worst generals in vietnam

There are issues around killing and counting unarmed civilians (non-combatants) as enemy combatants, as well as inflating the number of actual enemy who were killed in action (KIA).For search and destroy operations, as the objective was not to . Your guide to the most important world stories of the day. After early success in the Mexican War for Independence, the rest of his career didnt pan out the way he would have liked. If Putin had hoped to weaken NATO, the very opposite has happened, with Finland and Sweden on the cusp of joining the transatlantic military alliance. By the end of the conflict, America had unleashed the equivalent of 640 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs on Vietnam. The Romans marched right into the ambush that Arminius laid thus leading to the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. While there are plenty of books that analyze the keys to success, The Worst Military Leaders in History offers lessons of failure to avoid. But his persistence and inspiration kept the Continental Army in the field through the worst of times, which is why his face is on the one-dollar bill. 92. How does an admiral make a list of the worst generals? With a few relatively minor changes, thats just about where they stayed for the next four years. The heavily forested, swampy terrain made the Legions maneuvers impossible. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. After only 10 weeks into the Pacific War, Percival became responsible for the largest surrender of British-led forces in history. General Westmoreland had complete freedom of action in deciding how to prosecute the war within South Vietnam. Here is a list of the 10 most famous Chinese generals in history. It was anotherhistory-changingevent, the birth of a truly exceptional nation. After only an eight-day siege, he surrendered his entire armya third of all British forces in America. 9 Noteworthy Bog Bodies (And What They Tell Us), 12 Novels Considered the Greatest Book Ever Written, Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution, https://www.britannica.com/list/9-worst-generals-in-history. General Earle Wheeler was essentially a staff officer with virtually no troop leading experience, much less combat acumen. Nearly as many men died in captivity during the Civil War as were killed in the whole of the Vietnam War. General Westmorelands close associate, General William DePuy, later admitted the futility of the Westmoreland way of war. He first demonstrated his ineptitude during the Mexican-American War, where he had received an appointment to the rank of major general from his friend Pres. Along with Communist China and other Communist movements in the region, who were fighting to reunite the Vietnams under the red banner, there were other belligerent, free countries in the region who had an interest in keeping South Vietnam away from the Commies. George Custer at the Little Big Horn and Lord Chelmsford at the Battle of Isandlwana leap to mind. Nor is being a bad battlefield commander, by itself, sufficient to make the cut. Innumerable battlefield commanders have had disastrous days at the office. He couldnt. Army Chief of Staff General Harold K. Johnson put one forth in the PROVN Study, a Program for the Pacification and Long-Term Development of Vietnam. That document held that Westmorelands approach was not working and could not work because it ignored the real war in South Vietnams hamlets and villages, where the covert enemy infrastructure was through coercion and terror dominating the rural populace. Thus there was little internal capacity for debating or evaluating his chosen course of action. Maximus managed to form up his men but to no avail. rs worth well over $400 billion. This is one of the more controversial ones, but Douglas MacArthur is incredibly overrated in the annals of the US military, in my . This entire list could be populated with Roman commanders, but one manages to rise above the rest with an ineptitude that defies logic. Many historians credit Benedict Arnold and others with being the real victors of Saratoga. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? But the inducements encourage U.S. companies to invest only at homenot elsewhere. The United States entered the war, forcing Ludendorff to accelerate his time line for a conclusive battle against the Allies on the Western Front. Critics say that Franks and senior officials, such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, concocted an invasion plan that used too few troops. The Romans lost an estimated 80,000 infantry and perhaps 40,000 auxiliaries and cavalry, numbers that dwarf the staggering totals at Cannae. Grachev played a key role in initiating and leading the First Chechen War. Woefully inexperienced U.S. soldiers found themselves against Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps veterans. As for the British, they had lost the most valuable jewel of the Imperial crown. After occupying Jerusalem and crucifying 2,000 Jewish rebels in Judaea, Varus went off to govern Germania and tame barbarian tribes. McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from scratch. Pierre de Villeneuve had his first brush with history when he bravely ran away at the Battle of the Nile. I flew into Vietnam in June 1968 as a young . Many historians have said Bragg was one of the worst generals of the Civil War, having lost most of his battles. in history from Michigan State University in 1995. And once again, at the Battle of Antietam, McClellans terminal case of the slows (as Lincoln called it) prevented the exploitation of a possible war-ending vulnerability in Confederate defenses. When it came to military command, Westmoreland was everybodys all-Americanuntil he met his Waterloo. (You May Also Like: 5 Israeli Weapons of War ISIS Should Fear). 10. Johnston was wounded on the first day of the Battle of Seven Pines, six miles east of Richmond, and he was replaced by Robert E. Lee. A monthly digest of the top articles read by FP subscribers. Its prewar population was reduced by more than half, and perhaps 90 percent of Paraguays fighting-age men perished. What was the worst battle of Vietnam? He continued to view attrition as the most effective strategy for defeating Germany; the British lost some 420,000 men at the Somme. How well that would have worked can be seen when Gates was sent to command American troops in the South. Of course they raised this issue, leading Westmoreland to declare vehemently that establishing MACV Forward had not a damned thing to do with my confidence in General Cushman or the Marines, not a damned thing. That again was not only false but, given the existing paper trail, reckless as well. Westmoreland established a headquarters known as MACV Forward in the northern provinces of South Vietnam and put his deputy, General Creighton Abrams, in charge, placing him over the Marines and also the Army forces in that region. Finally, when it comes to bad generals, let us remember Truman's immortal words about firing MacArthur: I fired him because he wouldn't respect the authority of the President. He spoke up in Honolulu, during an important U.S. planning conference in February 1966, observing that we can beat up North Vietnamese regiments in the high plateau for the next twenty years and it will not end the war. Westmorelands later dismissive comment was that Ambassador Lodge does not have a deep feel of military tactics and strategy.. Not later than the autumn of 1966 the leaders of both services involved in fighting the ground war in VietnamArmy Chief of Staff General Harold K. Johnson and Marine Commandant General. Is your subtitle The General Who Lost Vietnam fair? The self proclaimed Napoleon of the West didnt quite leave the same legacy as his idol. Finally, there was MacArthur's insubordination. Alexander went on to march halfway across Asia, creating an empire, albeit short-lived, that changed the history of three continentsnot bad for an ancient millennial. And how might that be impacting the world? The alternative was to split the United States asunder. When the Germans shattered his troops and his reputation at Kasserine Pass in Tunisia in early 1943, Fredendall was only a major general and a corps commander. Haig was cruelly mocked, first in the satirical musical Oh! Luckily for the colonists, the Empire also had Cornwallis, a peer of the realm and truly pitiful commander. The initial assault resulted in very high casualties for the Russians and an almost complete breakdown of morale in the Russian forces. Allied with Brock was the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who was head of the most formidable pan-Indian military force the continent had ever seen. He was called the "inevitable general." A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. Operational Culture General Training LREC SME Support Training Course Catalog Cognitive Dimension Training Additional Resources . 13,091. Keep up with the world without stopping yours. When he made public his disagreements with President Truman, Truman rightfully fired him. 2. If Gates had been in command, we might be paying for our groceries with shillings and pence. Soon after declaring himself dictator of Mexico, rebels who opposed the Mexican dictatorship created three new republics, one of them being the Republic of Texas. Westmorelands first resort in claiming progress in the war was always body count, but in fact this was meaningless. Perhaps Mao would have intervened anyway. - 3 Best: 1987 Los Angeles Lakers. So what is the standard of shame for induction? This was heeded about as well as any piece of parental advice, anywhere ever. The British gained control of the fort, dozens of cannons, the brig USS Adams (recommissioned the HMS Detroit), and virtually the entire Michigan Territory. Considering some militants as instruments of regional influence while fighting others has had disastrous consequences. Armchair historians often generalize that during the American Civil War, while the Union held a clear advantage in material, the Confederacy could field superior commanders. Seared into all who fought it and many who merely lived through it that conflict remains a bitter stew of second-guessing and recriminations. Years later, when Marine Corps historians were at work on their history of the war, Westmoreland met with them. Others would say that it is not victory, but success in fulfilling a mission that counts. Whatever its military wisdom or lack thereof, it was a decision that should not have been made by generals under the American political system. Seriously, who represents The British Empire; had the worlds greatest navy, enough cash to hire half the mercenaries of Europe, and the advantage of having a pretty pathetic-looking foe: a rag-tag army of ill-equipped rebels. Follow him on Twitter:@Mipeck1. Creighton Abrams was an U.S. Army General who commanded American military operations in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1972. After his performance at Belmonta spectacular success by Pillow standardshe was tasked with the defense of Fort Donelson, a key strongpoint on the Mississippi River. Although he managed to escape the battle unharmed, Caepio was stripped of his Roman citizenship and exiled. A U.S. ship conveyed him to Mexico, and upon his arrivalto the surprise of virtually no onehe executed a volte-face and took charge of the Mexican troops. Historian Lewis Sorley author of 1999s well-regarded A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of Americans Last Years in Vietnam now zeroes in on General William Westmoreland. 3. Lpez was the son of Carlos Antonio Lpez, a dictator who had done much to modernize Paraguay in the mid-19th century. He served as a National Socialist member of the German parliament before authoring a book about how humanity exists in a state of perpetual war and why that is a good thing. Many of the charges leveled against him have also been laid at the feet of . McClellan was removed from command immediately after. Watch the conversation or read the condensed transcript. HANOI, VIETNAMForty years ago, on April 30, 1975, Nguyen Dang Phat experienced the happiest day of his life . Mexican general Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna probably wished that everyone really did remember the Alamo, because: (1) he actually did win that battle (he outnumbered his opponents between 10- and 30-to-1); and (2) during the 13-day siege, he somehow resisted the urge to betray all his allegiances and change sides. Yet Fredendall's solution was to order an Army engineer company to build a giant bunker a hundred miles from the front lines. Darius did not take the field against Alexander until a year and a half after Granicus, at the Battle of Issus. If there was a saving grace for America, it was that he wasn't commanding an army. Darius quickly lost everything and became nothing but a fugitive. But he also displayed remarkably bad judgment, as when he was commander in the Philippines in 1941. The latest news, analysis, and data from the country each week. The South Vietnamese thus went for years equipped with castoff WWII-vintage U.S. equipment while outgunned by the communists, who were armed with the AK-47 assault rifle and other top of the line equipment. His invasion of Canada came to an abrupt halt when he failed to capture Fort Malden, a British position that was a laughably short distance from Hulls headquarters at Fort Detroit. George Brinton McClellan, a self-proclaimed Young Napoleon, ran dreadful campaigns, but he doesnt make the grade because he was canned before he could lose the entire war. Westmoreland was on a treadmill. Despite Lincoln's pleas for aggressive action, his Army of the Potomac moved hesitantly, its commander McClellan convinced himself that the Southern armies vastly outnumbered him when logic should have told him that it was the North that enjoyed an abundance of resources. He called for bombing China, as if liberating Korea was worth risking 550 million Chinese and possibly war with Russia as well. Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama. In the opening month of World War I, Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg scored a crushing victory over the Russians at Tannenberg. Wrote Kevin Buckley in a scathing review, From the beginning Westmoreland probably expected to write a memoir of victory similar to Crusade in Europeand the defeat in Vietnam has not deterred him from this.. up as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. What myths or misperceptions surround Westmoreland that you would like to clear up, if any? On a visit to Vietnam Senator Hollings from Westmorelands home state of South Carolina was told by Westmoreland: Were killing these people, the enemy, at a ratio of 10 to 1. Said Hollings, Westy, the American people dont care about the ten. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Pillow pulled the troops back to the fort to resupply them. And if they not only fail to deliver, but wind up sinking their own side in the process, and change history, they earn a spot in the Hall of Military Shame. Men and material the Union could provide its armies. Quintus Servilius Caepio takes the cake amongst the worst Roman generals ever to take command of a legion though. Loyalty to himself and himself alone would be something of a running theme in the narrative of Santa Annas life, and his rise to power in Mexico was characterized by near-constant vacillation and betrayal of his allies. Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. standing, Ukrainians are determined to keep fighting, and the West has so far stayed resolute in its support of Ukraine. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? If pressed to rank the miscreants, I would place Wheeler first, then LBJ, and then McNamara, with all entitled to recognition as important accomplices in dooming the endeavor. Publication of the PROVN Study, whose precepts were later implemented with great success by Westmorelands successor, illustrated a matter of fundamental importance. They dramatically upped their game, pressing the U.S. worldwide. While there were a host of bad generals serving on both sides during the American Civil Warmostly on the Union side unfortunatelythe one that usually gets the most credit for dragging out the war as long as he did is Union General George McClellan. Applications for the Gettysburg College-Gilder Lehrman MA program are open and considered on a rolling basis. In 1847, U.S. troops once again surprised Santa Anna and captured his prosthetic leg. - 2 Worst: 2007 Washington Wizards. It wouldn't take a large force to slice through the ramshackle Iraqi army and topple Saddam Hussein, but securing a country the size of Iraq required a larger force. 15. After making a laughingstock of himself by ordering his men to entrench on the wrong side of fortifications at Camargo, Pillow bungled his role at the Battle of Cerro Gordo, making himself the low point of a resounding American victory. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail. Fighter Aircraft of All Time, his army being routed by a smaller force of Redcoats and Loyalists at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina in 1780, When the Germans shattered his troops and his reputation at Kasserine Pass in Tunisia in early 1943, Fredendall was only a major general and a corps commander, Listing MacArthur as one of America's worst generals will be controversial, 5 Israeli Weapons of War ISIS Should Fear, But MacArthur's strategy certainly helped unleash 300,000 Chinese "volunteers" who inflicted significant casualties on United Nations forces, But Franks, who commanded the invasion, made a bad situation worse, Critics say that Franks and senior officials, such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, concocted an invasion plan that used too few troops. Two years later, he lost a leg fighting the French. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, Chinas Censors Are Afraid of What Chatbots Might Say, The U.S. After gaining ground trying to cut an escape path for the Confederates during the February 1862 siege of Fort Donelson by Union forces led Brig. Although he eventually disavowed Hitler, by that point Ludendorff had become so deeply involved with mysticism that few took him seriously. Youre on the list! According to formerly classified Army documents, an investigation disclosed that from at least March 1968 through October 1969, "Vietnamese [civilian] detainees were subjected to maltreatment" by. Test yourself on the week of Feb. 25: Nigeria votes, Finland builds a border wall, and Israel escalates repression. The Biden administration has passed landmark legislations such as theInflation Reduction Act(IRA) and theCHIPS and Science Act, which provide subsidies in clean energy and semiconductoShow morers worth well over $400 billion. Westmorelands devotion to advancing his own interests, even when necessary by misrepresentation, was fundamentally at odds with what Scouting is all about. The Worst Military Leaders in History is meant to be thought-provoking, and it surely is that." ARMY Magazine "Few subjects get military historians and history buffs talking like a debate over the best military leaders in history. In fifteen thought-provoking essays, each written by a professional military historian, readers are introduced . Only FP subscribers can submit questions for FP Live interviews. This piece originally appeared in The National Interest https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/6-worst-military-leaders-ever-167526. Fighter Aircraft of All Time). Varus trust in Arminius was an obvious and terrible misjudgment. Ulysses S. Grant, who replaced McClellan, understood this. FPs Ravi Agrawal spoke with two of the very best Russia experts:Angela Stent, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author ofPutins World: Russia Against the West and With the Rest, and Michael Kofman, the research program director of the Russia studies program at the Center for Naval Analyses. 1968 takes the cake for me. The Russian president got many things wrong about invading Ukrainebut not everything. By the way, here is the first review I have seen of Sorleys new biography of Westmoreland, which I read in galleys last summer, and enjoyed. With high hopes set upon his shoulders at the beginning of the American Civil war, quickly becoming General-in-Chief of the Union Army, McClellan would earn the distinction as a general of little action. The Western Front was a much bigger stage upon which to fail, however, and British commander Douglas Haig made the most of the opportunity. Hull had served with distinction in the Revolutionary War and was appointed governor of the Michigan Territory in 1805. Essential analysis of the stories shaping geopolitics on the continent. James K. Polk. Delivered Wednesday & Sunday. He was found guilty of 11 counts, and only the intervention by Pres. While Maximus was conducting negotiations with the Cimbri, a Germanic tribe that had invaded the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul, Caepio rashly attacked the Cimbri army on October 6, 105 BCE. Lewis Sorleys new book, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, is being published today by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. When it came to military command, Westmoreland was everybody's all-Americanuntil he met his Waterloo. By Lewis Sorley Best Defense Saigon bureau chief. While Hull dithered, Brock captured Fort Michilimackinac, establishing British control of the Straits of Mackinac. Gamelin was commander of the French forces in World War II and is largely responsible for the fall of France into German control during the Battle of France. He was uninterested in other viewpoints on how the war might be prosecuted, dismissing the PROVN Study sponsored by Army Chief of Staff General Harold K. Johnson (which concluded that Westmorelands way of war was not working and could not work) and basic disagreements with Westmorelands organization and approach voiced by his brilliant classmate General Bruce Palmer Jr. 7. Delivered Monday-Saturday. He thought he could take over the war from the South Vietnamese, bring it to a successful conclusion, and then hand their country back to them and go home in triumph. Even if Moscow holds onto territory, the war has wrecked its future. Hull withdrew after a series of harassing attacks by Tecumsehs highly mobile raiding parties. He first demonstrated his ineptitude during the Mexican-American War, where he had received an appointment to the rank of major general from his friend Pres. For many soldiers, a major tipping point happened when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, news of which reaches the soldiers in Da 5 Bloods during one particularly stirring scene . Gen. Charles Cornwallis. T he Civil War was America's bloodiest conflict. Santa Anna was found wearing a privates uniform, hiding in a marsh. Like it or not, the U.S. military would become the governing authority. (The leg did get a state funeral). He was a teacher in the Chicago suburbs and Seoul, Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. For its part, Washington has made a series of policy choices over the last few years that can be summed Show moreup as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. Stay updated on the topics you care about with email alerts. Is Weiss correct? Disobeying orders, he sailed for Cdiz instead of the Channel, allowing Nelsons fleet time to return and effectively scuttling Napoleons plans for a cross-Channel invasion. How do you measure military leaders? Westmorelands own book about himself gives some indication of how he would react to this more recent one. On March 24, 1976, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1 st Viscount of Alamein, hero of World War II, died at home in England. Watchthe conversation onFP Live, the magazines forum for live journalism, orreada condensed transcript. He was certainly nave, but the Boy Scouts need to be defended here. (You May Also Like: The Five Best Generals in U.S. History). They care about the one. Westmoreland didnt get it. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? Approaching his 60th birthday and exhibiting a timidity that had no place in a general about to lead an invasion, Hull also had the misfortune of facing two of the most gifted commanders ever to operate in North America. Not only is Sorley a third-generation graduate of West Point a Vietnam veteran and a historian, but he worked for Westmoreland as well. Scott claimed that Pillow was ''the only person I have ever known who was wholly indifferent in the choice between truth and falsehood. When talk of secession reached Pillows home state of Tennessee, he helped organize the state militia and was appointed a brigadier general in the Confederate army. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. Because he never wanted to face a superior force, he refused to fight. There appeared to be little serious planning for what would happen the day after Saddam was gone. He need not be concerned, soothed Wheeler, because the weight of judgment was that the enemy cant match us on a buildup. That turned out to be one of the classic misjudgments of the war, comparable in magnitude and consequence to General MacArthurs assurances to President Truman that Chinese forces would not enter the Korean War. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? After being taken prisoner (again) by the British, Villeneuve was released but committed suicide rather than face Napoleons wrath. The Vietnam War body count controversy centers on the counting of enemy dead by the United States Armed Forces during the Vietnam War (1955-1975). Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) 24. He underestimated the enemys staying power, maintaining that if he could inflict enough casualties the communists would lose heart and cease their aggression against South Vietnam. At the Battle of Gaugamela, he helped make Alexander great by losing half his army to the Macedonian upstart. Hulls nerve was shattered. We ended up, he said, with no operational plan that had the slightest chance of ending the war favorably. Westmoreland could not or would not ever bring himself to acknowledge that reality. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, by Lewis Sorley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. . As the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, he faced a two-front war, an insurgency in the South and an invading army from the North. Most younger officers who worked around General Westmoreland, excepting only a very few among his many aides-de-camp or executive officers and the like, had no personal relationship with this difficult and distant man. General William Childs Westmoreland (1914- 2005) with President Johnson in South Vietnam #1. Franz Conrad von Htzendorf of Austria couldnt decide which country he wanted to invade, so the German General Staff eventually took his armies away. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. His forces outnumbered Alexanders men by at least a 2 to 1 ratio, but Darius was still outflanked, defeated and forced to flee. Known as Reverse Buller by his troops during the Second Boer War, the Englishman was first defeated at the Battle of Colenso and subsequently lost his position as overall commander. The most important, and also the saddest, is that in Vietnam and thereafter Westmoreland was willing to shade or misremember or deny or invent the record when his perceived interests were at stake. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. But in a contemporaneous cable to General Earle Wheeler, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Westmoreland complained that the military professionalism of the Marines falls far short of the standards that should be demanded by our armed forces. 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