The Last Lion

Churchill was no US Marine, but he embodied many of the Corps’ most precious ways—perhaps more than any other foreigner in modern history. His repeated acts of bravery, his fixedness on highest principles, his ability to operate at both the theoretical and practical levels of war—are measures of it. But the largest measure is what we, at the Marine Corps University, teach day-in-and-day-out since General Al Gray launched the educational fleet: the maneuver mindset. Churchill manifested the quality prodigiously and without remittance: his youthful escape from a Boer prisoner camp; his leadership in WW I in pioneering the tank and the British air corps; and his strategic devising of eastern campaigns to circumvent the losing Allied war of attrition on the western front. “The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill–Visions of Glory 1874-1932” is one the best books you may ever read (or listen to: the audiobook is equally extraordinary). Though the author, William Manchester—US Marine and WW II veteran—does not explicitly make the above analysis, decide for yourself if my argument speaks for itself.

Jeb Jeffrey Nadaner–PhD, Donald Bren Chair, Brute Krulak Center, Marine Corps University Foundation.