Editing Bernard Montgomery (section)

===Opinions===
====Memoirs====
[[File:Monty, wavvel, auk.jpg|thumb|left|Lord Montgomery as [[Chief of the Imperial General Staff|CIGS]] with [[Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell|Lord Wavell]], [[Viceroy of India]], and [[Claude Auchinleck|Auchinleck]], [[Commander-in-Chief, India|Commander in Chief Indian Army]]. Delhi 1946]]
Montgomery's memoirs (1958) criticised many of his wartime comrades in harsh terms, including Eisenhower.<ref>Montgomery memoirs, p. 317</ref> Montgomery was stripped of his honorary citizenship of [[Montgomery, Alabama]], and was challenged to a duel by an Italian lawyer.<ref>Per ''La Repubblica'' (22 February 1992), the duel challenge actually came from Vincenzo Caputo, a Sicilian lawyer.</ref>

He was threatened with legal action by Field Marshal Auchinleck for suggesting that Auchinleck had intended to retreat from the Alamein position if attacked again, and had to give a radio broadcast (20 November 1958) expressing his gratitude to Auchinleck for having stabilised the front at the First Battle of Alamein.<ref>{{harvnb|Baxter|1999|p=127}}</ref> The 1960 paperback edition of Montgomery's memoirs contains a publisher's note drawing attention to that broadcast, and stating that although the reader might assume from Montgomery's text that Auchinleck had been planning to retreat "into the Nile Delta or beyond" in the publisher's view it had been Auchinleck's intention to launch an offensive as soon as the Eighth Army was "rested and regrouped".<ref>{{harvnb|Montgomery|1960|p=14}}</ref>

Montgomery mentioned to the American journalist [[John Gunther]] in April 1944 that (like Alanbrooke) he kept a secret diary. Gunther remarked that it would surely be an essential source for historians. When Montgomery asked whether it would be worth money one day, Gunther suggested "at least $100,000." This was converted into pounds sterling, and he is supposed to have grinned and said "Well, I guess I won't die in the poor house after all."{{sfn|Alanbrooke|2001|p=xxiv}}

====Military opinions====
Montgomery twice met Israeli general [[Moshe Dayan]]. After an initial meeting in the early 1950s, Montgomery met Dayan again in the 1960s to discuss the [[Vietnam War]], which Dayan was studying. Montgomery was harshly critical of US strategy in Vietnam, which involved deploying large numbers of combat troops, aggressive bombing attacks, and uprooting entire village populations and forcing them into [[Strategic Hamlet Program|strategic hamlets]]. Montgomery said that the Americans' most important problem was that they had no clear objective, and allowed local commanders to set military policy. At the end of their meeting, Montgomery asked Dayan to tell the Americans, in his name, that they were "insane".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historynet.com/moshe-dayan-sounds-the-alarm-in-vietnam-3.htm|title=Moshe Dayan Sounds the Alarm in Vietnam|date=15 September 2011|access-date=16 August 2012}}</ref>

During a visit to the Alamein battlefields in May 1967, he bluntly told high-ranking [[Egyptian Army]] officers that they would lose any war with Israel, a warning that was shown to be justified only a few weeks later in the [[Six-Day War]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=James|first1=Laura|title=Nasser and His Enemies: Foreign Policy Decision Making in Egypt on the Eve of the Six Day War|location=Herzliya, Israel|publisher=MERIA Journal|year=2005}}</ref>

====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 Zedong|Mao Tse-tung]].<ref>{{harvnb|Heathcote|1999|p=219}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Baxter|1999|p=125}}</ref> He spoke out against the legalisation of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, arguing that the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]] was a "charter for buggery"<ref>{{harvnb|Hamilton|2002|p=169}}</ref> and that "this sort of thing may be tolerated by the French, but we're British—thank God".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Columbia dictionary of quotations|author=Robert Andrews|publisher=Columbia University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780380709328/page/419 419]|isbn=978-0-380-70932-8|date=October 1990|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780380709328/page/419}}</ref>

Montgomery was a non-smoking [[teetotaller]], a [[vegetarian]],<ref>Haswell, Jock. (1985). ''The Tangled Web: The Art of Tactical and Strategic Deception''. J. Goodchild. p. 106. {{ISBN|978-0-86391-030-2}}</ref> and a [[Christianity|Christian]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.christianstogether.net/Articles/336755/Christians_Together_in/Esther_4_14/How_a_Man.aspx |title=How a Man of Prayer was used by God|date=8 December 2012|access-date=28 June 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230321041212/https://www.christianstogether.net/Articles/336755/Christians_Together_in/Esther_4_14/How_a_Man.aspx |archive-date= 21 March 2023 |url-status= live}}</ref>