Contrarily, I would not so stigmatize another important player often criticized by others, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. What was your impression of the man when you were working for him? 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. 1968 takes the cake for me. Antonio de Padua Mara Severino Lpez de Santa Anna. Commanders of Chaos: The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History 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. Lebanon (1982-1984) 240. These are the incompetents, the idiots, the bumblers who have represented armies or nations at war only to lead them to defeat or shame. This was heeded about as well as any piece of parental advice, anywhere ever. 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. 4. What defines Santa Anna is his utter failure to subdue the Texican rebels and block American expansion. In reality, it is a collection of ideas, images, and information that enough people have chosen to preserve and disseminate. Vietnam War body count controversy - Wikipedia Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on 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. 7. 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. He earned a B.A. How theyve practiced the art of war is immaterial, too. Its prewar population was reduced by more than half, and perhaps 90 percent of Paraguays fighting-age men perished. He was uninterested in other viewpoints on how the war might be prosecuted, dismissing the PROVN Study sponsored by Army Chief of Staff General Harold K. Johnson (which concluded that Westmorelands way of war was not working and could not work) and basic disagreements with Westmorelands organization and approach voiced by his brilliant classmate General Bruce Palmer Jr. 7. 151. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. Caepio reportedly lived out the remainder of his life in luxury, however. He overestimated the American peoples patience and tolerance of friendly losses. 10 Redvers Buller And he was able to inflict massive casualties on the enemy. Your guide to the most important world stories of the day. But MacArthur's strategy certainly helped unleash 300,000 Chinese "volunteers" who inflicted significant casualties on United Nations forces. Westmoreland: the General Who Lost Vietnam America, the Middle East and the rest of the world are still reaping the consequences of those omissions. Where is Carthage you ask? His battlefield losses marked the end of the Persian Empire. bar is to mention Vietnam. General William Westmoreland. Registration for summer courses begins March 18, 2023 and ends June 7, 2023. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. 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. All the enemys losses were quickly made up. After eight years at Foreign Policy, here are the ten most popular Best Defense posts. He was certainly nave, but the Boy Scouts need to be defended here. The self proclaimed Napoleon of the West didnt quite leave the same legacy as his idol. Seared into all who fought it and many who merely lived through it that conflict remains a bitter stew of second-guessing and recriminations. Courses: Summer 2023 | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History The unprecedented violence of battles such as Shiloh, Antietam, Stones River, and Gettysburg shocked citizens and international observers alike. You start by being the only thing that can frustrate Napoleon more than a Russian winter. Join in-depth conversations and interact with foreign-policy experts with. 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. Considering some militants as instruments of regional influence while fighting others has had disastrous consequences. By the end of the conflict, America had unleashed the equivalent of 640 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs on Vietnam. Westmorelands first resort in claiming progress in the war was always body count, but in fact this was meaningless. The inept Luigi Cadorna of Italy fought a dozen battles on the Isonzo before his army completely collapsed at Caporetto. 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. Explore the benefits of your FP subscription. He effectively pledged to become an agent for the U.S. but found that he had been deposed upon his return to Mexico. Santa Anna would lose Texas at the Battle of San Jacinto. 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. Then, in an ill-advised comeback, he met his Waterloo. Exactly. Top 10 Worst World Leaders - Wonderslist McClellan was removed from command immediately after. 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. Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama. The War of the Triple Alliance devastated Paraguay. The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. While this century witnessed many great leaders, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dr. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi . Horacio Gates of the American Revolution was pretty bad. 15. After months of inactivity, McClellan was finally spurred to action by Pres. 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. At Yorktown, he allowed himself to be taken by surprise and outmaneuvered by Washington and the French fleet. They kept it as a war trophy, exhibiting the leg at. On the other hand, there was that bad day at the Battle of Salamis when most of the Persian fleet went to the bottom. 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. 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. Top 10 Traitors In US History - Listverse His senior staff lacked diversity of experience and professional outlook, consisting mostly of people with backgrounds similar to his own, especially airborne. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? 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. 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. Darius family would be captured and even lost the Battle of Gaugamela, where so many factors were in his favor. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from . In his single-minded pursuit of that objective, Westmoreland (despite his repeated claims to the contrary) essentially ignored two other crucial aspects of the war, improvement of South Vietnams armed forces and pacification. Haig had largely dismissed the effect of the machine gun on the battlefield, believing that previous Allied failures owed to something other than an impenetrable wall of lead traveling at ballistic velocity. Westmoreland is often described as a Boy Scout, usually implying, it appears, that he was well-intentioned but nave. The problem begins with the fact that nobody in the chain of command was really competent to critique Westmorelands performance. He would eventually be betrayed and killed by a friend. The 20 Worst World War II Generals - Ranker Have your boss report to the French gentleman whose name begins with J at a place which begins with D which is five grid squares to the left of M. The Kasserine disaster had repercussions. The Romans marched right into the ambush that Arminius laid thus leading to the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Yet, Hannibal nevertheless ranks as one of the worlds epic fails. General Failure - The Atlantic After the war, the phrase lions led by donkeys came to be associated with the British army for what should be obvious reasons. Routed by U.S. forces under Winfield Scott, Santa Anna was again driven into exile. It was anotherhistory-changingevent, the birth of a truly exceptional nation. 44 Declassified Vietnam War Photos The Public Wasn't Meant To See A monthly digest of the top articles read by FP subscribers. Who Were the Worst Generals in History? 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. Men and material the Union could provide its armies. Because he never wanted to face a superior force, he refused to fight. Some captured Romans were placed in wicker cages and burned alive, others were enslaved or ransomed. At the Battle of Gaugamela, he helped make Alexander great by losing half his army to the Macedonian upstart. Was My Lai just one of many massacres in Vietnam War? 3. The Top Ten. Cue the protests from other parts of the globe: A chorus of nations are accusing Washington of fostering unfair competition. - 4 Worst: 1990 Cleveland Cavaliers. Fort Bragg was named in 1918 during the Jim Crow era. 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. Delivered Monday-Friday. up as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. What does that mean for trade and globalization? 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 . Elmo Zumwalt was a U.S. admiral and commander of American naval forces in Vietnam. Top 10 Utterly Useless Military Commanders - Listverse Feel free to mention any others you may know of in the comments. 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 . 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. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. This piece originally appeared in The National Interest https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/6-worst-military-leaders-ever-167526. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. 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. 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 . The Worst Military Leaders in History - University Of Chicago Press But there was something that not even the factories of New York and Chicago could produce, and that was time. The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of | History News Network MilitaryHistoryOnline.com Westmorelands general mistake: severely underestimating the Communists. Grachev has also been linked to corruption among the higher ranks of the military, specifically the assassination of journalist Dmitry Kholodov. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. 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. Ludendorff is one of historys greatest examples of a general who can win battles but still loses the war. General Earle Wheeler was essentially a staff officer with virtually no troop leading experience, much less combat acumen. Luckily for the colonists, the Empire also had Cornwallis, a peer of the realm and truly pitiful commander. But its not just the United States. Operational Culture General Training LREC SME Support Training Course Catalog Cognitive Dimension Training Additional Resources . But his crowning achievement was bad generalship in Korea. However, not even they managed to get themselves court-martialed and sentenced to death for ineptitude on the battlefield. It would be nice if all American generals were great. Instead he simply sent more and more replacements to make up his losses. 6. The Cimbri destroyed Caepios force and, emboldened by their success, marched on Maximuss camp. Black Vietnam Veterans on Injustices They Faced: Da 5 Bloods - Time Pierre de Villeneuve had his first brush with history when he bravely ran away at the Battle of the Nile. 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. Top 10 Worst Military Leaders in History - Toptenz.net Lewis Sorleys new book, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, is being published today by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 4. 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. The suppression of drug consumption and trade is high on the Government of Vietnam's agenda. He graduated second in his class at West Point (well ahead of classmates Stonewall Jackson, George H. Gordon, and George Pickett). George Custer at the Little Big Horn and Lord Chelmsford at the Battle of Isandlwana leap to mind. In considering who should receive such a dubious honor, Ive consciously excluded bad leaders. The Persians had a mixed record against the Greeks. Their orientation, indeed the core of Scoutings values, is selflessness and service to others. While there are plenty of books that analyze the keys to success, The Worst Military Leaders in History offers lessons of failure to avoid. Panama (1989) 2. By signing up, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to occasionally receive special offers from Foreign Policy. Others would say that it is not victory, but success in fulfilling a mission that counts. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? This infuriated the Marines, who viewed it as evidence that Westmoreland lacked confidence in them. He was found guilty of 11 counts, and only the intervention by Pres. Follow him on Twitter:@Mipeck1. Francisco Solano Lpez managed to stumble into a war with pretty much all of that. Even a string of bad days does not guarantee entry. 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. So unused to being challenged, the United States has become so filled with anxiety over China that sober responses are becoming nearly impossible. When the War of 1812 began, Hull was commissioned a brigadier general and tasked with defending Michigan and invading Upper Canada. Two years later, he lost a leg fighting the French. To say that he failed in both regards is to dramatically understate the case. 88,594. Westmoreland was on a treadmill. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. How do you measure military leaders? 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. Vietnam War. 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. Under Westmorelands command, the Vietnam war began smoothly as the U.S. won every battle. But in 1968, when Westmoreland became Army Chief of Staff, Communist forces baited Westmoreland into committing nearly 40% of his strength to the military outpost at Khe Sanh, then attacked cities and towns throughout South Vietnam. Cornwallis later did redeem himself militarily. [i] However, the list is subjective, and open to debate, as top 10 lists tend to be. Grenada (1983) 3. (You May Also Like: 5 Israeli Weapons of War ISIS Should Fear). After occupying Jerusalem and crucifying 2,000 Jewish rebels in Judaea, Varus went off to govern Germania and tame barbarian tribes. 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 American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. These American commanders have lost the battle for history. He ran as a Democrat against Lincoln in the 1864 presidential election. Find Paraguay on a map of South America. Grant had encircled the fort. Scilit | Article - A Slow March from Social Evil to Harm Reduction Hull withdrew after a series of harassing attacks by Tecumsehs highly mobile raiding parties. But the award for the biggest Persian loser goes to Darius III. On March 24, 1976, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1 st Viscount of Alamein, hero of World War II, died at home in England. It would be nice if all American generals were great. In other words, this book is a "how-not-to" guide to leadership. Brock, sensing an opportunity, advised an immediate march on Fort Detroit. 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. 3. Why our generals were more successful in World War II than in - YouTube Not good, Hannibal. Villeneuve was then to return in secret and help establish naval dominance of the English Channel in preparation for a land invasion of Britain. You worked for GEN Westmoreland when he was Army Chief of Staff. If there was a saving grace for America, it was that he wasn't commanding an army. 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. What myths or misperceptions surround Westmoreland that you would like to clear up, if any? 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. Although Nelson was killed in combat at Trafalgar, Villeneuve outlived him only by six months. The 20th century is the most violent century in history. In the summer of 1967, the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) initiated a series of attacks in western Kontum Province. The Worst Civil War Generals on the Confederacy Confederate Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow. His was one of just two French ships of the line to escape the destruction of the French fleet there. These operations were designed to seek out enemy forces and engage them in decisive battle. Somalia (1992-1994) 2. Michael Peck is a contributing writer at Foreign Policy and a writer for War Is Boring. 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. The enemy simply kept sending more and more replacements to make up his losses. You may opt out at any time. Is your subtitle The General Who Lost Vietnam fair? 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). The Worst Military Leaders in History is meant to be thought-provoking, and it surely is that." ARMY Magazine "Few subjects get military historians and history buffs talking like a debate over the best military leaders in history. 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. Sure, he was the greatest commander of the Second Punic War, a titanic contest between Carthage and Rome. His 1812 campaign against Russia ended in complete disaster. 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. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Pillow pulled the troops back to the fort to resupply them. 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.