ALEXANDER THE GREAT & ARISTOTLE

The Leader – Alexander the Great

The Advisor – Aristotle

Alexander was born in 356 BC, son of King Philip of Macedon. His mother Olympias encouraged him to believe he was the direct descendant of Achilles, the hero of Homer’s Iliad, a hero of exemplary virtue. When Alexander was 13 his father chose the philosopher Aristotle as his tutor.

At 16 he was called by his father to put down a revolt in Macedonia while Philip was absent. Alexander successfully stormed the rebels’ stronghold and renamed it Alexandroupolis, after himself. Before his death in 323 BC, over an eight year period he led a campaign that united a significant portion of the known world under his rule.

Aristotle’s time with Alexander was short, three years, but he left his impact. His ethics and politics seemed to have had an impact especially with regard to the concept of “barbarians,” a word used to mean all non-Greeks. Alexander was fiercely anti-Persian and Aristotle’s work gave him intellectual support.

Under the guidance of this great thinker, Alexander developed an interest in philosophy, medicine and science. Alexander was often known to recommend medicines to his friends and to take note of cures used in the lands he conquered. He took with him engineers, surveyors, architects, scientists and historians.

Aristotle’s father was court physician to Philip, which is what led to Aristotle’s appointment as Alexander’s tutor. Though his father died when he was young, a guardian sent him to Athens when he was about 17 to be educated at Plato’s Academy. He studied at the Academy for about twenty years and then started his own school in Athens. He rejected Plato’s belief that the objects of true knowledge are in an abstract realm, divorced from the real world we live in. Aristotle believed that there was only one world we could philosophize about – the one which we live in and experience. For him the world was a place of wonder which he worked to understand. Throughout his life he researched across a vast range of topics: logic, physics, political science, economics, psychology, meteorology, metaphysics, rhetoric, and ethics.

He invented technical terms still used in these fields, terms such as energy, dynamic, induction, substance, attribute, essence, property, accident, category, proposition, and universal. He also systemized logic, working out which forms of inference were valid and invalid.

Aristotle encouraged Alexander to model himself after Achilles, to live a life of greatness. Alexander is quoted as saying, “I would rather live a short life of glory than a long life of obscurity.”

Alexander, in his desire to follow a heroic paradigm, placed great value on honor and with it the virtues of self-control and self-denial. In these respects, Aristotle’s influence was likely essential for he pushed Alexander along a path that diverged greatly from his father, who had fathered many children with many women and had generally lived a life of excess.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, HARRY TRUMAN & GEORGE MARSHALL

The Leaders – FDR and Harry Truman

The Advisor – George Marshall

George Marshall was an advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt, serving as the Chief of Staff for the United States Army during World War II. When Roosevelt asked Marshall what he thought of such an appointment, he said, “Nothing, Mr. President, except to remind you that I have the habit of saying exactly what I think. And that, as you know, can often be unpleasing. Is that all right?” When Roosevelt said yes to him, Marshall replied, “I will give you the best I have.”

Marshall protected his independence as an advisor to the President. He avoided socializing with Roosevelt in order to remain insulated and independent from Roosevelt’s magnetic and beguiling personality. Since he never campaigned for positions or for advancement, he always took a position with no strings attached, on the strength of his character and competency alone.

FDR insisted that no one admired Marshall more than he did. President Harry Truman felt similarly about Marshall, who served as his Secretary of Defense and later Secretary of State… “I’d say he performed more important jobs for this country than any man I can think of, and I don’t know where we’d be if we hadn’t had him.”

In 1951 Truman recalled General Douglas Macarthur and removed him from command, and Marshall stood strong in support of Truman’s action, in large part because Macarthur had challenged the authority of the President as Commander-in-Chief. “He was a man who never turned down a job that needed to be done.”

Winston Churchill described Europe after World War II as a “rubble-heap, a charnel house, a breeding ground of pestilence and hate.” Marshall devised a plan for the economic rebuilding of Europe, one that President Truman called the Marshall Plan. It proved essential to the recovery of the continent and the stability of the world. In 1953, Marshall became the first career soldier to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his plan.

Truman was effusive in his praise of Marshall’s work. “He was one of the men you could count on to be truthful in every way, and when you find someone like that, you have to hang onto them. You have to hang on to them.”

George Marshall was an adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt, serving as the Chief of Staff for the United States Army during World War II. When Roosevelt asked Marshall what he thought of such an appointment he said, “Nothing, Mr. President, except to remind you that I have the habit of saying exactly what I think. And that, as you know, can often be unpleasing. Is that all right?” When Roosevelt said yes to him, Marshall said “I will give you the best I have.”

Marshall protected his independence as an adviser to the President. He avoided socializing with Roosevelt in order to remain insulated and independent from Roosevelt’s magnetic and beguiling personality. Since he never campaigned for positions or for advancement, he always took a position with no strings attached, on the strength of his character and competency alone.

FDR insisted that no one admired Marshall more than he did. President Harry Truman felt similarly about Marshall, who served as his Secretary of Defense and later Secretary of State… “I’d say he performed more important jobs for this country than any man I can think of, and I don’t know where we’d be if we hadn’t had him.”

In 1951 Truman recalled General Douglas Macarthur and removed him from command, and Marshall stood strong in support of Truman’s action, in large part because Macarthur had challenged the authority of the president as Commander-in-Chief. “He was a man who never turned down a job that needed to be done.”

Winston Churchill described Europe after World War II as a “rubble-heap, a charnel house, a breeding ground of pestilence and hate.” Marshall devised a plan for the economic rebuilding of Europe, one that President Truman called the Marshall Plan. It proved essential to the recovery of the Continent and the stability of the world. In 1953, Marshall became the first career soldier to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the Marshall Plan.

JOHN ADAMS & ABIGAIL SMITH

The Leader – John Adams

The Advisor – Abigail Smith

John Adams, born in Massachusetts in 1735, was a teacher and lawyer before he devoted himself to a life of patriotism and politics. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress, a diplomat who served as a commissioner to France, Great Britain and the Netherlands, and minister to the Court of St. James.

John Adams was a passionate advocate of independence for the British colonies. He helped secure funding for the war and he was chosen to negotiate treaties of peace and commerce with Great Britain after the war.

He served as the first Vice-President and the second President of the United States. His presidency was significant, first because it demonstrated a successful transfer of power in Washington and also because he kept the United States out of war with France when it was infringing on American neutrality during the Napoleonic wars with Great Britain.

His steadfastness came at a political price. While keeping the young democracy from war was ultimately good for the country, he antagonized his own party which was anti-French because of the radicalism of the French Revolution. His opponents in the other party, led by his Vice President Thomas Jefferson, were angered by restrictions such as the Alien and Sedition Acts, which made it a crime to criticize the government or its policies.

In a sense John Adams, a man of principle, made no one politically happy. But he did as he felt was best for the nation. Recalling his administration years later, he noted, “No man who ever held the office of President would ever congratulate a friend on obtaining it.”

He married Abigail Smith, whose father was a Congregationalist minister and whose mother was a member of a notable family in Massachusetts. Throughout their 54 years of marriage she was his closest confidant, his most loyal supporter, his political advisor, and the love of his life.

He died in 1826 and the fourth of July just hours after Thomas Jefferson who had been a friend and colleague for many years, though they were estranged for about twenty years over conflicts begun while Adams was president.

His marriage to Abigail Smith was the most important decision of John Adams’ life. She was in all respects his equal and the part she was to play would be greater than he ever could have imagined. Though they were apart for much of their married life, they conducted a lively correspondence in which he shared his concerns, doubts, and opinions of the people and the events of the time.

She gave him advice, expressed her political opinion, kept him abreast of current events and the political feelings at home and developed her own ideas about how the new nation should evolve. While Abigail maintained the appearance of “the loyal little lady managing the farm and the children” John relied heavily on her political judgment. She was his closest confidant in both political and personal matters.

While her own politics could be quite conservative, and like John she felt the American Revolution was a political and not a social revolution as was the case in France, she did advocate education for women. “If you complain of neglect of education of our sons, what shall I say with regard to daughters, who every day experience the want of it…I most sincerely wish that our new Constitution may be distinguished for encouraging learning and virtue. If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women….”

In addition to famously requesting of him “not to forget the women” in writing the Constitution, she also wrote that “I most sincerely wish that there were not a slave in this province. It has always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me–to fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.”

She encouraged John in his career though his absences were difficult for her. He was often prey to self doubt about his leadership abilities. At his lowest point, when he was faced with a contemptuous cabinet and a thankless country she joined him, at his request to “assist me with your councils and console me” and became his “chief domestic minister without portfolio.”

A historian says, “Abigail Adams was one of the most remarkable, admirable, wise Americans of all times. She was a better judge of people than he was. She was a much more insightful politician.” Her impact continued long after her death in the life of their son John Quincy Adams, who would also become President and who would become a tireless warrior against slavery.

Martin Luther King, Jr. & Stanley Levison

The Leader – Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Advisor – Stanley Levison

Courage is the force that creates history. For Martin Luther King, the young pastor who led the successful bus boycott following Rosa Parks’ refusal to surrender her seat, courage was the key to his meteoric rise. Beset by self-doubt, frequent depression, and well- founded fear, King became synonymous with civil rights in America as he faced persecution by local officials, frequent imprisonment, violent attacks by white racists, jealousy from some other black leaders and harassment by J. Edgar Hoover.

That his short 13 year career called for courage is clear from King’s comments when he said, “like anybody I would like to live – a long life… but I’m not concerned about that now, I just want to do God’s will… I may not get there with you, but I want you to know that we as a people will get to the Promised Land.” Asked by a reporter if he wasafraid, King responded, “I wouldn’t say that I have risen above the shackles of fear. But [while] I live every day under the threat of death… I am strengthened from realization… that the cause is right… there is a great spirit that comes to an individual when he is engaged in something he believes is right and something he will ultimately win.”

Trying to link King to the Communist Party, Hoover worked single- mindedly to isolate him from Stanley D. Levison, King’s advisor, confidant, strategist, protector, fundraiser, accountant, editor and “closest white friend,” a man King called his “winter soldier,” who stood by him in the hardest of times. Levison looked after Martin Luther King from 1955 until years after his assassination and was essential to the cause of civil rights and to King’s legacy of courage which persists today more than 50 years after he entered the national consciousness.

Levison, a successful Jewish businessman and lawyer from New York, lived and breathed social justice. A member of a group itself persecuted and denied civil rights for centuries, he briefly raised money for the U.S. Communist Party because he believed its support of workers could create a more just society. Disenchanted by Soviet brutality, he severed ties with the Party after the violent end of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956.

Meeting King in 1955, he determined that the young minister personified his own philosophy – a rejection of injustice regardless of color or ethnicity. Until his own death Levison made King and his work the centerpiece of his own life. Instrumental in the creation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King’s base, Levison was SCLC’s major fundraiser and with the help of Harry Belafonte, also a tireless supporter of King, he accessed major donors in the entertainment industry and wealthy Jewish social activists to provide the funding that would keep SCLC afloat.

Levison helped King define himself, telling him he needed, “to absorb some kind of real philosophy… that sets you apart from other leaders and makes you more than just an after-dinner speaker.” When they were forced to stop communicating under pressure from President Kennedy, who acted on unfounded FBI assertions that Levison was still a Communist, Harry Belafonte noted that, “Stan did stop talking to Martin-for a while. The truth was, though, we needed Stan too much to let him go… He was just too powerful as a chess player.” Clarence Jones, entertainment lawyer and close friend of both King and Levison, served as a secret go-between and noted that, “Stanley read Martin with great intuition and was very clear on Martin’s strengths and weaknesses,” adding that, “Stanley kept it all together for him. I was there, I played a role, but he was really the one in charge of everything behind the scenes that had to happen for the movement to survive.”

About himself Levison said, “My skills were acquired… in a cloistered academic environment… [and] in the commercial jungle where more violence in varied forms occurs daily than is found on many a battlefront… I looked forward to the time when I could use my skills not for myself but for socially constructive ends. The liberation struggle is the most positive and rewarding area of work anyone could experience.”

After King’s assassination and 1968, Levison, an executor of King’s meager estate, continued for years to send personal checks to King’s family. He negotiated lucrative book deals and interviews for King’s widow, supported King’s protégé, Andrew Young, in his successful bid for Congress and continued to raise money for SCLC. Though he received an award from the King Center in 1979, shortly before his own death, he remains a shadowy figure, only occasionally mentioned in recountings of the era.

King often quoted abolitionist Theodore Parker saying, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Martin Luther King, with the unfailing assistance, guidance, and devotion of Stanley Levison, moved America much further along that arc to a more just society. Together their courage helped create history.