But the inducements encourage U.S. companies to invest only at homenot elsewhere. James Bond Stockdale was flying his A-4 Skyhawk on a mission over North Vietnam, just days after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, when his plane took fire and hurtled d up as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. 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. Having amassed roughly twice as many losses in a single day as Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of Wellington, had suffered during the entire Peninsular War, Haig saw no reason to change tactics. Watch the conversation or read the condensed transcript. What defines Santa Anna is his utter failure to subdue the Texican rebels and block American expansion. Assuming you believe the subtitle to be accurate, who were GEN Westmorelands biggest accomplices in the loss? Darius again was the first to flee the battle, abandoning all of his soldiers and his property to be taken by Alexander. 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. 1. 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. But he was overly cautious by nature. In 334 BC, Alexander the Great invaded the Persian Empire. And what then? Would he be upset if he were alive to read this book today? The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. This is, obviously, a problematic quality when ones title is general-in-chief of the entire Union army. The man who appealed for Varus help was Arminius, a Romanized Germanic prince. Thats an automatic disqualification from Hall membership. Advancing in dispersed columns across the northern half of the peninsula was an invitation to be destroyed piecemeal. So unused to being challenged, the United States has become so filled with anxiety over China that sober responses are becoming nearly impossible. There is no Carthage. 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. Although he managed to escape the battle unharmed, Caepio was stripped of his Roman citizenship and exiled. Brock, sensing an opportunity, advised an immediate march on Fort Detroit. And the number one reason why Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam: With his unavailing approach to conduct of the war he squandered four years of support by much of the American people, the Congress, and even the media. 7. This did not, however, achieve the postulated outcome. 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. A Texan with the U.S. Army's 1 st Infantry Division, Nolan reportedly slipped away from his basecamp in Tay Ninh Province on Nov. 22, 1967 and turned himself over to the Viet Cong. 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. How the North Vietnamese remember the conflict 40 years after the fall of Saigon. But Gates could have doomed the American Revolution. Still, it is his world-changing defeat at Yorktown that merits memorializing. To counter these, Major General William R. Peers commenced Operation Greeley using elements of the 4th Infantry Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Todays list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam. McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from . In other words, this book is a "how-not-to" guide to leadership. Stay updated on the topics you care about with email alerts. After achieving moderate success in Libya and Ethiopia, the Butcher of Ethiopia became Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Royal Armys General Staff and of Italian North Africa at the start of World War II. What does that mean for trade and globalization? Where is Carthage you ask? 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. Yet backstabbing your commander-in-chief in the middle of a war is taking ambition a little too far. Arminius cut off his head and sent it to another Germanic leader as a present. Delivered Wednesday & Sunday. Vice President, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute. At the Battle of Gaugamela, he helped make Alexander great by losing half his army to the Macedonian upstart. In the autumn of 1804 he was placed in charge of the French fleet at Toulon and tasked with drawing the British fleet under Horatio Nelson to the Caribbean. They kept it as a war trophy, exhibiting the leg at county fairs. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. What myths or misperceptions surround Westmoreland that you would like to clear up, if any? Find Paraguay on a map of South America. Although Westmoreland denied it, he imposed a ceiling on the reported number of enemy by instructing his intelligence officers to adhere to a command position of not more than 300,000, even though newly acquired and more accurate data developed in his own headquarters then indicated a much higher figure. 1. 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. He was soon released, however, and, as more capable French admirals either died or somehow incurred Napoleons disfavor, a path to the top echelons of command was opened for Villeneuve. Despite reports of the build-up of German forces and even knowing the date of the Germans attack, Gamelin did nothing, stating that he would await events. 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. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. T he Civil War was America's bloodiest conflict. It would be nice if all American generals were great. 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. The Germanic fighters demolished the three Roman legions. Others were experienced military men who should have known better than to take the risks they took - or not take the risks they should have. 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. 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. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? Among the most detrimental and problematic policies are the incarceration of drug users in compulsory treatment centers, and the stigmatization and abuse of consumers by the police. There was no warmth, no apparent interest in his associates as people. 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. Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama. Darius family would be captured and even lost the Battle of Gaugamela, where so many factors were in his favor. With a few relatively minor changes, thats just about where they stayed for the next four years. Vast areas dotted with villages were blasted with artillery, bombed from the air. But for whatever reason, some American commanders have lost the battle for history. A final humiliation came during Mexican-American War. In a war that saw more than its share of unskilled politically appointed generals, Pillow was arguably the worst on either side. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. They dramatically upped their game, pressing the U.S. worldwide. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail. (The leg did get a state funeral). 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. These are the incompetents, the idiots, the bumblers who have represented armies or nations at war only to lead them to defeat or shame. In fact, he did a lot to ensure that Germany would find itself in another war that it couldnt win, but, since he died in 1937, he gets extra credit for being a bad World War II general from beyond the grave. Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security. Think about how history would have been different if Hannibal had a military plan to outlast Roman might. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. 13,091. 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. This infuriated the Marines, who viewed it as evidence that Westmoreland lacked confidence in them. Frederick C. Weyand was a U.S. Army General who was the last commander of American military operations in the Vietnam War from 1972 to 1973. He was also supremely gifted at overestimating the size of his opponents armies to a degree that beggared belief. The Summer 2023 term begins June 1, 2023 and ends August 24, 2023. Who was the worst US general during the Vietnam War? Santa Anna, a lifetime gambler, was known for his risk taking in battle, but also his brutality. Had Lincoln retained McClellan in command of the Union armies, many former Americans might still be whistling "Dixie.". Lyndon Johnson had no understanding of military affairs whatever, nor did Robert McNamara. By the end of May 1862, Confederate commanding Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had withdrawn his forces to Richmond, and McClellan was close enough to the Confederate capital to hear its church bells ringing. 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. A more positive example is George Washington. 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. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, by Lewis Sorley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. . Thus it was under Darius rule that the Persian Empire fell and was conquered. He was called the "inevitable general." A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. Cue the protests from other parts of the globe: A chorus of nations are accusing Washington of fostering unfair competition. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from scratch. 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. Yes, eminently. 2. 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. The pandemics outbreak brought rare reporting freedoms. When the War of 1812 began, Hull was commissioned a brigadier general and tasked with defending Michigan and invading Upper Canada. He bears a lot of responsibility for one the greatest reversals of military fortune ever experienced by a super power. In fifteen thought-provoking essays, each written by a professional military historian, readers are introduced . A common view holds that 138,708 Allied personnel surrendered or were killed by fewer than 30,000 Japanese. 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? He was found guilty of 11 counts, and only the intervention by Pres. The Romans lost an estimated 80,000 infantry and perhaps 40,000 auxiliaries and cavalry, numbers that dwarf the staggering totals at Cannae. NEW FOR SUBSCRIBERS: 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. He was killed in combat on March 1, 1870. Darius did not take the field against Alexander until a year and a half after Granicus, at the Battle of Issus. Test yourself on the week of Feb. 25: Nigeria votes, Finland builds a border wall, and Israel escalates repression. - 2 Worst: 2007 Washington Wizards. The 1970s were scary times. A key plank in the Democratic platform that year was, appropriately, not fighting, and McClellan lost in a rout. 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. 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. 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. Under Westmorelands command, the Vietnam war began smoothly as the U.S. won every battle. But in 1968, when Westmoreland became Army Chief of Staff, Communist forces baited Westmoreland into committing nearly 40% of his strength to the military outpost at Khe Sanh, then attacked cities and towns throughout South Vietnam. He worked under Adolf Hitler's Third Reich as a leading general and gained fame from his battles in North Africa. Here is a list of the 10 most famous Chinese generals in history. Westmoreland told him, "We're killing these people at a ratio of 10 to 1.". Is your subtitle The General Who Lost Vietnam fair? Even if Moscow holds onto territory, the war has wrecked its future. But the award for the biggest Persian loser goes to Darius III. Military historian Russell Weigley rendered a succinct judgment on LBJ: No capable war President would have allowed an officer of such limited capacities as General William C. Westmoreland to head Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, for so long.. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Pillow pulled the troops back to the fort to resupply them. Not good, Hannibal. However, not even they managed to get themselves court-martialed and sentenced to death for ineptitude on the battlefield. Grant left politics to the politicians and did what had to be done. 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. Delivered Monday-Friday. The War of the Triple Alliance devastated Paraguay. But the rash advance into North Korea was a blunder of strategic proportions. 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. 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. Cue the protests from other parts of the globe: A chorus of nations are accusing Washington of fostering unfair competition. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. 2. 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. He is the dumb ass who gave the order to exfoliate the jungles with agent orange. Hundreds of thousands died of disease. 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 self proclaimed Napoleon of the West didnt quite leave the same legacy as his idol. Nelsons victory at the Battle of Trafalgar was so complete that it established British supremacy on the high seas for more than a century. Nor is being a bad battlefield commander, by itself, sufficient to make the cut. How theyve practiced the art of war is immaterial, too. Yes, Westmoreland was the general who lost Vietnam. 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. On the night of August 15, 1812, Tecumseh led his forces across the Detroit River, and Brock followed the next morning. The Worst Civil War Generals on the Confederacy Confederate Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow. - 1 Best: 1996 Chicago Bulls. 5. The enemy did not lose heart, did not cease aggression. The Romans marched right into the ambush that Arminius laid thus leading to the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. 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. Diem's family was one of the earliest to convert to Catholicism, a religion he took . General Earle Wheeler was essentially a staff officer with virtually no troop leading experience, much less combat acumen. Lewis Sorleys new book, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, is being published today by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. If it couldn't or wouldn't govern the country, who would? The latest news, analysis, and data from the country each week. Yet Fredendall's solution was to order an Army engineer company to build a giant bunker a hundred miles from the front lines. 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). He graduated second in his class at West Point (well ahead of classmates Stonewall Jackson, George H. Gordon, and George Pickett). Some historians are a little more sympathetic towards Percivals legacy nowadays arguing that Percival had been dealt an unusually bad hand. Although he eventually disavowed Hitler, by that point Ludendorff had become so deeply involved with mysticism that few took him seriously. Keep up with the world without stopping yours. 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. 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. 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. Germanic tribes sacrificed Roman officers on altars to their gods. Quintus Servilius Caepio takes the cake amongst the worst Roman generals ever to take command of a legion though. The premise was that, if he could kill enough of the enemy, they would lose heart and cease their aggression against the South Vietnamese. Eschewing a direct overland march to the Confederate capital of Richmond, McClellan orchestrated an impressive amphibious landing of more than 100,000 troops at Fort Monroe, at the southeast end of the peninsula between the James and York rivers. More ways to stay updated on global news: By submitting your email, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to receive email correspondence from us. There are a number of contenders for the top places on such a roster. History: Military History. Tom Ricks, on his "Best Defense" blog has discussed the top 10 worst generals in U.S. history. 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.. What was the worst battle of Vietnam? While British cannons shelled the fort from the Canadian side of the river, Tecumseh marched his warriors through a forest clearing in an endless parade. You worked for GEN Westmoreland when he was Army Chief of Staff. This piece originally appeared in The National Interest https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/6-worst-military-leaders-ever-167526.
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