It was great fun last summer, tackling the sprawling topic of WWI. It was even more fun distilling the entire story into 10 pictures. I was pretty happy that everyone reacted well to it; and did not beat me up for missing this or that important facet.
WWI most naturally leads to its sequel, and this summer I figured I might as well tackle WWII. This time my writerly conceit is to pick (subjectively, of course), the 10 most impactful people of WWII, rather that than telling the story in 10 pictures as I did last time.
Some of the names are going to be so obvious, one might as well ask why bother. Especially since perhaps 6 of the 10 names, most folks would be able to rattle off without specifically reading anything new or making a special effort to read about WWII.
So the fun, I suppose is in two sorts of picks, i) who the remaining four to five would be to round out the ten and ii) in what order would they be ranked in terms of most impact (TIME magazine style)?
The attributes of ranking would be i) impact (not good or bad, but scale), ii) enduring legacy (again, not good or bad), iii) transformational for mankind. You might assume that the third criterion was added to promote a particular outcome in the list and the ranking - and you would be right!
I take great joy in my top 2 picks for the most impactful people, but I hope upon reading them, you might find the picks credible, even though you might disagree in your own construction of such a ranking.
When I shared the initial list with my son, he joined in and wanted to create his own list of Top 10. His entries surprised me. We had 6 in common and a couple of surprise entries each. We had a royal debate over the #1 slot of who had most impact during WW2. My wife adjudicated that on an 'age-adjusted' basis, that my son won! I retorted that on an 'age-adjusted' basis he would always win, especially with her as referee!
I apologize upfront that there are no women in this list of 10. Surely Eleanor Roosevelt deserves mention. But I do hope that you will correct me by providing names that should firmly deserve a place in such a Top 10 list.
Here is the list - hope you enjoy it!
World War II - 10 Most Impactful People
10. Hitler / Hideki Tojo
Without these two, there would be no WW II. The motivations for why they were aggressors were different, but their objective was the same - world domination through the most violent means. The motivation for the former was clearly redressing a deep grievance from the end of WWI. Japan on the other hand seemed to be motivated by sourcing raw materials for its rapid industrialization. Both were beset by perceptions of racial superiority.
And they both are guilty of the biggest strategic blunders that hastened their downfall. Operation Barbarossa in Hitler's case when he took on Russia and Pearl Harbor in Hideki Tojo's case when he took on the United States.
Side note: What were they (not) thinking?!
9. Stalin
Here is one person who is as brutal and cynical as they get, against his own people, .... by the millions. Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon, is one of the most gripping accounts of how Stalin practiced his purges.
How bad must he have been that even though the system itself and its philosophy had not changed, the very next leader, Nikita Khrurshchev eliminated all traces of him - be they statues, names of cities or his atrocious prison camps.
Regardless, as far as WWII is concerned, Stalin was the head of the Soviets when Hitler was turned back during Operation Barabarossa and the Russian forces got to Berlin from the Eastern front.
Side note: The son of a long time Chief Minister in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu is named Stalin (and not by accident, I think!).
8. MacArthur
Certainly the most colorful of characters in this top 10 list, he is perhaps remembered most for being fired by President Truman for insubordination. But his freeing of Philippines (complete with dramatic arrival), and presiding over the liberalization and reconstruction of Japan are formidable peacetime achievements.
Side note: Gregory Peck played MacArthur in an eponymous movie.
7. Montgomery
Eisenhower's chief foil, 'Monty' led the ground forces in Operation Overlord that consisted of the Normandy Beach invasion and the subsequent push into Germany. One might suspect that if Montgomery were American and Eisenhower were British, that their roles would have swapped in WWII. Equally strong, equally accomplished men, both were vital to the European theatre.
Side note: As a kid I remember, his memoirs on my Dad's bookshelf. I remember thumbing through it many times, but never actually read it (opting for Alastair MacLean instead!).
6. Eisenhower
I am a big fan of 'Ike's' managerial and diplomatic skill. When I think of what it probably took to plan D-Day, as a management student and practitioner, I am overcome with admiration. It is easy to read a book here and watch a movie there about WWII. But to actually think through what it must have been like to plan this campaign, its million moving parts, uncertainties (weather), orders from above, competing egos - this must be a crowning managerial achievement, with world peace in the balance!
Tom Selleck played Ike admirably in the eponymous movie.
Side note: I was surprised to read Ike had a huge temper. It belies his image as an even keeled, and even benign person.
5. Truman
I cannot imagine a more momentous decision that a leader has had to make in history than the one that unleashed mankind's first weapon of mass destruction.
Truman proved himself to be no Hamlet, as he made this call. And at least by public accounts, did not second guess himself either.
The war did come to an end and history has been kind to Truman.
Side note: Truman asked Hoover for help in organizing the supply of aid to Europe after the war to prevent starvation and any epidemics.
4. Roosevelt
Like Woodrow Wilson before him, and in whose administration he served, FDR had to respond to the aggression of the Axis powers. Battling the economic catastrophe that was the great depression and battling the forces of persecution and tyranny, laid at the doorstep of FDR, one of the greatest challenge the United States has faced.
Everything one wants in a leader was on display - charm, strength, inspiration, elocution, strategy, clarity, resourcefulness.
Side note: Terms limits were introduced after FDR passed away, having been elected to the only U.S. President elected 4 times.
3. Churchill
The depth of understanding that Churchill brings in terms of what the Nazi threat means to the world is hard to fathom. He had seen battles since the Boer War and had scars from his experience in WWI (and defeats at that).
Given his oratory, statesmanship, ability to inspire, cajole, endure - it is hard to think of a more seminal figure in the battle back against the Axis powers. Is it also fair to say that had Britain folded, the outcome of WWII might have been different?
The Indian sub-continent has a more jaundiced view of Churchill. But this listing is not of the net-impact of the British Empire and Churchill's role in it. Rather, it is the impact of personalities on WWII itself.
Who could possibly top Churchill, and why?!
2. Marshall
In all of history, did the vanquished in war ever be supported to stand up on their own feet, and be provided aid to do so? From Genghis Khan through Alexander to Napolean, the objective of the victor was to subjugate and to rule. Why even at the time of WWII, the empires colonized and ruled.
Thus, in the long arc of history, it was seminal that in his 1947 Harvard speech, George Marshall outlined the European Recovery Program. He is the only career officer from the U.S. Army ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace prize (I wonder if he is the only career officer anywhere anywhere in the world to win this prize?)
Certainly the scale of this war was orders of magnitude bigger than other wars and the personalities that had impact were larger than life.
And amongst these giants, George Marshall towers above for this unique contribution - helping the vanquished recover.
1. Oppenheimer
The story of mankind, is the story of knowledge. Through knowledge, is developed the awareness of our place, and our ability to develop tools to further our cause. And with suffering along the way.
More countries were involved in WWII than WWI. More soldiers and civilians died in battle. Certainly, technological advancement generated the scale of destruction seen in WWI and further casualties in WWII.
Mankind took a quantum leap in knowledge, and faced its wrathful consequence, when Oppenheimer led the development of the first atomic weapon.
Our understanding of how the universe works took a giant leap forward in Los Alamos, when Einstein's theory was proved right.
We paid a terrible price for this knowledge; as Einstein had darkly warned in his second letter to FDR. And as his warning foreboded, we might yet pay a more terrible price for it in the future.
For the purposes of this list, it should be recognized that the seminal achievement that was enabled by WII was that man took an irreversible step forward in knowledge of how the universe works. And generated the power of their own destruction.
With his achievement at Los Alamos, Robert Oppenheimer's legacy casts a long shadow over us, as having had the most impact of all WWII personalities.
References
Last year's WWI Post: http://agingonthevine.blogspot.com/2013/08/wwi-and-todays-implications-in-10.html
John Keegan - World War II - As good a one volume summary as was his book on WWI.
American Prometheus - Scintillating account of the life, accomplishments and suffering of Robert Oppenheimer
Day One - Excellent account of the creation of the atomic bomb. Won the Pulitzer Prize.
Arthur Koestler - Darkness at Noon - Reminded me of The Crucible by Arthur Miller.
Best Years of Their Lives - stunning feature. The best!
Truman - Another stodgy biopic. But might as well watch it for history.
Ike - Excellent, under valued portrayal by Tom Selleck of Ike's role in the planning of D-Day
Patton - Was surprised to see that Francis Ford Coppola wrote the screenplay and won the Oscar for Patton.
MacArthur - Gregory Peck played the General. Slightly stodgy movie.
Bridge too Far - recounts the failure of the Allied attempt to break through German lines, with the main objective of outflanking German defences.
The Longest Day - majestic overview of the D-Day Landings
Foyle's War - UK mystery series set during WWII especially Battle of Britain.
Saving Private Ryan - Normandy Beach landing
Schindler's List - the horrors of the Holocaust.
Americanization of Emily - another view of war. Cynical!
Tora Tora Tora - Pearl Harbor attack
Back To Bataan - John Wayne yarn on the battle in the Philippines during WWII.
Bridge on the River Kwai - pacific theatre and the construction of the Burma railroad. The Japanese were knocking on India's door.
WWI most naturally leads to its sequel, and this summer I figured I might as well tackle WWII. This time my writerly conceit is to pick (subjectively, of course), the 10 most impactful people of WWII, rather that than telling the story in 10 pictures as I did last time.
Some of the names are going to be so obvious, one might as well ask why bother. Especially since perhaps 6 of the 10 names, most folks would be able to rattle off without specifically reading anything new or making a special effort to read about WWII.
So the fun, I suppose is in two sorts of picks, i) who the remaining four to five would be to round out the ten and ii) in what order would they be ranked in terms of most impact (TIME magazine style)?
The attributes of ranking would be i) impact (not good or bad, but scale), ii) enduring legacy (again, not good or bad), iii) transformational for mankind. You might assume that the third criterion was added to promote a particular outcome in the list and the ranking - and you would be right!
I take great joy in my top 2 picks for the most impactful people, but I hope upon reading them, you might find the picks credible, even though you might disagree in your own construction of such a ranking.
When I shared the initial list with my son, he joined in and wanted to create his own list of Top 10. His entries surprised me. We had 6 in common and a couple of surprise entries each. We had a royal debate over the #1 slot of who had most impact during WW2. My wife adjudicated that on an 'age-adjusted' basis, that my son won! I retorted that on an 'age-adjusted' basis he would always win, especially with her as referee!
I apologize upfront that there are no women in this list of 10. Surely Eleanor Roosevelt deserves mention. But I do hope that you will correct me by providing names that should firmly deserve a place in such a Top 10 list.
Here is the list - hope you enjoy it!
World War II - 10 Most Impactful People
10. Hitler / Hideki Tojo
And they both are guilty of the biggest strategic blunders that hastened their downfall. Operation Barbarossa in Hitler's case when he took on Russia and Pearl Harbor in Hideki Tojo's case when he took on the United States.
Side note: What were they (not) thinking?!
9. Stalin
How bad must he have been that even though the system itself and its philosophy had not changed, the very next leader, Nikita Khrurshchev eliminated all traces of him - be they statues, names of cities or his atrocious prison camps.
Regardless, as far as WWII is concerned, Stalin was the head of the Soviets when Hitler was turned back during Operation Barabarossa and the Russian forces got to Berlin from the Eastern front.
Side note: The son of a long time Chief Minister in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu is named Stalin (and not by accident, I think!).
8. MacArthur
Side note: Gregory Peck played MacArthur in an eponymous movie.
7. Montgomery
Side note: As a kid I remember, his memoirs on my Dad's bookshelf. I remember thumbing through it many times, but never actually read it (opting for Alastair MacLean instead!).
6. Eisenhower
Tom Selleck played Ike admirably in the eponymous movie.
Side note: I was surprised to read Ike had a huge temper. It belies his image as an even keeled, and even benign person.
5. Truman
Truman proved himself to be no Hamlet, as he made this call. And at least by public accounts, did not second guess himself either.
The war did come to an end and history has been kind to Truman.
Side note: Truman asked Hoover for help in organizing the supply of aid to Europe after the war to prevent starvation and any epidemics.
4. Roosevelt
Everything one wants in a leader was on display - charm, strength, inspiration, elocution, strategy, clarity, resourcefulness.
Side note: Terms limits were introduced after FDR passed away, having been elected to the only U.S. President elected 4 times.
3. Churchill
Given his oratory, statesmanship, ability to inspire, cajole, endure - it is hard to think of a more seminal figure in the battle back against the Axis powers. Is it also fair to say that had Britain folded, the outcome of WWII might have been different?
The Indian sub-continent has a more jaundiced view of Churchill. But this listing is not of the net-impact of the British Empire and Churchill's role in it. Rather, it is the impact of personalities on WWII itself.
Who could possibly top Churchill, and why?!
2. Marshall
Thus, in the long arc of history, it was seminal that in his 1947 Harvard speech, George Marshall outlined the European Recovery Program. He is the only career officer from the U.S. Army ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace prize (I wonder if he is the only career officer anywhere anywhere in the world to win this prize?)
Certainly the scale of this war was orders of magnitude bigger than other wars and the personalities that had impact were larger than life.
And amongst these giants, George Marshall towers above for this unique contribution - helping the vanquished recover.
1. Oppenheimer
The story of mankind, is the story of knowledge. Through knowledge, is developed the awareness of our place, and our ability to develop tools to further our cause. And with suffering along the way.
More countries were involved in WWII than WWI. More soldiers and civilians died in battle. Certainly, technological advancement generated the scale of destruction seen in WWI and further casualties in WWII.
Mankind took a quantum leap in knowledge, and faced its wrathful consequence, when Oppenheimer led the development of the first atomic weapon.
Our understanding of how the universe works took a giant leap forward in Los Alamos, when Einstein's theory was proved right.
We paid a terrible price for this knowledge; as Einstein had darkly warned in his second letter to FDR. And as his warning foreboded, we might yet pay a more terrible price for it in the future.
For the purposes of this list, it should be recognized that the seminal achievement that was enabled by WII was that man took an irreversible step forward in knowledge of how the universe works. And generated the power of their own destruction.
With his achievement at Los Alamos, Robert Oppenheimer's legacy casts a long shadow over us, as having had the most impact of all WWII personalities.
References
Last year's WWI Post: http://agingonthevine.blogspot.com/2013/08/wwi-and-todays-implications-in-10.html
John Keegan - World War II - As good a one volume summary as was his book on WWI.
American Prometheus - Scintillating account of the life, accomplishments and suffering of Robert Oppenheimer
Day One - Excellent account of the creation of the atomic bomb. Won the Pulitzer Prize.
Arthur Koestler - Darkness at Noon - Reminded me of The Crucible by Arthur Miller.
Best Years of Their Lives - stunning feature. The best!
Truman - Another stodgy biopic. But might as well watch it for history.
Ike - Excellent, under valued portrayal by Tom Selleck of Ike's role in the planning of D-Day
Patton - Was surprised to see that Francis Ford Coppola wrote the screenplay and won the Oscar for Patton.
MacArthur - Gregory Peck played the General. Slightly stodgy movie.
Bridge too Far - recounts the failure of the Allied attempt to break through German lines, with the main objective of outflanking German defences.
The Longest Day - majestic overview of the D-Day Landings
Foyle's War - UK mystery series set during WWII especially Battle of Britain.
Saving Private Ryan - Normandy Beach landing
Schindler's List - the horrors of the Holocaust.
Americanization of Emily - another view of war. Cynical!
Tora Tora Tora - Pearl Harbor attack
Back To Bataan - John Wayne yarn on the battle in the Philippines during WWII.
Bridge on the River Kwai - pacific theatre and the construction of the Burma railroad. The Japanese were knocking on India's door.
5 comments:
This is a persuasive list IF you assume that the British successfully evacuate Dunkirk and win the Battle of Britain. If they fail at both (and without Churchill they would have failed), the only person that could lay claim to being ahead of him would be Hitler. However, if Britain had capitulated or been defeated by the Germans, it is likely this would have been a European war and not a World War. Given the anti-Bolshevik sentiment in America, I doubt we would have been on their side except for the British. I believe it was Stalin who said the most important fact in the world is that Britain and the United States speak the same language.
As for your list. I think they’d be on most people’s list, as you say. But, as you also suggest, your #’s 1& 2 are a bit of surprise. Which, as surprises always do, got me to thinking.
The two most coherent thoughts would be to do my listing under the categories ‘causal agents for starting the war’, ‘causal agents who won the war’ and finally, ‘causal agents who won the peace’.
Accordingly, I’d list Hitler, Tojo and Neville Chamberlin as the top three causal agents that started the war.
I’d list Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Oppenheimer and Alan Turing (at least as a representative of Bletchley Park code breakers) as agents who won the war.
And I’d list Truman, Marshall and George F. Kennan as agents who won the peace.
That’s two too many. But not sure who I’d cut. Perhaps Turing and Kennan.
Tim - BRILLIANT. I love the way you categorized the personalities into those three buckets. I do wish I could add Turing in the list. I mean the man is the father of AI and the general purpose computer. Golly!! Maybe I bump MacArthur, eh?
technology and economic might (American factories) where major contributors to our success. But if we’re keeping it to personalities, Turing wouldn’t make the list.
And I agree with bumping MacArthur. He was all hat and no cattle… or maybe, all corncob pipe, no tobacco. In that war he was more of a show horse then a work horse. When you add to this the American Caesar side of him… I’d make him a near villain. One we narrowly escaped. That may be a bit of an exaggeration. But I definitely don’t think he belongs on your list.
But, as it turns out, just after sending you my list I realized that I left of someone that should perhaps be on your list: Fleet Admiral William "Bull" Halsey. Our victory in the Pacific was not all Hiroshima. Getting the bomb there required a sweep through the islands of the pacific to get a bomber close enough to drop it. The real turnaround in that theatre was our devastating victory at Midway from which the Japanese never recovered. If Stalin’s victory at Stalingrad was the battle that made D-Day possible, Midway was the battle that made Hiroshima possible.
But my major contribution to the discussion is my newfound (after Iraq) belief in the central importance of winning the peace. In fact, you could say that that was also the central lesson of WWI. If you lose the peace, you’ve lost everything. WWII was essentially the final battles of WWI. So, if I had a do over, I’d add the four principle leaders at Versailles as the starters of WWII every bit as much as Chamberlain, Hitler and Tojo.
There’s a very big lesson there that, as I’ve said, we still don’t seem to have fully learned.
It has to be Churchill ! Imagine if Germany had been able to get the British to sue for peace in the fall of 1940; without Churchill they probably would have no other choice.
This is the likely outcome:
FDR loses to Wilkie in the Fall.
The U.S. would probably have signed some kind of "peace" agreement with Germany and all the great generals would have not had their moment in the sun.
The Germans would have defeated Russia and Stalin would have been an historical footnote.
The wild card is Japan.
With the Battle of Britain won Roosevelt wins.
England gets an expensive ally: The U.S. (with Wilkie's support)
Russia pushes back the Germans.
Japan attacks the U.S.
Germany declares war on the U.S.
The stage is set for all the rest.
Post a Comment