Westmorelands devotion to advancing his own interests, even when necessary by misrepresentation, was fundamentally at odds with what Scouting is all about. Along with Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Montgomery is the most celebrated of British generals and had the ego to match, or even exceed, his reputation. But all that remains of his would-be empire today is a flaky French pastry. Haig was cruelly mocked, first in the satirical musical Oh! This did not, however, achieve the postulated outcome. Youre on the list! 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. Gen. Charles Cornwallis. Lpez was the son of Carlos Antonio Lpez, a dictator who had done much to modernize Paraguay in the mid-19th century. They dramatically upped their game, pressing the U.S. worldwide. When it came to military command, Westmoreland was everybodys all-Americanuntil he met his Waterloo. Lee demonstrated an immediate grasp of McClellans demeanor, and, during the Seven Days Battles (June 25July 1, 1862), Lee drove back the Union armies from Richmonds doorstep. Thus there was little internal capacity for debating or evaluating his chosen course of action. (You May Also Like: The Five Best Generals in U.S. History). Westmorelands strategy throughout the war was to win through Attrition Warfare (pounding the enemy through greater numbers and resources) which military strategists including Sun Tzu caution against using. 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. The Romans marched right into the ambush that Arminius laid thus leading to the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Santa Anna would lose Texas at the Battle of San Jacinto. 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. Over time Westmoreland asked for and received large numbers of U.S. troops, eventually totaling well over half a million. (Photo: Warner Bros.) Roger Ebert called "Gods and Generals" a film "Trent Lott would enjoy," referring to the Senator's praise of segregationist Strom Thurmond. During the darkest days of the rebellion, when Washington's army had been kicked out of New York and King George's star seemed ascendant, the "Conway cabal" of disgruntled officers and politicians unsuccessfully schemed to out Washington and appoint Gates. 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. Here's What You Need To Remember:The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. Michael Ray oversees coverage of European history and military affairs for Britannica. The rise of American-made chatbots has kicked off a flurry of Chinese activity. But the inducements encourage U.S. companies to invest only at homenot elsewhere. Listing MacArthur as one of America's worst generals will be controversial. What myths or misperceptions surround Westmoreland that you would like to clear up, if any? The alternative was to split the United States asunder. Diem's family was one of the earliest to convert to Catholicism, a religion he took . But beyond the goals of one leader in Moscow, it is also clear that Ukraine has suffered horrors of a historic nature. The 20th century is the most violent century in history. Caepio may have been a terrible general, but he was apparently an exceptional thief. The Texans only suffered 2 casualties, as opposed to hundreds of Mexican casualties. 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. As the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles crippled Germany, Ludendorff effectively sabotaged the Weimar Republic by propagating the belief that he and his armies had been undefeated on the battlefield. The United States entered the war, forcing Ludendorff to accelerate his time line for a conclusive battle against the Allies on the Western Front. - 4 Worst: 1990 Cleveland Cavaliers. Caepio reportedly lived out the remainder of his life in luxury, however. Fighter Aircraft of All Time). Evening roundup with our editors favorite stories of the day. Persian Gulf (1988) (Oil Platforms) 2. Instead of sweeping around the French defenses in a massive flanking movement, the Germans were checked at the First Battle of the Marne. 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. When all is said and done, it doesnt matter how nice, brave, courageous, gutsy, loyal, or brilliant commanders theyve been. A final humiliation came during Mexican-American War. Russias war is receiving critical assistance from authoritarian regimes around the world. Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy is a shadow of its former self.. After months of inactivity, McClellan was finally spurred to action by Pres. 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. While this century witnessed many great leaders, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dr. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi . Who was the worst general in history? What a Lovely War and then in the 1989 television comedy series Blackadder Goes Forth. Arminius cut off his head and sent it to another Germanic leader as a present. 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. This strategy inevitably failed as the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong maintained control over how the war was fought which was through guerilla warfare. Pillow escaped during the night, leaving Simon B. Buckner to surrender the fort and 15,000 Confederate troops. He was indeed a capable warrior, as shown by the South Pacific campaign and the Inchon landing in Korea. 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. He is the dumb ass who gave the order to exfoliate the jungles with agent orange. 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. Varus himself, seeing all hope was lost, committed suicide. Not only is Sorley a third-generation graduate of West Point a Vietnam veteran and a historian, but he worked for Westmoreland as well. Military Only FP subscribers can submit questions for FP Live interviews. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Watchthe conversation onFP Live, the magazines forum for live journalism, orreada condensed transcript. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 6. In 334 BC, Alexander the Great invaded the Persian Empire. Is Weiss correct? You may opt out at any time. In reality, it is a collection of ideas, images, and information that enough people have chosen to preserve and disseminate. 2. 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. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? 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. It would be nice if all American generals were great. You worked for GEN Westmoreland when he was Army Chief of Staff. But Gates could have doomed the American Revolution. All rights reserved. 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. Instead of holding a natural defense line around Pyongyang, which would have given the United Nations control of most of the peninsula, the UN troops retreated all the way back into South Korea in a humiliating reverse for U.S. power after the crushing victory of World War II. If it couldn't or wouldn't govern the country, who would? What defines Santa Anna is his utter failure to subdue the Texican rebels and block American expansion. The resulting Peninsular Campaign (AprilJuly 1862) was a marvel of planning but something of a farce in execution. Copyright 2023 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved, as Continental Army commander during the momentous American defeat of a British army at Saratoga in 1777, The Five Best U.S. It doesnt matter if theyve won more often than theyve lost. James Madison spared him from execution. Even if Moscow holds onto territory, the war has wrecked its future. With the Little Corporal running everything, Europe might have become a very different place. Santa Anna was found wearing a privates uniform, hiding in a marsh. His bad luck didnt end at San Jacinto. Thus, almost by default, Westmoreland was left to go his own way, year after bloody year. 13,091. They kept it as a war trophy, exhibiting the leg at county fairs. 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. On March 24, 1976, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1 st Viscount of Alamein, hero of World War II, died at home in England. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. This would be known as the Tet Offensive and would become a major turning point in the war. 10. In a war that saw more than its share of unskilled politically appointed generals, Pillow was arguably the worst on either side. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, This Photo Of A 94-Year-Old Widow Receiving Her Husbands Remains Will Break Your Heart, From Messiah to Hitler, What You Can and Cannot Name Your Child. Among them are, of course, Lyndon Johnson himself, Robert McNamara, and General Earle Wheeler. Casey was an Army insidera four-star general and the son of the highest-ranking American casualty of the Vietnam War, a division commander who was killed in a July 1970 helicopter crash. McClellan truly disappointed president Lincoln at the Battle of Antietam where the North and South would fight the bloodiest battle of the 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. His prestige restored by his conduct during the Pastry War with France, Santa Anna once again claimed dictatorial powers. Nor is being a bad battlefield commander, by itself, sufficient to make the cut. When it came to military command, Westmoreland was everybody's all-Americanuntil he met his Waterloo. 4. He effectively pledged to become an agent for the U.S. but found that he had been deposed upon his return to Mexico. Officially labelled a defector by the Pentagon, many suspected Nolan, an African American, changed sides after suffering a lifetime of racial discrimination. He graduated second in his class at West Point (well ahead of classmates Stonewall Jackson, George H. Gordon, and George Pickett). But its not just the United States. He earned a B.A. Villeneuve lost 20 ships, while Nelson lost none. 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. His forces outnumbered Alexanders men by at least a 2 to 1 ratio, but Darius was still outflanked, defeated and forced to flee. After his defeat by the Texans at the Battle of San Jacinto, Santa Anna was captured. 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. The Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial LectureThomas E. Ricks is a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. 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. The War of the Triple Alliance devastated Paraguay. I flew into Vietnam in June 1968 as a young . After being taken prisoner (again) by the British, Villeneuve was released but committed suicide rather than face Napoleons wrath. Quintus Servilius Caepio takes the cake amongst the worst Roman generals ever to take command of a legion though. But then MacArthur thrived on controversy like bread thrives on yeast. 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. Westmoreland held a press conference in which he categorically denied any such loss of confidence. Essential analysis of the stories shaping geopolitics on the continent. General William Westmoreland. A common view holds that 138,708 Allied personnel surrendered or were killed by fewer than 30,000 Japanese. However, not even they managed to get themselves court-martialed and sentenced to death for ineptitude on the battlefield. With a few relatively minor changes, thats just about where they stayed for the next four years. After early success in the Mexican War for Independence, the rest of his career didnt pan out the way he would have liked. There are a number of contenders for the top places on such a roster. To that Hollings responded, "Westy, the American people don't care about the ten. 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. Heres the inaugural class: 6. There is no Carthage. Brock, sensing an opportunity, advised an immediate march on Fort Detroit. Alexander, Napoleon, Rommel. My generation would likely vote for the year exactly one-half century ago as the absolutely worst year in our lifetimes. Rommel is by far the greatest military general of the . His battlefield losses marked the end of the Persian Empire. Not good, Hannibal. Cue the protests from other parts of the globe: A chorus of nations are accusing Washington of fostering unfair competition. These are the incompetents, the idiots, the bumblers who have represented armies or nations at war only to lead them to defeat or shame. He lacked the schooling and relevant experience to understand the war and devise a viable approach to prosecuting it. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. Others would say that it is not victory, but success in fulfilling a mission that counts. Franz Conrad von Htzendorf of Austria couldnt decide which country he wanted to invade, so the German General Staff eventually took his armies away. Some would say that failure on the battlefield warrants censure. Finally, there was MacArthur's insubordination. So what is the standard of shame for induction? General and presidential candidate Douglas MacArthur (1880 - 1964) at his headquarters in Yokohama, Japan with US Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright (1883 - 1953) (right), and British Lieutenant-General A E Percival (1887 - 1966) (left) who were taken prisoner by the Japanese after the US retreat in the Bataan peninsula and released in 1945. Lincoln relieved McClellan but reinstated him after the devastating Union defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Some staff officers who briefed him one-on-one at deskside were dismayed when Westmoreland occupied himself by signing photographs of himself, one after another, during their presentations. Antonio de Padua Mara Severino Lpez de Santa Anna. Delivered Friday. General William Childs Westmoreland (1914- 2005) with President Johnson in South Vietnam #1. And he was able to inflict massive casualties on the enemy. Read More. Argentina, Brazil, and the Brazilian puppet government in Uruguay formed an alliance, and on May 1, 1865, they declared war on Paraguay. 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. Join in-depth conversations and interact with foreign-policy experts with. Innumerable battlefield commanders have had disastrous days at the office. 1 Erwin Rommel Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, popularly known as the Desert Fox, was a German field marshal of World War II. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. 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 . Lebanon (1982-1984) 240. What was your impression of the man when you were working for him? Even now, the easiest way to get into an argument at a V.F.W. Instead he simply sent more and more replacements to make up his losses. 88,594. Instead the enemy proved willing to absorb horrifying losses and keep fighting. But the award for the biggest Persian loser goes to Darius III. The 1970s were scary times. 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. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? Here are five of America's worst generals: Great generals have great talents, and usually egos and ambitions to match. Still, he choked in the big game. Ulysses S. Grant made his Civil War debut at the Battle of Belmont against Confederate Gen. Gideon Pillow. As military professionals, we should think about more . The premise was that, if he could kill enough of the enemy, they would lose heart and cease their aggression against the South Vietnamese. What does that mean for trade and globalization? 0. At Brownstown, south of Detroit, two dozen warriors under Tecumseh routed more than 200 American militiamen escorting a supply column intended for Detroit. Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all. While serving in Vietnam . Critics say that Franks and senior officials, such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, concocted an invasion plan that used too few troops. A Brief History. As a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he theoretically had some influence there, at least to the extent he could shape the collective viewpoint, but even then LBJ and McNamara were famously impervious to advice from the Joint Chiefs.
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