che guevara
Che an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist.His ideology promotes exporting revolution to any country whose leader is supported by the United States and has fallen out of favor with its citizens. Guevara talks about how constant guerrilla warfare taking place in non-urban areas can overcome leaders. He introduces three points that are representative of his ideology as a whole: that the people can win with proper organization against a nation's army; that the conditions that make a revolution possible can be put in place by the popular forces; and that the popular forces always have an advantage in a non urban setting.
To me Che Guevara is one of the most heroic figures in world history who is a
stoic example of what all those who speak of “revolution” should espouse to
be.
This was a man who left a bourgeoisie comfortable life of the upper class, a potential well compensated career as a medical doctor, and a high regarded governmental position --- each time to slog through the jungle and fight guerrilla wars against impenetrable odds = for a better and more equitable society.
I endorse Jean Paul Sartre’s declaration that Guevara was the “most complete man of our time” … and find his life not only fascinating but deeply inspiring.
Guevara despite his crippling and acute asthma which would debilitate him almost daily to inches from death, directed “suicide squads” in the battle against the U.S. armed and backed Dictator Batista where with less than 300 men; he literally took on 10,000 Batista soldiers armed with tanks, jets, and U.S. weaponry, and came out victorious at and leading up to the victory at Santa Clara.
In Bolivia, Guevara spent almost over 1 hellish year in the festering jungle battling a disease which left his hands as mounds of swollen flesh, the fact that his allergic reaction to mosquito bites would leave walnut sized welts all over his body, kept fighting even when he was without food for nearly a month, went shoeless, without blankets, and still with less than 30 men took on a force of 1,800 Bolivian U.S. armed rangers with an air force, green beret advisors, and CIA technology. Despite these odds Guevara’s men killed 30 Bolivian troops before they even lost their first Guerrilla. Moreover, displaying his character, despite all these hardships, when Guevara could have simply taken the food of Bolivian campesinos to eat, he insisted on paying for everything.
Throughout his life Che tended to thousands of sick campesinos, helped construct dozens of schools throughout Cuba, worked in a Leper colony to helped those afflicted, and even when he was literally tied up in a small mud school house awaiting his own execution ! , still complained to the local teacher that in a nation where the leaders drove Mercedes … it was a travesty that the peasants were taught in a dilapidated place like he was in.
I do find it telling that the person Che was so often compared to by those who knew him was Jesus Christ. Because of his implacable character, unbending morals, and innate desire to fight in favor of the afflicted, I think that those who knew him were left with no other figure to compare him to.
Was he perfect? Of course not. No human is. But in mind he was awfully close considering the circumstances and cards he was dealt. I also find it telling that the best “canard” his detractors and those propagandists of monopoly capitalism can come up with - was his short stint at La Cabana prison. Where Che simply reviewed the cases and convictions of war criminals convicted by revolutionary tribunal (modeled after Nuremburg). The same secret police and Batista backed torturers that killed 20,000 people and tortured tens of thousands more. At a time when Fidel and Che would release military captives in the Sierra after tending to them medically, Batista would gouge the eyes out of captives until they gave away rebel positions. The fact that Che saw to it that justice was delivered cold to the Cuban people to me only makes him more heroic. He knew that a “pedagogy of the wall” was the only thing that could cleanse a society from the thousands of goons who raped and terrorized it with impunity.
Yet I'm amazed how people apply some sort of “perfectionist” fallacy to Guevara or more foolishly overlook his heroism on the basis of the fact that Capitalists profit from his defiant image. This is exactly what the capitalist vampires want. They will take every hero of the toilers and the left and revise them into “terrorists” … they will take every noble guerrilla who fought against imperialism and craft them into “mad men” so as to make you think that heroism and socialism/Marxism etc are antithetical concepts. If this doesn’t work … the Capitalist/Imperialists will try to make real heroes into caricatures, or “de-fanged” banal symbols of popular culture – so as to “devalue” their serious and conceptual analysis on behalf of the working class. .
I would implore those who give credence to the idea of a "revolution" … to give much deserved recognition to one of the few men in the past century who literally threw aside “the arm chair” and went out to (imperfectly) create it.
If the world had 100 Che’s … … we would be in much better shape.
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army.
The theory of Permanent Revolution addressed the question of how such feudal regimes were to be overthrown, and how socialism could be established given the lack of economic prerequisites. Trotsky argued that in Russia only the working class could overthrow feudalism and win the support of the peasantry. Furthermore, he argued that the Russian working class would not stop there. They would win its own revolution against the weak capitalist class, establish a workers' state in Russia, and appeal to the working class in the advanced capitalist countries around the world. As a result, the global working class would come to Russia's aid, and socialism could develop worldwide.
With Leon Trotsky there passed away the last of the great leaders
of bolshevism. It was his activity during the last fifteen years that kept alive
some of the original content of the Bolshevik ideology — the great weapon for
transforming backward Russia into its present state-capitalistic form.
As all men are wiser in practice than in theory, so also Trotsky by his accomplishments achieves far greater importance than through his rationalizations that accompanied them. Next to Lenin, he was without doubt the greatest figure of the Russian Revolution.
Hugo Chavez
Following his own political ideology of Bolivarianism and "socialism of the 21st century", he focused on implementing socialist reforms in the country as a part of a social project known as the Bolivarian Revolution, which has seen the implementation of a new constitution, participatory democratic councils, the nationalization of several key industries, increased government funding of health care and education, and significant reductions in poverty, according to government figures.Under Chavez, Venezuelans’ quality of life improved according to a UN Index and the poverty rate fell from 48.6 percent in 2002 to 29.5 percent in 2011, according to the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America.
He subsequently introduced a new constitution which increased rights for marginalized groups and altered the structure of Venezuelan government, and was re-elected in 2000. During his second presidential term, he introduced a system of Bolivarian Missions, Communal Councils and worker-managed cooperatives, as well as a program of land reform, while also nationalizing various key industries. He was re-elected in 2006 with over 60% of the vote. On 7 October 2012, Chávez won his country's presidential election for a fourth time, defeating Henrique Capriles, and was elected for another six-year term.
Allying himself strongly with the communist governments of Fidel and then Raúl Castro in Cuba and the socialist governments of Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, his presidency was seen as a part of the socialist "pink tide" sweeping Latin America. Along with these governments, Chávez described his policies as anti-imperialist, being a prominent adversary of the United States' foreign policy as well as a vocal critic of U.S.-supported neoliberalism and laissez-faire capitalism.
Yasser Arafat
Arafat was a Palestinian leader. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and leader of the Fatah political party and former paramilitary group, which he founded in 1959.Arafat spent much of his life fighting against Israel in the name of Palestinian self-determination .
Awards: Nobel Peace Prize, Time's Person of the Year, Jawaharlal Nehru Award.
Arafat quotes ::
These operations have given the Israeli government the excuse to reoccupy our land, killing hundreds of our innocent people and destroying all that we have built in the last eight years."
"We were the first revolution to enter and force our way into the United Nations. You are a people of might and no one can erase our presence from this Palestinian land. Yes, this is Palestinian land, and we are here until Judgment Day."
"This award, which is of ultimate significance and gesture, was not granted to me and my two partners, Mr. Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel, and Mr. Shimon Peres, the foreign minister, ... to crown an endeavor that we have completed but rather to encourage us to continue a road which we have started."
"My people are hoping that this agreement which we are signing today marks the beginning of the end of a chapter of pain and suffering which has lasted throughout this century."
"We totally and absolutely renounce all forms of terrorism, including individual, group and state terrorism."
"Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."
"As long as the world saw the Palestinians as no more than refugees standing in line for U.N. rations, it wasn't likely to respect them. Now that the Palestinians carry rifles, the situation has changed."
Yasser Arafat is one of the generation of great leaders who arose after World War II.
The stature of a leader is not simply determined by the size of his achievements, but also by the size of the obstacles he had to overcome. In this respect, Arafat has no competitor in the world: no leader of our generation has been called upon to face such cruel tests and to cope with such adversities as he.
When he appeared on the stage of history, at the end of the 1950s, his people was close to oblivion. The name Palestine had been eradicated from the map. Israel, Jordan and Egypt had divided the country between them. The world had decided that there was no Palestinian national entity, that the Palestinian people had ceased to exist, like the American Indian nations – if, indeed, it had ever existed at all.
Within the Arab world the “Palestinian Cause” was still mentioned, but it served only as a ball to be kicked around between the Arab regimes. Each of them tried to appropriate it for its own selfish interests, while brutally putting down any independent Palestinian initiative. Almost all Palestinians lived under dictatorships, most of them in humiliating circumstances.
When Yasser Arafat, then a young engineer in Kuwait, founded the “Palestinian Liberation Movement” (whose initials in reverse spell Fatah), he meant first of all liberation from the various Arab leaders, so as to enable the Palestinian people to speak and act for itself. That was the first revolution of the man who made at least three great revolutions during his life.
It was a dangerous one. Fatah had no independent base. It had to function in the Arab countries, often under merciless persecutions. One day, for example, the whole leadership of the movement, Arafat included, was thrown into prison by the Syrian dictator of the day, after disobeying his orders. Only Umm Nidal, the wife of Abu Nidal, remained free and so she assumed the command of the fighters. Those years were a formative influence on Arafat’s characteristic style. He had to manoeuver between the Arab leaders, play them off against each other, use tricks, half-truths and double-talk, evade traps and circumvent obstacles. He became a world-champion of manipulation. This way he saved the liberation movement from many dangers in the days of its weakness, until it could become a potent force.
Gamal Abd-al-Nasser, the Egyptian ruler who was the hero of the entire Arab world at the time, got worried about the emerging independent Palestinian force. To choke it off in time, he created the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and put at its head a Palestinian political mercenary, Ahmed Shukeiri. But after the shameful rout of the Arab armies in 1967 and the electrifying victory of the Fatah fighters against the Israeli army in the battle of Karameh (March 1968), Fatah took over the PLO and Arafat became the undisputed leader of the entire Palestinian struggle.
In the mid-1960s, Yasser Arafat started his second revolution: the armed struggle against Israel. The pretension was almost ludicrous: a handful of poorly-armed guerillas, not very efficient at that, against the might of the Israeli army. And not in a country of impassable jungles and mountain ranges, but in a small, flat, densely populated stretch of land. But this struggle put the Palestinian cause on the world agenda. It must be stated frankly: without the murderous attacks, the world would have paid no attention to the Palestinian call for freedom.
As a result, the PLO was recognized as the “sole representative of the Palestinian people”, and thirty years ago Yasser Arafat was invited to make his historic speech to the UN General Assembly: “In one hand I carry a gun, in the other an olive branch…”
For Arafat, the armed struggle was simply a means, nothing more. Not an ideology, not an end in itself. It was clear to him that this instrument would invigorate the Palestinian people and gain the recognition of the world, but that it would not vanquish Israel.
The October 1973 Yom Kippur war caused another turn in his outlook. He saw how the armies of Egypt and Syria, after a brilliant initial victory achieved by surprise, were stopped and, in the end, defeated by the Israeli army. That finally convinced him that Israel could not be overcome by force arms.
Therefore, immediately after that war, Arafat started his third revolution: he decided that the PLO must reach an agreement with Israel and be content with a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
That confronted him with a historic challenge: to convince the Palestinian people to give up its historic position denying the legitimacy of the State of Israel, and to be satisfied with a mere 22% of the territory of pre-1948 Palestine. Without being stated explicitly, it was clear that this also entails the giving up of the unlimited return of the refugees to the territory of Israel.
He started to work to this end in his own characteristic way, with persistence, patience and ploys, two steps forwards, one step back. How immense this revolution was can be seen from a book published by the PLO in 1970 in Beirut, viciously attacking the two-state solution which it called “the Avnery plan”
Historic justice demands that it be clearly stated that it was Arafat who envisioned the Oslo agreement at a time when both Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres still stuck to the hopeless “Jordanian Option”, the belief that one could ignore the Palestinian people and give the West Bank back to Jordan. Of the three recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, Arafat deserved it most.
From 1974 on, I was an eye-witness to the immense effort invested by Arafat in order to get his people to accept his new approach. Step by step it was adopted by the Palestinian National Council, the parliament in exile, first by a resolution to set up a Palestinian authority “in every part of Palestine liberated from Israel”, and, in 1988, to set up a Palestinian state next to Israel.
Arafat’s (and our) tragedy was that whenever he came closer to a peaceful solution, the Israeli governments withdrew from it. His minimum terms were clear and remained unchanged from 1974 on: a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; Palestinian sovereignty over East Jerusalem (including the Temple Mount but excluding the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter); restoration of the pre-1967 border with the possibility of limited and equal exchanges of territory; evacuation of all the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory and the solution of the refugee problem in agreement with Israel. For the Palestinians, that is the very minimum, they cannot give up more than that.
Perhaps Yithak Rabin came close to this solution towards the end of his life, when he declared on TV that “Arafat is my partner”. All his successors rejected it. They were not prepared to give up the settlements, but, on the contrary, enlarged them incessantly. They resisted every effort to fix a final border, since their kind of Zionism demands perpetual expansion. Therefore they saw in Arafat a dangerous enemy and tried to destroy him by all means, including an unprecedented campaign of demonization. So Golda Meir (“there is no such thing as a Palestinian people”). So Menachem Begin (“Two-footed animal…the man with hair on his face…the Palestinian Hitler”), so Binyamin Netanyahu, so Ehud Barak (“I have torn the mask from his face”), so Ariel Sharon, who tried to kill him in Beirut and has continued trying ever since.
No liberation fighter in the last half-century has faced such immense obstacles as he. He was not confronted with a hated colonial power or a despised racist minority, but by a state that arose after the Holocaust and was sustained by the sympathy and guilt-feelings of the world. In all military, economic and technological respects, the Israeli society is vastly stronger than the Palestinian. When he was called upon to set up the Palestinian Authority, he did not take over an existing, functioning state, like Nelson Mandela or Fidel Castro, but disconnected, impoverished pieces of land, whose infrastructure had been destroyed by decades of occupation. He did not take over a population living on its land, but a people half of which consists of refugees dispersed in many countries and the other half of a society fractured along political, economic and religious lines. All this while the battle for liberation is going on.
To hold this packet together and to lead it towards its destination under these conditions, step by step, is the historic achievement of Yasser Arafat.
Great men have great faults. One of Arafat’s is his inclination to make all decisions himself, especially since all his close associates were killed. As one of his sharpest critics said: “It is not his fault. It is we who are to blame. For decades it was our habit to run away from all the hard decision that demanded courage and boldness. We always said: Let Arafat decide!”
And decide he did. As a real leader, he went out ahead and drew his people after him. Thus he confronted the Arab leaders, thus he started the armed struggle, thus he extended his hand to Israel. Because of this courage, he has earned the trust, admiration and love of his people, whatever the criticism.
If Arafat passes away, Israel will lose a great enemy, who could have become a great partner and ally.
As the years pass, his stature will grow more and more in historical memory.
vladimir putin
Under Putin’s eight-year reign the Russian economy grew every single year, with an overall GDP increase of more than 70%. During the same period, investments rose 125%, industry grew by 76%, and poverty decreased 50%. The average monthly salaries in Russia increased from $80 to $640, and the middle class grew from 8 million people to 55 million.
Analysts have credited these impressive economic achievements to strong macro-management, capital inflows, fiscal policy reform, and rising energy prices (Russia is a large exporter of oil and gas). Putin wisely reintroduced nuclear power and positioned Russia as an energy super power that Europe has come to rely on. He also invested heavily in Russian infrastructure, including pipelines. Among Putin’s accomplishments was the introduction of a 13% flat tax and the reduction of the corporate tax rate from 35% to 24%. As a result, Putin has maintained extraordinarily high approval ratings from the Russian people, winning his second Presidency with 71% of the vote.
Putin’s accomplishments are even more impressive when one realizes that he has had to deal with one of the fiercest mafias in the world. The Russian mafia led by notorious billionaire gangsters, who use dual citizenships in non-extradition countries such as Israel to thwart justice, are responsible for sex slavery, weapons trafficking, drug running, and the rampant corruption that has plagued Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. Putin has consistently risked his life to challenge these gangsters and eventually saw charges brought against many of the criminal oligarchs. Regardless of these challenges, Putin’s administration has consistently maintained a lower incarceration rate than the United States.
While Obama was winning a Nobel Peace Prize and perpetrating undeclared wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Putin was using every piece of his influence to oppose unjust and internationally illegal wars. In 2003, Western powers used their political influence to invade Iraq, with no credible intelligence of weapons of mass destruction. The war eventually lead to higher oil prices and the murder of one million innocent civilians. Cooler heads in the United Nations like Vladimir’s Russia staunchly opposed the war and doubted the dubious intelligence from his rival leaders. Putin tried to prevent the disastrous Iraq war by vetoing resolutions in the UN, but the powerful Israeli-American lobby, AIPAC, convinced American politicians to invade without UN backing.
Now the American-Israeli lobby and mainstream media, are pushing for more undeclared wars in Syria and Iran. Both of which would increase the price of oil tremendously and likely lead to the downfall of the already frail world economy. Even though such an event would increase the price of Russia’s main export, oil, Putin seems to care more about the humanitarian implications of such an intervention than the financial benefits for his nation. As such, Putin used Russia’s seat on the UN security council to veto US backed resolutions on Syria. The blood-thirsty American media immediately condemned Putin as being obstructionist and starting a second cold war, but Putin remained above the petty warmongering and simply instructed the Americans to stop attempting to indulge in their “bellicose itch” to start more wars.
Putin’s business acumen, just foreign policy decisions, and humanitarian leadership should be congratulated throughout the world. If only American Presidents could respect freedom and other nations’ sovereignty like Vladimir Putin, the planet would be a lot more peaceful.
Adolf Hitler
"We were the first revolution to enter and force our way into the United Nations. You are a people of might and no one can erase our presence from this Palestinian land. Yes, this is Palestinian land, and we are here until Judgment Day."
"This award, which is of ultimate significance and gesture, was not granted to me and my two partners, Mr. Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel, and Mr. Shimon Peres, the foreign minister, ... to crown an endeavor that we have completed but rather to encourage us to continue a road which we have started."
"My people are hoping that this agreement which we are signing today marks the beginning of the end of a chapter of pain and suffering which has lasted throughout this century."
"We totally and absolutely renounce all forms of terrorism, including individual, group and state terrorism."
"Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."
"As long as the world saw the Palestinians as no more than refugees standing in line for U.N. rations, it wasn't likely to respect them. Now that the Palestinians carry rifles, the situation has changed."
Yasser Arafat is one of the generation of great leaders who arose after World War II.
The stature of a leader is not simply determined by the size of his achievements, but also by the size of the obstacles he had to overcome. In this respect, Arafat has no competitor in the world: no leader of our generation has been called upon to face such cruel tests and to cope with such adversities as he.
When he appeared on the stage of history, at the end of the 1950s, his people was close to oblivion. The name Palestine had been eradicated from the map. Israel, Jordan and Egypt had divided the country between them. The world had decided that there was no Palestinian national entity, that the Palestinian people had ceased to exist, like the American Indian nations – if, indeed, it had ever existed at all.
Within the Arab world the “Palestinian Cause” was still mentioned, but it served only as a ball to be kicked around between the Arab regimes. Each of them tried to appropriate it for its own selfish interests, while brutally putting down any independent Palestinian initiative. Almost all Palestinians lived under dictatorships, most of them in humiliating circumstances.
When Yasser Arafat, then a young engineer in Kuwait, founded the “Palestinian Liberation Movement” (whose initials in reverse spell Fatah), he meant first of all liberation from the various Arab leaders, so as to enable the Palestinian people to speak and act for itself. That was the first revolution of the man who made at least three great revolutions during his life.
It was a dangerous one. Fatah had no independent base. It had to function in the Arab countries, often under merciless persecutions. One day, for example, the whole leadership of the movement, Arafat included, was thrown into prison by the Syrian dictator of the day, after disobeying his orders. Only Umm Nidal, the wife of Abu Nidal, remained free and so she assumed the command of the fighters. Those years were a formative influence on Arafat’s characteristic style. He had to manoeuver between the Arab leaders, play them off against each other, use tricks, half-truths and double-talk, evade traps and circumvent obstacles. He became a world-champion of manipulation. This way he saved the liberation movement from many dangers in the days of its weakness, until it could become a potent force.
Gamal Abd-al-Nasser, the Egyptian ruler who was the hero of the entire Arab world at the time, got worried about the emerging independent Palestinian force. To choke it off in time, he created the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and put at its head a Palestinian political mercenary, Ahmed Shukeiri. But after the shameful rout of the Arab armies in 1967 and the electrifying victory of the Fatah fighters against the Israeli army in the battle of Karameh (March 1968), Fatah took over the PLO and Arafat became the undisputed leader of the entire Palestinian struggle.
In the mid-1960s, Yasser Arafat started his second revolution: the armed struggle against Israel. The pretension was almost ludicrous: a handful of poorly-armed guerillas, not very efficient at that, against the might of the Israeli army. And not in a country of impassable jungles and mountain ranges, but in a small, flat, densely populated stretch of land. But this struggle put the Palestinian cause on the world agenda. It must be stated frankly: without the murderous attacks, the world would have paid no attention to the Palestinian call for freedom.
As a result, the PLO was recognized as the “sole representative of the Palestinian people”, and thirty years ago Yasser Arafat was invited to make his historic speech to the UN General Assembly: “In one hand I carry a gun, in the other an olive branch…”
For Arafat, the armed struggle was simply a means, nothing more. Not an ideology, not an end in itself. It was clear to him that this instrument would invigorate the Palestinian people and gain the recognition of the world, but that it would not vanquish Israel.
The October 1973 Yom Kippur war caused another turn in his outlook. He saw how the armies of Egypt and Syria, after a brilliant initial victory achieved by surprise, were stopped and, in the end, defeated by the Israeli army. That finally convinced him that Israel could not be overcome by force arms.
Therefore, immediately after that war, Arafat started his third revolution: he decided that the PLO must reach an agreement with Israel and be content with a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
That confronted him with a historic challenge: to convince the Palestinian people to give up its historic position denying the legitimacy of the State of Israel, and to be satisfied with a mere 22% of the territory of pre-1948 Palestine. Without being stated explicitly, it was clear that this also entails the giving up of the unlimited return of the refugees to the territory of Israel.
He started to work to this end in his own characteristic way, with persistence, patience and ploys, two steps forwards, one step back. How immense this revolution was can be seen from a book published by the PLO in 1970 in Beirut, viciously attacking the two-state solution which it called “the Avnery plan”
Historic justice demands that it be clearly stated that it was Arafat who envisioned the Oslo agreement at a time when both Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres still stuck to the hopeless “Jordanian Option”, the belief that one could ignore the Palestinian people and give the West Bank back to Jordan. Of the three recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, Arafat deserved it most.
From 1974 on, I was an eye-witness to the immense effort invested by Arafat in order to get his people to accept his new approach. Step by step it was adopted by the Palestinian National Council, the parliament in exile, first by a resolution to set up a Palestinian authority “in every part of Palestine liberated from Israel”, and, in 1988, to set up a Palestinian state next to Israel.
Arafat’s (and our) tragedy was that whenever he came closer to a peaceful solution, the Israeli governments withdrew from it. His minimum terms were clear and remained unchanged from 1974 on: a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; Palestinian sovereignty over East Jerusalem (including the Temple Mount but excluding the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter); restoration of the pre-1967 border with the possibility of limited and equal exchanges of territory; evacuation of all the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory and the solution of the refugee problem in agreement with Israel. For the Palestinians, that is the very minimum, they cannot give up more than that.
Perhaps Yithak Rabin came close to this solution towards the end of his life, when he declared on TV that “Arafat is my partner”. All his successors rejected it. They were not prepared to give up the settlements, but, on the contrary, enlarged them incessantly. They resisted every effort to fix a final border, since their kind of Zionism demands perpetual expansion. Therefore they saw in Arafat a dangerous enemy and tried to destroy him by all means, including an unprecedented campaign of demonization. So Golda Meir (“there is no such thing as a Palestinian people”). So Menachem Begin (“Two-footed animal…the man with hair on his face…the Palestinian Hitler”), so Binyamin Netanyahu, so Ehud Barak (“I have torn the mask from his face”), so Ariel Sharon, who tried to kill him in Beirut and has continued trying ever since.
No liberation fighter in the last half-century has faced such immense obstacles as he. He was not confronted with a hated colonial power or a despised racist minority, but by a state that arose after the Holocaust and was sustained by the sympathy and guilt-feelings of the world. In all military, economic and technological respects, the Israeli society is vastly stronger than the Palestinian. When he was called upon to set up the Palestinian Authority, he did not take over an existing, functioning state, like Nelson Mandela or Fidel Castro, but disconnected, impoverished pieces of land, whose infrastructure had been destroyed by decades of occupation. He did not take over a population living on its land, but a people half of which consists of refugees dispersed in many countries and the other half of a society fractured along political, economic and religious lines. All this while the battle for liberation is going on.
To hold this packet together and to lead it towards its destination under these conditions, step by step, is the historic achievement of Yasser Arafat.
Great men have great faults. One of Arafat’s is his inclination to make all decisions himself, especially since all his close associates were killed. As one of his sharpest critics said: “It is not his fault. It is we who are to blame. For decades it was our habit to run away from all the hard decision that demanded courage and boldness. We always said: Let Arafat decide!”
And decide he did. As a real leader, he went out ahead and drew his people after him. Thus he confronted the Arab leaders, thus he started the armed struggle, thus he extended his hand to Israel. Because of this courage, he has earned the trust, admiration and love of his people, whatever the criticism.
If Arafat passes away, Israel will lose a great enemy, who could have become a great partner and ally.
As the years pass, his stature will grow more and more in historical memory.
vladimir putin
Under Putin’s eight-year reign the Russian economy grew every single year, with an overall GDP increase of more than 70%. During the same period, investments rose 125%, industry grew by 76%, and poverty decreased 50%. The average monthly salaries in Russia increased from $80 to $640, and the middle class grew from 8 million people to 55 million.
Analysts have credited these impressive economic achievements to strong macro-management, capital inflows, fiscal policy reform, and rising energy prices (Russia is a large exporter of oil and gas). Putin wisely reintroduced nuclear power and positioned Russia as an energy super power that Europe has come to rely on. He also invested heavily in Russian infrastructure, including pipelines. Among Putin’s accomplishments was the introduction of a 13% flat tax and the reduction of the corporate tax rate from 35% to 24%. As a result, Putin has maintained extraordinarily high approval ratings from the Russian people, winning his second Presidency with 71% of the vote.
Putin’s accomplishments are even more impressive when one realizes that he has had to deal with one of the fiercest mafias in the world. The Russian mafia led by notorious billionaire gangsters, who use dual citizenships in non-extradition countries such as Israel to thwart justice, are responsible for sex slavery, weapons trafficking, drug running, and the rampant corruption that has plagued Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. Putin has consistently risked his life to challenge these gangsters and eventually saw charges brought against many of the criminal oligarchs. Regardless of these challenges, Putin’s administration has consistently maintained a lower incarceration rate than the United States.
While Obama was winning a Nobel Peace Prize and perpetrating undeclared wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Putin was using every piece of his influence to oppose unjust and internationally illegal wars. In 2003, Western powers used their political influence to invade Iraq, with no credible intelligence of weapons of mass destruction. The war eventually lead to higher oil prices and the murder of one million innocent civilians. Cooler heads in the United Nations like Vladimir’s Russia staunchly opposed the war and doubted the dubious intelligence from his rival leaders. Putin tried to prevent the disastrous Iraq war by vetoing resolutions in the UN, but the powerful Israeli-American lobby, AIPAC, convinced American politicians to invade without UN backing.
Putin’s business acumen, just foreign policy decisions, and humanitarian leadership should be congratulated throughout the world. If only American Presidents could respect freedom and other nations’ sovereignty like Vladimir Putin, the planet would be a lot more peaceful.
Adolf Hitler
He who has the good fortune to work close beside the Führer of
young Germany is always impressed by the sides of Adolf Hitler that the public
does not see. This book will make Hitler clearer to a circle broader than just
his friends.
What Adolf Hitler the Führer means to his people is known or felt by millions today. It will be the task of historians to put these feelings and knowledge into words, for their task is to present Hitler as a historic figure to posterity. That book about the Führer cannot be written for many years, for those with greater distance also have the greater ability to judge.
I wish to emphasize the two traits I think strongest in Adolf Hitler’s character: his strength and his goodness. These are the characteristics that this book displays. Whether Hitler is motoring through Germany, surrounded by cheering crowds of construction workers or if he stands beside a murdered comrade, deeply moved and shaken, his nobility and humanity so often render speechless those who meet him for the first time, be they young or old.
One cannot imagine that the Fuhrer ever spoke differently than he does today, or that he will ever speak differently. He speaks his heart, and therefore reaches the hearts of those who hear him. He has the amazing gift of sensing what is in the air. He has the ability to express things so clearly, logically and directly that listeners are convinced that that is what they have always thought themselves. That is the true secret of the effectiveness of Adolf Hitler's speeches... The essential characteristics of his speeches to the people are: clear organization, irrefutable logical reasoning, simplicity and clarity of expression, razor-sharp dialectic, a developed and sure instinct for the masses and their feelings, an electrifying emotional appeal that is used sparingly, and the ability to reach out to the souls of the people in a way that never goes .
He used simple, straightforward language that ordinary people could understand, short sentences, powerful, emotive slogans... There were no qualifications in what he said; everything was absolute, uncompromising, irrevocable, undeviating, unalterable, final. He seemed... to speak straight from the heart, and to express their own deepest fear and desires... Such uncompromising radicalism lent Hitler's public meetings a revivalist fervour.
Adolf Hitler always tried to avoid being photographed. Twelve years ago, as his name for the first time began to become known, he was a declared opponent of the camera. Even then the world’s illustrated press tried to secure a picture of the Führer. Without success. Despite offers of substantial sums, Hitler rejected every request to be photographed.
Hitler is a universal spirit. The multiplicity of his being cannot be communicated by 100 photographs selected from thousands. These pictures show only some aspects of this unique personality. It is almost unknown that Hitler does not drink alcohol or smoke, or that he is a vegetarian. Without insisting that anyone follow his example, even in his closest circle, he holds like iron to his self-established principles. He works amazingly hard. Not only does he head the enormous apparatus of the National Socialist movement, he makes strenuous speaking tours. Today he is in Königsberg, tomorrow in Berlin, the next day in Munich, all this with a minimum of sleep, since the Führer usually works into the early hours of the morning.
The shadow of this man is over Germany today. Many are astonished at a miracle: after the absolute dominance of Marxism, a single face transforms the nation.
Martin Luther King
A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, in 1962, and organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama, that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.
On October 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence. In 1965, he and the SCLC helped to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches and the following year, he took the movement north to Chicago. In the final years of his life, King expanded his focus to include poverty and the Vietnam War, alienating many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled "Beyond Vietnam". King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., called the Poor People's Campaign. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Accomplishments
From 1957 to 1968, Dr. King received several hundred awards for his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement. Among them were:Posthumously, Dr. King was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Recording for his speech, "Why I oppose the war in Vietnam" in 1970 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter on July 11, 1977. These awards and citations among numerous others, are in the Archives of the Martin Luther King, Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia!
where it says accomplishments of dr.martin Luther king
He led the African Americans to freedom
He led the African Americans to freedom
*Delivers the "I Have A Dream Speech on August 28, 1963
* Led bus boycott that lasted 382 days
Here's a quick synopsis of some of the qualities that King had as a speaker .
Cadence - Because we usually only see King in 30 second clips of him at the climax of his speeches, we tend to think him of as a very forceful and passionate speaker. Clearly, he was that, but he was more than that. When you listen to the entirety of his speeches, you'll hear that he almost always started out at a slow, measured conversational pace and, over time, increased his pace and his volume as he drew the audience in.
Context - King was a master of establishing the historical context for his message. He regularly started with stories from the Old Testament and modern history to make the point that the people in his movement were part of the broad sweep of history. That imbued them with a sense of mission.
Authenticity - In his book, Leading Minds
, Howard Gardner writes that all great leaders have two things in common. They have an overarching story and their life embodies that story. King clearly met that definition of leadership. When he spoke, he told that story. Everyone in the audience knew that he was living that story before and after the speech. Practice - It's well known that King delivered most of the "I Have a Dream" speech without any notes and that he improvised much of it on the spot. What's not as well known is that he had been working with much of the content of that speech in other addresses he gave months and years before the March on Washington. He took the time and opportunity to get very comfortable with his content and experimented with what worked and didn't work in venues that weren't as prominent as the National Mall.
Repetition - King was also a master of using a simple, yet key phrase like "I have a dream," again and again in his speeches. That kind of repetitive structure enabled him to clearly make his main point and at the same time make it easy for the audience to come along with him.
Connection - In his speaking, King allowed himself to have an almost symbiotic connection with his audience. They drew their energy from each other and he was very tuned into the level of energy in the room. That connection made the event more than a speech. It made it an experience that moved people to act.
Martin Luther King, Jr. embodied outstanding moral qualities such as truth, courage, and justice. The most effective way to peacefully get his message across to the world, in Martin’s mind, was to commit to using nonviolent methods of protest along with perseverance.
King saw everybody as equal and always respected everybody despite their ignorance. He was committed to instituting equality and fair treatment for all and has had a lasting impact on American society.
He had a set of values and wanted to share them with the world to improve the way people live their lives. King has greatly contributed to American society by practically eliminating segregation and drastically reducing racism. True heroes always act with character, although not surpassing their own humanity.
This exceptional human being has planted seeds for many interracial friendships and has impacted lives through many decades. He has shown that with perseverance, self-control, and a big dream, one can rise above initial circumstances into eternal glory. Everyone should take a few lessons from King; greatness can arise from even the most humble of beginnings, perseverance is key, and everybody is equal and should be treated as such.
Vladimir Lenin
A Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He served as the leader of the Russian SFSR from 1917, and then concurrently as Premier of the Soviet Union from 1922, until his death. Politically a Marxist, his theoretical contributions to Marxist thought are known as Leninism, which coupled with Marxian economic theory have collectively come to be known as Marxism–Leninism.
Born to a wealthy middle-class family in Simbirsk, Lenin gained an interest in revolutionary leftist politics following the execution of his brother in 1887. Briefly attending the University of Kazan, he was ejected for his involvement in anti-Tsarist protests, devoting the following years to gaining a law degree and to radical politics, becoming a Marxist. In 1893 he moved to St. Petersburg, becoming a senior figure within the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. Arrested for sedition and exiled to Siberia for three years.
As the leader of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, he took a senior role in orchestrating the October Revolution in 1917, which led to the overthrow of the Russian Provisional Government and the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the world's first constitutionally socialist state. Immediately afterwards, Lenin proceeded to implement socialist reforms, including the transfer of estates and crown lands to workers' soviets. Faced with the threat of German invasion, he argued that Russia should immediately sign a peace treaty—which led to Russia's exit from the First World War. In 1921 Lenin proposed the New Economic Policy, a system of state capitalism that started the process of industrialisation and recovery from the Russian Civil War. In 1922, the Russian SFSR joined former territories of the Russian Empire in becoming the Soviet Union, with Lenin as its leader. The Bolshevik faction later became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which acted as a vanguard party presiding over a single-party dictatorship of the proletariat.
As stated in his Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Lenin's revolutionary project embraced not just Russia but the world. To implement world revolution the Third or Communist International was convened in Russia in 1919, to replace the discredited Second International. Lenin dominated the first, second (1920) and third (1921) Congresses of the International and hoped to use the organisation as an agency of international socialist revolution. After the failure of revolutionary ambitions in Poland, in the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–21, and after various revolutions in Germany and Eastern Europe in 1919 had been crushed, Lenin, increasingly, saw that anti-colonial struggles in the Third World would be the foci of the revolutionary struggle. He believed that revolution in the Third World would come about through an alliance of the proletarians with the rural peasantry.In 1923 Lenin said:
- The outcome of the struggle will be determined by the fact that Russia, India, China, etc,. account for the overwhelming majority of the population of the globe. And during the last few years it is this majority that has been drawn into the struggle for emancipation with extraordinary rapidity, so that in this respect there cannot be the slightest doubt what the final outcome of the world struggle will be. In this sense the complete victory of socialism is fully and absolutely assured.
He was a champion of the working class. He has had a significant influence on the international Communist movement and was one of the most influential figures of the 20th century.
SADDAM HUSSAIN
Saddam hussein was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organisation Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region—which espoused ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism—Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup (later referred to as the 17 July Revolution) that brought the party to power in Iraq.
Succession
In 1976, Saddam rose to the position of general in the Iraqi armed forces, and rapidly became the strongman of the government. As the ailing, elderly al-Bakr became unable to execute his duties, Saddam took on an increasingly prominent role as the face of the government both internally and externally. He soon became the architect of Iraq's foreign policy and represented the nation in all diplomatic situations. He was the de facto leader of Iraq some years before he formally came to power in 1979. He slowly began to consolidate his power over Iraq's government and the Ba'ath party. Relationships with fellow party members were carefully cultivated, and Saddam soon accumulated a powerful circle of support within the party.
Contrary to common belief, Saddam did have many positive achievements in both Iraq and the region. he made most of his accomplishments as vice president during the '70s (up until 1979) and as president during the '80s.
Education
- The National Campaign for Eradication of Illiteracy:
- Free Education
Furthermore, government scholarships were given every years for hundreds, if not thousands, of Iraqis to study abroad. This resulted in a solid education system that enjoyed a reputation that made it the destination for many Arab students in the area, whom were also given free education.
- Educational Institutes
Furthermore, a number of schools were built in every city, and at least one was built in every village in the country. Also, a pair of gifted schools were built and named after Saddam in every province, one for males, the other for females. I've personally graduated from one of those. Out of 90 students in my school's class of 2003, 40 got into Medical School, all of the rest became engineers. Those schools degraded significantly after 2003, I must say. One particular gifted school was built in Baghdad in 1998. Its Wikipedia article claims that its purpose was to prepare intelligent students for Saddam's service, and while that might very well be true, it provides no citations on the matter.
Economy:
- Nationalization of Oil:
- Agriculture and Empowering of Farmers:
Saddam focused on fostering loyalty to the Ba'athists in the rural areas. After nationalizing foreign oil interests, Saddam supervised the modernization of the countryside, mechanizing agriculture on a large scale, and distributing land to peasant farmers.The Ba'athists established farm cooperatives and the government also doubled expenditures for agricultural development in 1974–1975. Saddam's welfare programs were part of a combination of "carrot and stick" tactics to enhance support for Saddam. The state-owned banks were put under his thumb. Lending was based on cronyism. Development went forward at such a fevered pitch that two million people from other Arab countries and even Yugoslavia worked in Iraq to meet the growing demand for labor.
- Helping The Middle Class:
Regionally, Saddam also had a number of achievements. An example is providing work opportunities for Egyptian and Moroccan famers. In 1980, the number of Egyptian workers grew to 1.5 million in Iraq. Saddam provided them with free health insurance and social security coverage as well. This and other gestures towards neighboring Arab countries explain the outrage in the Arab world when Saddam was removed from power and later executed.
Infrastructure:
Water and Electricity were made available to nearly every city and village in Iraq. "Model Villages" were built to provide farmers with better services and overall living standards. At least one school and clinic were built in every village. Roads were paved and modern highways were constructed all over the country. Bridges and recreational villages were built in numerous locations.
Work on the Mosul Dam, the fourth largest dam in the middle east, was started in 1980, a year after he became president and was finished 6 years later. A number of other modern dams were built during the '70s and '80s, giving Iraq more control over its water resources, and providing them with electricity.
Furthermore, light and heavy industries flourished in the '80s as a part of a policy to decrease dependency on oil that Saddam deputed. Large factories were built all over the country and Iraq was making its own radios, televisions, heaters, air conditioners, fridges, and just about anything else you can think of.
Saddam was lucky for the revenue. According to The Economist, "Much as Adolf Hitler won early praise for galvanising German industry, ending mass unemployment and building autobahns, Saddam earned admiration abroad for his deeds.
John F Kennedy
. To this day, John F. Kennedy's call for Americans to serve their country has remained an inspiring and memorable appeal.
Among John F. Kennedy's most notable and long-standing accomplishments was the establishment of the Peace Corps, an organization that is now responsible for sending thousands of American volunteers around the world to help the needy.
It was John F. Kennedy's cautious and sensible approach to the standoff during the Cuban missile crisis that ultimately diverted a nuclear war with the Soviet Union and secured the removal of missiles from Cuba.
John F. Kennedy was committed to landing a man on the moon, and although it occurred after his death, it was his support of space exploration that helped make it happen.
John F. Kennedy's perseverance was instrumental in securing a limited nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviet Union.
It was John F. Kennedy's dedication that helped secure the passage of the Area Redevelopment Act, which assisted states that were suffering from high rates of unemployment.
Under John F. Kennedy's administration, laws were put in place to end segregation in interstate travel facilities.
John F. Kennedy helped promote the arts by holding concerts, plays, and musicals at the White House.
John F. Kennedy issued an executive order prohibiting discrimination in the sale or lease of housing that was financed by federally guaranteed loans or owned by the federal government
Kennedy called his domestic program the "New Frontier". It ambitiously promised federal funding for education, medical care for the elderly, economic aid to rural regions, and Government intervention to halt the recession.
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela did many great things throughout his life to help black South Africans get more rights and not be persecuted by the governing parties. Some of his most well known accomplishments are organizing the nonvoilent Defiance Campaign, creating Spear Of The Nation, winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and his most well known accomplishment becoming South Africa's first black president. -1
Nelson Mandela's achievements include being a lawyer, political prisoner, Nobel Prize winner, president, and human rights icon. Nelson was released after 27 years in prison to lead his people. . He is also a writer, publishing numerous books about his life. Nelson is a survivor of prostate cancer as well.
Living legend Nelson Mandela, the fighter against racial oppression in South Africa, is undoubtedly one of the great moral and political leaders of our time. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality. Nelson Mandela served as South Africa’s first democratically elected president from 1994 to 1999, overseeing his country’s transition from minority rule and winning international respect for promoting reconciliation. Since his retirement, he has been active on behalf of a number of social and human rights organizations
Few could doubt the Nelson Mandela political achievements. Mandela is a man who stood firm and took his country from the extremes of apartheid through to democracy. For this he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1993). He has achieved more than this though.
Nelson Mandela has received more than 250 awards that are in every way honorable. Keys to cities, and honorary degrees are among them, along with the peace prize.
In any Nelson Mandela interview you will find him to be a man of humor, honesty and humility. These are great attributes in any man, but Mandela can be considered among the greats.
He taught the world the true meaning of forgiveness. He was imprisoned for much of his adult life for fighting for the freedom of his people against the evil of apartheid. His time at the prison on Robben Island was brutal (it's now open to the public as a monument to state brutality - . On his release and subsequent election to the leadership of South Africa he had every reason to seek revenge on those who had imprisoned him.He did not do that.
Mandela supported reconciliation and negotiation, and helped lead the transition towards multi-racial democracy in South Africa.
Instead he advocated forgiveness and a new start. As such he is a model figure for all those areas of the world where past history breeds revenge . He has shown that it is possible to rise above the circle of violence and brutality. A lesson we all would do well to learn.
Quotes of mandela
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb."
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."
"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."
Muammar Gaddafi
Colonel Gaddafi,was a Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist.
Muammar Gaddafi's contribution to the people of Libya:
All the newly weds people of Libya used to get about 50,000 dollars from Government to lead a very happy life.
Home is the basic right of every citizen of Libya.
There was no electricity bill in Libiya. Electricity was free in Libya.
No interest loan for the people of Libya according to Law. Gaddafi was against interest since interest is forbidden in Islam.
Gaddafi has increased the literacy rate from 25% to 83%. Education expenses in Government universities are free in Libya.
Medical expenses in Government hospitals was free in Libya.
The price of the patrol was 0.14 cents in Libya. Yes we all know Libya has got good petroleum resources. But the price seems to be too low. Isn't it?
When Libyan citizen wants to buy a car, Government used to subsidized 50% of the price of the car. 50%? sounds great!
A huge bread used to cost only 15 cents in Libya.
The GDP per capita of Libya is very high. Over 15,000 us dollars. Purchasing power was very high compare to the GDP.
The economy of Libya was improving rapidly. In 2010 it had 10% growth. It has not external debts. It also has the reserves amount of 150+ billion dollars.
Unemployment fees were given from the government until the person finds a Job.
A Libyan mother used to get 5000 us dollars for giving birth a child.
Have you ever heard of the world largest Irrigation project? Gaddafi lunched world largest irrigation project to supply pure water to the people of libya for upcoming years. This project can be called as world's 8th wonder. This project costs billions of dollars.
The truth about Libya that the mainstream US/NATO news won't report. Another fact, Libya was, before Gaddafi nationalized the oil companies, one of the poorest countries in Africa. Really poor. Libya had great oil resources, but NATO countries colonized Libya and stole her people's wealth for Europe and the U.S.
After Gaddafi nationalized the oil companies and returned the natural resources of Libyans back to them, the nation became more prosperous. All Libyans benefits and, until the recent NATO/U.S.-led intervention had the HIGHEST per capita income in all Africa!!
Libyan environmental law was very strict and oil extraction well regulated. There was no horrible pollution like Nigeria or inevitable accidents like British Petroleum's recent and ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Assasination of Gadafi
The recent "rebellion" was a thinly disguised re-colonization of Libya by corporations. Led by oil (largest beneficiary being Italy's Uni), corporate agri-farming, banking and other corporate interests also seized the world's greatest irrigation system; billions of dollars of Libyan citizenry funds; squashed the emerging Gold Dinar and rising African Union.
Join many other outraged humans to protest this imperialist invasion and demand NATO and the U.S. be prosecuted for Libya, as well as their invasions of Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, and so many other countries.
Winston Churchill
Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was a British politician, best known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, he served as Prime Minister twice . A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. He is the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature and was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States.
He was a confidence builder to the people of Britain.
He vetoed the invasion of France in 1943.
He was an designer of, and advocate for the detour through Italy.
Both at home and abroad, Churchill's main contributions to the war effort were:
· INSPIRATIONAL LEADERSHIP It was argued that Churchill's defiant and motivational speeches and attitude inspired Britons to make more sacrifices and work harder towards the war effort.
· GRAND ALLIANCE. Churchill sided with Russia when the Germans invaded in 1941 and negotiated the Atlantic Charter with the USA. His relationship with FDR was crucial in forming this alliance, which was confirmed when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
· WAR CABINET. This was crucial for smooth decision-making throughout the war and maintained party co-operation.
· EXPERTS such as Lord Beaverbrook were brought into Government (see next question)
· US RELATIONS. The Lend-Lease agreement of March 1941 ensured imports arrived on credit from USA and opened North Atlantic shipping routes. The USA provided Britain with 50 destroyers. The Atlantic Charter ensured UK/US cooperation
· PURSUIT OF SMALLER POWERS. Churchill aided Yugoslavia and Singapore, whilst encouraging smaller countries to join the allies or remain neutral. Churchill's defiance and unwillingness to give up with this pursuit gained Britain several allies.
· SPECIAL OPERATION EXECUTIVE formed in July 1940 designed to link up with resistance movements in Europe (notably the French Resistance) to undermine the Germans in Europe and sabotage their plans/equipment. The SOE agents enjoyed success at Pessac power station, France in June 1941, assassinating Himmler's deputy in Czechoslovakia 1942 and ended the Nazi atomic bomb programme in Norway in 1943.
Churchill's role in the Second World War needs little introduction. His immediate contribution was to instill in the British people his own fiery resolve and will to resist. Throughout the tense summer of 1940, when Britain stood alone, his speeches proved an inspiration.Yet Churchill did more than just talk. He toured the country inspecting the bomb-damaged towns and cities. He also worked tirelessly on diplomatic and military initiatives to regain the offensive.
Quotes of churchill
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
There is no such thing as a good tax. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. The problems of victory are more agreeable than the problems of defeat, but they are no less difficult. A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject. A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. Once in a while you will stumble upon the truth but most of us manage to pick ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened. It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life. If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law. The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is. A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong. Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
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