Bernard Law Montgomery Quotes
Decisions! And a general, a commander in chief who has not got the quality of decision, then he is no good.
Montgomery, Bernard Law. The Path to Leadership. Collins, 1961.
He was very critical of Arraham Lincoln even though he was a Republican. Many percieved that Lincoln's administration could not get anything done. Lincoln might have lost the 1864 campaign but for the great victory that General Sherman's troops had in taking Atlanta. This changed a lot of mionds about Lincoln's War strategy. Actually, in the first 2 years of the Civil War, Lincoln could not get his generals to fight his preferred kind of war until he appointed Grant who brought Sherman to high command.
George Washington had been appointed by the Continental Congress as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army but was politic about keeping Congress informed and not appear to be usurping authority. He asked Adams for an opinion of whether his authority reached beyond Boston to include the defense of New York City. Adams had been a member of the Congress that appointed Washington. Adams reply has been used as precedent for the broad authority of the President as Commander in Chief by those claiming broad Presidential power since.
Monroe was then Secretary of State and Jefferson an ex-President.
This was an indirect swipe at President Lyndon Johnson.
See {638715} for an example of his quotation.
Marshall was then the chief of staff of the army. Ignoring the seniority system which was the tradition of the Army for promotions produced a necessary corps of great young officers. The most dramatic example of this was the promotion of Dwight D. Eisenhower over many men far senior to him for the Supreme Allied Commander. Marshall and FDR were driving forces to put young men in leadership positions.
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, PC, DL, nicknamed "Monty" and "The Spartan General", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and the Second World War.
