worst generals in vietnam

Little Mac would prove himself to be a superb organizer who kept his army well supplied, efficiently run, and happy. 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. But with that kind of advantage in troops and firepower, who wouldnt? Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on. They dramatically upped their game, pressing the U.S. worldwide. It would be nice if all American generals were great. Yes, Westmoreland was the general who lost Vietnam. The initial assault resulted in very high casualties for the Russians and an almost complete breakdown of morale in the Russian forces. How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command? The worst military leaders since Napoleon | History 101 What a Lovely War and then in the 1989 television comedy series Blackadder Goes Forth. 3. The 1970s were scary times. 7. General Westmorelands close associate, General William DePuy, later admitted the futility of the Westmoreland way of war. Arminius cut off his head and sent it to another Germanic leader as a present. Ulysses S. Grant, who replaced McClellan, understood this. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, Chinas Censors Are Afraid of What Chatbots Might Say, The U.S. Thats an automatic disqualification from Hall membership. 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. FPsRavi Agrawalsat down with U.S. Trade RepresentativeKatherine Tai, the Biden administrations top official tasked with mapping out and implementing the White Houses trade policy. How do you measure military leaders? These Vietnam War photos taken by U.S. Army photographers reveal a side of the conflict that few people have ever seen. McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from scratch. This is, obviously, a problematic quality when ones title is general-in-chief of the entire Union army. The alternative was to split the United States asunder. MilitaryHistoryOnline.com There was no warmth, no apparent interest in his associates as people. Without question, many lives would be saved if their tactical professionalism were enhanced.. It's not the first time that someone thought he was smarter than his boss. 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. 9 Worst Generals in History | Britannica 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. McClellan truly disappointed president Lincoln at the Battle of Antietam where the North and South would fight the bloodiest battle of the war. The Second Battle of the Somme was the first of a series of successful German offensives, but Ludendorff had failed to integrate these tactical victories into a broader strategic plan. Brock, sensing an opportunity, advised an immediate march on Fort Detroit. Like it or not, the U.S. military would become the governing authority. Percival was off mistreating Irish Republican Army (IRA) leaders during the Anglo-Irish War before commanding British Malaya in World War II. 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. The result of his manic commitment to the war of attrition was that Westmoreland squandered four years of his troops bravery and support by the public, the Congress, and even much of the news media for American involvement in the war. How does an admiral make a list of the worst generals? The next major British offensive came at Passchendaele (July 31November 6, 1917), where Haig lost another 275,000 troops in a battle whose name became synonymous with pointless slaughter. 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. Grant left politics to the politicians and did what had to be done. 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. 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. Not good, Hannibal. Lewis Sorleys new book, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, is being published today by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Why our generals were more successful in World War II than in - YouTube But its not just the United States. 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. Assuming you believe the subtitle to be accurate, who were GEN Westmorelands biggest accomplices in the loss? Vietnam War body count controversy - Wikipedia Santa Anna liked to call himself the Napoleon of the West. And, like Napoleon, he squandered it all in one grand campaign. 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. In All U.S. Military History, These Are the 5 Worst Generals Commanders of Chaos: The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History Although he eventually disavowed Hitler, by that point Ludendorff had become so deeply involved with mysticism that few took him seriously. The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History | RealClearHistory 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. 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. But then MacArthur thrived on controversy like bread thrives on yeast. Have your boss report to the French gentleman whose name begins with J at a place which begins with D which is five grid squares to the left of M. The Kasserine disaster had repercussions. Argentina, Brazil, and the Brazilian puppet government in Uruguay formed an alliance, and on May 1, 1865, they declared war on Paraguay. Not one to let his own failings stand in the way of personal glory, Pillow submitted fanciful accounts of his actions at the Battles of Contreras and Churubusco to various newspapers, incurring the wrath of overall American commander Winfield Scott. Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama. This week marks exactly one year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. 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. Was My Lai just one of many massacres in Vietnam War? 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. The Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial LectureThomas E. Ricks is a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). In 1940, after increasing pressure from dictator Benito Mussolini and facing demotion, Graziani followed orders and invaded Egypt with his Tenth Army. Westmoreland: the General Who Lost Vietnam Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. Courses: Summer 2023 | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Yes, eminently. Some would say that failure on the battlefield warrants censure. Best Defense: Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. Westmoreland held a press conference in which he categorically denied any such loss of confidence. Today's list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam By the way, here is the first review I have seen of Sorley's new biography of Westmoreland, which I read in galleys. 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.. A very significant instance was his determination to arbitrarily hold down the estimate of enemy strength during a 1967 order of battle controversy. Yet Fredendall's solution was to order an Army engineer company to build a giant bunker a hundred miles from the front lines. He worked under Adolf Hitler's Third Reich as a leading general and gained fame from his battles in North Africa. A dull, unfeeling, unimaginative, smug "Colonel Blimp" of the worst sort. He was responsible for coming up with the idea of using force to restore constitutional order in Chechnya. 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. A very influential visitor, Senator "Fritz" Hollings from Westmoreland's home state of South Carolina, had warned him about reliance on such ratios. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. When the French deposed Benito Jurez and installed Maximilian as emperor of Mexico, Santa Anna, now 70, reached out to the U.S. for support in deposing the emperor. When he made public his disagreements with President Truman, Truman rightfully fired him. 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 Wallace Greeneboth saw Westmorelands approach as fatally flawed and agreed on a viable alternative. Grenada (1983) 3. Pillow suffered slightly more casualties than Grant in the engagement, which possibly makes the Battle of Belmont the high point of Pillows military career. The man who appealed for Varus help was Arminius, a Romanized Germanic prince. (You May Also Like: The Five Best Generals in U.S. History). Top 10 Worst Military Leaders in History - Toptenz.net 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.. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. The enemy simply kept sending more and more replacements to make up his losses. All related (37) Sort Recommended Doug Szabo Author has 972 answers and 137.7K answer views Nov 27 My vote goes to adm Otto Zumwalt. (You May Also Like: The Five Best U.S. Some captured Romans were placed in wicker cages and burned alive, others were enslaved or ransomed. A final humiliation came during Mexican-American War. With the Little Corporal running everything, Europe might have become a very different place. Grant had encircled the fort. Stay updated on the topics you care about with email alerts. On the other hand, there was that bad day at the Battle of Salamis when most of the Persian fleet went to the bottom. The British blockaded the port at Cdiz with a numerically inferior force, and Villeneuve, upon learning that he was to be relieved of command, rashly struck out at Nelsons fleet. Scilit | Article - A Slow March from Social Evil to Harm Reduction Santa Anna was found wearing a privates uniform, hiding in a marsh. 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. Creighton Abrams was an U.S. Army General who commanded American military operations in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1972. Hulls nerve was shattered. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. Top 10 Greatest Generals of Chinese History | ChinaWhisper Some historians are a little more sympathetic towards Percivals legacy nowadays arguing that Percival had been dealt an unusually bad hand. A monthly digest of the top articles read by FP subscribers. Innumerable battlefield commanders have had disastrous days at the office. Advancing to the North Korean border with China also was a red flag for Mao-Tse Tung, who feared that American troops on his border were a prelude to U.S. invasion. Gamelin also chose not to disperse Frances vast number of superior tanks. A more positive example is George Washington. NEW FOR SUBSCRIBERS: Would he be upset if he were alive to read this book today? Feel free to mention any others you may know of in the comments. 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. Following on from our list of the greatest and most successful military commanders, we are presenting this list of the worst. Many have described his activities as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in US history." 3 Nidal Malik Hasan Nidal Malik Hasan was a U.S. Army Major, and the sole suspect in a shooting at the Fort Hood military base, only weeks before he would have deployed to Afghanistan. Vietnam War. 3. Still, it is his world-changing defeat at Yorktown that merits memorializing. In considering who should receive such a dubious honor, Ive consciously excluded bad leaders. Today's list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam After occupying Jerusalem and crucifying 2,000 Jewish rebels in Judaea, Varus went off to govern Germania and tame barbarian tribes. Two years later, he lost a leg fighting the French. Muammar Al-Gaddafi. 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.

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