Fallibility

The Right Honorable Gentleman glowering at you on the right, Sir Winston Churchill, had a clarity of vision not granted to many. And he had courage to declare that vision in an overwhelmingly contrary environment.

Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich to an ecstatic crowd, waving high his scrap of paper assuring “peace for our time”.

When Mr. Churchill addressed the House of Commons five days later, he stood alone: “We have sustained defeat without a war . . . the whole equilibrium of Europe has been deranged . . . this is only the beginning of the reckoning . . . the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be preferred to us year by year.

Events would soon show how profoundly and resoundingly right he was!! And how one might wish it were always so with Winston!

But history has a way of bringing down the brilliant: despite his legendary strategic mastery Napoleon’s attack on Russia proved profoundly unwise; Robert E. Lee’s tactical genius deserted him at Gettysburg as he ordered a frontal assault against prepared positions on Cemetery Ridge.

So Mr. Churchill had grievous encounters with fallibility. In fact the same flawed assumptions led him to disaster not once, but twice!

Next: When the Fear of Dreadnaughts Fails