worst generals in vietnam

Alexander, Napoleon, Rommel. Elmo Zumwalt was a U.S. admiral and commander of American naval forces in Vietnam. Who is Che in NBA 2k20? - Sport-net In All U.S. Military History, These Are the 5 Worst Generals Best Defense: History is not a fixed set of facts. While serving in Vietnam . If it couldn't or wouldn't govern the country, who would? Why our generals were more successful in World War II than in - YouTube This piece originally appeared in The National Interest https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/6-worst-military-leaders-ever-167526. When all is said and done, it doesnt matter how nice, brave, courageous, gutsy, loyal, or brilliant commanders theyve been. 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. T he Civil War was America's bloodiest conflict. 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 Joseph E. Johnston had withdrawn his forces to Richmond, and McClellan was close enough to the Confederate capital to hear its church bells ringing. Over time Westmoreland asked for and received large numbers of U.S. troops, eventually totaling well over half a million. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. Only recently have those in the defense and military complex begun to look at how we rate generals. 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. Following on from our list of the greatest and most successful military commanders, we are presenting this list of the worst. The Summer 2023 term begins June 1, 2023 and ends August 24, 2023. Join in-depth conversations and interact with foreign-policy experts with. James Jay Carafano is a leading expert in national security and foreign policy challenges. Black Vietnam Veterans on Injustices They Faced: Da 5 Bloods - Time The rise of American-made chatbots has kicked off a flurry of Chinese activity. Varus himself, seeing all hope was lost, committed suicide. Instead the enemy proved willing to absorb horrifying losses and keep fighting. James Madison spared him from execution. Despite reports of the build-up of German forces and even knowing the date of the Germans attack, Gamelin did nothing, stating that he would await events. Ludendorff is one of historys greatest examples of a general who can win battles but still loses the war. 10 Redvers Buller French defeated at Dien Bien Phu - HISTORY Essential analysis of the stories shaping geopolitics on the continent. Delivered Wednesday & Sunday. They kept it as a war trophy, exhibiting the leg at county fairs. The result of his manic commitment to the war of attrition was that Westmoreland squandered four years of his troops bravery and support by the public, the Congress, and even much of the news media for American involvement in the war. Francisco Solano Lpez managed to stumble into a war with pretty much all of that. These American commanders have lost the battle for history. Two years later, he lost a leg fighting the French. 10. How well that would have worked can be seen when Gates was sent to command American troops in the South. Weekly update on developments in India and its neighbors. 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). Test yourself on the week of Feb. 25: Nigeria votes, Finland builds a border wall, and Israel escalates repression. Delivered Monday-Friday. Reviews - Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam What myths or misperceptions surround Westmoreland that you would like to clear up, if any? These battlefield bumblers serve to provide that contrast. Delivered Wednesday. His senior staff lacked diversity of experience and professional outlook, consisting mostly of people with backgrounds similar to his own, especially airborne. 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. The Germanic fighters demolished the three Roman legions. 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. 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. 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. Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics 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. A monthly digest of the top articles read by FP subscribers. Hull was taken prisoner by the British and was court-martialed upon his return to the United States. 8. 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. They kept it as a war trophy, exhibiting the leg at. Who Were the Worst Generals in History? Lincoln relieved McClellan but reinstated him after the devastating Union defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Grachev publicly promised to swiftly crush the Chechen separatist forces in a couple of hours with a single airborne regiment. He led the disastrous storming of Grozny while drunk after celebrating his birthday on January 1st. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. But all that remains of his would-be empire today is a flaky French pastry. Although Nelson was killed in combat at Trafalgar, Villeneuve outlived him only by six months. And, to further demonstrate progress in reducing enemy strength, Westmoreland arbitrarily and entirely on his own removed from the order of battle several categories of enemy forces that had long been carried there, including during the three years Westmoreland had already been in command of U.S. forces in Vietnam. Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) 24. Lebanon (1982-1984) 240. What defines Santa Anna is his utter failure to subdue the Texican rebels and block American expansion. 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. Watchthe conversation onFP Live, the magazines forum for live journalism, orreada condensed transcript. Johnston was wounded on the first day of the Battle of Seven Pines, six miles east of Richmond, and he was replaced by Robert E. Lee. 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 . 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. 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. My daughter thinks 2018 was the worst year ever. I'd nominate 1968 If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail. Starting with the battle of Long Island, he lost way more fights than he wonyet he managed to win the war. The worst military leaders since Napoleon | History 101 With a few relatively minor changes, thats just about where they stayed for the next four years. 1. 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. 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. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. The War of the Triple Alliance devastated Paraguay. Worst US General of all time? | O-T Lounge - TigerDroppings 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. As military professionals, we should think about more . Westmoreland: the General Who Lost Vietnam He was killed in combat on March 1, 1870. He earned a B.A. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. He lacked the schooling and relevant experience to understand the war and devise a viable approach to prosecuting it. Not good, Hannibal. Westmoreland was on a treadmill. 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. Jacob Zuma is a cherry on the top of the world's worst leader cake. 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). 15. General Failure - The Atlantic Examining the Leaders of North and South Vietnam - dummies After only an eight-day siege, he surrendered his entire armya third of all British forces in America. Today's list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam Tom Ricks, on his "Best Defense" blog has discussed the top 10 worst generals in U.S. history. The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest darkened Emperor Augustus remaining years and he was heard, upon occasion, to moan, Quinctilius Varus, give me back my Legions!, Notable mention: George Custer, Joseph Hooker, Ambrose Burnside, Charles Cornwallis, John II of France, Top 10 Utterly Bizarre Things Banned In China, Top 10 Military Bases Linked To UFOs (That Aren't Area 51), 10 Bizarre Military Inventions That Almost Saw Deployment, 10 Futuristic Sci-Fi Military Technologies That, 10 Awesome French Military Victories You've Never Heard Of, 10 Oddities That Interrupted Military Battles, Top 10 Top-Level Domains That Caused Controversies, 10 Controversial Toys You Might Already Have in Your Home, Ten Absolutely Vicious Fights over Inherited Fortunes, 10 Female Film Pioneers Who Shaped the Movies, Ten True Tales from Americas Toughest Prison, 10 Times Members of Secretive Societies and Organizations Spilled the Beans, 10 Common Idioms with Unexpectedly Dark Origins, 10 North American Animals with Misplaced Reputations, 10 Japanese Weapons Invented Too Late To Win World War II, 10 Ways The History Of Thanksgiving Is Nothing Like You Imagined, 10 Great Buildings That Were Not Built Quite Well Enough. 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. 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. After occupying Jerusalem and crucifying 2,000 Jewish rebels in Judaea, Varus went off to govern Germania and tame barbarian tribes. Little Mac would prove himself to be a superb organizer who kept his army well supplied, efficiently run, and happy. A Texan with the U.S. Army's 1 st Infantry Division, Nolan reportedly slipped away from his basecamp in Tay Ninh Province on Nov. 22, 1967 and turned himself over to the Viet Cong. Officially labelled a defector by the Pentagon, many suspected Nolan, an African American, changed sides after suffering a lifetime of racial discrimination. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. Advancing to the North Korean border with China also was a red flag for Mao-Tse Tung, who feared that American troops on his border were a prelude to U.S. invasion. 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? Contrarily, I would not so stigmatize another important player often criticized by others, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. Villeneuve was then to return in secret and help establish naval dominance of the English Channel in preparation for a land invasion of Britain. A more positive example is George Washington. Westmorelands first resort in claiming progress in the war was always body count, but in fact this was meaningless. This was true in matters both great and small. Napoleon. Diem's family was one of the earliest to convert to Catholicism, a religion he took . 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. But MacArthur's strategy certainly helped unleash 300,000 Chinese "volunteers" who inflicted significant casualties on United Nations forces. Explore the benefits of your FP subscription. After his defeat by the Texans at the Battle of San Jacinto, Santa Anna was captured. Varus placed his legions in a position where their fighting strengths would be minimized and that of the Germanic Cherusci tribesman maximized. There is now little doubt that Putin failed in his initial goals: Kyiv is still Show morestanding, Ukrainians are determined to keep fighting, and the West has so far stayed resolute in its support of Ukraine. The last king of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, Darius was not quite as qualified to rule a mighty empire as his predecessors were. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. 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. A curated selection of our very best long reads. Despite fresh salvos of Western sanctions, Tehran and Moscow are buddying up on defense ties. Gamelin made the mistake of viewing the Ardennes as impenetrable and chose to defend it with ten of his weakest, least well equipped and least well trained divisions. Eschewing a direct overland march to the Confederate capital of Richmond, McClellan orchestrated an impressive amphibious landing of more than 100,000 troops at Fort Monroe, at the southeast end of the peninsula between the James and York rivers. - 1 Best: 1996 Chicago Bulls. But the inducements encourage U.S. companies to invest only at homenot elsewhere. Somalia (1992-1994) 2. Todays list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam. For one thing, we wouldnt haveSpartacuson Netflix. 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. The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. 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 there was little internal capacity for debating or evaluating his chosen course of action. 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. They care about the one. Westmoreland didnt get it. Known as Reverse Buller by his troops during the Second Boer War, the Englishman was first defeated at the Battle of Colenso and subsequently lost his position as overall commander. These are the incompetents, the idiots, the bumblers who have represented armies or nations at war only to lead them to defeat or shame. 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. . 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. 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. Commanders of Chaos: The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History Turncoats and Traitors - Seven Americans Who Defected to the Enemy in Driven into exile in 1845, he contacted U.S. Pres. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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. Delivered Monday-Saturday. Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security. The resulting Peninsular Campaign (AprilJuly 1862) was a marvel of planning but something of a farce in execution. 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. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. The 1970s were scary times. How do you measure military leaders? Without question, many lives would be saved if their tactical professionalism were enhanced.. Westmoreland was on a treadmill. Sure, he was the greatest commander of the Second Punic War, a titanic contest between Carthage and Rome. This week marks exactly one year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. He was an artilleryman who missed out on the Army's great schools system, never attending the Command & General Staff College or the Army War College. 6. Leaders of the Vietnam War - Wikipedia

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