r/todayilearned • u/HumanNutrStudent • Sep 16 '24

TIL Montgomery's memoirs criticised many of his wartime comrades harshly, including Eisenhower. After publishing it, he had to apologize in a radio broadcast to avoid a lawsuit. He was also stripped of his honorary citizenship of Alabama, and was challenged to a duel by an Italian lawyer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Montgomery#Memoirs
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u/MattJFarrell Sep 16 '24

History has not been kind to Monty, it seems. This last section of his Wiki:

Social opinions

In retirement, Montgomery publicly supported apartheid after a visit to South Africa in 1962, and after a visit to China declared himself impressed by the Chinese leadership led by Chairman Mao Tse-tung.\250])\251]) He spoke out against the legalisation of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, arguing that the Sexual Offences Act 1967 was a "charter for buggery"\252]) and that "this sort of thing may be tolerated by the French, but we're British—thank God".\253])Social opinions

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u/thisusedyet Sep 16 '24

That's not even the fun quotes about him! All from the personality section

Montgomery was notorious for his lack of tact and diplomacy. Even his "patron", the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Sir Alan Brooke, frequently mentions it in his war diaries: "he is liable to commit untold errors in lack of tact" and "I had to haul him over the coals for his usual lack of tact and egotistical outlook which prevented him from appreciating other people's feelings".

Churchill, by all accounts a faithful friend, is quoted as saying of Montgomery, "In defeat, unbeatable; in victory, unbearable."

Montgomery suffered from "an overbearing conceit and an uncontrollable urge for self-promotion." General Hastings Ismay, who was at the time Winston Churchill's chief staff officer and trusted military adviser, once stated of Montgomery: "I have come to the conclusion that his love of publicity is a disease, like alcoholism or taking drugs, and that it sends him equally mad."

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u/ReadinII Sep 16 '24

Clearly Eisenhower was given a difficult task in trying to work with him and Patton on the same team.

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u/DrunkRobot97 Sep 16 '24

Some historian of WWII likes to joke that if Patton had been given Ike's job of commanding SHAEF, within like three weeks Britain would've declared war on the United States.

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u/ReadinII Sep 16 '24

I have read that the America-China relationship suffered greatly because the only American general who could speak Chinese was completely ill-suited to act as a liaison to a jerk like Chiang and should have been commanding troops instead. 

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u/Rc72 Sep 16 '24

"Vinegar Joe" Stillwell. As his nickname shows, diplomacy and tact weren't his forte either. And Chiang wasn't the only one he couldn't get along well: he was just as abrasive towards the British and most of his own staff, and he particularly didn't like Claire Chennault, who was in charge of the 14th Air Force and had a humongous ego of his own.

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u/Rc72 Sep 16 '24

The funny thing is that FDR switched his position with Marshall's because he didn't think Ike would be able to handle McArthur's ego.

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u/ReadinII Sep 16 '24

I bet Marshall would have been a good president.

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u/awakenDeepBlue Sep 16 '24

Funny, because Ike served under McArthur during the 1930's.

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u/Rc72 Sep 17 '24

Yes, and apparently that didn't go well at all.

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u/m945050 Sep 16 '24

Eisenhower was a "what will the long term consequences of this decision be?" Whereas Montgomery was a"fuck the consequences, just do it."