What Hawk and Velma say is so true, you couldn't make him stop. Nothing you could say or do would make him stop.
My Father was an alcoholic. He was married the first time to someone and had 3 children. He came home from work one time and they were all gone, one daughter and two sons. He never heard from his sons again.
So he quit drinking.
Not really. Later, he married my Mother, they had us, the marriage was rocky (at best), so he quit drinking.
Not really.
My Mother eventually divorced him and we still saw him from time to time. He got older, most of his friends were gone, so he quit drinking.
Not really.
See how it goes? I don't know what his first wife was like, she was probably a nice person I guess, my Mom certainly was, I mean a genuinely good person. They were married for about 20 years. She was a great Mother, kind, funny, adventurous and he did love her in his own way, I'm sure. But nothing NOTHING stopped him from drinking.
The right thing for me was done but what about for him?
Yes, you did the right thing, as is said around here, you don't start yourself on fire to keep someone else warm. For him? No, he didn't deserve to have his life ruined by alcohol and whatever other issues he had, no one does, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen anyway. He was an alcoholic and chose to drink, for whatever his reasons were. We must respect other people's decisions, even if we don't think they are right and even if we don't like them.