In my opinion, most of the great men of the past were only there for the beer - the wealth, prestige and grandeur that went with the power.
There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the Establishment - and nothing more corrupting.
He was what I often think is a dangerous thing for a statesman to be - a student of history and like most of those who study history, he learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.