Leaders: Myth and Reality

by General Stanley McChrystal

And yet Churchill’s record was hardly consistent and only occasionally deserving of such hyperbole. It was audacity that made him effective as a painter and became the hallmark of his leadership, but how well it served him depended greatly on the particulars of the situation. Churchill’s audacity gave him the courage to fight rather than negotiate terms with a seemingly invincible Nazi Germany, but periodically also resulted in some disastrous forays, such as at Gallipoli. And that famous wartime audacity also made for a far less effective peacetime leader. During his second tenure as prime minister, Churchill bungled vital efforts for bilateral talks with Russia concerning nuclear weapons, and far too much of his administration’s energy was taken up deciding who should be anointed as his successor. Attributes that had been essential to his wartime leadership could not be readily transformed to the new realities of postwar Britain. Nonetheless, over time the legacy of his bold successes would eclipse his audacious failures, and his record as a wartime leader relegated his pastime of painting to become a mere footnote in a storied career.