The Cold War

Hitler was the right man, at the right time, for the right job, if the job available was an overheated nationalist with room for advancement to textbook or quintessential tyrant.   Some argue that for Hitler to achieve what he did he had to be a great leader with an almost insatiable desire to achieve his goals.   But was he a great leader?  
Several qualities of a good leader often include vision, courage, integrity, honesty, communication skills, and strategic planning skills.   Adolf Hitler possessed of few of these traits like communications skills. Because of his charisma and oratorical skills, he solidified his position as fuhrer, or leader of the fledgling National Socialist German Workers Party or Nazi party (Brower, 2014, p. 129). Hitler was also an outstanding strategic planner. "He possessed an extraordinary talent for picking out the weaknesses in his adversaries" (Brower, 2014, p.133). In 1933 Hitler abandoned the League of Nations (Brower, 2014, p.133).   In 1935 Hitler began to increase the size of the German military discarding the Treaty of Versailles (Brower, 2014, p.133). In 1936 Hitler took a remarkable risk and ordered German troops into the Rhineland (Brower, 2014, p.133), which emboldened him and increased his popularity as a leader.
However, there are traits found in all great leaders Hitler is deficient in.   The most striking being integrity.   According to Brian Tracy, "the core of integrity is truthfulness" (n.d.).   In Mein Kampf Hitler wrote, "The masses will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one" (Andrews, 2011, p. 31).   "How fortunate for leaders," Hitler said to his inner circle, "that men do not think. Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it" (Andrews, 2011, p. 31).   As many Tyrants before him Hitler tailored his speeches to the crowd he was speaking to promising them the world, but in the end delivering fear.
Like a quintessential tyrant, Hitler began to take power through...