1914 to 1965, and the eleven document volumes covering the years 1914 to 1941, which I have published over the past thirty years.

MARTIN GILBERT

WINSTON CHURCHILL’S WAR LEADERSHIP

Sir Martin Gilbert is Winston Churchill’s official biographer and a leading historian of the modern world. He is the author of seventy-three books, among them Churchill: A Life, comprehensive studies of both the First and Second World Wars, and his three-volume work A History of the Twentieth Century. He was made an Honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, in 1994, and was knighted in 1995. He lives in London with his wife, Susan, and their two boys.

ALSO BY MARTIN GILBERT

Churchill: A Life

In Search of Churchill: A Historian’s Journey

The First World War: A Complete History

The Second World War: A Complete History

A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume I: 1900-1933

A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume II: 1933-1951

A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume III: 1952-1999

Holocaust: The History of the Jews of Europe

During the Second World War

The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust

Copyright © 2003 by Martin Gilbert

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American

Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by

Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Originally published by Vintage Canada, a division of

Random House of Canada Ltd., in 2004.

Vintage and colophon are registered

trademarks of Random House, Inc.

The Cataloging-in Publication Data

is on file at the Library of Congress.

www.vintagebooks.com

www.randomhouse.com

eISBN: 978-0-307-43029-8