worst generals in vietnam

James Jay Carafano is a leading expert in national security and foreign policy challenges. 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. Villeneuve was then to return in secret and help establish naval dominance of the English Channel in preparation for a land invasion of Britain. His 1812 campaign against Russia ended in complete disaster. When the French deposed Benito Jurez and installed Maximilian as emperor of Mexico, Santa Anna, now 70, reached out to the U.S. for support in deposing the emperor. 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. Somalia (1992-1994) 2. Darius III. His forces outnumbered Alexanders men by at least a 2 to 1 ratio, but Darius was still outflanked, defeated and forced to flee. Major General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend The idiot who, seeking self aggrandisement, led his army, Force D, to disaster at Kut in WW1. 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 . To that Hollings responded, "Westy, the American people don't care about the ten. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on. 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). 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). 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. Westmoreland is often described as a Boy Scout, usually implying, it appears, that he was well-intentioned but nave. Muammar Al-Gaddafi. The British blockaded the port at Cdiz with a numerically inferior force, and Villeneuve, upon learning that he was to be relieved of command, rashly struck out at Nelsons fleet. They care about the one. Westmoreland didnt get it. In a war that saw more than its share of unskilled politically appointed generals, Pillow was arguably the worst on either side. 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. Thats an automatic disqualification from Hall membership. Once again, McClellan worked his organizational magic, restoring the morale of a shattered Union army. 336 pages | 16 halftones | 6 1/4 x 9 1/4. He couldnt. [1] Simultaneously, he contacted Maximilian to offer the young emperor his services. By the end of the conflict, America had unleashed the equivalent of 640 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs on Vietnam. - 1 Best: 1996 Chicago Bulls. 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. Where is Carthage you ask? James Madison spared him from execution. A more minor case, but one revealing of Westmorelands character, stemmed from his unwillingness to level with his senior Marine subordinate at the time of the 1968 Tet Offensive. These are the incompetents, the idiots, the bumblers who have represented armies or nations at war only to lead them to defeat or shame. Santa Anna was found wearing a privates uniform, hiding in a marsh. The war soon ended in a Russian defeat, with hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties. 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. On the other hand, there was that bad day at the Battle of Salamis when most of the Persian fleet went to the bottom. Among them are, of course, Lyndon Johnson himself, Robert McNamara, and General Earle Wheeler. Indeed they are brave and proud, but their standards, tactics, and lack of command supervision throughout their ranks requires improvement in the national interest. And, he added, I would be less than frank if I did not say that I feel somewhat insecure with the situation in Quang Tri province, in view of my knowledge of their shortcomings. He was found guilty of 11 counts, and only the intervention by Pres. Youre on the list! But its not just the United States. The War of the Triple Alliance devastated Paraguay. This entire list could be populated with Roman commanders, but one manages to rise above the rest with an ineptitude that defies logic. Not good, Hannibal. Cornwallis later did redeem himself militarily. 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. Antonio de Padua Mara Severino Lpez de Santa Anna. Following on from our list of the greatest and most successful military commanders, we are presenting this list of the worst. Outstanding commanders such as George H. Thomas, Phil Sheridan, and William Tecumseh Sherman routinely bested their Confederate opponents. 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. 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. Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. Yes, Westmoreland was the general who lost Vietnam. 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. Diem's family was one of the earliest to convert to Catholicism, a religion he took . Feel free to mention any others you may know of in the comments. 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. 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. But MacArthur's strategy certainly helped unleash 300,000 Chinese "volunteers" who inflicted significant casualties on United Nations forces. And he was able to inflict massive casualties on the enemy. Years later, when Marine Corps historians were at work on their history of the war, Westmoreland met with them. What does that mean for trade and globalization? Follow him on Twitter:@Mipeck1. Explore the benefits of your FP subscription. NEW FOR SUBSCRIBERS: Westmoreland was on a treadmill. The latest news, analysis, and data from the country each week. There's an entire myriad of generals from the American Civil War that fought for the Union that were incredibly inept. 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. General Westmorelands close associate, General William DePuy, later admitted the futility of the Westmoreland way of war. 1 Erwin Rommel Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, popularly known as the Desert Fox, was a German field marshal of World War II. Hull withdrew after a series of harassing attacks by Tecumsehs highly mobile raiding parties. By Lewis Sorley Best Defense Saigon bureau chief. Although Westmoreland denied it, he imposed a ceiling on the reported number of enemy by instructing his intelligence officers to adhere to a command position of not more than 300,000, even though newly acquired and more accurate data developed in his own headquarters then indicated a much higher figure. Evening roundup with our editors favorite stories of the day. The curation of this content is at the discretion of the author, and not necessarily reflective of the views of Encyclopaedia Britannica or its editorial staff. 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. 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. (You May Also Like: The Five Best Generals in U.S. History). He was called the "inevitable general." A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. Two years later, he lost a leg fighting the French. 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. See the vast swaths of land to the north and south that arent Paraguay? After being taken prisoner (again) by the British, Villeneuve was released but committed suicide rather than face Napoleons wrath. 7. A very influential visitor, Senator "Fritz" Hollings from Westmoreland's home state of South Carolina, had warned him about reliance on such ratios. Michael Peck is a contributing writer at Foreign Policy and a writer for War Is Boring. In the summer of 1967, the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) initiated a series of attacks in western Kontum Province. After eight years at Foreign Policy, here are the ten most popular Best Defense posts. 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. After only an eight-day siege, he surrendered his entire armya third of all British forces in America. Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all. 1. HANOI, VIETNAMForty years ago, on April 30, 1975, Nguyen Dang Phat experienced the happiest day of his life . 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. A monthly digest of the top articles read by FP subscribers. He was a teacher in the Chicago suburbs and Seoul, Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Its prewar population was reduced by more than half, and perhaps 90 percent of Paraguays fighting-age men perished. 5. But its not just the United States. 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 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. Create an FP account to save articles to read later and in the FP mobile app. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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.

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