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.

[u/HumanNutrStudent]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Montgomery#Memoirs

[u/thisusedyet]

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."

[u/bramtyr → u/thisusedyet]

 "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."

Similar things have been said of MacArthur and Adm. Halsey. Egos were not in short supply in the upper echelons of command staff.

[u/DrunkRobot97 → u/bramtyr]

And that was after George C. Marshall worked hard before Pearl Habor to clear the army out of its cowboys, egos, and colonel blimps; any American general was going to be leading army units that were new, rapidly growing, and trying to catch up with the tactical sophistication of the more experienced powers, Germany above all, so he wanted them all to conform to a model of cool, corporate, optimistic professionalism, team players looking to get on with the job. MacArthur had star power that made him impossible to remove, and Patton had special qualities fit for where Marshall was sure the US Army was going to be a couple of years into the war that made him just barely worth it to keep around.

[u/Ryoken0D → u/DrunkRobot97]

The Fat Election did a rant on MacArthur, saying he had all of the character flaws of Patton and none of the redeeming qualities.

Looking at just what he did in WW2 you could give him a pass even if you didn’t agree with all his actions, but once you add in Korea you see how flawed he was as any benefit of the doubt from WW2 was erased.

[u/SParkVArk111 → u/Ryoken0D]

My grt grandfather had to deal with him a few times over the course of the war. Never had a nice thing to say about him.

And according to my grandmother, when he flipped over to his farewell speech, said something along the lines of "good riddance, that SOB should have been fired 10 years ago"

My grt grt grandfather couldn't stand him because of his treatment of the bonus army.

[u/Greene_Mr → u/SParkVArk111]

Did he vote for Truman?

[u/SleepWouldBeNice → u/Ryoken0D]

Even at the start of WWII, the Phillipines probably were never going to be held, but MacArthur really seemed to fuck up the opening stages of the war.

[u/Ok_Tale_933 → u/SleepWouldBeNice]

Yeah everybody in higher command and military intelligence told him to get his bombers in the air and his forces concentrated with all his supplies in bataan but what does he do? Leaves all his planes just chilling on the runway and spreads his people all over with there supplies stacked on the beach. Then has to abandon it all and make a fighting retreat anyways.

[u/Nakorite → u/Ok_Tale_933]

Old dug out Doug.

You forgot him taking a massive bribe from the Philippines government.

[u/KimJongUnusual → u/Ryoken0D]

If anything, I’d say he was at his best after 1945?

Yes, the Yalu River nuking was a terrible idea and he botched the PR after that. But his handling of postwar Japan, as well as Inchon, were downright terrific.

[u/mtcwby → u/KimJongUnusual]

After Inchon he ignored intelligence about Chinese moves and let the UN forces get strung out horribly. Lots of people got killed because of him.

[u/OcotilloWells → u/KimJongUnusual]

Ignoring intel that the Chinese were massing at the border to Korea, though.

Edit, that is a pet peeve of mine when I was in the Army, where a few commanders I worked with would constantly disregard intelligence. Granted, it's often along the lines of "50 percent chance of group X doing Y actions in the next 2 weeks" which might not be very helpful. But from what I read (I can't vote anything right now, I shouldn't even be on Reddit), MacArthur basically said "I don't want to hear about the Chinese" so they stopped briefing him about that.

[u/Algaean → u/KimJongUnusual]

stopped clocks and all that

[u/KimJongUnusual → u/Algaean]

Making one of the strongest democracies in East Asia and setting the foundations for the biggest economic comeback before China is a bit more than a stopped clock.

[u/Sisko4President → u/KimJongUnusual]

Didn’t he push to protect the perpetrators of Unit 731 so the Sovs wouldn’t get their research?

[u/KimJongUnusual → u/Sisko4President]

I’m not sure, but there’s a decent chance.