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. 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. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals. It doesnt matter if theyve won more often than theyve lost. When it came to military command, Westmoreland was everybody's all-Americanuntil he met his Waterloo. Sorley skillfully uses Westmoreland's own words to show time and again his duplicity at worst and his lack of touch with reality at best. There was no warmth, no apparent interest in his associates as people. Your guide to the most important world stories of the day. By signing up, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to occasionally receive special offers from Foreign Policy. Nearly as many men died in captivity during the Civil War as were killed in the whole of the Vietnam War. (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. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Pillow pulled the troops back to the fort to resupply them. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. The Roman Empire has a long, proud tradition of producing some of the finest generals in human history- and just as many of the worst. After only 10 weeks into the Pacific War, Percival became responsible for the largest surrender of British-led forces in history. Westmoreland was on a treadmill. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Quintus Servilius Caepio takes the cake amongst the worst Roman generals ever to take command of a legion though. The latest news, analysis, and data from the country each week. Thats the point. When all is said and done, it doesnt matter how nice, brave, courageous, gutsy, loyal, or brilliant commanders theyve been. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. 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. General William Westmoreland. They care about the one. Westmoreland didnt get it. bar is to mention Vietnam. Download the new FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. As military professionals, we should think about more . Even now, the easiest way to get into an argument at a V.F.W. Sure, they ganged up on the Spartans at the Pass of Thermopylae. To that Hollings responded, "Westy, the American people don't care about the ten. Was My Lai just one of many massacres in Vietnam War? 1 Erwin Rommel Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, popularly known as the Desert Fox, was a German field marshal of World War II. Thus it was under Darius rule that the Persian Empire fell and was conquered. Hulls nerve was shattered. Top 10 Utterly Useless Military Commanders - Listverse Pillow faced a court-martial for stealing a Mexican cannon and attempting to spirit it home in his personal baggage, but Polk intervened to clear Pillows record. Consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus was Caepios superior officer, but Caepio refused to obey Maximus or even put his forces into a shared camp with him. It's not the first time that someone thought he was smarter than his boss. After months of inactivity, McClellan was finally spurred to action by Pres. Men and material the Union could provide its armies. 1. A monthly digest of the top articles read by FP subscribers. Thuong, 52, is the youngest member of the party's Politburo, the country's top decision-making body, and is widely regarded as being close to General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam's most . On the night of August 15, 1812, Tecumseh led his forces across the Detroit River, and Brock followed the next morning. 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. Despite the Union outnumbering the Confederates, McClellan was unable to crush Robert E. Lee after failing to pursue him into Virginia. Courses: Summer 2023 | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Top 10 Worst World Leaders - Wonderslist 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. This infuriated the Marines, who viewed it as evidence that Westmoreland lacked confidence in them. 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. Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security. General Wheeler was often just flat wrong in what he told the President. Arminius cut off his head and sent it to another Germanic leader as a present. Yet Fredendall's solution was to order an Army engineer company to build a giant bunker a hundred miles from the front lines. 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. Persian Gulf (1988) (Oil Platforms) 2. Marcus Licinius Crassus was a self-aggrandizing opportunist who started a pointless war with the Parthians, and Publius Quinctilius Varus lost three legions at Teutoburg Forest, but Proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio manages to top them both with his actions at the Battle of Arausio. Answer (1 of 4): The former Cham general/leader Che Bong Nga was killed in the battle against the enemy Dai Viet (old Vietnam) but Che Bong Nga was LUCKY to be mentioned by the enemy Dai Viet historians to allow people to remember him. Warfare: Who was the worst General/military commander in 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.. 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. But Gates could have doomed the American Revolution. Tortured in notorious 'Hanoi Hilton,' 11 GIs were unbreakable Who was the worst US general during the Vietnam War? Still, he choked in the big game. How well that would have worked can be seen when Gates was sent to command American troops in the South. Some 15,000 talents of gold (the so-called Gold of Tolosa) had vanished under his watch, never to be recovered. Not only is Sorley a third-generation graduate of West Point a Vietnam veteran and a historian, but he worked for Westmoreland as well. On September 2, 1945, hours after the Japanese signed their unconditional surrender in World War II, communist leader Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam, hoping. McClellan was removed from command immediately after. 4. On September 9, 1965, Navy Cmdr. 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. Instead of sweeping around the French defenses in a massive flanking movement, the Germans were checked at the First Battle of the Marne. 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. 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. McClellan truly disappointed president Lincoln at the Battle of Antietam where the North and South would fight the bloodiest battle of the war. He continued to view attrition as the most effective strategy for defeating Germany; the British lost some 420,000 men at the Somme. To counter these, Major General William R. Peers commenced Operation Greeley using elements of the 4th Infantry Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Grachev has also been linked to corruption among the higher ranks of the military, specifically the assassination of journalist Dmitry Kholodov. 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. Darius III. Military Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all. 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. Lyndon Johnson had no understanding of military affairs whatever, nor did Robert McNamara. You may opt out at any time. The stabbed in the back myth did much to propel the ascent of Adolf Hitler, and Ludendorff was a key participant in the Beer Hall Putsch. 10 Redvers Buller Percival was off mistreating Irish Republican Army (IRA) leaders during the Anglo-Irish War before commanding British Malaya in World War II. Darius quickly lost everything and became nothing but a fugitive. The enemy did not lose heart, did not cease aggression. Years later, when Marine Corps historians were at work on their history of the war, Westmoreland met with them. Implementing the attrition strategy, Westmoreland typically employed a series of large unit sweeps conducted in the deep jungle regions along South Vietnams western borders. Darius never showed up for the first battle and defeat (Battle of Granicus) because he didnt see Alexander as much of a threat to his empire. The Worst American Civil War Generals and Commanders 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. 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. Who is Che in NBA 2k20? - Sport-net Unfortunately the fates of the former Republic Vietnam (Sout. The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History. Caepio may have been a terrible general, but he was apparently an exceptional thief. 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. Fighter Aircraft of All Time). 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. Brock, sensing an opportunity, advised an immediate march on Fort Detroit. 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. Rommel is by far the greatest military general of the . Alas, call it the laws of probability or just cosmic karma, but every nation produces bad generals as well as good onesand . World War I provided a forum for any number of truly horrible commanders to assert themselves. Best Defense: He continued on to suffer defeats at Spion Kop and Vaal Krantz, almost letting the war slip away from the British. There is no Carthage. Lincoln relieved McClellan but reinstated him after the devastating Union defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run. All the enemys losses were quickly made up. In stereotypically McClellan fashion, he was promptly checked by a vastly inferior force under John Bankhead Magruder. George Custer at the Little Big Horn and Lord Chelmsford at the Battle of Isandlwana leap to mind. These operations were designed to seek out enemy forces and engage them in decisive battle. On March 24, 1976, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1 st Viscount of Alamein, hero of World War II, died at home in England. What myths or misperceptions surround Westmoreland that you would like to clear up, if any? 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 . Varus placed his legions in a position where their fighting strengths would be minimized and that of the Germanic Cherusci tribesman maximized. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? 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. After the Germans attacked, Gamelin was eventually removed from his post, but by then it was too late. He lacked the schooling and relevant experience to understand the war and devise a viable approach to prosecuting it. James K. Polk. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. Vietnam Communist Party Nominates Vo Van Thuong as New President - Sources These American commanders have lost the battle for history. 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. But he was overly cautious by nature. Somalia (1992-1994) 2. The War of the Triple Alliance devastated Paraguay. Military. This strategy inevitably failed as the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong maintained control over how the war was fought which was through guerilla warfare. Little Mac would prove himself to be a superb organizer who kept his army well supplied, efficiently run, and happy. Hannibal. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. Feel free to mention any others you may know of in the comments. Watch the conversation or read the condensed transcript. Tom Ricks, on his "Best Defense" blog has discussed the top 10 worst generals in U.S. 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. General Westmoreland had complete freedom of action in deciding how to prosecute the war within South Vietnam. Like it or not, the U.S. military would become the governing authority. He bears a lot of responsibility for one the greatest reversals of military fortune ever experienced by a super power. A more minor case, but one revealing of Westmorelands character, stemmed from his unwillingness to level with his senior Marine subordinate at the time of the 1968 Tet Offensive. rs worth well over $400 billion. 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. Outstanding commanders such as George H. Thomas, Phil Sheridan, and William Tecumseh Sherman routinely bested their Confederate opponents. 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. 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. - 3 Best: 1987 Los Angeles Lakers. Yet backstabbing your commander-in-chief in the middle of a war is taking ambition a little too far. 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. 6. Worst. Military. Leaders. Ever. | The Heritage Foundation These Are the Five Worst Generals of All Time Registration for summer courses begins March 18, 2023 and ends June 7, 2023. The worst military leaders since Napoleon | History 101 Is your subtitle The General Who Lost Vietnam fair? After only an eight-day siege, he surrendered his entire armya third of all British forces in America. Test yourself on the week of Feb. 25: Nigeria votes, Finland builds a border wall, and Israel escalates repression. Who are the famous national heroes or generals in Vietnam? 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. He called for bombing China, as if liberating Korea was worth risking 550 million Chinese and possibly war with Russia as well. 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. Nor is being a bad battlefield commander, by itself, sufficient to make the cut. Download the FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. General Failure - The Atlantic He denied senior civilian officials accurate data on enemy strength and composition, during development of a 1967 Special National Intelligence Estimate imposing a ceiling on the number of enemy forces his intelligence officers could report or agree to and personally removing from the order of battle entire categories that had long been included, thus falsely portraying progress in reducing enemy strength. 9. 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. Santa Anna, a lifetime gambler, was known for his risk taking in battle, but also his brutality. Publication of the PROVN Study, whose precepts were later implemented with great success by Westmorelands successor, illustrated a matter of fundamental importance. 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. While there are plenty of books that analyze the keys to success, The Worst Military Leaders in History offers lessons of failure to avoid. 0. Follow him on Twitter:@Mipeck1. Marine Corps Casualties 1775-2016 - Marine Corps University Battle of Dak To in the Vietnam War - ThoughtCo However, Ludendorff and German General Staff chief Helmuth von Moltke had altered the Schlieffen PlanGermanys overall battle plan for fighting a two-front warin a way that had weakened the attacking army on the Western Front. While serving in Vietnam . Vietnam War. Top Ten Reasons Field Marshal Montgomery is Not so Great (The leg did get a state funeral). What does that mean for trade and globalization? Starting with the battle of Long Island, he lost way more fights than he wonyet he managed to win the war. As for the British, they had lost the most valuable jewel of the Imperial crown. Here are five of America's worst generals: Great generals have great talents, and usually egos and ambitions to match. James K. Polk upon the outbreak of war between Mexico and the U.S. and offered to become an agent for the U.S. (again). 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. Not good, Hannibal. He retreated to Malta but was captured when that island fell to the British. While this century witnessed many great leaders, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dr. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi . But MacArthur's strategy certainly helped unleash 300,000 Chinese "volunteers" who inflicted significant casualties on United Nations forces. Had Lincoln retained McClellan in command of the Union armies, many former Americans might still be whistling "Dixie.". Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on. Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy is a shadow of its former self.. While Hull dithered, Brock captured Fort Michilimackinac, establishing British control of the Straits of Mackinac. Without question, many lives would be saved if their tactical professionalism were enhanced.. 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. Reviews - Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam 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. Grachev once said that only an incompetent commander would order tanks into the streets of central Grozny, where they would be vulnerable. Yet near the end of the war he did exactly that. 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. Not that Fredendall didn't have real issues that would have tried any commander. 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. Whatever its military wisdom or lack thereof, it was a decision that should not have been made by generals under the American political system. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. Delivered Thursday. Following on from our list of the greatest and most successful military commanders, we are presenting this list of the worst. 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. The British gained control of the fort, dozens of cannons, the brig USS Adams (recommissioned the HMS Detroit), and virtually the entire Michigan Territory. 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. However, not even they managed to get themselves court-martialed and sentenced to death for ineptitude on the battlefield. 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. Although he eventually disavowed Hitler, by that point Ludendorff had become so deeply involved with mysticism that few took him seriously. This entire list could be populated with Roman commanders, but one manages to rise above the rest with an ineptitude that defies logic. 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. The Worst Civil War Generals on the Confederacy Confederate Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow. How do you measure military leaders? Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) 24. The enemy simply kept sending more and more replacements to make up his losses. Create an FP account to save articles to read later and in the FP mobile app. A Brief History. 10. With a few relatively minor changes, thats just about where they stayed for the next four years. Thus the progress Westmoreland claimed in racking up huge body counts did nothing to win the war. The Persians had a mixed record against the Greeks. Over time Westmoreland asked for and received large numbers of U.S. troops, eventually totaling well over half a million. The rise of American-made chatbots has kicked off a flurry of Chinese activity. That dubious distinction falls to William Hull, the only general officer in American history to be ordered before a firing squad for cowardice and dereliction of duty. The Germanic fighters demolished the three Roman legions. Read More. The Legion numbers XVII, XVIII and XIX never again appeared in the Roman Armys order of battle due to the shame and ill luck they carried. Vast areas dotted with villages were blasted with artillery, bombed from the air. With the Little Corporal running everything, Europe might have become a very different place. Delivered Wednesday. Varus was stationed with three of his legions, the 17th, 18th and 19th when news arrived of a revolt growing in the Rhine area. Some would say that failure on the battlefield warrants censure. He still had his defenders, but they were in the last trench, barely holding on. Lpez, possibly in a fit of madness, ordered the execution of hundreds of people, including some of his own family members. In 1847, U.S. troops once again surprised Santa Anna and captured his prosthetic leg. Black Vietnam Veterans on Injustices They Faced: Da 5 Bloods - Time The Top Ten. Where is Carthage you ask? This piece originally appeared in The National Interest https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/6-worst-military-leaders-ever-167526. 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. 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. He ran as a Democrat against Lincoln in the 1864 presidential election. He lacked the schooling and relevant experience to understand the war and devise a viable approach to prosecuting it.