1945, and the urgency of controlling nuclear weapons during the Cold War. His accomplishments far outweigh his failings. The conclusion is inescapable that he was one of greatest leaders of the western world in the 20th century.
He was born on November 30, 1974 to Lord Randolph Churchill and his new American wife, nee Jennie Jerome, "members of the great [British] empire's governing elite." Blessed with a happy and mostly peaceful (but far from placid) marriage to Clementine Hozier (1908), his childhood was marred by parental neglect and, in the case of Lord Randolph, whose erratic personality deteriorated due to the ravages of syphilis prior to his premature death in 1894, paternal scorn. Although he loved his own four children, his relationship with his son, Randolph, who never measured up to his expectations, was often tense. He and Clementine were disappointed in their daughters' initial choices of spouses. Best said "his school years were not distinguished, and had much unhappiness in them." Inept in mathematics and bored with Greek and Latin, Churchill did not optimize his academic potential. Later while a subaltern in India, he largely self-educated, well enough to become a world-renowned and best selling author.
Winston always revered his father and his memory even though, as Stewart said, "few could discern in the career of Lord Randolph any message beyond a salutary lesson in self-destruction." Winston's overweening ambition to get ahead may have been his father's legacy or the son's overcompensation for the lack of warmth and concern his father showed toward him. Generous to his friends and close associates, Brendon said he "seemed largely oblivious to the possibilities of intimate friendship" and that he "expected unswerving loyalty in return for his benevolence." Churchill was not cold, but he often had little interest in women, except as conversational partners. Best said he was often "rude and hurtful . . . ...