Gates thought otherwise, and fancied himself a better commander than George Washington. Santa Anna would lose Texas at the Battle of San Jacinto. He couldnt. This was the most fearsome army in the Vietnam War Yet Fredendall's solution was to order an Army engineer company to build a giant bunker a hundred miles from the front lines. 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. A more positive example is George Washington. But MacArthur's strategy certainly helped unleash 300,000 Chinese "volunteers" who inflicted significant casualties on United Nations forces. 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. Simultaneously, he contacted Maximilian to offer the young emperor his services. After eight years at Foreign Policy, here are the ten most popular Best Defense posts. General Westmorelands close associate, General William DePuy, later admitted the futility of the Westmoreland way of war. Among them are, of course, Lyndon Johnson himself, Robert McNamara, and General Earle Wheeler. Hulls nerve was shattered. 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. What does that mean for trade and globalization? 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. He was uninterested in other viewpoints on how the war might be prosecuted, dismissing the PROVN Study sponsored by Army Chief of Staff General Harold K. Johnson (which concluded that Westmorelands way of war was not working and could not work) and basic disagreements with Westmorelands organization and approach voiced by his brilliant classmate General Bruce Palmer Jr. 7. 9. The enemy simply kept sending more and more replacements to make up his losses. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. Necessarily, more is lost to time than is remembered. 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. Top 10 Most Underrated Military Generals. Feel free to mention any others you may know of in the comments. 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. Percival was off mistreating Irish Republican Army (IRA) leaders during the Anglo-Irish War before commanding British Malaya in World War II. 0. The last king of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, Darius was not quite as qualified to rule a mighty empire as his predecessors were. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, Chinas Censors Are Afraid of What Chatbots Might Say, The U.S. What was the worst battle of Vietnam? As the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, he faced a two-front war, an insurgency in the South and an invading army from the North. How the North Vietnamese remember the conflict 40 years after the fall of Saigon. Listing MacArthur as one of America's worst generals will be controversial. Top 10 Utterly Useless Military Commanders - Listverse Contrarily, I would not so stigmatize another important player often criticized by others, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. Varus was stationed with three of his legions, the 17th, 18th and 19th when news arrived of a revolt growing in the Rhine area. The Germanic fighters demolished the three Roman legions. Delivered Wednesday & Sunday. 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. Instead he simply sent more and more replacements to make up his losses. 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 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. So what is the standard of shame for induction? 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. (You May Also Like: The Five Best Generals in U.S. History). 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. NEW FOR SUBSCRIBERS: These Are the Five Worst Generals of All Time Turncoats and Traitors - Seven Americans Who Defected to the Enemy in Bombs away! Here are the 13 worst military movies in Hollywood history How well that would have worked can be seen when Gates was sent to command American troops in the South. Examining the Leaders of North and South Vietnam - dummies 15. Hull withdrew after a series of harassing attacks by Tecumsehs highly mobile raiding parties. 4. He was a teacher in the Chicago suburbs and Seoul, Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. His was one of just two French ships of the line to escape the destruction of the French fleet there. 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. When major U.S. ground force deployments were under consideration in July 1965, for example, LBJ worried that North Vietnam would respond by pouring in more men of its own. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? 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. World War I provided a forum for any number of truly horrible commanders to assert themselves. 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. All the enemys losses were quickly made up. 1. Without question, many lives would be saved if their tactical professionalism were enhanced.. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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. 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 Top Ten. And he was able to inflict massive casualties on the enemy. With a few relatively minor changes, thats just about where they stayed for the next four years. MilitaryHistoryOnline.com 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. Varus himself, seeing all hope was lost, committed suicide. Born in 1901 in Quang Binh Province (part of North Vietnam), Diem was the son of a well-educated mandarin (Vietnamese civil servant who took part in running the country) who served as the Minister of Rites and Grand Chamberlain to Emperor Thanh-Thai (1889-1907). 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. LBJ's tragic "addiction" to Vietnam: The mistake that still - Salon I flew into Vietnam in June 1968 as a young . 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. Feel free to mention any others you may know of in the comments. If it couldn't or wouldn't govern the country, who would? The Romans marched right into the ambush that Arminius laid thus leading to the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. 151. After the Germans attacked, Gamelin was eventually removed from his post, but by then it was too late. He was found guilty of 11 counts, and only the intervention by Pres. Assuming you believe the subtitle to be accurate, who were GEN Westmorelands biggest accomplices in the loss? [1] Dispatched to India, he led campaigns to help subdue the subcontinent, replacing the crown jewel he had lost. Alexander, Napoleon, Rommel. On the night of August 15, 1812, Tecumseh led his forces across the Detroit River, and Brock followed the next morning. 1968 takes the cake for me. Two years later, he lost a leg fighting the French. He effectively pledged to become an agent for the U.S. but found that he had been deposed upon his return to Mexico. 5. 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. The self proclaimed Napoleon of the West didnt quite leave the same legacy as his idol. He bears a lot of responsibility for one the greatest reversals of military fortune ever experienced by a super power. - 4 Worst: 1990 Cleveland Cavaliers. Is Weiss correct? Tom Ricks, on his "Best Defense" blog has discussed the top 10 worst generals in U.S. history. Some historians are a little more sympathetic towards Percivals legacy nowadays arguing that Percival had been dealt an unusually bad hand. Years later, when Marine Corps historians were at work on their history of the war, Westmoreland met with them. His battlefield losses marked the end of the Persian Empire. This was true in matters both great and small. This is, obviously, a problematic quality when ones title is general-in-chief of the entire Union army. Concurrently with hi. 1. Download the FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. Lewis Sorleys new book, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, is being published today by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Sun Wu Sun Zi, or Sun Tzu, was a prominent military general during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) who is always regarded as one of the greatest military strategists in China and even the World. Leaders of the Vietnam War - Wikipedia He was certainly nave, but the Boy Scouts need to be defended here. How does an admiral make a list of the worst generals? Maximus managed to form up his men but to no avail. 8. in history from Michigan State University in 1995. . On September 9, 1965, Navy Cmdr. Thus the progress Westmoreland claimed in racking up huge body counts did nothing to win the war. Lincoln relieved McClellan but reinstated him after the devastating Union defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Military. 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. Weekly update on whats driving U.S. national security policy. Russias war is receiving critical assistance from authoritarian regimes around the world. Horacio Gates of the American Revolution was pretty bad. As for the British, they had lost the most valuable jewel of the Imperial crown. This is one of the more controversial ones, but Douglas MacArthur is incredibly overrated in the annals of the US military, in my . At the Battle of Gaugamela, he helped make Alexander great by losing half his army to the Macedonian upstart. But beyond the goals of one leader in Moscow, it is also clear that Ukraine has suffered horrors of a historic nature. A final humiliation came during Mexican-American War. Still, it is his world-changing defeat at Yorktown that merits memorializing. 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. He was called the inevitable general. A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. To say that he failed in both regards is to dramatically understate the case. 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. The Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial LectureThomas E. Ricks is a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Percival surrendered Malaya to Japanese forces in early 1942, defying Winston Churchills own instructions for prolonged resistance. But then MacArthur thrived on controversy like bread thrives on yeast. Civil War Casualties | American Battlefield Trust Even if Moscow holds onto territory, the war has wrecked its future. Weekly update on developments in India and its neighbors. He called for bombing China, as if liberating Korea was worth risking 550 million Chinese and possibly war with Russia as well. Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. 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. 10 Redvers Buller Grant left politics to the politicians and did what had to be done. 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. After months of inactivity, McClellan was finally spurred to action by Pres. James Madison spared him from execution. The Worst American Civil War Generals and Commanders Vietnam Communist Party Nominates Vo Van Thuong as New President - Sources - 1 Best: 1996 Chicago Bulls. He earned a B.A. - 2 Worst: 2007 Washington Wizards. The United States entered the war, forcing Ludendorff to accelerate his time line for a conclusive battle against the Allies on the Western Front. These American commanders have lost the battle for history. Thus there was little internal capacity for debating or evaluating his chosen course of action. 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. Seared into all who fought it and many who merely lived through it that conflict remains a bitter stew of second-guessing and recriminations. Scilit | Article - A Slow March from Social Evil to Harm Reduction Pierre de Villeneuve had his first brush with history when he bravely ran away at the Battle of the Nile. The heavily forested, swampy terrain made the Legions maneuvers impossible. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail. 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. 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 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. 336 pages | 16 halftones | 6 1/4 x 9 1/4. Vice President, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute. Darius quickly lost everything and became nothing but a fugitive. 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. 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. 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). 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. After an initial attack drove back Grants troops, Pillow snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by retreating to the fort rather than breaking through Union lines to Nashville. 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. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. 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. Not good, Hannibal. While Muammer Al-Gaddafi isn't into the funny business in his politician reign, he most certainly is one of a highly egotistical leader and a member who represents more of the "self" rather than all else. 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. The Worst Military Leaders in History Hardcover - March 22, 2022 Westmoreland was on a treadmill. Again fighting outnumbered Texans, this time Santa Anna would lose the battle stunningly. 10. In 1975, when the Vietnam War ended, the Vietnamese army had only 36 generals, but by 2018, peace-time Vietnam had 415 military officers holding general ranks. They dramatically upped their game, pressing the U.S. worldwide. What does that mean for trade and globalization? James Jay Carafano is a leading expert in national security and foreign policy challenges. This would be known as the Tet Offensive and would become a major turning point in the war. Even a string of bad days does not guarantee entry. The world over, countries are embarking on ambitious projects of industrial policy. Delivered Monday-Saturday. 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. Top Ten Reasons Field Marshal Montgomery is Not so Great Lpez was the son of Carlos Antonio Lpez, a dictator who had done much to modernize Paraguay in the mid-19th century. Santa Anna, a lifetime gambler, was known for his risk taking in battle, but also his brutality. There appeared to be little serious planning for what would happen the day after Saddam was gone. What defines Santa Anna is his utter failure to subdue the Texican rebels and block American expansion. 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. Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all. Exactly. 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. Warfare: Who was the worst General/military commander in history Routed by U.S. forces under Winfield Scott, Santa Anna was again driven into exile. Read More. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. Westmorelands first resort in claiming progress in the war was always body count, but in fact this was meaningless. Ludendorff is one of historys greatest examples of a general who can win battles but still loses the war. Thats the point. This piece originally appeared in The National Interest https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/6-worst-military-leaders-ever-167526. How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command? Persian Gulf (1988) (Oil Platforms) 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. Battle of Dak To in the Vietnam War - ThoughtCo Sure, they ganged up on the Spartans at the Pass of Thermopylae. James K. Polk. But the argument is unbalanced. Westmorelands devotion to advancing his own interests, even when necessary by misrepresentation, was fundamentally at odds with what Scouting is all about. Fort Bragg was named in 1918 during the Jim Crow era. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Santa Anna liked to call himself the Napoleon of the West. And, like Napoleon, he squandered it all in one grand campaign. Only recently have those in the defense and military complex begun to look at how we rate generals. Despite fresh salvos of Western sanctions, Tehran and Moscow are buddying up on defense ties. Starting with the battle of Long Island, he lost way more fights than he wonyet he managed to win the war. In a war that saw more than its share of unskilled politically appointed generals, Pillow was arguably the worst on either side. There are issues around killing and counting unarmed civilians (non-combatants) as enemy combatants, as well as inflating the number of actual enemy who were killed in action (KIA).For search and destroy operations, as the objective was not to . There were available better concepts of how to prosecute the war. Who were the most feared soldiers in Vietnam? - 2023 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. They kept it as a war trophy, exhibiting the leg at. Yet, Hannibal nevertheless ranks as one of the worlds epic fails. Francisco Solano Lpez managed to stumble into a war with pretty much all of that. The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History | RealClearHistory After the war, the phrase lions led by donkeys came to be associated with the British army for what should be obvious reasons. But Franks, who commanded the invasion, made a bad situation worse. 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. 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. 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. Nor is being a bad battlefield commander, by itself, sufficient to make the cut. 88,594. He was called the "inevitable general." A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. Antonio de Padua Mara Severino Lpez de Santa Anna. The rise of American-made chatbots has kicked off a flurry of Chinese activity. 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. - 3 Best: 1987 Los Angeles Lakers. Some captured Romans were placed in wicker cages and burned alive, others were enslaved or ransomed. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Westmoreland was on a treadmill. The Summer 2023 term begins June 1, 2023 and ends August 24, 2023. Top 10 Most Underrated Military Generals - TheTopTens The Persians had a mixed record against the Greeks. Here are five of America's worst generals: Great generals have great talents, and usually egos and ambitions to match. The premise was that, if he could kill enough of the enemy, they would lose heart and cease their aggression against the South Vietnamese. 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. Military The War of the Triple Alliance devastated Paraguay. 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. Following on from our list of the greatest and most successful military commanders, we are presenting this list of the worst. But he was overly cautious by nature. Ulysses S. Grant made his Civil War debut at the Battle of Belmont against Confederate Gen. Gideon Pillow. In the opening month of World War I, Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg scored a crushing victory over the Russians at Tannenberg. rs worth well over $400 billion. The problem begins with the fact that nobody in the chain of command was really competent to critique Westmorelands performance. Instead of sweeping around the French defenses in a massive flanking movement, the Germans were checked at the First Battle of the Marne. Westmorelands own book about himself gives some indication of how he would react to this more recent one. Caepio was born into a noble family and became consul in 106 BC. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. Essential analysis of the stories shaping geopolitics on the continent. 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.
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