I’ve just finished an excellent new book by the journalist Lynne Olson called Troublesome Young Men, about the members of Parliament apart from Winston Churchill who in the late 1930s opposed the British government’s policy of appeasement towards Nazi Germany.
Parliament was dominated by the Tories in those days, and these youngish men—for the most part, upper-crust fellows who could look forward to assuming prominent leadership positions—risked their careers and reputations by opposing Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. As Olson shows, the entrenched Chamberlain simply had no taste or gift for wartime leadership, and it took a lot of courage even after the first months of the war had gone so poorly for the British to push him out. Finally, a vote of confidence in Chamberlain was forced. At the climax of the dramatic debate, one of these critics, Leo Amery, stood up, and facing his former friend Chamberlain, quoted Oliver Cromwell: “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!” Chamberlain lost the vote, Churchill became Prime Minister, and Hitler’s days were numbered.
Reading the book, one can’t help but think of our current predicament, and how one wishes someone could deliver this same message to President Bush. Ironically, we read in a column by David Shribman in The New York Sun that President Bush has read Olson’s book. He, however, identifies with Churchill, seeing himself as a solitary holdout who has the vision to see the evil and who has the courage to oppose it. It gives Bush every break in the book and then some to say that yes, he is like Churchill, in that he has led his country into a war against evil. After that, all comparisons work against him. He has had his war. He botched it. He is not leading us out of it.
And his Director of Homeland Security has "a gut feeling" that we are in as much danger as were in the summer of 2001. What else can you say to Bush after that than "In the name of God, go!"
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Comments on this entry:
I have to agree with you its a great book. I started to read about books of Biography and about Churchill after I got Leadership: Past, Present & Future by Carlos M. Rivera that talks about the top 10 past leaders and Present Leaders you should get this book and talk about it. After I got the book I wanted to learn more about Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt the leadership book recomended The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt from Edmund Morris that is excellent book.
Thanks for your great work and talking abour this book.
Yours Truly
Manuel