An approach to sanity;: A study of East-West relations,

by Bernard Montgomery

In the brief time that has elapsed since Viscount Montgomery;s retirement from his post as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, he has played a considerable part in influencing current opinion on world affairs. The question of the relations between East and West is the great issue that confronts the world today.

94 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1972

About the author

Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, PC; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty" and the "Spartan General", was a British Army officer. He saw action in the First World War, where he was seriously wounded. During the Second World War he commanded the Eighth Army from August 1942 in the Western Desert until the final Allied victory in Tunisia. This command included the Battle of El Alamein, a turning point in the Western Desert Campaign. He subsequently commanded the Eighth Army in Sicily and Italy.

He was in command of all Allied ground forces during Operation Overlord from the initial landings until after the Battle of Normandy. He then continued in command of the 21st Army Group for the rest of the campaign in North West Europe. As such he was the principal field commander for the failed airborne attempt to bridge the Rhine at Arnhem and the Allied Rhine crossing. On 4 May 1945 he took the German surrender at Lüneburg Heath in northern Germany. After the war he became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in Germany and then Chief of the Imperial General Staff.

Reviews

[Rianne Werring · Rating 5 out of 5]

This interesting little booklet by Field-Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, who served in both World Wars, contains an essay on the NATO roughly ten years after having been created; a recollection of the author's conversations with Mr. Kruschev, head of the Soviet Union; two lectures known as the Chichele Lectures and a reflexion upon those lectures.
I was especially intrigued by the essay on the NATO, which was written in 1959 but might as well have been written today. It is lamented that the European nations have no unified army and therefore must depend upon the United States for military assistance. A very meaningful excerpt which still rings true today: "What, the, is the situation in NATO today? It has achieved its object in preventing war. It now needs a thorough overhaul and a comprehensive review of its political and military structure to meet the changed conditions. There is a tremendous waste of money and effort, and a great deal of unnecessary duplication." However, Montgomery heralds the NATO as one of the great post-war accomplishments and insists that its existence is both necessary and desirable for a stable future and a proper understanding between West and East.