Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy

Thatcher’s time as Prime Minister (from 1979 to 1990) came to define British politics, and yet, notes Kissinger, she came into that office with a modest record. According to Kissinger, at the heart of Thatcher’s success lay “personal fortitude” (323), not merely coming up with ideas but having the will to bring about their implementation. Prime Ministers, unlike US presidents, tend to reflect party platforms rather than personal appeal, and must work much harder to ensure the loyalty of their party in order to remain in office. When she assumed office, the British economy was suffering economically and psychologically, reeling from the postwar collapse of its empire and loss of its global preeminence to the United States. The Vietnam War, followed by the introduction of Soviet medium-range nuclear weapons to its European satellites, had left many Britons and Europeans tired of the Cold War. Inflation and widespread strikes in the public sector depressed the public mood. Kissinger recounts how, the daughter of a grocer and lay preacher, Margaret Roberts was a studious child who navigated the misogyny of British politics to become a Member of Parliament for North London at the age of 34 (after having married Denis Thatcher in 1951).