Editing Lord Mountbatten (section)

== Legacy ==
Mountbatten's faults, according to his biographer [[Philip Ziegler]], like everything else about him, "were on the grandest scale. His vanity though child-like, was monstrous, his ambition unbridled&nbsp;... He sought to rewrite history with cavalier indifference to the facts to magnify his own achievements."<ref name="Ziegler, p. 701">{{Harvp|Ziegler|1985|p=701}}</ref> However, Ziegler concludes that Mountbatten's virtues outweighed his defects:<ref name="Ziegler, p. 701" />
<blockquote>He was generous and loyal&nbsp;... He was warm-hearted, predisposed to like everyone he met, quick-tempered but never bearing grudges&nbsp;... His tolerance was extraordinary; his readiness to respect and listen to the views of others was remarkable throughout his life.</blockquote>

Ziegler argues he was truly a great man, and despite being an executor of a policy, not initiator, he came to be known as its creator.<ref name="Ziegler, p. 701"/>
<blockquote>What he could do with superlative aplomb was to identify the object at which he was aiming, and force it through to its conclusion. A powerful, analytic mind of crystalline clarity, a superabundance of energy, great persuasive powers, endless resilience in the face of setback or disaster rendered him the most formidable of operators. He was infinitely resourceful, quick in his reactions, always ready to cut his losses and start again&nbsp;... He was an executor of policy rather than an initiator; but whatever the policy, he espoused it with such energy and enthusiasm, made it so completely his own, that it became identified with him and, in the eyes of the outside world as well as his own, his creation.</blockquote>

Others were not so conflicted. Field Marshal [[Sir Gerald Templer]], the former [[Chief of the Imperial General Staff]], once told him, "You are so crooked, Dickie, that if you swallowed a nail, you would shit a corkscrew".<ref>{{harvp|Rankin|2011|p=134}}</ref>

Mountbatten supported the burgeoning nationalist movements which grew up in the shadow of Japanese occupation. His priority was to maintain practical, stable government, but driving him was an idealism in which he believed every people should be allowed to control their own destiny. Critics said he was too ready to overlook their faults, and especially their subordination to communist control. Ziegler says that in Malaya, where the main resistance to the Japanese came from Chinese who were under considerable communist influence, "Mountbatten proved to have been naïve in his assessment.&nbsp;... He erred, however, not because he was 'soft on Communism'&nbsp;... but from an over-readiness to assume the best of those with whom he had dealings." Furthermore, Ziegler argues, he was following a practical policy based on the assumption that it would take a long and bloody struggle to drive the Japanese out, and he needed the support of all the anti-Japanese elements, most of which were either nationalists or communists.<ref>{{Harvp|Ziegler|1985|p=314}}</ref>

Mountbatten took pride in enhancing intercultural understanding and in 1984, with his elder daughter as the patron, the [[Mountbatten Institute]] was developed to allow young adults the opportunity to enhance their intercultural appreciation and experience by spending time abroad.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mountbatten.org/ |title=Mountbatten Institute |access-date=20 September 2012 |archive-date=18 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120918234738/http://www.mountbatten.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The IET annually awards the [[Mountbatten Medal]] for an outstanding contribution, or contributions over a period, to the promotion of electronics or information technology and their application.<ref name="medal"/>

Canada's capital city of [[Ottawa]] named Mountbatten Avenue in his memory.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mountbatten Avenue |website=National Inventory of Military Memorials |publisher=National Defence Canada |date=16 April 2008 |url=http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/nic-inm/sm-rm/mdsr-rdr-eng.asp?PID=8383 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210133416/http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/nic-inm/sm-rm/mdsr-rdr-eng.asp?PID=8383 |archive-date=10 February 2015}}</ref> Java Street in [[Kuala Lumpur]], [[Malaysia]] was renamed ''Jalan Mountbatten'' after the Second World War;<ref>{{cite web |title=1936 Printers Limited Map of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |url=https://www.geographicus.com/P/AntiqueMap/kualalumpur-printersltd-1936 |access-date=25 July 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=1964 Survey Dept. of Malaya Map of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |url=https://www.geographicus.com/P/AntiqueMap/kualalumpur-surveydept-1964 |access-date=25 July 2024}}</ref> it was renamed again to [[List of roads in Kuala Lumpur|Jalan Tun Perak]] in 1981. The [[Mountbatten, Singapore|Mountbatten]] estate and [[Mountbatten MRT station]] in Singapore were named after him.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://remembersingapore.org/2016/09/06/mountbatten-road-old-bungalows/|title=The Old World Charm of Mountbatten|date=6 September 2016|publisher=Remember Singapore|access-date=29 December 2019|archive-date=9 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200509103806/https://remembersingapore.org/2016/09/06/mountbatten-road-old-bungalows/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Mountbatten's personal papers (containing approximately 250,000 papers and 50,000 photographs) are preserved in the [[University of Southampton#Libraries|University of Southampton Library]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.southampton.ac.uk/archives/cataloguedatabases/mb/index.page|title=Index|publisher=University of Suthampton|access-date=14 September 2021|archive-date=28 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028015211/https://www.southampton.ac.uk/archives/cataloguedatabases/mb/index.page|url-status=live}}</ref>