In an analysis published this week in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researcher and psychologist at Emory University, Scott Lilienfield, claims that 'certain psychopathic traits may be like a double-edge sword.'  And fearless dominance, which can contribute to 'reckless criminality...can also contribute to forceful leadership in the face of a crisis.'

www.sciencecodex.com/psychopathic_boldne...

The reserachers did personality assessments of forty-two presidents, looking at various traits and how they relate to leadership.

So, which U.S. Presidents ranked highest in fearless dominance?  Theodore Roosevelt was at the top of the list, followed by John F. Kennedy, FDR, and Rutherford B. Hayes. 

Were they 'successful psychopaths'?  Or simply bold leaders?  Certainly, the two Roosevelts were two of American's greatest leaders.   And Theodore Roosevelt, whilst ranking highest in fearless dominance, ranked low in self-centered impulsivity, which meant he was 'far from being psychotic.'

Lyndon Johnson, on the other hand, scored high in both fearless dominance and self-centered impulsivity. 

www.futurity.org/top-stories/do-presiden...

The authors of the study are putting their findings into a book, Personality, Character, and Leadership in the White House.   

Now that should prove an interesting read. 
 

   

Yes, they did try to blame it on the Nazis.  And both Roosevelt and Churchill were complicit in keeping it quiet to keep Joe Stalin happy.   

However, after I read Averell Harriman's memorir, Special Envoy, about his years serving as FDR's special envoy to Europe and Russia during the war, I had a different mindset about what must have been going on behind the scenes.

The Allies needed the Russians to help win the war.  Without them, it would have been much more difficult to defeat the Third Reich.  Neither Roosevelt or Churchill particularly liked Stalin, and they both knew that he was as bad - or worse - a dictator as Hitler.

But they needed him and they needed his troops, so they played along with him when they had to.

Hindsight is easy, but seventy years after the fact, we have to try to put ourselves in their shoes and think what we would have done.  It's a very different world today than that which they were having to deal with.