Who are the Most Overrated Historical Figures?

[Harleyman]

So was this an international court,or not-you have evaded the qustion?Winston Churchill wrote to Mussolini in the 1930s to congratulate him in thwarting the unions,which casts doubt on the man's integrity.He also used troops to block the passage of food to striking miners in Wales where he is still reviled!

 

As I understand it Nuremburg was a court set up by the four principal allied nations composed of Britian, the United States, Russia and France and it's specific purpose was to try the Nazi leaders for crimes against humanity, ie in waging aggressive war against foreign countries, violating the term of the Genvea Convention in it's treatment of POWs in particularr Russian POWs, the murder of other allied POWs and genocide against civilians in occupied countries.

Once the court had achieved it's purpose it was disbanded.

 

An International Court is one that presently exists in the Hague where it's purpose is to try leaders of any country that can be extradited for crimes against humanity ie the Serbians and potentially people like Khadaffi.

That's the difference

 

As far as Winston Churdhill is concerned to suggest that he should have been tried in a court of any kind is absolutely idiotic. Although he was voted out of office at end of WW2 and was unpopular with Welsh miners he was still regarded as a hero by the great majority of the WW2 generation whether they agreed with his politics or not.

There are plenty of politicians who were guilty of far worse than Churchill example Lloyd George and his murderous policies towards the the people of Ireland. Now there is someone who should have been put on trial

[Noob]

MLK - Yeah, he did good things for the civil rights movement, but many people have a tendency to ignore the fact that he was not working alone and more often than not, attribute things other people did, to him.

[Harleyman]

No one discovered America until the first Siberians reached Alaska during the ice age by crossing the Bering Strait. That's the first record of homo sapiens actually entering the Western Hemisphere as we know of.

 

But the first European to do so was Lief Ericsson. And no, Colombus got to America before Cabot.

 

Strictly speaking Columbus first made land on an island in an area of what today is called the West Indies.

[Harleyman]

So you know a lot about nuclear physics then, do you?

 

There might not have been human rights courts in the way there are today (for better or worse), but the loosers of WWII found themselves on trial at Nuremberg for war crimes. Is this just a case of the victorious getting away with murder?

So you think that people like Hitler, Himmler and all the others who were responsible for the murder of 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 2.5 million of their own soldiers and a few hundred thousand others in the rest of the occupied countries should not have been put on trial and that it was wrong to hang those Nazis that were tried and convicted?

What would you have done with them??????????

 

Your priorities and sense of justice are seriously screwed up old pal and I'm sure 30 to 50 million dead Europeans would agree with that statement

[Sausage Dog]

As I understand it Nuremburg was a court set up by the four principal allied nations composed of Britian, the United States, Russia and France and it's specific purpose was to try the Nazi leaders for crimes against humanity, ie in waging aggressive war against foreign countries, violating the term of the Genvea Convention in it's treatment of POWs in particularr Russian POWs, the murder of other allied POWs and genocide against civilians in occupied countries.

Once the court had achieved it's purpose it was disbanded.

 

An International Court is one that presently exists in the Hague where it's purpose is to try leaders of any country that can be extradited for crimes against humanity ie the Serbians and potentially people like Khadaffi.

That's the difference

 

As far as Winston Churdhill is concerned to suggest that he should have been tried in a court of any kind is absolutely idiotic. Although he was voted out of office at end of WW2 and was unpopular with Welsh miners he was still regarded as a hero by the great majority of the WW2 generation whether they agreed with his politics or not.

There are plenty of politicians who were guilty of far worse than Churchill example Lloyd George and his murderous policies towards the the people of Ireland. Now there is someone who should have been put on trial

 

I agree with you, but the difference is that few politicians are granted hero status, and even sainthood, in the way that Churchill is. You need to see politicians in the round, and take into account the overall political climate/culture at that time to come to a reasoned view. Churchill was the right man for the war, but he was lousy in many other ways. People should see him for what he was - inspirational war leader, but a double-crossing upper class politician, with little compassion for common people.

[callippo]

Strictly speaking Columbus first made land on an island in an area of what today is called the West Indies.

 

El Salvador don't play cricket.

[Harleyman]

I'm simply saying that the notion of "Historical Figure" as it's being used here, is synonymous with a "person of exaggerated historical importance".

 

In answer to the OP - who are the most over-rated historical figures? All of them.

 

In the end who is to judge whether they're over rated or not? The consensus of opinion perhaps based on how many books have been written about them and how often their names crop up in institutes of learning?

[callippo]

oh wait schoolboy error there

 

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/Section/Where-did-Christopher-Columbus-land-when-he-reached-the-Americas-.id-305402,articleId-60984.html

 

Columbus's navigational log has been lost for a long time, so it is unclear exactly which Bahamian island Columbus set foot on first. What we do know is that the Taino Indian natives on that first island called it Guanahani. There has been much speculation (and continuing research) into discovering exactly which of the Bahamas' over 2,700 islands and cays Columbus reached first.

 

For much of the 20th century, the common belief was that Columbus first landed on San Salvador Island (not to be confused with San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador). But in 1986, National Geographic researcher Joseph Judge, after new evidence and calculations, declared that Guanahani was actually what is now called Samana Cay, about 65 miles southeast of San Salvador Island. His declaration was controversial, and the debate about where Columbus first set foot in the Americas still continues.

[Sausage Dog]

[/b]So you think that people like Hitler, Himmler and all the others who were responsible for the murder of 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 2.5 million of their own soldiers and a few hundred thousand others in the rest of the occupied countries should not have been put on trial and that it was wrong to hang those Nazis that were tried and convicted?

What would you have done with them??????????

 

Your priorities and sense of justice are seriously screwed up old pal and I'm sure 30 to 50 million dead Europeans would agree with that statement

 

Not at all. I'm not normally an advocate of capital punishment, but in this case I can make an exception.

 

I read the work of Hannah Arendt while studying at University, which gives a fascinating insight into Nuremberg. The Nazis got what they deserved.

 

But you are missing my point, which is that war criimes can be, and were, commited by both sides. The fact that millions more died at the hands of the Axis doesn't make it any less a crime for the smaller number who were the victims of dubious Allied war actions, such as Dresden.

[linus]

Adolf Hitler was over-rated, what could of been!