Who was the greatest leader of the 20th century and why?

How about of all time?

Jesus Christ is still leading people after death. ;)

I like Churchill in the 20th.

Two quotes:

"We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, What is our policy? I will say; "It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy." You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival." "

"We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills. We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the struggle until in God's good time the New World with all its power and might, sets forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old"

Churchill and Reagan.

plus Thatcher :)

I like Reagan but best of the 20th century? I think you're just trying to get a rise out of PD. ;-)

I pick Gandhi as my second.

Thatcher is the glue that holds Churchill and Reagan together.

Just read her new book. "Statecraft".

A Churchillizm:

Late one night in Downing street, Churchill leaves his office for the night after consuming a scotch or two.

He's walking through the house when he bumps into a cleaning woman, knocking her clean over.

She stands herself up, brushes herself down and looks at the Prime Minister. Noticing he's a little worse for ware she says "Sir you are drunk!"

To which he replies "Madam, you are ugly! Tomorrow I shall be sober!"

I like Reagan but best of the 20th century? I think you're just trying to get a rise out of PD. ;-)

I pick Gandhi as my second.[/b][/quote]


If you can remember where the USA was in 1979-1980 and then where Reagan led us, he was DEFINATELY one of the most influencial.

Not only did he revive the US, brought back our confidence, he also won a 50 year war without firing a shot. ( well major conflict with the enemy) He won itwith his strong leadership. Millions of people who were oppresed behind the iron curtain now enjoy economic and social freedoms.

according to Churchill,
it was...Stalin
;-)

and these ones are awesome :)

""Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.""


""When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.""

""A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.""

""History will be kind to me for I intend to write it""

""The empires of the futures are the empires of the mind""

""My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me""

""We have no lasting friends, no lasting enemies, only lasting interests.""

PCness aside....

In the 30s it was probably Hitler.

He is the leader that has probably left the greatest mark on the 20th Centuary

:wnw:

Kate Lawler's just been axed from Channel 4 for saying that... maybe she's in the wrong game...

Pierre Elliot Trudeau
http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/primeministers/h4-3375-e.html

Since you said Leader and not Politician/Statesman, I will have to reply that Vince Lombardi was the greatest leader of the 20th Century:

No.1 Speech, by Vince Lombardi

Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that's first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don't ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.

Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he's got to play from the ground up — from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.

Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization — an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win — to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don't think it is.

It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That's why they are there — to compete. To know the rules and objectives when they get in the game. The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules — but to win.

And in truth, I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.

I don't say these things because I believe in the "brute" nature of man or that men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle — victorious.

Trev that is nuts.

Stating that does not mean he is to be admired.

Hitler and Stalin were both vicious bastards.

Why does the mentioning of Hitler disproportionally draw more winces than Stalin.

Both committed genocide.

This is an interesting read for you Americans out there:
http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/primeministers/h4-2230-e.html

The Greatest Leader of all time?

King Leonidas of Sparta.

"Molon Labe"

It depends how you would assess "greatness"

On the political stage both Ronnie and Maggie are not in the same arena as Hiler,Chuchill,Stalin and Ghandi.

And Lombardi is pretty much unknown outside of North America , in UK he'd be the equivelent of Sir Matt Busby.

Tell me about it... but they didn't just axe her they axed the whole show...

Ahh but shes as hot as hell so I forgive her :D

Frank Stallone


His work on the soundtrack "Staying Alive" healed the world

I wrote a paper in HS about Hitler being a great leader and nearly got thrown out for it and this was way before being politically correct was fashionable. Turns out the history teacher was Jewish and didn't like it very much. (I didn't know that at the time or I probably would have picked someone else)

I don't agree at all with what he did during WWII but he did make Germany a world power after it had been decimated by WWI. A great leader gets people to follow them and he surely did it. Does it matter if it's for evil purposes for this discussion? A poor leader sticks his finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing that day in order to figure out what the policy of the day is. Great leaders have a vision and make it happen. Hitler surely did that.

I'm sure some people will take this post the wrong way but I in no way endorse the nazi's or Hitler. The conversation is about leadership and I do think he was a great leader even though he was insane.

Jerry Garcia.............


Just because.............


:yowsa:

With you Buff on Lombardi!

Greatest band leader - Benny Goodman

Greatest leader (of any time) - George Washington

:okthumb: Here is a snippet of the man himself.
Churchill

It may be total bollocks...but I remember hearing somewhere that that speech was given by a stand in......


It was faked


It wasn't faked



Last edited by Nickatilynx at Oct 9 2003, 11:05 AM

I'll take Hitler and Nixon.

Nixon?!?!

Yep, Nixon. I've been doing a bit of reading up on him of late and to say that he did not truly change politics in America, hell change the foundation of American politics itself, would be wrong.

We aren't talking morals here, we're talking effectiveness at a job and change to a nation.

Hitler... that is just plain fucked and shows what some of you *don't* know about leadership.

Leaders and dictators are worlds apart.

Is a corporate CEO not a dictator?

Is a corporate CEO not a dictator?[/b][/quote]
Not in Canada apparently ;)

Not in Canada apparently ;)[/b][/quote]
Is that humour?
I'll assume it was...

I personally think it's Churchill, with FDR a close second - but (not exactly an earthshaking suprise 'round these parts) you've left off Ghandi. Ho Chi Mihn also deserves a place on 20th century lists - and no, I am not an admirer of him, but his successors are still around whereas those of Hitler and Stalin are not.

Ghandi would appear on my list well above Hitler, who had some short-term success but was unable to build anything that could be sustained. His decision to take on the Soviet Union without first securing a committment from the Japanese to join him may very well be the most (fortunate) collosal blunder of the 20th century - while others may argue that his decision to declare war on America also ranks up there, I'll agree it "weren't too bright", but it was more a matter of form than substance. My father was hunting German submarines off the coast of Canada in the U.S. Coast Guard by the fall of 1940.

From the perspective of American politics, KK is partially correct - Nixon/Mitchell did finish off a process that was already underway - but as much credit for that has to go to the rise of the neoconservative movement as exmplified by Buckley, Goldwater, Reagan, et al. I think she's giving him far too much credit, and putting him a list on the greatest leaders of the 20th century is preposterous.

<!--QuoteBegin--Colin@Oct 9 2003, 11:40 AM
I pick Gandhi as my second.[/quote]

Well, shit. Sorry about that ... I'm fighting a touch of pneumonia and spending a little time coughing my friggin head off.

Reagan would appear on my list above Nixon, but probably barely in the top 20.

I'm going with reagan also, he did more during the early 80's than most do in 2 lifetimes, cold war, economy, not to mention the military was in terrible shape in the late 70's, nam had taken it's toll and he came in and made it a profession to be proud of again, plus he gave us a raise(first one in many years ) :cdance: We all had a picture of him in our rooms that we would salute EVERY day. How many presidents have that kind of respect from the military?

From a personal viewpoint, it was the bear :) True hero to many folks down here during a time when we(southerns) didnt have many. Not to mention a legecy that still looms very large. (and one of the few heros I"ve met and broke bread with :)

oh, and in the entertainment world, ELVIS & Beatles :rokk:

A lot of people sick right now. I know someone hospitalized with pneumonia and others with flu.

FDR was my next. I have the same top 3 as you.

After that maybe Lech Walesa and David Ben Gurion. Those guys were leaders.

Martin Luther King. That was one brave man. The bullet that ended his life proves it.

How about Arafat? ;-)