"Trump is not a wartime leader; in fact, he is not a leader at all."
"Trump is not a wartime leader; in fact, he is not a leader at all."
In a recent article, a leading American publication referred to the ongoing US struggle against the novel coronavirus as a war and to President Donald Trump as a “wartime leader.” There was general acceptance of the anti-coronavirus campaign’s designation as a war, but there was a widespread negative reaction to the characterization of the present US chief executive as a wartime leader.
Until World War II, the phrase “wartime leader” was the prosaic way of identifying the head of government of a country or war; if an individual happened to be the chief executive of a country that had gone to war, he or she was its wartime leader. Then the most horrendous conflict in the history of the modern world broke out in 1939. The phrase “wartime leader” was never the same again.
World War II brought forth the two greatest wartime leaders the world had ever seen: Franklin D. Roosevelt of the US and Winston S. Churchill of Great Britain. True, there had been other great wartime leaders in the past, but the wars over which they presided were, in scope, either domestic (US President Abraham Lincoln), bilateral (US President George Washington) or regional (Otto von Bismarck of Germany, David Ben-Gurion of Israel, Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam). President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill led the efforts of their countries in a war that spanned the entire world; they faced in the West and in the East the armies of the most powerful military machines the modern world had ever seen, namely, the military machines of Germany and the Japanese Empire.
In 1940, the British Expeditionary Force was driven out of the European mainland by German armed forces, barely surviving a humiliating evacuation from the French port of Dunkirk. On the other side of the world, a large part of the US Pacific Fleet was destroyed by Japan’s Dec. 7, 1941 attack on the Fleet’s Pearl Harbor home base.
Things looked very bad for the US and Britain. Led by the indomitable Winston Churchill, Britain fought on, starting off a threatened German invasion through the months-long Battle of Britain. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Franklin Roosevelt, on the third of his four electoral terms, rallied the Depression-hit American people to mount a maximum effort to defeat the Japanese Empire. As the US and Britain revved up the engines of their military machines, Germany and Japan proceeded with their expansions in continental Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Western Pacific.
History records that, at the end of almost six years of the bloodiest conflict the modern world had ever seen, the US, Britain and its allies emerged victorious, with the aggressor countries forced to surrender unconditionally. The dire situations of 1939-1942 had been turned into magnificent triumphs in 1945.
How was that made possible? The answer is found in two words: Wartime leadership. Stated more specifically, the answer is the leadership displayed in wartime by the leaders of the US and Britain.
From the very start, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill did not spare their peoples the stark truth about the situations that the US and Great Britain were facing. They told the Americans and the British that an enormous task—vanquishing very powerful and determined enemies—lay ahead of them and that victory could be attained only by a nationwide display of solidarity, determination to succeed and willingness to undergo sacrifice. With the citizenry and the government moving forward as one nation, the economy could be vanquished and righteousness would be made to prevail.
The American and British peoples immediately heeded the exhortations of their wartime leaders and, having set aside their differences, proceeded to rally to their nations’ cause. The message of solidarity and sacrifice had been conveyed to them by their wartime leaders; they had heard it loud and clear and now proceeded to translate it into a powerful national effort.
And why did the American and British peoples unhesitatingly and quickly rally to the cause of that nation in its moment of great danger? Because they respected, and believed in, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. The two men had no history of lying and dissembly. They told the American and British peoples the bitter truth about the danger and the risk that lay ahead. Their words and actions were motivated by the nation’s, not a personal, agenda.
Which brings us to the current situation of the US. Donald Trump disregarded the early-in-the-day warnings of the medical science community and his White House advisers about the seriousness of the COVID-19 threat, and he kept telling the American people that the coronavirus would “go away” and that his administration had the situation very much “under control.” The reason for Trump’s lying and dissembling? He had founded his 2020 electoral strategy on a strong economy and the coronavirus’ depressive impact on the economy would endanger his reelection chances.
Calling Donald Trump a “wartime leader” is a gross insult to the memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston S. Churchill. Trump is not a wartime leader; in fact, he is not a leader at all.