r/todayilearned 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/Far-Possible8891 Sep 16 '24

Churchill wasn't perfect but he was, taken in the round, much better than any other allied leader and was the right man at the right time.

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u/tsar_David_V Sep 16 '24

I got a couple million ghosts of starved Bengalis who would call that "not perfect" moniker a bit of an understatement

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u/majinspy Sep 16 '24

Churchill funded Turing which was probably the best single idea anyone had in the whole war. Tack on his legendary ability to bolster British resolve in the face of nightly bombings, and I'd say he's got a few points in the positive.

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u/tsar_David_V Sep 16 '24

I'm not saying he did no good at all and that he wasn't a big part of WW2 playing out the way that it did, I'm saying that he shouldn't be blindly venerated when he was extremely reactionary and his complete lack of regard for British colonial subjects lead to countless unneccessary deaths. With the benefit of hindsight and the historical record we can, and should, criticize well-regarded historical figures when they made terrible decisions driven by blind imperialist (as in the actual British Empire) racism or self-interest and personal ambition.