World War I provided a forum for any number of truly horrible commanders to assert themselves. However, not even they managed to get themselves court-martialed and sentenced to death for ineptitude on the battlefield. Westmoreland told him, "We're killing these people at a ratio of 10 to 1.". Grenada (1983) 3. Military greatness can most easily be defined by comparison. 1. The Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files contains records of 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War. 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 . How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command? He was indeed a capable warrior, as shown by the South Pacific campaign and the Inchon landing in Korea. Hull, convinced that he was hopelessly outnumbered (he wasnt), surrendered Fort Detroit and its 2,000-man garrison without firing a shot. Ulysses S. Grant, who replaced McClellan, understood this. While Muammer Al-Gaddafi isn't into the funny business in his politician reign, he most certainly is one of a highly egotistical leader and a member who represents more of the "self" rather than all else. Some historians are a little more sympathetic towards Percivals legacy nowadays arguing that Percival had been dealt an unusually bad hand. 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. 3. After early success in the Mexican War for Independence, the rest of his career didnt pan out the way he would have liked. 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. Explore the benefits included in your subscription. A monthly digest of the top articles read by FP subscribers. Where is Carthage you ask? While this century witnessed many great leaders, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dr. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi . Best Defense: He bears a lot of responsibility for one the greatest reversals of military fortune ever experienced by a super power. James K. Polk. 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. By signing up, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to occasionally receive special offers from Foreign Policy. Here is a list of the 10 most famous Chinese generals in history. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Lebanon (1982-1984) 240. 10 Redvers Buller The premise was that, if he could kill enough of the enemy, they would lose heart and cease their aggression against the South Vietnamese. At the Battle of Gaugamela, he helped make Alexander great by losing half his army to the Macedonian upstart. But all that remains of his would-be empire today is a flaky French pastry. Grachev has also been linked to corruption among the higher ranks of the military, specifically the assassination of journalist Dmitry Kholodov. 1. He called for bombing China, as if liberating Korea was worth risking 550 million Chinese and possibly war with Russia as well. The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. A dull, unfeeling, unimaginative, smug "Colonel Blimp" of the worst sort. General Westmoreland had complete freedom of action in deciding how to prosecute the war within South Vietnam. Contrarily, I would not so stigmatize another important player often criticized by others, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. Again fighting outnumbered Texans, this time Santa Anna would lose the battle stunningly. Varus placed his legions in a position where their fighting strengths would be minimized and that of the Germanic Cherusci tribesman maximized. Yes, Westmoreland was the general who lost Vietnam. He still had his defenders, but they were in the last trench, barely holding on. 1 Erwin Rommel Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, popularly known as the Desert Fox, was a German field marshal of World War II. What is a bad general? Jacob Zuma is a cherry on the top of the world's worst leader cake. 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. Delivered Wednesday. The Persians had a mixed record against the Greeks. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on In 1847, U.S. troops once again surprised Santa Anna and captured his prosthetic leg. The inept Luigi Cadorna of Italy fought a dozen battles on the Isonzo before his army completely collapsed at Caporetto. Watch the conversation or read the condensed transcript. Scott claimed that Pillow was ''the only person I have ever known who was wholly indifferent in the choice between truth and falsehood. When talk of secession reached Pillows home state of Tennessee, he helped organize the state militia and was appointed a brigadier general in the Confederate army. Westmoreland is often described as a Boy Scout, usually implying, it appears, that he was well-intentioned but nave. All rights reserved. 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. Innumerable battlefield commanders have had disastrous days at the office. 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. 7. 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. Panama (1989) 2. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? Defining that is like defining a bad meal. Thus, almost by default, Westmoreland was left to go his own way, year after bloody year. 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. A very significant instance was his determination to arbitrarily hold down the estimate of enemy strength during a 1967 order of battle controversy. Once again, McClellan worked his organizational magic, restoring the morale of a shattered Union army. The man who appealed for Varus help was Arminius, a Romanized Germanic prince. After being taken prisoner (again) by the British, Villeneuve was released but committed suicide rather than face Napoleons wrath. 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. 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. 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. 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. Following on from our list of the greatest and most successful military commanders, we are presenting this list of the worst. Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all. They care about the one. Westmoreland didnt get it. Delivered Thursday. James Madison spared him from execution. America, the Middle East and the rest of the world are still reaping the consequences of those omissions. Assuming you believe the subtitle to be accurate, who were GEN Westmorelands biggest accomplices in the loss? On September 9, 1965, Navy Cmdr. Needs to Talk About the Risk of War With China, Putin Has Assembled an Axis of Autocrats Against Ukraine, The Conversation About Ukraine Is Cracking Apart. He was called the inevitable general. A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. In the summer of 1967, the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) initiated a series of attacks in western Kontum Province. 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.. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. What was the worst battle of Vietnam? 1. Yet, Hannibal nevertheless ranks as one of the worlds epic fails. Their orientation, indeed the core of Scoutings values, is selflessness and service to others. Operational Culture General Training LREC SME Support Training Course Catalog Cognitive Dimension Training Additional Resources . Publication of the PROVN Study, whose precepts were later implemented with great success by Westmorelands successor, illustrated a matter of fundamental importance. Fighter Aircraft of All Time). 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. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. In the end, the Romans leveled Carthage and salted the earth. Francisco Solano Lpez managed to stumble into a war with pretty much all of that. Westmorelands own book about himself gives some indication of how he would react to this more recent one. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. Yes, the landing at Inchon unhinged the initial North Korean offensive. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, This Photo Of A 94-Year-Old Widow Receiving Her Husbands Remains Will Break Your Heart, From Messiah to Hitler, What You Can and Cannot Name Your Child. As a military commander, Napoleon may have thebest batting averageof all time. 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. Seldom included in. By the way, here is the first review I have seen of Sorley's new biography of Westmoreland, which I read in galleys last summer, and enjoyed. 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. The Germanic fighters demolished the three Roman legions. (The leg did get a state funeral). The initial assault resulted in very high casualties for the Russians and an almost complete breakdown of morale in the Russian forces. 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. What will another year of war look like? Driven into exile in 1845, he contacted U.S. Pres. Considering some militants as instruments of regional influence while fighting others has had disastrous consequences. It's not the first time that someone thought he was smarter than his boss. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. 9. 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. Arminius cut off his head and sent it to another Germanic leader as a present. What was your impression of the man when you were working for him? 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. 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. 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. His bad luck didnt end at San Jacinto. 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. Jessica Chen Weiss, formerly a senior advisor for policy planning at the State Department under the Biden administration, makes the case that the United States is becoming consumed by competition with China, a strategy that could lead to dangerous conflict. This infuriated the Marines, who viewed it as evidence that Westmoreland lacked confidence in them. Lewis Sorleys new book, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, is being published today by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. One-stop digest of politics, economics, and culture. 15. Even if Moscow holds onto territory, the war has wrecked its future. NEW FOR SUBSCRIBERS: Thus there was little internal capacity for debating or evaluating his chosen course of action. This did not, however, achieve the postulated outcome. 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. rs worth well over $400 billion. Thus the progress Westmoreland claimed in racking up huge body counts did nothing to win the war. Sure, he was the greatest commander of the Second Punic War, a titanic contest between Carthage and Rome. Brock, sensing an opportunity, advised an immediate march on Fort Detroit. Although Nelson was killed in combat at Trafalgar, Villeneuve outlived him only by six months. Westmorelands first resort in claiming progress in the war was always body count, but in fact this was meaningless. 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. Concurrently with hi. 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. Darius again was the first to flee the battle, abandoning all of his soldiers and his property to be taken by Alexander. Instead of sweeping around the French defenses in a massive flanking movement, the Germans were checked at the First Battle of the Marne. Still, it is his world-changing defeat at Yorktown that merits memorializing. The Second Battle of the Somme was the first of a series of successful German offensives, but Ludendorff had failed to integrate these tactical victories into a broader strategic plan. 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. 336 pages | 16 halftones | 6 1/4 x 9 1/4. 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). Who was the worst US general during the Vietnam War? The pandemics outbreak brought rare reporting freedoms. Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all. Is Weiss correct? Would he be upset if he were alive to read this book today? Nelsons victory at the Battle of Trafalgar was so complete that it established British supremacy on the high seas for more than a century. The British gained control of the fort, dozens of cannons, the brig USS Adams (recommissioned the HMS Detroit), and virtually the entire Michigan Territory. George Custer at the Little Big Horn and Lord Chelmsford at the Battle of Isandlwana leap to mind. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, Chinas Censors Are Afraid of What Chatbots Might Say, The U.S. Yet Fredendall's solution was to order an Army engineer company to build a giant bunker a hundred miles from the front lines. Watchthe conversation onFP Live, the magazines forum for live journalism, orreada condensed transcript. While Maximus was conducting negotiations with the Cimbri, a Germanic tribe that had invaded the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul, Caepio rashly attacked the Cimbri army on October 6, 105 BCE. 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. As military professionals, we should think about more . 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. In considering who should receive such a dubious honor, Ive consciously excluded bad leaders. Persian Gulf (1988) (Oil Platforms) 2. Outstanding commanders such as George H. Thomas, Phil Sheridan, and William Tecumseh Sherman routinely bested their Confederate opponents. The latest news, analysis, and data from the country each week. 151. 3. Westmorelands devotion to advancing his own interests, even when necessary by misrepresentation, was fundamentally at odds with what Scouting is all about. 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. McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from . There were available better concepts of how to prosecute the war. 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. My generation would likely vote for the year exactly one-half century ago as the absolutely worst year in our lifetimes. 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How well that would have worked can be seen when Gates was sent to command American troops in the South. 2. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail. It doesnt matter if theyve won more often than theyve lost. 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. Years later, when Marine Corps historians were at work on their history of the war, Westmoreland met with them. 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. McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from scratch. Lee demonstrated an immediate grasp of McClellans demeanor, and, during the Seven Days Battles (June 25July 1, 1862), Lee drove back the Union armies from Richmonds doorstep. Little Mac would prove himself to be a superb organizer who kept his army well supplied, efficiently run, and happy. The Top Ten. Delivered Thursday. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. Although he outnumbered Magruders Army of the Peninsula 10-to-1, McClellan settled in for a monthlong siege. The self proclaimed Napoleon of the West didnt quite leave the same legacy as his idol. In stereotypically McClellan fashion, he was promptly checked by a vastly inferior force under John Bankhead Magruder. These are the incompetents, the idiots, the bumblers who have represented armies or nations at war only to lead them to defeat or shame. Saul David reviews a surprising study of military failure and names his own five most infamous generals Saul David Thursday February 17 2022, 12.00am , The Times And if they not only fail to deliver, but wind up sinking their own side in the process, and change history, they earn a spot in the Hall of Military Shame. Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon Baines Johnson announced his fateful decision to double the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. Varus trust in Arminius was an obvious and terrible misjudgment. The resulting Peninsular Campaign (AprilJuly 1862) was a marvel of planning but something of a farce in execution. General William Westmoreland. He served as a National Socialist member of the German parliament before authoring a book about how humanity exists in a state of perpetual war and why that is a good thing. Santa Anna would lose Texas at the Battle of San Jacinto. But Gates could have doomed the American Revolution. Others would say that it is not victory, but success in fulfilling a mission that counts. 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. 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. 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. The rise of American-made chatbots has kicked off a flurry of Chinese activity. 10. Haste risked casualties and defeats at the hands of a formidable opponent like Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. 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. Delivered Wednesday. Necessarily, more is lost to time than is remembered. This piece originally appeared in The National Interest https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/6-worst-military-leaders-ever-167526. Think about how history would have been different if Hannibal had a military plan to outlast Roman might. 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. The Russian president got many things wrong about invading Ukrainebut not everything. 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. The suppression of drug consumption and trade is high on the Government of Vietnam's agenda. 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. Pillow suffered slightly more casualties than Grant in the engagement, which possibly makes the Battle of Belmont the high point of Pillows military career. In reality, it is a collection of ideas, images, and information that enough people have chosen to preserve and disseminate. Military historian Russell Weigley rendered a succinct judgment on LBJ: No capable war President would have allowed an officer of such limited capacities as General William C. Westmoreland to head Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, for so long.. The unprecedented violence of battles such as Shiloh, Antietam, Stones River, and Gettysburg shocked citizens and international observers alike. 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. But the inducements encourage U.S. companies to invest only at homenot elsewhere. After occupying Jerusalem and crucifying 2,000 Jewish rebels in Judaea, Varus went off to govern Germania and tame barbarian tribes. How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command? General Westmorelands close associate, General William DePuy, later admitted the futility of the Westmoreland way of war.