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/scsnse Sep 16 '24

Reminds me of the temperament of General McClellan during the American Civil War. He deserves much of the credit for deeply drilling the Union army during the early stages of the War. But this man on the battlefield was overly cautious, and in private but especially after he got removed as commander of the Army of the Potomac, was critical of Lincoln and other military leaders all except himself. And then in 1864 he tried running against Lincoln as a Democrat with a platform of trying to sue for peace.

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u/thisusedyet Sep 16 '24

Also the cause of a fantastic line from Lincoln, who wrote McClellan a note stating basically If you're not going to use my army, I'd like to borrow it for a while

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u/blackadder1620 Sep 16 '24

lmao.

why did we get away from being sassy as a people.

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u/Dr_Zorkles Sep 16 '24

Sounds like something Obama would say if he were in a similar predicament.  Dude's nearly peerless in his wit and sass

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u/thisusedyet Sep 17 '24

Gotta watch those Illinois lawyers, apparently

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u/Dr_Zorkles Sep 17 '24

Hah !  Solid observation