Eliot Cohen has an outstanding essay on Winston Churchill's treatment by historians. He points out that Churchill's reputation and person have come under increasing attack in recent years. It started with Field Marshal Alan Brooke, who headed the Imperial General Staff and worked daily with Churchill.
[Churchill] has only got half the picture in his mind, talks absurdities and makes my blood boil to listen to his nonsense. I find it hard to remain civil. And the wonderful thing is that 3/4 of the population of this world imagine that Winston Churchill is one of the Strategists of History, a second Marlborough, and the other 1/4 have no conception what a public menace he is and has been throughout the war! It is far better that the world should never know and never suspect the feet of clay on that otherwise superhuman being. Without him England was lost for a certainty, with him England has been on the verge of disaster time [and] again. . . . Never have I admired and despised a man simultaneously to the same extent.
Something of a historians' consensus seems to be emerging: that Churchill was a dynamic, brilliant man of iron will and great courage who didn't actually know squat about military affairs, and who unfortunately thought he did.
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