worst generals in vietnam

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. These Vietnam War photos taken by U.S. Army photographers reveal a side of the conflict that few people have ever seen. Feel free to mention any others you may know of in the comments. But its not just the United States. Todays list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam. If it couldn't or wouldn't govern the country, who would? Relations between the United States and China seem to be getting frostier by the day. Sure, he won big at the Alamo. Once again, McClellan worked his organizational magic, restoring the morale of a shattered Union army. Explore the benefits included in your subscription. His prestige restored by his conduct during the Pastry War with France, Santa Anna once again claimed dictatorial powers. 336 pages | 16 halftones | 6 1/4 x 9 1/4. Westmoreland told him, "We're killing these people at a ratio of 10 to 1.". 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. There's an entire myriad of generals from the American Civil War that fought for the Union that were incredibly inept. Lyndon Johnson had no understanding of military affairs whatever, nor did Robert McNamara. Thats an automatic disqualification from Hall membership. Cue the protests from other parts of the globe: A chorus of nations are accusing Washington of fostering unfair competition. He was called the inevitable general. A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. Some historians are a little more sympathetic towards Percivals legacy nowadays arguing that Percival had been dealt an unusually bad hand. 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. James K. Polk. 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. He called for bombing China, as if liberating Korea was worth risking 550 million Chinese and possibly war with Russia as well. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. Grant had encircled the fort. Listing MacArthur as one of America's worst generals will be controversial. In 1940, after increasing pressure from dictator Benito Mussolini and facing demotion, Graziani followed orders and invaded Egypt with his Tenth Army. Concurrently with hi. Gen. Charles Cornwallis. But his crowning achievement was bad generalship in Korea. What is the standard of shame for induction? 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.. While serving in Vietnam . 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. 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. A dull, unfeeling, unimaginative, smug "Colonel Blimp" of the worst sort. 2. They care about the one. Westmoreland didnt get it. 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. How well that would have worked can be seen when Gates was sent to command American troops in the South. Nelsons victory at the Battle of Trafalgar was so complete that it established British supremacy on the high seas for more than a century. He was killed in combat on March 1, 1870. What does that mean for trade and globalization? 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 decided to conduct of a war of attrition, using search and destroy tactics, in which the measure of merit was body count. 3. And how might that be impacting the world? Best Defense: 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. He lacked the schooling and relevant experience to understand the war and devise a viable approach to prosecuting it. Cue the protests from other parts of the globe: A chorus of nations are accusing Washington of fostering unfair competition. 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. 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. When the War of 1812 began, Hull was commissioned a brigadier general and tasked with defending Michigan and invading Upper Canada. Ludendorff is one of historys greatest examples of a general who can win battles but still loses the war. T he Civil War was America's bloodiest conflict. Instead the enemy proved willing to absorb horrifying losses and keep fighting. The British gained control of the fort, dozens of cannons, the brig USS Adams (recommissioned the HMS Detroit), and virtually the entire Michigan Territory. Hull, convinced that he was hopelessly outnumbered (he wasnt), surrendered Fort Detroit and its 2,000-man garrison without firing a shot. The Top Ten. Persian Gulf (1988) (Oil Platforms) 2. After being taken prisoner (again) by the British, Villeneuve was released but committed suicide rather than face Napoleons wrath. Lpez, possibly in a fit of madness, ordered the execution of hundreds of people, including some of his own family members. A curated selection of our very best long reads. Over time Westmoreland asked for and received large numbers of U.S. troops, eventually totaling well over half a million. How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command? The man who appealed for Varus help was Arminius, a Romanized Germanic prince. Because he never wanted to face a superior force, he refused to fight. 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. He retreated to Malta but was captured when that island fell to the British. Military. Find Paraguay on a map of South America. Publication of the PROVN Study, whose precepts were later implemented with great success by Westmorelands successor, illustrated a matter of fundamental importance. How theyve practiced the art of war is immaterial, too. But the inducements encourage U.S. companies to invest only at homenot elsewhere. Others would say that it is not victory, but success in fulfilling a mission that counts. 8. 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. He was an artilleryman who missed out on the Armys great schools system, never attending the Command & General Staff College or the Army War College. After months of inactivity, McClellan was finally spurred to action by Pres. The Romans lost an estimated 80,000 infantry and perhaps 40,000 auxiliaries and cavalry, numbers that dwarf the staggering totals at Cannae. 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. Defining that is like defining a bad meal. He is the dumb ass who gave the order to exfoliate the jungles with agent orange. 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. His work as an observer during the Crimean War gave him insight into the importance of logistics for an industrialized army, and years spent as the chief of engineering for the Illinois Central Railroad made him aware of the transformative nature of rail transport. 6. 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. He was certainly nave, but the Boy Scouts need to be defended here. Michael Peck is a contributing writer at Foreign Policy and a writer for War Is Boring. He deprived the South Vietnamese of modern weaponry, giving U.S. and other allied forces priority for issue of the new M-16 rifle and other advanced military wherewithal. Haste risked casualties and defeats at the hands of a formidable opponent like Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. The Worst Civil War Generals on the Confederacy Confederate Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow. . But beyond the goals of one leader in Moscow, it is also clear that Ukraine has suffered horrors of a historic nature. The enemy simply kept sending more and more replacements to make up his losses. Is your subtitle The General Who Lost Vietnam fair? Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. (You May Also Like: The Five Best Generals in U.S. History). 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. 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. In the opening month of World War I, Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg scored a crushing victory over the Russians at Tannenberg. Delivered Wednesday & Sunday. Seared into all who fought it and many who merely lived through it that conflict remains a bitter stew of second-guessing and recriminations. His poor tactical decisions resulted in his army being routed by a smaller force of Redcoats and Loyalists at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina in 1780. 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. 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. The Vietnam War body count controversy centers on the counting of enemy dead by the United States Armed Forces during the Vietnam War (1955-1975). 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. Delivered Monday-Friday. Alas, as a historian, he passed on the opportunity to answer Battlelands questions about what Vietnam should teach us about Afghanistan, and who, if anyone, is todays Westmoreland, during our email chat earlier this week: Whats the most important thing you learned writing Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam? (The leg did get a state funeral). These operations were designed to seek out enemy forces and engage them in decisive battle. 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. 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. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. 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. Officially labelled a defector by the Pentagon, many suspected Nolan, an African American, changed sides after suffering a lifetime of racial discrimination. Its prewar population was reduced by more than half, and perhaps 90 percent of Paraguays fighting-age men perished. 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. This entire list could be populated with Roman commanders, but one manages to rise above the rest with an ineptitude that defies logic. Keep up with the world without stopping yours. What will another year of war look like? He continued on to suffer defeats at Spion Kop and Vaal Krantz, almost letting the war slip away from the British. On the other side of the trenches in World War I was Erich Ludendorff, commanding the armies of Germany. 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. A final humiliation came during Mexican-American War. Delivered Wednesday. What was the worst battle of Vietnam? 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. Two years later, he lost a leg fighting the French. 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. Years later, when Marine Corps historians were at work on their history of the war, Westmoreland met with them. Todays list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam, Want to read more on this topic or region? Nearly as many men died in captivity during the Civil War as were killed in the whole of the Vietnam War. He lacked the schooling and relevant experience to understand the war and devise a viable approach to prosecuting it. 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. 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. Muammar Al-Gaddafi. In a war that saw more than its share of unskilled politically appointed generals, Pillow was arguably the worst on either side. Some 15,000 talents of gold (the so-called Gold of Tolosa) had vanished under his watch, never to be recovered. 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. The elder Lpez had bequeathed to his son a relatively powerful military by regional standards but had cautioned Francisco against using it to settle diplomatic issues. Thus, on July 1, 1916, Haig ordered his men to go over the top at the First Battle of the Somme, and 20,000 of them had the audacity to die almost immediately (there were 60,000 total British casualties on the first day of the attack). 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). Dispatched to India, he led campaigns to help subdue the subcontinent, replacing the crown jewel he had lost. He earned a B.A. Starting with the battle of Long Island, he lost way more fights than he wonyet he managed to win the war. This infuriated the Marines, who viewed it as evidence that Westmoreland lacked confidence in them. How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command? 0. He was called the "inevitable general." A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. 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. 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. Critics say that Franks and senior officials, such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, concocted an invasion plan that used too few troops. Westmoreland is often described as a Boy Scout, usually implying, it appears, that he was well-intentioned but nave. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? Although he eventually disavowed Hitler, by that point Ludendorff had become so deeply involved with mysticism that few took him seriously. This proved possible only with enemy cooperation, since they could break contact and limit casualties as they wished by withdrawing into sanctuaries across the border. Westmorelands general mistake: severely underestimating the Communists. Haig was cruelly mocked, first in the satirical musical Oh! Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. After occupying Jerusalem and crucifying 2,000 Jewish rebels in Judaea, Varus went off to govern Germania and tame barbarian tribes. 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. up as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. The pandemics outbreak brought rare reporting freedoms. After the Germans attacked, Gamelin was eventually removed from his post, but by then it was too late. Grachev played a key role in initiating and leading the First Chechen War. McClellan was removed from command immediately after. Pillow suffered slightly more casualties than Grant in the engagement, which possibly makes the Battle of Belmont the high point of Pillows military career. James Madison spared him from execution. Elmo Zumwalt was a U.S. admiral and commander of American naval forces in Vietnam. Is Weiss correct? McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from scratch.

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