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. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. Santa Anna, a lifetime gambler, was known for his risk taking in battle, but also his brutality. Watchthe conversation onFP Live, the magazines forum for live journalism, orreada condensed transcript. These operations were designed to seek out enemy forces and engage them in decisive battle. 9 Noteworthy Bog Bodies (And What They Tell Us), 12 Novels Considered the Greatest Book Ever Written, Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution, https://www.britannica.com/list/9-worst-generals-in-history. The latest news, analysis, and data from the country each week. All the enemys losses were quickly made up. You may opt out at any time. And the number one reason why Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam: With his unavailing approach to conduct of the war he squandered four years of support by much of the American people, the Congress, and even the media. Even a string of bad days does not guarantee entry. Jacob Zuma is a cherry on the top of the world's worst leader cake. 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. 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. He ran as a Democrat against Lincoln in the 1864 presidential election. The 1970s were scary times. Delivered Wednesday. 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. The Persians had a mixed record against the Greeks. Military. But its not just the United States. Soon after declaring himself dictator of Mexico, rebels who opposed the Mexican dictatorship created three new republics, one of them being the Republic of Texas. He graduated second in his class at West Point (well ahead of classmates Stonewall Jackson, George H. Gordon, and George Pickett). Grenada (1983) 3. General Wheeler was often just flat wrong in what he told the President. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on. Not only is Sorley a third-generation graduate of West Point a Vietnam veteran and a historian, but he worked for Westmoreland as well. A dull, unfeeling, unimaginative, smug "Colonel Blimp" of the worst sort. He was killed in combat on March 1, 1870. 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. Francisco Solano Lpez managed to stumble into a war with pretty much all of that. Instead of sweeping around the French defenses in a massive flanking movement, the Germans were checked at the First Battle of the Marne. Major General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend The idiot who, seeking self aggrandisement, led his army, Force D, to disaster at Kut in WW1. What does that mean for trade and globalization? Hundreds of thousands died of disease. In the summer of 1967, the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) initiated a series of attacks in western Kontum Province. He lacked the schooling and relevant experience to understand the war and devise a viable approach to prosecuting it. When it came to military command, Westmoreland was everybody's all-Americanuntil he met his Waterloo. McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from . War is an extension of politics, and if commanders dont help secure the desired political ends, they get a failing grade. 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. General Earle Wheeler was essentially a staff officer with virtually no troop leading experience, much less combat acumen. But then MacArthur thrived on controversy like bread thrives on yeast. Hull was taken prisoner by the British and was court-martialed upon his return to the United States. After the war, the phrase lions led by donkeys came to be associated with the British army for what should be obvious reasons. 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. And he was able to inflict massive casualties on the enemy. By December 1864 Paraguay was at war with Brazil, and, when Argentina denied a request for the transit of a Paraguayan army across its territory, Lpez declared war on that country as well. But he was overly cautious by nature. Some 15,000 talents of gold (the so-called Gold of Tolosa) had vanished under his watch, never to be recovered. When the War of 1812 began, Hull was commissioned a brigadier general and tasked with defending Michigan and invading Upper Canada. 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? 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. In order, from most culpable down. Read More. 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. Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. Considering some militants as instruments of regional influence while fighting others has had disastrous consequences. 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. He was an artilleryman who missed out on the Armys great schools system, never attending the Command & General Staff College or the Army War College. James Jay Carafano is a leading expert in national security and foreign policy challenges. At Yorktown, he allowed himself to be taken by surprise and outmaneuvered by Washington and the French fleet. 3. Without question, many lives would be saved if their tactical professionalism were enhanced.. Franz Conrad von Htzendorf of Austria couldnt decide which country he wanted to invade, so the German General Staff eventually took his armies away. Watchthe conversation onFP Live, the magazines forum for live journalism, orreada condensed transcript. Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy is a shadow of its former self.. And what then? 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. 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.. While this century witnessed many great leaders, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dr. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi . McClellan truly disappointed president Lincoln at the Battle of Antietam where the North and South would fight the bloodiest battle of the war. Consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus was Caepios superior officer, but Caepio refused to obey Maximus or even put his forces into a shared camp with him. It's not the first time that someone thought he was smarter than his boss. 4. But the inducements encourage U.S. companies to invest only at homenot elsewhere. Caepio reportedly lived out the remainder of his life in luxury, however. Darius family would be captured and even lost the Battle of Gaugamela, where so many factors were in his favor. At the Battle of Gaugamela, he helped make Alexander great by losing half his army to the Macedonian upstart. 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. My generation would likely vote for the year exactly one-half century ago as the absolutely worst year in our lifetimes. Woefully inexperienced U.S. soldiers found themselves against Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps veterans. 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. Santa Anna was found wearing a privates uniform, hiding in a marsh. Thats the point. They dramatically upped their game, pressing the U.S. worldwide. 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. Haig was cruelly mocked, first in the satirical musical Oh! By the end of the conflict, America had unleashed the equivalent of 640 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs on Vietnam. General William Westmoreland. He continued on to suffer defeats at Spion Kop and Vaal Krantz, almost letting the war slip away from the British. By Lewis Sorley Best Defense Saigon bureau chief. Explore the benefits included in your subscription. Delivered Friday. But his persistence and inspiration kept the Continental Army in the field through the worst of times, which is why his face is on the one-dollar bill. After making a laughingstock of himself by ordering his men to entrench on the wrong side of fortifications at Camargo, Pillow bungled his role at the Battle of Cerro Gordo, making himself the low point of a resounding American victory. (Photo: Warner Bros.) Roger Ebert called "Gods and Generals" a film "Trent Lott would enjoy," referring to the Senator's praise of segregationist Strom Thurmond. Follow him on Twitter:@Mipeck1. 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. In 1847, U.S. troops once again surprised Santa Anna and captured his prosthetic leg. The world over, countries are embarking on ambitious projects of industrial policy. [1] This proved possible only with enemy cooperation, since they could break contact and limit casualties as they wished by withdrawing into sanctuaries across the border. Although he outnumbered Magruders Army of the Peninsula 10-to-1, McClellan settled in for a monthlong siege. 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. A final humiliation came during Mexican-American War. With a few relatively minor changes, thats just about where they stayed for the next four years. 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 . The rise of American-made chatbots has kicked off a flurry of Chinese activity. 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. 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 Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial LectureThomas E. Ricks is a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Yet backstabbing your commander-in-chief in the middle of a war is taking ambition a little too far. 15. 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. Driven into exile in 1845, he contacted U.S. Pres. Some would say that failure on the battlefield warrants censure. 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. What was your impression of the man when you were working for him? - 3 Best: 1987 Los Angeles Lakers. Varus trust in Arminius was an obvious and terrible misjudgment. 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. If Gates had been in command, we might be paying for our groceries with shillings and pence. But Franks, who commanded the invasion, made a bad situation worse. Seriously, who represents The British Empire; had the worlds greatest navy, enough cash to hire half the mercenaries of Europe, and the advantage of having a pretty pathetic-looking foe: a rag-tag army of ill-equipped rebels. 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. Gates thought otherwise, and fancied himself a better commander than George Washington. He worked under Adolf Hitler's Third Reich as a leading general and gained fame from his battles in North Africa. A very significant instance was his determination to arbitrarily hold down the estimate of enemy strength during a 1967 order of battle controversy. 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. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on Download the FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. The British gained control of the fort, dozens of cannons, the brig USS Adams (recommissioned the HMS Detroit), and virtually the entire Michigan Territory. He was found guilty of 11 counts, and only the intervention by Pres. Although Nelson was killed in combat at Trafalgar, Villeneuve outlived him only by six months. Military greatness can most easily be defined by comparison. Heres the inaugural class: 6. For one thing, we wouldnt haveSpartacuson Netflix. Pillow escaped during the night, leaving Simon B. Buckner to surrender the fort and 15,000 Confederate troops. The pandemics outbreak brought rare reporting freedoms. Because he never wanted to face a superior force, he refused to fight. How theyve practiced the art of war is immaterial, too. 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. Some staff officers who briefed him one-on-one at deskside were dismayed when Westmoreland occupied himself by signing photographs of himself, one after another, during their presentations. But beyond the goals of one leader in Moscow, it is also clear that Ukraine has suffered horrors of a historic nature. Your guide to the most important world stories of the day. Horacio Gates of the American Revolution was pretty bad. Grant had encircled the fort. Vice President, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute. McClellan was removed from command immediately after. 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. This piece originally appeared in The National Interest https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/6-worst-military-leaders-ever-167526. When it came to military command, Westmoreland was everybodys all-Americanuntil he met his Waterloo. It was anotherhistory-changingevent, the birth of a truly exceptional nation. He was also supremely gifted at overestimating the size of his opponents armies to a degree that beggared belief. Critics say that Franks and senior officials, such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, concocted an invasion plan that used too few troops. 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. Here is a list of the 10 most famous Chinese generals in history. Grant left politics to the politicians and did what had to be done. Dispatched to India, he led campaigns to help subdue the subcontinent, replacing the crown jewel he had lost. Thats an automatic disqualification from Hall membership. . Grachev has also been linked to corruption among the higher ranks of the military, specifically the assassination of journalist Dmitry Kholodov. But with that kind of advantage in troops and firepower, who wouldnt? Cornwallis later did redeem himself militarily. Test yourself on the week of Feb. 25: Nigeria votes, Finland builds a border wall, and Israel escalates repression. Cue the protests from other parts of the globe: A chorus of nations are accusing Washington of fostering unfair competition. 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? - 1 Best: 1996 Chicago Bulls. 10. 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. Army Chief of Staff General Harold K. Johnson put one forth in the PROVN Study, a Program for the Pacification and Long-Term Development of Vietnam. That document held that Westmorelands approach was not working and could not work because it ignored the real war in South Vietnams hamlets and villages, where the covert enemy infrastructure was through coercion and terror dominating the rural populace. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. Yes, the landing at Inchon unhinged the initial North Korean offensive. His 1812 campaign against Russia ended in complete disaster. 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. Michael Ray oversees coverage of European history and military affairs for Britannica. 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 . Ulysses S. Grant made his Civil War debut at the Battle of Belmont against Confederate Gen. Gideon Pillow. 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. How do you measure military leaders? 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. 10 Redvers Buller 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. His war of attrition, search and destroy tactics, and emphasis on body count did nothing to affect the war in the hamlets and villages of South Vietnam, where the enemys covert infrastructure was left free to continue using coercion and terror to dominate the rural populace. Men and material the Union could provide its armies. Santa Anna would lose Texas at the Battle of San Jacinto. Like it or not, the U.S. military would become the governing authority. Allied with Brock was the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who was head of the most formidable pan-Indian military force the continent had ever seen. 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. In fifteen thought-provoking essays, each written by a professional military historian, readers are introduced . 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. Keep up with the world without stopping yours. 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. Although he managed to escape the battle unharmed, Caepio was stripped of his Roman citizenship and exiled. 92. Luckily for the colonists, the Empire also had Cornwallis, a peer of the realm and truly pitiful commander. Yet, Hannibal nevertheless ranks as one of the worlds epic fails. The Biden administration has passed landmark legislations such as theInflation Reduction Act(IRA) and theCHIPS and Science Act, which provide subsidies in clean energy and semiconductoShow morers worth well over $400 billion.