Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, by Lewis Sorley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. . Westmorelands first resort in claiming progress in the war was always body count, but in fact this was meaningless. Officially labelled a defector by the Pentagon, many suspected Nolan, an African American, changed sides after suffering a lifetime of racial discrimination. The last king of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, Darius was not quite as qualified to rule a mighty empire as his predecessors were. Hull, convinced that he was hopelessly outnumbered (he wasnt), surrendered Fort Detroit and its 2,000-man garrison without firing a shot. Feel free to mention any others you may know of in the comments. Applications for the Gettysburg College-Gilder Lehrman MA program are open and considered on a rolling basis. They care about the one. Westmoreland didnt get it. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. In 1847, U.S. troops once again surprised Santa Anna and captured his prosthetic leg. Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. 10. Who was the worst general in history? Gamelin made the mistake of viewing the Ardennes as impenetrable and chose to defend it with ten of his weakest, least well equipped and least well trained divisions. A Brief History. He earned a B.A. At this point, things somehow got worse for Hull. On March 24, 1976, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1 st Viscount of Alamein, hero of World War II, died at home in England. Argentina, Brazil, and the Brazilian puppet government in Uruguay formed an alliance, and on May 1, 1865, they declared war on Paraguay. They kept it as a war trophy, exhibiting the leg at. Relations between the United States and China seem to be getting frostier by 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. He gritted his teeth and wore down the Confederacy with incessant attacks until the South could take no more. 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. Delivered Friday. (The leg did get a state funeral). After the Germans attacked, Gamelin was eventually removed from his post, but by then it was too late. And, to further demonstrate progress in reducing enemy strength, Westmoreland arbitrarily and entirely on his own removed from the order of battle several categories of enemy forces that had long been carried there, including during the three years Westmoreland had already been in command of U.S. forces in Vietnam. Michael Ray oversees coverage of European history and military affairs for Britannica. He couldnt. The Romans lost an estimated 80,000 infantry and perhaps 40,000 auxiliaries and cavalry, numbers that dwarf the staggering totals at Cannae. General Westmoreland had complete freedom of action in deciding how to prosecute the war within South Vietnam. Alas, as a historian, he passed on the opportunity to answer Battlelands questions about what Vietnam should teach us about Afghanistan, and who, if anyone, is todays Westmoreland, during our email chat earlier this week: Whats the most important thing you learned writing Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam? Todays list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam, Want to read more on this topic or region? And what then? The War of the Triple Alliance devastated Paraguay. Test yourself on the week of Feb. 25: Nigeria votes, Finland builds a border wall, and Israel escalates repression. 4. They dramatically upped their game, pressing the U.S. worldwide. Grachev played a key role in initiating and leading the First Chechen War. 0. What does that mean for trade and globalization? When it came to military command, Westmoreland was everybody's all-Americanuntil he met his Waterloo. On the other side of the trenches in World War I was Erich Ludendorff, commanding the armies of Germany. His senior staff lacked diversity of experience and professional outlook, consisting mostly of people with backgrounds similar to his own, especially airborne. Heres the inaugural class: 6. To counter these, Major General William R. Peers commenced Operation Greeley using elements of the 4th Infantry Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade. 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. Years later, when Marine Corps historians were at work on their history of the war, Westmoreland met with them. Weekly update on whats driving U.S. national security policy. Grachev publicly promised to swiftly crush the Chechen separatist forces in a couple of hours with a single airborne regiment. He led the disastrous storming of Grozny while drunk after celebrating his birthday on January 1st. Contrarily, I would not so stigmatize another important player often criticized by others, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. 3. The Summer 2023 term begins June 1, 2023 and ends August 24, 2023. The loss of Fort Donelson opened the door to Kentucky and Tennessee to Union forces and marked the beginning of the end of Confederate resistance in the west. T he Civil War was America's bloodiest conflict. These are the incompetents, the idiots, the bumblers who have represented armies or nations at war only to lead them to defeat or shame. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. After an initial attack drove back Grants troops, Pillow snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by retreating to the fort rather than breaking through Union lines to Nashville. These two instances are illustrative of many, many more, ranging from his actions or lack of action in combat situations to his determination to take over the war and win it with U.S. forces to his resultant failure to build up South Vietnamese forces to the validity of body count to the decision to close Khe Sanh to his actions when Lang Vei was overrun to denying predictions he had made of an early end to the war to claims of not being surprised at Tet 1968 to denying a post-Tet request for many additional U.S. forces. One-stop digest of politics, economics, and culture. A curated selection of our very best long reads. His battlefield losses marked the end of the Persian Empire. As Lincoln well knew, the only way the Union could lose the war was if the North eventually grew tired and agreed to allow the South to secede. It was anotherhistory-changingevent, the birth of a truly exceptional nation. The deplorable conduct of Charles Lee at the Battle of Monmouth has been immortalized by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Benedict Arnolds name is synonymous with traitorous behavior. In 334 BC, Alexander the Great invaded the Persian Empire. Follow him on Twitter:@Mipeck1. While Hull dithered, Brock captured Fort Michilimackinac, establishing British control of the Straits of Mackinac. Woefully inexperienced U.S. soldiers found themselves against Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps veterans. In 1941, Graziani resigned his commission after the British counterattacked and the Tenth Army was completely defeated during Operation Compass. Implementing the attrition strategy, Westmoreland typically employed a series of large unit sweeps conducted in the deep jungle regions along South Vietnams western borders. Military greatness can most easily be defined by comparison. Yes, Westmoreland was the general who lost Vietnam. 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). Thus it was under Darius rule that the Persian Empire fell and was conquered. By one estimate from Harvard University, more than 130,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or severely wounded, in addition to the deaths of more than 7,000 Ukrainian civilians. The curation of this content is at the discretion of the author, and not necessarily reflective of the views of Encyclopaedia Britannica or its editorial staff. Caepio reportedly lived out the remainder of his life in luxury, however. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln. Some captured Romans were placed in wicker cages and burned alive, others were enslaved or ransomed. 151. Needs to Talk About the Risk of War With China, Putin Has Assembled an Axis of Autocrats Against Ukraine, The Conversation About Ukraine Is Cracking Apart. 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. Lewis Sorleys new book, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, is being published today by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 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. In his single-minded pursuit of that objective, Westmoreland (despite his repeated claims to the contrary) essentially ignored two other crucial aspects of the war, improvement of South Vietnams armed forces and pacification. My generation would likely vote for the year exactly one-half century ago as the absolutely worst year in our lifetimes. Jessica Chen Weiss, formerly a senior advisor for policy planning at the State Department under the Biden administration, makes the case that the United States is becoming consumed by competition with China, a strategy that could lead to dangerous conflict. Abraham Lincoln. 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. - 1 Best: 1996 Chicago Bulls. When it came to military command, Westmoreland was everybodys all-Americanuntil he met his Waterloo. Santa Anna, a lifetime gambler, was known for his risk taking in battle, but also his brutality. 7. Napoleon. 3. 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. 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. McClellan was a proto-Douglas MacArthur who bad-mouthed his president and commander-in-chief. 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. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Pillow pulled the troops back to the fort to resupply them. And how might that be impacting the world? Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security. What a Lovely War and then in the 1989 television comedy series Blackadder Goes Forth. This is, obviously, a problematic quality when ones title is general-in-chief of the entire Union army. Because he never wanted to face a superior force, he refused to fight. McClellan was removed from command immediately after. Create an FP account to save articles to read later and in the FP mobile app. . At Yorktown, he allowed himself to be taken by surprise and outmaneuvered by Washington and the French fleet. What will another year of war look like? This might have ended okay for Germany, provided they didnt do something like provoke a previously neutral country with Allied sympathies and an effectively bottomless war chest. The pandemics outbreak brought rare reporting freedoms. The unprecedented violence of battles such as Shiloh, Antietam, Stones River, and Gettysburg shocked citizens and international observers alike. The enemy simply kept sending more and more replacements to make up his losses. Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama. Operational Culture General Training LREC SME Support Training Course Catalog Cognitive Dimension Training Additional Resources . In the famous Battle of the Alamo, Santa Anna struggled to defeat about 250 Texans with 2,400 Mexicans and subsequently lost nearly 600 men. Thus, on July 1, 1916, Haig ordered his men to go over the top at the First Battle of the Somme, and 20,000 of them had the audacity to die almost immediately (there were 60,000 total British casualties on the first day of the attack). The war soon ended in a Russian defeat, with hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties. But all that remains of his would-be empire today is a flaky French pastry. Ulysses S. Grant made his Civil War debut at the Battle of Belmont against Confederate Gen. Gideon Pillow. Although he outnumbered Magruders Army of the Peninsula 10-to-1, McClellan settled in for a monthlong siege. Haig had largely dismissed the effect of the machine gun on the battlefield, believing that previous Allied failures owed to something other than an impenetrable wall of lead traveling at ballistic velocity. - 2 Worst: 2007 Washington Wizards. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? 1968 takes the cake for me. It is probably not a coincidence that corruption in the military appears to have escalated since 2006, when the number of military generals started to jump sharply. In fifteen thought-provoking essays, each written by a professional military historian, readers are introduced . Still, he choked in the big game. James Madison spared him from execution. Hannibal. General Earle Wheeler was essentially a staff officer with virtually no troop leading experience, much less combat acumen. Despite the Union outnumbering the Confederates, McClellan was unable to crush Robert E. Lee after failing to pursue him into Virginia. Ultimately, he was denied his final showdown with the Allies by German political leaders who realized that the Americans could produce soldiers faster than Germany could produce bullets. But its not just the United States. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. After only 10 weeks into the Pacific War, Percival became responsible for the largest surrender of British-led forces in history. Having several decades of duplicity to draw on at this point, everyone had a pretty good idea of how any such deal would turn out, and the aging general was rebuffed by both parties. Somalia (1992-1994) 2. Would he be upset if he were alive to read this book today? He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. This week marks exactly one year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. But the argument is unbalanced. Simultaneously, he contacted Maximilian to offer the young emperor his services. Thus the progress Westmoreland claimed in racking up huge body counts did nothing to win the war. And he was able to inflict massive casualties on the enemy. A former British officer, Gates rose to fame as Continental Army commander during the momentous American defeat of a British army at Saratoga in 1777. 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. Panama (1989) 2. Lebanon (1982-1984) 240. Defining that is like defining a bad meal. The latest news, analysis, and data from the country each week. In 1847, U.S. troops once again surprised Santa Anna and captured his prosthetic leg. 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. He effectively pledged to become an agent for the U.S. but found that he had been deposed upon his return to Mexico. 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. Explore the benefits of your FP subscription. McClellan truly disappointed president Lincoln at the Battle of Antietam where the North and South would fight the bloodiest battle of the war. McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from scratch. The early days of the 2003 Iraq War were bound to be a graveyard for military and political reputations, given the misperceptions and misjudgments behind America's ill-fated adventure in regime change and nation-building. But its not just the United States. Santa Anna was found wearing a privates uniform, hiding in a marsh. But with that kind of advantage in troops and firepower, who wouldnt? Westmoreland was on a treadmill. Then, in an ill-advised comeback, he met his Waterloo. Many of the charges leveled against him have also been laid at the feet of . After the war, the phrase lions led by donkeys came to be associated with the British army for what should be obvious reasons. A final humiliation came during Mexican-American War. How do you measure military leaders? George Custer at the Little Big Horn and Lord Chelmsford at the Battle of Isandlwana leap to mind. If there was a saving grace for America, it was that he wasn't commanding an army. There is no Carthage. James Jay Carafano is a leading expert in national security and foreign policy challenges. Overseas during World War II he had limited line duty (16 months of battalion command, then 13 months in staff positions) and of 14 months of command during the Korean War and its immediate aftermath he spent eight months in reserve in Japan and only six months in Korea, and that during the mostly static final months of the war. He still had his defenders, but they were in the last trench, barely holding on. To say that he failed in both regards is to dramatically understate the case. Diem's family was one of the earliest to convert to Catholicism, a religion he took . But the award for the biggest Persian loser goes to Darius III. From Kaiser Wilhelm to Hitler and Saddam Hussein and Gadhafi, there is no end of national leaders who squandered their nations blood and treasure in futile conflicts. His war of attrition, search and destroy tactics, and emphasis on body count did nothing to affect the war in the hamlets and villages of South Vietnam, where the enemys covert infrastructure was left free to continue using coercion and terror to dominate the rural populace. Informed that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor and were certain to attack the Philippines next, MacArthur failed to disperse his aircraftthe only force that could disrupt the Japanese offensive in the absence of the American fleetand to attack Japanese airfields before the enemy wiped out his air force. 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. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on Watchthe conversation onFP Live, the magazines forum for live journalism, orreada condensed transcript. This is one of the more controversial ones, but Douglas MacArthur is incredibly overrated in the annals of the US military, in my . 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. 9. Lpez, possibly in a fit of madness, ordered the execution of hundreds of people, including some of his own family members. Vice President, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute. He was an artilleryman who missed out on the Army's great schools system, never attending the Command & General Staff College or the Army War College. 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. The self proclaimed Napoleon of the West didnt quite leave the same legacy as his idol. After eight years at Foreign Policy, here are the ten most popular Best Defense posts. His prestige restored by his conduct during the Pastry War with France, Santa Anna once again claimed dictatorial powers. Westmorelands devotion to advancing his own interests, even when necessary by misrepresentation, was fundamentally at odds with what Scouting is all about. America, the Middle East and the rest of the world are still reaping the consequences of those omissions. Only recently have those in the defense and military complex begun to look at how we rate generals. According to a Time magazine reporter who wrote about the Dak Son massacre, Viet Cong guerrillas shouted "Sons of Americans!" as they launched their assault on the village. History is not a fixed set of facts. At Brownstown, south of Detroit, two dozen warriors under Tecumseh routed more than 200 American militiamen escorting a supply column intended for Detroit. He was an artilleryman who missed out on the Armys great schools system, never attending the Command & General Staff College or the Army War College. 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. Allied with Brock was the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who was head of the most formidable pan-Indian military force the continent had ever seen. On September 9, 1965, Navy Cmdr. The rise of American-made chatbots has kicked off a flurry of Chinese activity. DE AGOSTINI PICTURE LIBRARY/Contributor/Getty Images, Biden Proposal Puts Climate Agenda Above Americas Defense, Russias New START Breach Means U.S. Nuclear Weapons Modernization Is a Must. Unfortunately the fates of the former Republic Vietnam (Sout. It was a humiliating baptism of fire for the U.S. Army in Europe, and more important, caused British commanders to dismiss their Yank allies as amateur soldiers for the rest of the war. How does an admiral make a list of the worst generals? When the War of 1812 began, Hull was commissioned a brigadier general and tasked with defending Michigan and invading Upper Canada. Westmorelands general mistake: severely underestimating the Communists. While there is much to criticize LBJ for in his conduct of the war, one cannot help having some sympathy for the dilemma posed by the often wildly conflicting advice he was getting from his senior aides and advisors, including those in uniform. When he made public his disagreements with President Truman, Truman rightfully fired him. NEW FOR SUBSCRIBERS: World War I provided a forum for any number of truly horrible commanders to assert themselves. General William Westmoreland. British Gen. Isaac Brock possessed a remarkable ability to anticipate his opponents moves and reactions, and it was not long before he had taken full measure of Hull. Two of the more prominent of these mistakes, both with wide and sweeping results, were the June 22, 1941 invasion of the USSROperation Barbarossaand the December 11, 1941 unprovoked and unwarranted declaration of war on the United Statesagainst the advice of Hitler's Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop. But his crowning achievement was bad generalship in Korea. As a result, American military power and prestige took a dramatic downturn. 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. Innumerable battlefield commanders have had disastrous days at the office. When all is said and done, it doesnt matter how nice, brave, courageous, gutsy, loyal, or brilliant commanders theyve been. 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. A more positive example is George Washington. Varus himself, seeing all hope was lost, committed suicide. Finally, there was MacArthur's insubordination. Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) 24. What defines Santa Anna is his utter failure to subdue the Texican rebels and block American expansion.
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