LONDON – Two hundred years have passed since the battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon’s calamitous defeat made such a huge dent in his country’s self-image that General Charles de Gaulle, in his history of the French army, simply omitted it. Nonetheless, Napoleon, like de Gaulle, would both easily make it onto any list of history’s great leaders – assuming, of course, that one considers “greatness” to be an individual trait.
伦敦——滑铁卢战役已经过去两百年了，拿破仑在那场战役中的灾难性失败严重损害了法国的自尊，以至于戴高乐将军在书写法国军史时对此役只字不提。尽管如此，如果你承认“伟大”是某种个人特质，那么拿破仑和戴高乐都能称之为有史以来最伟大的领袖。