Explore the benefits included in your subscription. Caepio reportedly lived out the remainder of his life in luxury, however. He worked under Adolf Hitler's Third Reich as a leading general and gained fame from his battles in North Africa. Woefully inexperienced U.S. soldiers found themselves against Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps veterans. The Russian president got many things wrong about invading Ukrainebut not everything. Todays list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam, Want to read more on this topic or region? Unfortunately the fates of the former Republic Vietnam (Sout. As a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he theoretically had some influence there, at least to the extent he could shape the collective viewpoint, but even then LBJ and McNamara were famously impervious to advice from the Joint Chiefs. He was indeed a capable warrior, as shown by the South Pacific campaign and the Inchon landing in Korea. This did not, however, achieve the postulated outcome. 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. 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. Luckily for the colonists, the Empire also had Cornwallis, a peer of the realm and truly pitiful commander. This piece originally appeared in The National Interest https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/6-worst-military-leaders-ever-167526. 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. Darius again was the first to flee the battle, abandoning all of his soldiers and his property to be taken by Alexander. 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. Test yourself on the week of Feb. 25: Nigeria votes, Finland builds a border wall, and Israel escalates repression. 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. Darius family would be captured and even lost the Battle of Gaugamela, where so many factors were in his favor. These operations were designed to seek out enemy forces and engage them in decisive battle. 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. Men and material the Union could provide its armies. Critics say that Franks and senior officials, such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, concocted an invasion plan that used too few troops. Keep up with the world without stopping yours. The 20th century is the most violent century in history. But beyond the goals of one leader in Moscow, it is also clear that Ukraine has suffered horrors of a historic nature. He continued on to suffer defeats at Spion Kop and Vaal Krantz, almost letting the war slip away from the British. 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. Download the new FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. While there were a host of bad generals serving on both sides during the American Civil Warmostly on the Union side unfortunatelythe one that usually gets the most credit for dragging out the war as long as he did is Union General George McClellan. 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). By signing up, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to occasionally receive special offers from Foreign Policy. Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon Baines Johnson announced his fateful decision to double the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam. 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. Santa Anna would lose Texas at the Battle of San Jacinto. Although Nelson was killed in combat at Trafalgar, Villeneuve outlived him only by six months. In considering who should receive such a dubious honor, Ive consciously excluded bad leaders. If it couldn't or wouldn't govern the country, who would? Russias war is receiving critical assistance from authoritarian regimes around the world. By Lewis Sorley Best Defense Saigon bureau chief. 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. 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. up as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. As a result, American military power and prestige took a dramatic downturn. Watch the conversation or read the condensed transcript. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? Heres the inaugural class: 6. Along with Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Montgomery is the most celebrated of British generals and had the ego to match, or even exceed, his reputation. 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. In other words, this book is a "how-not-to" guide to leadership. He called for bombing China, as if liberating Korea was worth risking 550 million Chinese and possibly war with Russia as well. There were available better concepts of how to prosecute the war. He also issued orders to his troops in a personal code that no one else understood, such as this gem of command clarity: Move your command, i. e., the walking boys, pop guns, Baker's outfit and the outfit which is the reverse of Baker's outfit and the big fellows to M, which is due north of where you are now, as soon as possible. Tom Ricks, on his "Best Defense" blog has discussed the top 10 worst generals in U.S. history. McClellan truly disappointed president Lincoln at the Battle of Antietam where the North and South would fight the bloodiest battle of the war. Pillow suffered slightly more casualties than Grant in the engagement, which possibly makes the Battle of Belmont the high point of Pillows military career. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? This is one of the more controversial ones, but Douglas MacArthur is incredibly overrated in the annals of the US military, in my . Villeneuve lost 20 ships, while Nelson lost none. 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 . 10 Redvers Buller The 1970s were scary times. Soon after declaring himself dictator of Mexico, rebels who opposed the Mexican dictatorship created three new republics, one of them being the Republic of Texas. 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. Thus the progress Westmoreland claimed in racking up huge body counts did nothing to win 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. He lacked the schooling and relevant experience to understand the war and devise a viable approach to prosecuting it. Westmorelands devotion to advancing his own interests, even when necessary by misrepresentation, was fundamentally at odds with what Scouting is all about. Westmoreland is often described as a Boy Scout, usually implying, it appears, that he was well-intentioned but nave. Many have described his activities as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in US history." 3 Nidal Malik Hasan Nidal Malik Hasan was a U.S. Army Major, and the sole suspect in a shooting at the Fort Hood military base, only weeks before he would have deployed to Afghanistan. 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. Lpez, possibly in a fit of madness, ordered the execution of hundreds of people, including some of his own family members. Instead the enemy proved willing to absorb horrifying losses and keep fighting. Implementing the attrition strategy, Westmoreland typically employed a series of large unit sweeps conducted in the deep jungle regions along South Vietnams western borders. The Persians had a mixed record against the Greeks. 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. Is your subtitle The General Who Lost Vietnam fair? But for whatever reason, some American commanders have lost the battle for history. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? Innumerable battlefield commanders have had disastrous days at the office. Wrote Kevin Buckley in a scathing review, From the beginning Westmoreland probably expected to write a memoir of victory similar to Crusade in Europeand the defeat in Vietnam has not deterred him from this.. Hull was taken prisoner by the British and was court-martialed upon his return to the United States. General Wheeler was often just flat wrong in what he told the President. 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. Jacob Zuma is a cherry on the top of the world's worst leader cake. Assuming you believe the subtitle to be accurate, who were GEN Westmorelands biggest accomplices in the loss? 3. 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. And how might that be impacting the world? 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. Washington also suffered his share of defeats. 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. Most younger officers who worked around General Westmoreland, excepting only a very few among his many aides-de-camp or executive officers and the like, had no personal relationship with this difficult and distant man. General William Westmoreland. Where is Carthage you ask? Find Paraguay on a map of South America. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. He need not be concerned, soothed Wheeler, because the weight of judgment was that the enemy cant match us on a buildup. That turned out to be one of the classic misjudgments of the war, comparable in magnitude and consequence to General MacArthurs assurances to President Truman that Chinese forces would not enter the Korean War. The alternative was to split the United States asunder. 336 pages | 16 halftones | 6 1/4 x 9 1/4. With the Little Corporal running everything, Europe might have become a very different place. Simultaneously, he contacted Maximilian to offer the young emperor his services. Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security. Who was the worst general in history? Contrarily, I would not so stigmatize another important player often criticized by others, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. Alexander, Napoleon, Rommel. There appeared to be little serious planning for what would happen the day after Saddam was gone. At Yorktown, he allowed himself to be taken by surprise and outmaneuvered by Washington and the French fleet. Its prewar population was reduced by more than half, and perhaps 90 percent of Paraguays fighting-age men perished. Download the FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. See the vast swaths of land to the north and south that arent Paraguay? George Brinton McClellan, a self-proclaimed Young Napoleon, ran dreadful campaigns, but he doesnt make the grade because he was canned before he could lose the entire war. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. 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. Outstanding commanders such as George H. Thomas, Phil Sheridan, and William Tecumseh Sherman routinely bested their Confederate opponents. Hull had served with distinction in the Revolutionary War and was appointed governor of the Michigan Territory in 1805. In the end, the Romans leveled Carthage and salted the earth. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command? Listing MacArthur as one of America's worst generals will be controversial. He was also supremely gifted at overestimating the size of his opponents armies to a degree that beggared belief. World War I provided a forum for any number of truly horrible commanders to assert themselves. 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. He was called the inevitable general. A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. In the end, Chiang sacrificed more than a million Chinese soldiers and well over ten million Chinese civilians in his bid to stay in power. Is Weiss correct? By the way, here is the first review I have seen of Sorleys new biography of Westmoreland, which I read in galleys last summer, and enjoyed. Delivered Wednesday. But with that kind of advantage in troops and firepower, who wouldnt? Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? Loyalty to himself and himself alone would be something of a running theme in the narrative of Santa Annas life, and his rise to power in Mexico was characterized by near-constant vacillation and betrayal of his allies. As for the British, they had lost the most valuable jewel of the Imperial crown. McClellan was a proto-Douglas MacArthur who bad-mouthed his president and commander-in-chief. These two instances are illustrative of many, many more, ranging from his actions or lack of action in combat situations to his determination to take over the war and win it with U.S. forces to his resultant failure to build up South Vietnamese forces to the validity of body count to the decision to close Khe Sanh to his actions when Lang Vei was overrun to denying predictions he had made of an early end to the war to claims of not being surprised at Tet 1968 to denying a post-Tet request for many additional U.S. forces. While there is much to criticize LBJ for in his conduct of the war, one cannot help having some sympathy for the dilemma posed by the often wildly conflicting advice he was getting from his senior aides and advisors, including those in uniform. James Bond Stockdale was flying his A-4 Skyhawk on a mission over North Vietnam, just days after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, when his plane took fire and hurtled d The pandemics outbreak brought rare reporting freedoms. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. Creighton Abrams was an U.S. Army General who commanded American military operations in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1972. The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. A monthly digest of the top articles read by FP subscribers. This is, obviously, a problematic quality when ones title is general-in-chief of the entire Union army. 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. Again fighting outnumbered Texans, this time Santa Anna would lose the battle stunningly. 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. James Madison spared him from execution. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, Chinas Censors Are Afraid of What Chatbots Might Say, The U.S. This entire list could be populated with Roman commanders, but one manages to rise above the rest with an ineptitude that defies logic. Rommel is by far the greatest military general of the . What he did not divulge publicly was that the United States. After making a laughingstock of himself by ordering his men to entrench on the wrong side of fortifications at Camargo, Pillow bungled his role at the Battle of Cerro Gordo, making himself the low point of a resounding American victory. After his defeat by the Texans at the Battle of San Jacinto, Santa Anna was captured. Percival was off mistreating Irish Republican Army (IRA) leaders during the Anglo-Irish War before commanding British Malaya in World War II. After early success in the Mexican War for Independence, the rest of his career didnt pan out the way he would have liked. 3. 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 war of attrition, search and destroy tactics, and emphasis on body count did nothing to affect the war in the hamlets and villages of South Vietnam, where the enemys covert infrastructure was left free to continue using coercion and terror to dominate the rural populace. This was true in matters both great and small. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. But its not just the United States. 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. A curated selection of our very best long reads. [1] A more positive example is George Washington. Ulysses S. Grant, who replaced McClellan, understood this. They care about the one. Westmoreland didnt get it. Think about how history would have been different if Hannibal had a military plan to outlast Roman might. On March 24, 1976, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1 st Viscount of Alamein, hero of World War II, died at home in England. 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. The enemy simply kept sending more and more replacements to make up his losses. The war soon ended in a Russian defeat, with hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties. 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