Lewis Sorleys new book, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, is being published today by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 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. 13,091. This piece originally appeared in The National Interest https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/6-worst-military-leaders-ever-167526. French defeated at Dien Bien Phu - HISTORY However, not even they managed to get themselves court-martialed and sentenced to death for ineptitude on the battlefield. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. 88,594. Jacob Zuma is a cherry on the top of the world's worst leader cake. McClellan truly disappointed president Lincoln at the Battle of Antietam where the North and South would fight the bloodiest battle of the war. Quintus Servilius Caepio takes the cake amongst the worst Roman generals ever to take command of a legion though. Hull had served with distinction in the Revolutionary War and was appointed governor of the Michigan Territory in 1805. Gates thought otherwise, and fancied himself a better commander than George Washington. He gritted his teeth and wore down the Confederacy with incessant attacks until the South could take no more. The 20th century is the most violent century in history. 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. His bad luck didnt end at San Jacinto. Read More. Top 10 Utterly Useless Military Commanders - Listverse Starting with the battle of Long Island, he lost way more fights than he wonyet he managed to win the war. The Americans lacked sufficient troops, supplies and air cover (when was the last time an American general had to fight a battle while being pounded by enemy bombers?). As a result, American military power and prestige took a dramatic downturn. Not good, Hannibal. Who was the worst general in history? Here is a list of the 10 most famous Chinese generals in history. 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. After the Germans attacked, Gamelin was eventually removed from his post, but by then it was too late. At Brownstown, south of Detroit, two dozen warriors under Tecumseh routed more than 200 American militiamen escorting a supply column intended for Detroit. His battlefield losses marked the end of the Persian Empire. They kept it as a war trophy, exhibiting the leg at. 336 pages | 16 halftones | 6 1/4 x 9 1/4. Westmoreland was on a treadmill. Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon Baines Johnson announced his fateful decision to double the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam. Russias war is receiving critical assistance from authoritarian regimes around the world. up as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. 6. Worst. Military. Leaders. Ever. | The Heritage Foundation 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? Driven into exile in 1845, he contacted U.S. Pres. Yet backstabbing your commander-in-chief in the middle of a war is taking ambition a little too far. But its not just the United States. The Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial LectureThomas E. Ricks is a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Who are the famous national heroes or generals in Vietnam? At the height of the Cold War, he dealt decisively with neither. After only an eight-day siege, he surrendered his entire armya third of all British forces in America. On the other side of the trenches in World War I was Erich Ludendorff, commanding the armies of Germany. Percival was off mistreating Irish Republican Army (IRA) leaders during the Anglo-Irish War before commanding British Malaya in World War II. But the rash advance into North Korea was a blunder of strategic proportions. 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. Test yourself on the week of Feb. 25: Nigeria votes, Finland builds a border wall, and Israel escalates repression. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. Grant had encircled the fort. 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. 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. Top 10 Greatest Generals of Chinese History | ChinaWhisper General Failure - The Atlantic Watch the conversation or read the condensed transcript. See the vast swaths of land to the north and south that arent Paraguay? The war soon ended in a Russian defeat, with hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties. General William Westmoreland. DE AGOSTINI PICTURE LIBRARY/Contributor/Getty Images, Biden Proposal Puts Climate Agenda Above Americas Defense, Russias New START Breach Means U.S. Nuclear Weapons Modernization Is a Must. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. Woefully inexperienced U.S. soldiers found themselves against Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps veterans. Persian Gulf (1988) (Oil Platforms) 2. Vast areas dotted with villages were blasted with artillery, bombed from the air. The world over, countries are embarking on ambitious projects of industrial policy. 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 . After gaining ground trying to cut an escape path for the Confederates during the February 1862 siege of Fort Donelson by Union forces led Brig. Reviews - Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam 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. This infuriated the Marines, who viewed it as evidence that Westmoreland lacked confidence in them. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. General Westmoreland had complete freedom of action in deciding how to prosecute the war within South Vietnam. In reality, it is a collection of ideas, images, and information that enough people have chosen to preserve and disseminate. McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from . MilitaryHistoryOnline.com Ultimately, he was denied his final showdown with the Allies by German political leaders who realized that the Americans could produce soldiers faster than Germany could produce bullets. Evening roundup with our editors favorite stories of the day. 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. 1. But beyond the goals of one leader in Moscow, it is also clear that Ukraine has suffered horrors of a historic nature. Nearly as many men died in captivity during the Civil War as were killed in the whole of the Vietnam War. The Worst Civil War Generals on the Confederacy Confederate Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow. 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 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. How does an admiral make a list of the worst generals? So long Fort Bragg, welcome Fort Liberty: The Pentagon's naming Weekly update on developments in India and its neighbors. These Vietnam War photos taken by U.S. Army photographers reveal a side of the conflict that few people have ever seen. Washington also suffered his share of defeats. 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. Delivered Thursday. Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. Grachev has also been linked to corruption among the higher ranks of the military, specifically the assassination of journalist Dmitry Kholodov. 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. Arminius cut off his head and sent it to another Germanic leader as a present. Gods and Generals (2003) Loss $61 million These are actually Civil War reenactors and probably the only people who paid to see the movie. Yet, Hannibal nevertheless ranks as one of the worlds epic fails. But the award for the biggest Persian loser goes to Darius III. History is not a fixed set of facts. Brock, sensing an opportunity, advised an immediate march on Fort Detroit. Darius quickly lost everything and became nothing but a fugitive. Varus trust in Arminius was an obvious and terrible misjudgment. Ulysses S. Grant, who replaced McClellan, understood this. Francisco Solano Lpez managed to stumble into a war with pretty much all of that. Allied with Brock was the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who was head of the most formidable pan-Indian military force the continent had ever seen. You worked for GEN Westmoreland when he was Army Chief of Staff. 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. They dramatically upped their game, pressing the U.S. worldwide. The heavily forested, swampy terrain made the Legions maneuvers impossible. A former British officer, Gates rose to fame as Continental Army commander during the momentous American defeat of a British army at Saratoga in 1777. T he Civil War was America's bloodiest conflict. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on. The last king of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, Darius was not quite as qualified to rule a mighty empire as his predecessors were. Black Vietnam Veterans on Injustices They Faced: Da 5 Bloods - Time By Lewis Sorley Best Defense Saigon bureau chief. A key plank in the Democratic platform that year was, appropriately, not fighting, and McClellan lost in a rout. Some would say that failure on the battlefield warrants censure. 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. And once again, at the Battle of Antietam, McClellans terminal case of the slows (as Lincoln called it) prevented the exploitation of a possible war-ending vulnerability in Confederate defenses. Feel free to mention any others you may know of in the comments. The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History | RealClearHistory If Gates had been in command, we might be paying for our groceries with shillings and pence. He effectively pledged to become an agent for the U.S. but found that he had been deposed upon his return to Mexico. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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. The initial assault resulted in very high casualties for the Russians and an almost complete breakdown of morale in the Russian forces. Weekly update on whats driving U.S. national security policy. But with that kind of advantage in troops and firepower, who wouldnt? The 1970s were scary times. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? The enemy simply kept sending more and more replacements to make up his losses. The Vietnam War, as Seen by the Victors - The Atlantic Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? 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. Lyndon Johnson had no understanding of military affairs whatever, nor did Robert McNamara. 92. Registration for summer courses begins March 18, 2023 and ends June 7, 2023. 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. Simultaneously, he contacted Maximilian to offer the young emperor his services. Caepio may have been a terrible general, but he was apparently an exceptional thief. He continued on to suffer defeats at Spion Kop and Vaal Krantz, almost letting the war slip away from the British. This was true in matters both great and small. Alexander, Napoleon, Rommel. Santa Anna would lose Texas at the Battle of San Jacinto. The Romans lost an estimated 80,000 infantry and perhaps 40,000 auxiliaries and cavalry, numbers that dwarf the staggering totals at Cannae. A final humiliation came during Mexican-American War. On September 9, 1965, Navy Cmdr. Alas, call it the laws of probability or just cosmic karma, but every nation produces bad generals as well as good onesand . 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. 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). 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. Some 15,000 talents of gold (the so-called Gold of Tolosa) had vanished under his watch, never to be recovered. Battle of Dak To in the Vietnam War - ThoughtCo But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. When it came to military command, Westmoreland was everybodys all-Americanuntil he met his Waterloo. At the Battle of Gaugamela, he helped make Alexander great by losing half his army to the Macedonian upstart. Hull, convinced that he was hopelessly outnumbered (he wasnt), surrendered Fort Detroit and its 2,000-man garrison without firing a shot. Turncoats and Traitors - Seven Americans Who Defected to the Enemy in Seldom included in. 2. Want to read more on this topic or region? They care about the one. Westmoreland didnt get it. 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. In All U.S. Military History, These Are the 5 Worst Generals Hull was taken prisoner by the British and was court-martialed upon his return to the United States. 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. So what is the standard of shame for induction? Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, Chinas Censors Are Afraid of What Chatbots Might Say, The U.S. Operational Culture General Training LREC SME Support Training Course Catalog Cognitive Dimension Training Additional Resources . Caepio was born into a noble family and became consul in 106 BC. Best Defense: 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. Its prewar population was reduced by more than half, and perhaps 90 percent of Paraguays fighting-age men perished. Informed that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor and were certain to attack the Philippines next, MacArthur failed to disperse his aircraftthe only force that could disrupt the Japanese offensive in the absence of the American fleetand to attack Japanese airfields before the enemy wiped out his air force. The British gained control of the fort, dozens of cannons, the brig USS Adams (recommissioned the HMS Detroit), and virtually the entire Michigan Territory.