What was Winston Churchill's weakness and strengths?

Answer 1

Churchill, like many British leaders, had a knack for getting other nations to take up the English cause..... pulling the English bacon out of the fire, so to speak.

Despite getting his nation involved in a brutal war without any hope of victory without outside assistance, Churchill was able to galvanize public support and pull the USA into a virtual war in Europe by mid 1940.

He was supposedly a great speaker and may have been so, however the famous speaches we all hear recordings of, were actually done by a British actor filling in for the real man. Thus I cannot give him credit as a speaker, but perhaps as a writer of speaches he was excellent. As to personal characteristics he was slovenly, drunk most of the time, rarely rose from bed before noon, and smoked constantly. He was a notorious racist and made many well known hateful remarks about Asians and other groups.

His war time management of the British situation was satisfactory although he dabbled a bit too much in tactical military affairs, albeit far less than Hitler. His military decisions, dating back to 1915, were almost entirely a string of military calamities. His decisions on Norway, Greece, Crete, Italy, N Africa, Singapore, the Far East fleet and other matters were all disasters. Thus his record as a military commander is abysimal. Of course, these decisions were not aided by the generally incompetent top generalship of the British armed forces.

After the war in Europe, but before the defeat of Japan, he was kicked out of office by a war weary British electorate.....obviously his popularity there was far below his stature in the USA.

He is generally consider a hero in western lore, a sort of messiah leading the West against the devil in the form of Hitler. IMO, his legacy is sparce. His insistance on fighting rather than negotiating with Germany led to a devastating war in Europe that bankrupted Britain. The war cost not only them their empire, but also France, Belgium and the Netherlands their's. It also led to two thirds of Europe being enslaved and impoverished by Stalinist Russia for fifty years.