The Churchill Sereis – Oct. 6, 2006

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

In yesterday's post I said:

I want to introduce here and in a follow-up post tomorrow something I think was very important to the success of Churchill’s wartime leadership that doesn’t receive much attention from historians. It’s what for want of a better term I’ll call Churchill’s ability to remind people at certain key psychological moments “that on the other hand.” Churchill used “on the other hands” to help the British people moderate the emotional highs and lows that could interfere with the resolve and constancy they needed to see the war through to final victory.

I offered, as an example, Churchill's reminder to the British people in the midst of their joy over the deliverance of their army as a result of "the miracle of Dunkirk:" "Wars are not won by evacuations."

Jon Meacham in Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship writes about Churchill's "on the other hand" leadership following the great British victory at El Alamein in November, 1943:

[Churchill] did not want the good news from North Africa to lull his listeners into thinking the hard work was over. "I promise nothing," Churchill said. "I predict nothing."

Winning battles did not mean winning the war, and just as the British has borne early defeats with equanimity, so now they must resist overreacting to success.

This was insightful psychological leadership on a grand scale: The natural reaction of a war-weary people to the glory of El Alamein – it had indeed been a long time since London could celebrate a victory – was to exhale and begin to think that perhaps the worst was over.

Churchill knew better and told the nation so. “I know of nothing that has happened yet which justifies the hope that the war will not be long, or that bitter and bloody years do not lie ahead,” he said.
(p. 203)

Between them, Churchill and Meacham make my point so well there’s nothing I feel I need to add except a wish that you all have a nice weekend.

John