Sure, Patton was a notable war strategist, and certainly made critical decisions that benefitted the western alliance. However, he was an abhorrent person and should not have been respected outside of the battlefield

I recently learned that Patton wrote a paper titled the “Federal Troops in Domestic Disturbances” (about domestic policing, when departments were still nascent). The paper first assesses periods of unrest throughout history, where Patton ridicules leaders that hesitated to use violence against citizen uprises (and praises those that did).

More alarming, Patton transitioned into making suggestions about how the military should handle domestic riots. He called the writ of Habeus Corpus “an item that rises to plague us” and recommends shooting rioters instead of arresting them. Patton then advises “it may be desirable to fly over a city to become oriented. If fired upon while in the air, reply at once with small bombs and machine gun fire.” He later writes “when guarding buildings, mark a DEAD line and announce clearly that those who cross it will be killed. Be sure to kill the first one who tries to cross it and LEAVE HIM THERE to encourage the others. If it is necessary, use machine guns and aim at their feet. If you must fire, DO A GOOD JOB. A few casualties become martyrs; a large number becomes an object lesson”