One Man's View of the World

by Lee Kuan Yew

Who will you rate, amongst all the European leaders you have met in the last 50 years, as the one who has impressed you the most? A: I cannot say. Historically, Winston Churchill stands out. He was a great leader because the world would have gone differently had he not been so defiant in the face of the most impossible odds to hold out against the Germans. His attitude was one of total defiance. “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.” He had a delivery which was lisped, but which carried total conviction and carried the British people along with him, whereas the French did not have such a leader and they caved in. Marshal Pétain was produced from retirement and settled for Vichy France. Winston Churchill was in a class unto himself for that period in history. Without him and the Royal Air Force, the British would have been overrun by the Luftwaffe. But the spirit he injected into his pilots saved Britain. Then the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and that pushed the Americans into the war. So it was good luck on his part. But he held out for a year on his own.