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They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Delivered Wednesday. But MacArthur's strategy certainly helped unleash 300,000 Chinese "volunteers" who inflicted significant casualties on United Nations forces. The world over, countries are embarking on ambitious projects of industrial policy. He lacked the schooling and relevant experience to understand the war and devise a viable approach to prosecuting it. Major General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend The idiot who, seeking self aggrandisement, led his army, Force D, to disaster at Kut in WW1. A common view holds that 138,708 Allied personnel surrendered or were killed by fewer than 30,000 Japanese. 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. French defeated at Dien Bien Phu - HISTORY 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. 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. 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Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, Chinas Censors Are Afraid of What Chatbots Might Say, The U.S. He lacked the schooling and relevant experience to understand the war and devise a viable approach to prosecuting it. 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 . Delivered Monday-Saturday. Gamelin also chose not to disperse Frances vast number of superior tanks. Of course they raised this issue, leading Westmoreland to declare vehemently that establishing MACV Forward had not a damned thing to do with my confidence in General Cushman or the Marines, not a damned thing. That again was not only false but, given the existing paper trail, reckless as well. 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 . However, Ludendorff and German General Staff chief Helmuth von Moltke had altered the Schlieffen PlanGermanys overall battle plan for fighting a two-front warin a way that had weakened the attacking army on the Western Front. Marcus Licinius Crassus was a self-aggrandizing opportunist who started a pointless war with the Parthians, and Publius Quinctilius Varus lost three legions at Teutoburg Forest, but Proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio manages to top them both with his actions at the Battle of Arausio. 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. The Worst Military Leaders in History review from Ancient Rome to Vietnam 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 the award for the biggest Persian loser goes to Darius III. While there are plenty of books that analyze the keys to success, The Worst Military Leaders in History offers lessons of failure to avoid. The 1970s were scary times. Tom Ricks, on his "Best Defense" blog has discussed the top 10 worst generals in U.S. history. 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. 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. Yes, eminently. The inept Luigi Cadorna of Italy fought a dozen battles on the Isonzo before his army completely collapsed at Caporetto. Westmorelands first resort in claiming progress in the war was always body count, but in fact this was meaningless. Men and material the Union could provide its armies. Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy is a shadow of its former self.. Simultaneously, he contacted Maximilian to offer the young emperor his services. The British gained control of the fort, dozens of cannons, the brig USS Adams (recommissioned the HMS Detroit), and virtually the entire Michigan Territory. Grenada (1983) 3. In the summer of 1967, the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) initiated a series of attacks in western Kontum Province. 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. 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. 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. Keep up with the world without stopping yours. 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. Pillow escaped during the night, leaving Simon B. Buckner to surrender the fort and 15,000 Confederate troops. Feel free to mention any others you may know of in the comments. As a military commander, Napoleon may have thebest batting averageof all time. 336 pages | 16 halftones | 6 1/4 x 9 1/4. At the height of the Cold War, he dealt decisively with neither. Here's What You Need To Remember:The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. Who Were the Worst Generals in History? This might have ended okay for Germany, provided they didnt do something like provoke a previously neutral country with Allied sympathies and an effectively bottomless war chest. 1. Santa Anna would lose Texas at the Battle of San Jacinto. 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. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. 2. Registration for summer courses begins March 18, 2023 and ends June 7, 2023. General William Westmoreland. Lincoln relieved McClellan but reinstated him after the devastating Union defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Westmoreland held a press conference in which he categorically denied any such loss of confidence. They kept it as a war trophy, exhibiting the leg at county fairs. Yet backstabbing your commander-in-chief in the middle of a war is taking ambition a little too far. Applications for the Gettysburg College-Gilder Lehrman MA program are open and considered on a rolling basis. He bears a lot of responsibility for one the greatest reversals of military fortune ever experienced by a super power. Francisco Solano Lpez managed to stumble into a war with pretty much all of that. 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. After being taken prisoner (again) by the British, Villeneuve was released but committed suicide rather than face Napoleons wrath. This entire list could be populated with Roman commanders, but one manages to rise above the rest with an ineptitude that defies logic. He earned a B.A. Instead he simply sent more and more replacements to make up his losses. Caepio reportedly lived out the remainder of his life in luxury, however. Delivered Monday-Friday. Stay updated on the topics you care about with email alerts. How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command? Armchair historians often generalize that during the American Civil War, while the Union held a clear advantage in material, the Confederacy could field superior commanders. But the inducements encourage U.S. companies to invest only at homenot elsewhere. Arminius cut off his head and sent it to another Germanic leader as a present. If there was a saving grace for America, it was that he wasn't commanding an army. 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. When he made public his disagreements with President Truman, Truman rightfully fired him. Considering some militants as instruments of regional influence while fighting others has had disastrous consequences. Here is a list of the 10 most famous Chinese generals in history. Hundreds of thousands died of disease. Find Paraguay on a map of South America. Two years later, he lost a leg fighting the French. 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. But then MacArthur thrived on controversy like bread thrives on yeast. The 20th century is the most violent century in history. 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. Cue the protests from other parts of the globe: A chorus of nations are accusing Washington of fostering unfair competition. Ludendorff is one of historys greatest examples of a general who can win battles but still loses the war. 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. When it came to military command, Westmoreland was everybody's all-Americanuntil he met his Waterloo. 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. Diem's family was one of the earliest to convert to Catholicism, a religion he took . How well that would have worked can be seen when Gates was sent to command American troops in the South. 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). 13,091. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. They kept it as a war trophy, exhibiting the leg at. Muammar Al-Gaddafi. What is a bad general? - 3 Best: 1987 Los Angeles Lakers. Darius family would be captured and even lost the Battle of Gaugamela, where so many factors were in his favor. (You May Also Like: The Five Best U.S. Yes, the landing at Inchon unhinged the initial North Korean offensive. 4. 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. Fort Bragg was named in 1918 during the Jim Crow era. Download the FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. Caepio may have been a terrible general, but he was apparently an exceptional thief. Sure, they ganged up on the Spartans at the Pass of Thermopylae. If Gates had been in command, we might be paying for our groceries with shillings and pence. My generation would likely vote for the year exactly one-half century ago as the absolutely worst year in our lifetimes. 1. Join in-depth conversations and interact with foreign-policy experts with. 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. 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. This week marks exactly one year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. The Worst Military Leaders in History - University Of Chicago Press 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. America, the Middle East and the rest of the world are still reaping the consequences of those omissions. Today's list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam By the way, here is the first review I have seen of Sorley's new biography of Westmoreland, which I read in galleys. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. 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. Following on from our list of the greatest and most successful military commanders, we are presenting this list of the worst. Once again, McClellan worked his organizational magic, restoring the morale of a shattered Union army. 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. General Westmoreland had complete freedom of action in deciding how to prosecute the war within South Vietnam. 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. 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. Routed by U.S. forces under Winfield Scott, Santa Anna was again driven into exile. Explore the benefits included in your subscription. Varus was stationed with three of his legions, the 17th, 18th and 19th when news arrived of a revolt growing in the Rhine area. Vietnam War. Top 10 Utterly Useless Military Commanders - Listverse This would be known as the Tet Offensive and would become a major turning point in the war. See the vast swaths of land to the north and south that arent Paraguay? The Russian president got many things wrong about invading Ukrainebut not everything. Westmoreland was on a treadmill. For one thing, we wouldnt haveSpartacuson Netflix. Today's list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam The stabbed in the back myth did much to propel the ascent of Adolf Hitler, and Ludendorff was a key participant in the Beer Hall Putsch. What was your impression of the man when you were working for him? Hull, convinced that he was hopelessly outnumbered (he wasnt), surrendered Fort Detroit and its 2,000-man garrison without firing a shot. Gen. Charles Cornwallis. Assuming you believe the subtitle to be accurate, who were GEN Westmorelands biggest accomplices in the loss? 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. Many of the charges leveled against him have also been laid at the feet of . Maximus managed to form up his men but to no avail. General William Westmoreland. bar is to mention Vietnam. Horacio Gates of the American Revolution was pretty bad. 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. 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. Because he never wanted to face a superior force, he refused to fight. 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. At Yorktown, he allowed himself to be taken by surprise and outmaneuvered by Washington and the French fleet. For its part, Washington has made a series of policy choices over the last few years that can be summed Show moreup as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. [i] However, the list is subjective, and open to debate, as top 10 lists tend to be. Vietnam Communist Party Nominates Vo Van Thuong as New President - Sources 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. Casey was an Army insidera four-star general and the son of the highest-ranking American casualty of the Vietnam War, a division commander who was killed in a July 1970 helicopter crash. Thuong, 52, is the youngest member of the party's Politburo, the country's top decision-making body, and is widely regarded as being close to General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam's most . But for whatever reason, some American commanders have lost the battle for history. 7 Of The Worst Military Leaders In History, That You Didn't Know About Fighter Aircraft of All Time). Follow him on Twitter:@Mipeck1. 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. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of | History News Network Not one to let his own failings stand in the way of personal glory, Pillow submitted fanciful accounts of his actions at the Battles of Contreras and Churubusco to various newspapers, incurring the wrath of overall American commander Winfield Scott. The war soon ended in a Russian defeat, with hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties. Hull had served with distinction in the Revolutionary War and was appointed governor of the Michigan Territory in 1805. 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. 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. 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. Evening roundup with our editors favorite stories of the day. 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. Sure, he won big at the Alamo. General Wheeler was often just flat wrong in what he told the President. Instead of sweeping around the French defenses in a massive flanking movement, the Germans were checked at the First Battle of the Marne. Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all. 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. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. After only an eight-day siege, he surrendered his entire armya third of all British forces in America. 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. 2. 4. 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. This is, obviously, a problematic quality when ones title is general-in-chief of the entire Union army. Yet Fredendall's solution was to order an Army engineer company to build a giant bunker a hundred miles from the front lines. One-stop digest of politics, economics, and culture. What does that mean for trade and globalization? What is the standard of shame for induction? Hull responded by ordering the evacuation of Fort Dearborn, and the garrison was promptly massacred by a Potawatomi war band upon leaving the fort. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from . 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. Santa Anna liked to call himself the Napoleon of the West. And, like Napoleon, he squandered it all in one grand campaign. And he was able to inflict massive casualties on the enemy. 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. In a war that saw more than its share of unskilled politically appointed generals, Pillow was arguably the worst on either side. The rise of American-made chatbots has kicked off a flurry of Chinese activity. A monthly digest of the top articles read by FP subscribers. 151. Despite the Union outnumbering the Confederates, McClellan was unable to crush Robert E. Lee after failing to pursue him into Virginia. The Germanic fighters demolished the three Roman legions. 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. The Top-10 Most Evil Leaders of the 20th Century - LinkedIn Publication of the PROVN Study, whose precepts were later implemented with great success by Westmorelands successor, illustrated a matter of fundamental importance. After months of inactivity, McClellan was finally spurred to action by Pres. Military He would eventually be betrayed and killed by a friend. He graduated second in his class at West Point (well ahead of classmates Stonewall Jackson, George H. Gordon, and George Pickett). Create an FP account to save articles to read later and in the FP mobile app. 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. The Battle of Khe Sanh (21 January - 9 July 1968) was conducted in the Khe Sanh area of northwestern Qung Tr Province, Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), during the Vietnam War. The latest news, analysis, and data from the country each week. In 334 BC, Alexander the Great invaded the Persian Empire. Had Lincoln retained McClellan in command of the Union armies, many former Americans might still be whistling "Dixie.". 6. Want to read more on this topic or region? All the enemys losses were quickly made up. He was killed in combat on March 1, 1870. James Madison spared him from execution. 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. In reality, it is a collection of ideas, images, and information that enough people have chosen to preserve and disseminate. The suppression of drug consumption and trade is high on the Government of Vietnam's agenda. Thats an automatic disqualification from Hall membership. Persian Gulf (1988) (Oil Platforms) 2. 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.