Slams Across the Sea

Few Britons had yet read General Dwight Eisenhower's war memoirs, Crusade in Europe (TIME, Nov. 22).* But by last week Anglo-American waters were already ink-black with controversy over them. The British press, which reserves to itself the right to criticize British heroes, broke out with salvoes of criticism of General Ike.

"Utterly Untrue." The heaviest barrage came from London's Sunday Times/- whose "military correspondent," Colonel C. D. Hamilton, once served on the staff of Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery. Treating Eisenhower's memoirs as an attack on Montgomery, Golonel Hamilton counterattacked: "One is forced-to the conclusion . . . that General Eisenhower considers that the war was really won by America, that every American view was right, every British idea wrong . . . His comments on Field Marshal Lord Montgomery . . . are utterly untrue . . ."

London's popular U.S.-needling Sunday Pictorial also loosed a blast: "Too many passages develop into a justification of the fact that, time and again [General Eisenhower] overrode British plans and demands. And the extravagance of the bouquets he hands to some of the American Generals is in strange contrast to the chilly praise with which he so nearly damns Montgomery."

"No Argument." Other British journalists took it more calmly. Said the Manchester Guardian: "Even the greatest partisans of Churchill and Montgomery must grant General Eisenhower's fair-mindedness and equable temper ... It is an honest, sincere book."

To the Sunday Times's excited conclusion that Crusade in Europe is "a blow ... at British-American friendship" came a soft-gloved slap by Lord Ismay, who was Winston Churchill's chief of staff. In London's Daily Telegraph Lord Ismay wrote: "Those who were privileged to serve with Eisenhower or under him, will remember him for all time as a grand fighter, a great American, and a sincere, generous-hearted friend of Great Britain. On this there can be no argument."

Friends of President Truman learned that he had read Crusade in Europe. The President confirmed General Ike's report of their conversation in which he had offered to help Ike get anything he wanted, including the presidency in 1948. But, said Harry Truman, Eisenhower forgot to complete the story. The President had also told him that he would not mind running for the vice-presidency, as Ike's mate.

*The book will not be published in Great Britain until after Jan. 1.

/-Not to be confused with London's daily Times, a completely separate paper, under different ownership and management.

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