Drawings by Michael F Coady - e-mail --> art  @  mfcoady.com.au






Michael F. Coady presents his drawings of the European and Asian Rulers of World War 2. Each work was produced on white A3 drawing paper. In each case one of the following drawing materials was used: Water Colour Pencil, Graphite Pencil, Charcoal Pencil or Pastel Pencil. Each work was produced in 2009 using photographs as the subject reference material.






Music in MP3 Format by Michael F. Coady

















Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. In the years following Lenin's death in 1924, he rose to become the leader of the Soviet Union. In 1939, the Soviet Union under Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, followed by a Soviet invasion of Poland, Finland, the Baltics, Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. After Germany violated the pact in 1941, the Soviet Union joined the Allies to play a large role in the Axis defeat, at the cost of the largest death toll for any country in the war.

Arthur Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940. Chamberlain is best known for appeasement foreign policy, in particular regarding his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Germany, and for his "containment" policy of Germany in 1939 that culminated in declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939. Chamberlain was forced to resign the premiership on 10 May 1940, after Germany invaded the Netherlands, Belgium and France. He was succeeded by Winston Churchill but remained very well regarded in Parliament. Before ill health forced him to resign, he was an important member of Churchill's War Cabinet.

Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain (1856 – 1951) was Chief of State of Vichy France from 1940 to 1944. Pétain, who was 84 years old in 1940, ranks as France's oldest head of state. After the French defeat in June 1940, Pétain was legally voted in as Head of State by the French Parliament. Pétain transformed the French Republic into an authoritarian dictatorship administered from Vichy in central France. The Vichy Government sank deeper into collaboration with the German forces which took control of all metropolitan France. Petain's actions during World War II resulted in a conviction and death sentence for treason, which was commuted to life imprisonment by Charles de Gaulle.

Harry S. Truman (1884 – 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–1953). As the 34th vice president, he succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died less than three months after he began his fourth term. Truman's decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan ended World War II. His presidency was also marked by the founding of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, the Truman Doctrine to contain communism, the beginning of the Cold War, the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Korean War.

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (1890 - 1970). He reached the rank of Brigadier General, leading one of the few successful armoured counter-attacks during the 1940 Fall of France, and then organised the Free French Forces with exiled French officers in England. He gave a famous radio address in June 1940, exhorting the French people to resist Nazi Germany. Following the liberation of France in 1944, de Gaulle became Prime Minister in the French Provisional Government. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969.

Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party popularly known as the Nazi Party. He was the chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945. Hitler established the Third Reich, and single party, totalitarian, autocratic rule over Germany. He pursued a foreign policy with the declared goal of seizing Lebensraum (living space) for the Aryan peoples, directing the resources of the state towards this goal. He rebuilt the Wehrmacht which invaded Poland in 1939. The United Kingdom and France declared war against Germany as a result. This was the beginning of the Second World War in Europe.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945) was the 32nd President of the United States. He was elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945 and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Roosevelt created the New Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and reform of the economic and banking systems, through various agencies, such as the Works Progress Administration, National Recovery Administration, and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874 – 1965) was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, historian, writer, and artist. He is the only British Prime Minister who has ever received the Nobel Prize in Literature and only the second person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States.

Hideki Tojo (1884 – 1948) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan during much of World War II, from 18 October 1941 to 22 July 1944. After the end of the war, Tojo was sentenced to death for war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and executed on 23 December 1948.

Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976) led the Communist Party of China to victory against the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War, and was the leader of the People’s Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. Chairman Mao has been regarded as one of the most important figures in modern world history. Mao is officially held in high regard in China where he is known as a great revolutionary, political strategist, and military mastermind who defeated Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese Civil War, and then through his policies transformed the country into a major world power. Additionally, Mao is viewed by many in China as a poet, philosopher, and visionary.

Chiang Kai-shek (1887 – 1975) led the Northern Expedition to unify the country in 1928, becoming China's overall leader. He served as Generalissimo of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China from 1928 to 1948. Chiang led China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which the Nationalist Government's power was severely weakened, but his prominence grew. During the civil war after the Japanese surrender in 1945, he attempted to eradicate the Chinese Communists but ultimately failed, forcing the Nationalist government to retreat to Taiwan, where he continued the struggle against the communist regime. Ruling as the President of the Republic of China and Director-General of the Kuomintang, Chiang died in 1975.

Francisco Franco Bahamonde (1892 – 1975) dictator of Spain from 1936, and de facto regent of the Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in 1975. Ideological features of Franco’s rule were a strong sense of Spanish nationalism and protection of its territorial integrity, Catholicism and anti-communism. Failure of a military coup led to the Spanish Civil War which was supported by Mussolini and Hitler. Following the right-wing forces’ victory, Franco established a authoritarian regime that lasted until 1978. During the Second World War, Franco officially maintained a policy of non-belligerency and neutrality.

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, (1883 - 1945) was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism. Italian Fascism included elements of nationalism, corporatism, national syndicalism, expansionism, social progress and anti-communism in combination with censorship of subversives and state propaganda. Mussolini became the Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and began using the title Il Duce by 1925. Mussolini allied Italy with Germany in WWII and he remained in power until he was replaced in 1943.


Adolf Hitler - Quotes - All great movements are popular movements. They are the volcanic eruptions of human passions and emotions, stirred into activity by the ruthless Goddess of Distress or by the torch of the spoken word cast into the midst of the people. All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach. Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless. Anyone who sees and paints a sky green and fields blue ought to be sterilized. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice. As soon as by one's own propaganda even a glimpse of right on the other side is admitted, the cause for doubting one's own right is laid. By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise. Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future. Generals think war should be waged like the tourneys of the Middle Ages. I have no use for knights; I need revolutionaries. Germany will either be a world power or will not be at all. Great liars are also great magicians. Hate is more lasting than dislike. He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future. How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think. Humanitarianism is the expression of stupidity and cowardice. I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator. I do not see why man should not be just as cruel as nature. I go the way that Providence dictates with the assurance of a sleepwalker. I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few. If today I stand here as a revolutionary, it is as a revolutionary against the Revolution.

Benito Mussolini - Quotes - All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state. Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. Every anarchist is a baffled dictator. Fascism is a religion. The twentieth century will be known in history as the century of Fascism. Fascism is a religious concept. Fascism is not an article for export. Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power. Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power. Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity, quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace. Inactivity is death. It is humiliating to remain with our hands folded while others write history. It matters little who wins. To make a people great it is necessary to send them to battle even if you have to kick them in the pants. That is what I shall do. It is the State which educates its citizens in civic virtue, gives them a consciousness of their mission and welds them into unity. It's good to trust others but, not to do so is much better. Let us have a dagger between our teeth, a bomb in our hands, and an infinite scorn in our hearts. Socialism is a fraud, a comedy, a phantom, a blackmail. The best blood will at some time get into a fool or a mosquito. The fate of nations is intimately bound up with their powers of reproduction. All nations and all empires first felt decadence gnawing at them when their birth rate fell off. The function of a citizen and a soldier are inseparable. The history of saints is mainly the history of insane people. The keystone of the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State, of its essence, its functions, and its aims. For Fascism the State is absolute, individuals and groups relative.

Charles de Gaulle - Quotes - A great country worthy of the name does not have any friends. A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless. As an adolescent I was convinced that France would have to go through gigantic trials, that the interest of life consisted in one day rendering her some signal service and that I would have the occasion to do so. Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance. China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese. Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have to answer back. Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone. Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop. Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life. Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own. For glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her. France cannot be France without greatness. France has lost the battle but she has not lost the war. Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown. Hearing Mass is the ceremony I most favor during my travels. Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have to answer back. How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese? I grew up to always respect authority and respect those in charge. I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me, only the people who take the Metro. I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision is taken unanimously.

Chiang Kai-Shek - Quotes - Don't be disquieted in time of adversity. Be firm with dignity and self-reliant with vigor. If when I die, I am still a dictator, I will certainly go down into the oblivion of all dictators. If, on the other hand, I succeed in establishing a truly stable foundation for a democratic government, I will live forever in every home in China. My good health is due to a soup made of white doves. It is simply wonderful as a tonic. Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation the source of strength is one's self. When one prays he goes to a source of strength greater than his own." The Japanese are a disease of the skin. The Communists are a disease of the heart. The sky cannot have two suns. We become what we do. We live in the present, we dream of the future and we learn eternal truths from the past. We shall not lightly talk about sacrifice until we are driven to the last extremity which makes sacrifice inevitable.

Hideki Tojo - Quotes - At the Imperial Conference on December 1, it was decided to make war against England and the United States. Despite Japan's desires and efforts, unfortunate differences in the ways that Japan, England, the United States, and China understood circumstances, together with misunderstandings of attitudes, made it impossible for the parties to agree. During this period, Japan's peaceful commercial relations were successively obstructed, primarily by the American rupture of commercial relations, and this was a grave threat to the survival of Japan. Even military ministers have no more than a certain amount of control. It is customary that they have the right and the power to participate, from a political and military point of view, in the planning of actual operations. From the point of the view of the nation's power, it was obvious that while we were fighting the Sino-Japanese war, every effort was to be made to avoid adding to our enemies and opening additional fronts. However, even during the preparations for action, we laid our plans in such a manner that should there be progress through diplomatic negotiation, we would be well prepared to cancel operations at the latest moment that communication technology would have permitted. I would point out that Japan's proposal at the Versailles Peace Conference on the principle of racial equality was rejected by delegates such as those from Britain and the United States. I would point out that the cultural advance of these people has been suppressed in the past and continues to be suppressed in the present by policies designed to keep them in ignorance. In dealing with the China problem, the British and American side, which had particularly strong interests in China, should have based its judgments about the origins of the problem on direct observation of the actual circumstances at the time. It goes without saying that when survival is threatened, struggles erupt between peoples, and unfortunate wars between nations result. Justice has nothing to do with victor nations and vanquished nations, but must be a moral standard that all the world's peoples can agree to. To seek this and to achieve it - that is true civilization. Nevertheless, China was unfortunately unable to understand Japan's real position, and it is greatly to be regretted that the Sino-Japanese War became one of long duration. On October 18, 1941, I suddenly received a mandate from His Majesty to form a new cabinet. This was completely unexpected, and when I was summoned to the Imperial Palace I thought I would be questioned on the army's point of view. The causes of the China Incident were the exclusion and insult of Japan throughout China, the exclusion of Japanese goods, the persecution of Japanese residents in China, and the illegal violation of Japanese rights. The main American naval forces were shifted to the Pacific region and an American admiral made a strong declaration to the effect that if war were to break out between Japan and the United States, the Japanese navy could be sunk in a matter of weeks. The reason was the failure of both Japan and China to understand each other and the inability of America and the European powers to sympathize, without prejudice, with the peoples of East Asia. Therefore, if one were to consider that there was virtually no possibility of success through the US-Japan negotiations, the military and economic pressures would only force Japan into further crisis if time were allowed to pass in vain. Throughout that period, Japan had made honest efforts to keep the destruction of war from spreading and, based on the belief that all nations of the world should find their places, had followed a policy designed to restore an expeditious peace between Japan and China. Thus, it was to seek true civilization and true justice for all the peoples of the world, and to view this as the destruction of personal freedom and respect is to be assailed by the hatred and emotion of war, and to make hasty judgments. To advocate a New Order was to seek freedom and respect for peoples without prejudice, and to seek a stable basis for the existence all peoples, equally, and free of threats.

Joseph Stalin - Quotes - A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron. Death is the solution to all problems. No man - no problem. Death solves all problems - no man, no problem. Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed. Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach. Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union. Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs. History shows that there are no invincible armies. I believe in one thing only, the power of human will. I trust no one, not even myself. Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas. If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a "peace conference," you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and airplanes. If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves. In the Soviet army it takes more courage to retreat than advance. It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. Mankind is divided into rich and poor, into property owners and exploited; and to abstract oneself from this fundamental division; and from the antagonism between poor and rich means abstracting oneself from fundamental facts. One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic. Print is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party. The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic. The only real power comes out of a long rifle.

Mao Tse-Tung - Quotes - A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery. All reactionaries are paper tigers. Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy. Despise the enemy strategically, but take him seriously tactically. Enable every woman who can work to take her place on the labour front, under the principle of equal pay for equal work. Genuine equality between the sexes can only be realized in the process of the socialist transformation of society as a whole. I voted for you during your last election. In general, any form of exercise, if pursued continuously, will help train us in perseverance. Long-distance running is particularly good training in perseverance. In time of difficulties, we must not lose sight of our achievements. In waking a tiger, use a long stick. Investigation may be likened to the long months of pregnancy, and solving a problem to the day of birth. To investigate a problem is, indeed, to solve it. Learn from the masses, and then teach them. Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend. Once all struggle is grasped, miracles are possible. Passivity is fatal to us. Our goal is to make the enemy passive. People like me sound like a lot of big cannons. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Political work is the life-blood of all economic work. Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed. Swollen in head, weak in legs, sharp in tongue but empty in belly.

Neville Chamberlain - Quotes - How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing! It has always seemed to me that in dealing with foreign countries we do not give ourselves a chance of success unless we try to understand their mentality, which is not always the same as our own. We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analyzing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will. I cannot believe that such a program would be rejected by the people of this country, even if it does mean the establishment of personal contact with the dictators. I believe it is peace for our time . . . peace with honour. Whatever the reason -- whether Hitler thought he might get away with what he had got without fighting for it, or whether it was that after all the preparations were not sufficiently complete -- however, one thing is certain, he missed the bus. In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers. This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that, unless we heard from them by eleven o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us.” We would fight not for the political future of a distant city, rather for principles whose destruction would ruin the possibility of peace and security for the peoples of the earth.”

Philippe Pertain - Quotes - To write one's memoirs is to speak ill of everybody except oneself.

Winston Churchill - Quotes - A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril. All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed. An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all. Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb. From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put. He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire. History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns. I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents. I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time. It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened. Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room. Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. The price of greatness is responsibility. The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning. There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true. To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day. We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home. When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.

Francisco Franco - Quotes - I am responsible only to God and history. Communists should be crushed like worms. There will be no communism.

Franklin D. Roosevelt - Quotes - As Americans, we go forward, in the service of our country, by the will of God. Be sincere; be brief; be seated. Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. I sometimes think that the saving grace of America lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities- a sense of humor and a sense of proportion. If you treat people right they will treat you right - ninety percent of the time. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization. Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live on in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. It is fun to be in the same decade with you. The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth. The true conservative is the man who has a real concern for injustices and takes thought against the day of reckoning. In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.

Harry S. Truman - Quotes - A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants. A leader in the Democratic Party is a boss, in the Republican Party he is a leader. A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years. A President cannot always be popular. A president either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a moment. A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it. Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny. All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it. All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway. Always be sincere, even if you don't mean it. America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. Any man who has had the job I've had and didn't have a sense of humor wouldn't still be here. Art is parasitic on life, just as criticism is parasitic on art. Being too good is apt to be uninteresting. Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything. Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice. I do not believe there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. I had faith in Israel before it was established, I have in it now. I believe it has a glorious future before it - not just another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization. I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.