Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? Follow him on Twitter:@Mipeck1. The Germanic fighters demolished the three Roman legions. 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. A very influential visitor, Senator "Fritz" Hollings from Westmoreland's home state of South Carolina, had warned him about reliance on such ratios. That may have been true in the east (the worst of the Union generals in that theater rates his own entry on this list), but in the west it was a much different affair. He was killed in combat on March 1, 1870. Argentina, Brazil, and the Brazilian puppet government in Uruguay formed an alliance, and on May 1, 1865, they declared war on Paraguay. With the Little Corporal running everything, Europe might have become a very different place. Arminius cut off his head and sent it to another Germanic leader as a present. 92. He is the dumb ass who gave the order to exfoliate the jungles with agent orange. Alas, call it the laws of probability or just cosmic karma, but every nation produces bad generals as well as good onesand America is no exception. 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. He was called the "inevitable general." A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. He bears a lot of responsibility for one the greatest reversals of military fortune ever experienced by a super power. 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. Over time Westmoreland asked for and received large numbers of U.S. troops, eventually totaling well over half a million. Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all. 151. 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.. The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of | History News Network Many of these generals had their worst defeats when their countries were least prepared for conflict, such as the hapless Soviet generals who faced the German infiltration of Russia in 1941. Napoleon. By December 1864 Paraguay was at war with Brazil, and, when Argentina denied a request for the transit of a Paraguayan army across its territory, Lpez declared war on that country as well. General Harold K. Johnson was an authentic battlefield hero, and as noted above was fundamentally at odds with Westmorelands approach, but he was not in the chain of command. But his crowning achievement was bad generalship in Korea. Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. Nearly as many men died in captivity during the Civil War as were killed in the whole of the Vietnam War. Here are five of America's worst generals: Great generals have great talents, and usually egos and ambitions to match. 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. The Summer 2023 term begins June 1, 2023 and ends August 24, 2023. But beyond the goals of one leader in Moscow, it is also clear that Ukraine has suffered horrors of a historic nature. Westmorelands general mistake: severely underestimating the Communists. With high hopes set upon his shoulders at the beginning of the American Civil war, quickly becoming General-in-Chief of the Union Army, McClellan would earn the distinction as a general of little action. Top 10 Traitors In US History - Listverse 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. Keep up with the world without stopping yours. 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. Many of the charges leveled against him have also been laid at the feet of . The Worst Civil War Generals on the Confederacy Confederate Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow. Gamelin was commander of the French forces in World War II and is largely responsible for the fall of France into German control during the Battle of France. 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. I flew into Vietnam in June 1968 as a young . Lpez was the son of Carlos Antonio Lpez, a dictator who had done much to modernize Paraguay in the mid-19th century. Although he eventually disavowed Hitler, by that point Ludendorff had become so deeply involved with mysticism that few took him seriously. 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. Watch the conversation or read the condensed transcript. The Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files contains records of 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War. These are the incompetents, the idiots, the bumblers who have represented armies or nations at war only to lead them to defeat or shame. 10. The United States entered the war, forcing Ludendorff to accelerate his time line for a conclusive battle against the Allies on the Western Front. 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. He effectively pledged to become an agent for the U.S. but found that he had been deposed upon his return to Mexico. And he was able to inflict massive casualties on the enemy. Vast areas dotted with villages were blasted with artillery, bombed from the air. Lpez, possibly in a fit of madness, ordered the execution of hundreds of people, including some of his own family members. This was the most fearsome army in the Vietnam War All the enemys losses were quickly made up. Santa Anna liked to call himself the Napoleon of the West. And, like Napoleon, he squandered it all in one grand campaign. He was called the inevitable general. A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. Horacio Gates of the American Revolution was pretty bad. 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. Army Chief of Staff General Harold K. Johnson put one forth in the PROVN Study, a Program for the Pacification and Long-Term Development of Vietnam. That document held that Westmorelands approach was not working and could not work because it ignored the real war in South Vietnams hamlets and villages, where the covert enemy infrastructure was through coercion and terror dominating the rural populace. Still, he choked in the big game. General Failure - The Atlantic The Russian president got many things wrong about invading Ukrainebut not everything. - 3 Best: 1987 Los Angeles Lakers. This strategy inevitably failed as the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong maintained control over how the war was fought which was through guerilla warfare. Michael Peck is a contributing writer at Foreign Policy and a writer for War Is Boring. Tortured in notorious 'Hanoi Hilton,' 11 GIs were unbreakable 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. Brock, sensing an opportunity, advised an immediate march on Fort Detroit. On a visit to Vietnam Senator Hollings from Westmorelands home state of South Carolina was told by Westmoreland: Were killing these people, the enemy, at a ratio of 10 to 1. Said Hollings, Westy, the American people dont care about the ten. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Villeneuve was then to return in secret and help establish naval dominance of the English Channel in preparation for a land invasion of Britain. Essential analysis of the stories shaping geopolitics on the continent. What was the worst battle of Vietnam? 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. Darius was a different sort of game-changer. Varus trust in Arminius was an obvious and terrible misjudgment. The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History. As a military commander, Napoleon may have thebest batting averageof all time. To counter these, Major General William R. Peers commenced Operation Greeley using elements of the 4th Infantry Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Darius quickly lost everything and became nothing but a fugitive. He retreated to Malta but was captured when that island fell to the British. You may opt out at any time. 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. 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. George McClellan is one of those generals who really looks great on paper. His bad luck didnt end at San Jacinto. But he also displayed remarkably bad judgment, as when he was commander in the Philippines in 1941. My generation would likely vote for the year exactly one-half century ago as the absolutely worst year in our lifetimes. A common view holds that 138,708 Allied personnel surrendered or were killed by fewer than 30,000 Japanese. Ulysses S. Grant, who replaced McClellan, understood this. The alternative was to split the United States asunder. Caepio may have been a terrible general, but he was apparently an exceptional thief. Thus the progress Westmoreland claimed in racking up huge body counts did nothing to win the war. Considering some militants as instruments of regional influence while fighting others has had disastrous consequences. 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. The war soon ended in a Russian defeat, with hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties. The pandemics outbreak brought rare reporting freedoms. Westmoreland: the General Who Lost 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. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. Driven into exile in 1845, he contacted U.S. Pres. Download the new FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. Want to read more on this topic or region? 3. He continued to view attrition as the most effective strategy for defeating Germany; the British lost some 420,000 men at the Somme. With a few relatively minor changes, thats just about where they stayed for the next four years. 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. One-stop digest of politics, economics, and culture. 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. 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. 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. It would be nice if all American generals were great. 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. Yes, Westmoreland was the general who lost Vietnam. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. 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. The initial assault resulted in very high casualties for the Russians and an almost complete breakdown of morale in the Russian forces. Many historians credit Benedict Arnold and others with being the real victors of Saratoga. This entire list could be populated with Roman commanders, but one manages to rise above the rest with an ineptitude that defies logic. Hundreds of thousands died of disease. Muammar Al-Gaddafi. Percival was off mistreating Irish Republican Army (IRA) leaders during the Anglo-Irish War before commanding British Malaya in World War II. (You May Also Like: The Five Best U.S. What defines Santa Anna is his utter failure to subdue the Texican rebels and block American expansion. Who were the most feared soldiers in Vietnam? - 2023 As for the British, they had lost the most valuable jewel of the Imperial crown. But there was something that not even the factories of New York and Chicago could produce, and that was time.
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