The world over, countries are embarking on ambitious projects of industrial policy. As a result, American military power and prestige took a dramatic downturn. Santa Anna liked to call himself the Napoleon of the West. And, like Napoleon, he squandered it all in one grand campaign. 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. Some 15,000 talents of gold (the so-called Gold of Tolosa) had vanished under his watch, never to be recovered. Although he managed to escape the battle unharmed, Caepio was stripped of his Roman citizenship and exiled. In 1975, when the Vietnam War ended, the Vietnamese army had only 36 generals, but by 2018, peace-time Vietnam had 415 military officers holding general ranks. Vast areas dotted with villages were blasted with artillery, bombed from the air. 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. The Russian president got many things wrong about invading Ukrainebut not everything. Arminius cut off his head and sent it to another Germanic leader as a present. You worked for GEN Westmoreland when he was Army Chief of Staff. Many historians have said Bragg was one of the worst generals of the Civil War, having lost most of his battles. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? Here's What You Need To Remember:The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. 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. up as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. Even now, the easiest way to get into an argument at a V.F.W. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, Chinas Censors Are Afraid of What Chatbots Might Say, The U.S. 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. How well that would have worked can be seen when Gates was sent to command American troops in the South. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Cue the protests from other parts of the globe: A chorus of nations are accusing Washington of fostering unfair competition. You start by being the only thing that can frustrate Napoleon more than a Russian winter. Russias war is receiving critical assistance from authoritarian regimes around the world. Vice President, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. But its not just the United States. Create an FP account to save articles to read later and in the FP mobile app. Finally, when it comes to bad generals, let us remember Truman's immortal words about firing MacArthur: I fired him because he wouldn't respect the authority of the President. Westmoreland was on a treadmill. But his crowning achievement was bad generalship in Korea. After eight years at Foreign Policy, here are the ten most popular Best Defense posts. Brock, sensing an opportunity, advised an immediate march on Fort Detroit. 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. Nor is being a bad battlefield commander, by itself, sufficient to make the cut. 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). These operations were designed to seek out enemy forces and engage them in decisive battle. Vietnam War. This infuriated the Marines, who viewed it as evidence that Westmoreland lacked confidence in them. He still had his defenders, but they were in the last trench, barely holding on. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. 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). But Franks, who commanded the invasion, made a bad situation worse. Diem's family was one of the earliest to convert to Catholicism, a religion he took . Only recently have those in the defense and military complex begun to look at how we rate generals. The Western Front was a much bigger stage upon which to fail, however, and British commander Douglas Haig made the most of the opportunity. General Wheeler was often just flat wrong in what he told the President. 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. To counter these, Major General William R. Peers commenced Operation Greeley using elements of the 4th Infantry Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade. 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. Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. General Earle Wheeler was essentially a staff officer with virtually no troop leading experience, much less combat acumen. 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. 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. A key plank in the Democratic platform that year was, appropriately, not fighting, and McClellan lost in a rout. Sure, he was the greatest commander of the Second Punic War, a titanic contest between Carthage and Rome. Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy is a shadow of its former self.. General and presidential candidate Douglas MacArthur (1880 - 1964) at his headquarters in Yokohama, Japan with US Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright (1883 - 1953) (right), and British Lieutenant-General A E Percival (1887 - 1966) (left) who were taken prisoner by the Japanese after the US retreat in the Bataan peninsula and released in 1945. That may have been true in the east (the worst of the Union generals in that theater rates his own entry on this list), but in the west it was a much different affair. 7. He was responsible for coming up with the idea of using force to restore constitutional order in Chechnya. When he made public his disagreements with President Truman, Truman rightfully fired him. But there was something that not even the factories of New York and Chicago could produce, and that was time. Despite fresh salvos of Western sanctions, Tehran and Moscow are buddying up on defense ties. 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. Along with Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Montgomery is the most celebrated of British generals and had the ego to match, or even exceed, his reputation. What does that mean for trade and globalization? Relations between the United States and China seem to be getting frostier by the day. 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? What he did not divulge publicly was that the United States. 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. Follow him on Twitter:@Mipeck1. A very significant instance was his determination to arbitrarily hold down the estimate of enemy strength during a 1967 order of battle controversy. Franz Conrad von Htzendorf of Austria couldnt decide which country he wanted to invade, so the German General Staff eventually took his armies away. Yes, eminently. But the rash advance into North Korea was a blunder of strategic proportions. Darius was a different sort of game-changer. 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. 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. (You May Also Like: 5 Israeli Weapons of War ISIS Should Fear). Some would say that failure on the battlefield warrants censure. Allied with Brock was the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who was head of the most formidable pan-Indian military force the continent had ever seen. Lebanon (1982-1984) 240. After the Germans attacked, Gamelin was eventually removed from his post, but by then it was too late. 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. Following on from our list of the greatest and most successful military commanders, we are presenting this list of the worst. At this point, things somehow got worse for Hull. Without question, many lives would be saved if their tactical professionalism were enhanced.. Varus was stationed with three of his legions, the 17th, 18th and 19th when news arrived of a revolt growing in the Rhine area. Argentina, Brazil, and the Brazilian puppet government in Uruguay formed an alliance, and on May 1, 1865, they declared war on Paraguay. 336 pages | 16 halftones | 6 1/4 x 9 1/4. By signing up, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to occasionally receive special offers from Foreign Policy. [1] 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. He called for bombing China, as if liberating Korea was worth risking 550 million Chinese and possibly war with Russia as well. Westmorelands devotion to advancing his own interests, even when necessary by misrepresentation, was fundamentally at odds with what Scouting is all about. 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. Men and material the Union could provide its armies. Explore the benefits included in your subscription. What will another year of war look like? 1968 takes the cake for me. He continued on to suffer defeats at Spion Kop and Vaal Krantz, almost letting the war slip away from the British. The war soon ended in a Russian defeat, with hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties. 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. Instead he simply sent more and more replacements to make up his losses. Again fighting outnumbered Texans, this time Santa Anna would lose the battle stunningly. 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. But then MacArthur thrived on controversy like bread thrives on yeast. 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. Watchthe conversation onFP Live, the magazines forum for live journalism, orreada condensed transcript. Driven into exile in 1845, he contacted U.S. Pres. Military greatness can most easily be defined by comparison. If Gates had been in command, we might be paying for our groceries with shillings and pence. 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. The next major British offensive came at Passchendaele (July 31November 6, 1917), where Haig lost another 275,000 troops in a battle whose name became synonymous with pointless slaughter. This was true in matters both great and small. After only an eight-day siege, he surrendered his entire armya third of all British forces in America. On September 9, 1965, Navy Cmdr. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. 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. 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. Assuming you believe the subtitle to be accurate, who were GEN Westmorelands biggest accomplices in the loss? While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 1. Lyndon Johnson had no understanding of military affairs whatever, nor did Robert McNamara. Thus, almost by default, Westmoreland was left to go his own way, year after bloody year. 88,594. Hull withdrew after a series of harassing attacks by Tecumsehs highly mobile raiding parties. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. A curated selection of our very best long reads. Delivered Wednesday. He was indeed a capable warrior, as shown by the South Pacific campaign and the Inchon landing in Korea. 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. 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. He was certainly nave, but the Boy Scouts need to be defended here. (The leg did get a state funeral). These American commanders have lost the battle for history. Thus there was little internal capacity for debating or evaluating his chosen course of action. 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. If there was a saving grace for America, it was that he wasn't commanding an army. 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. Despite the Union outnumbering the Confederates, McClellan was unable to crush Robert E. Lee after failing to pursue him into Virginia. Panama (1989) 2. 3. Hull was taken prisoner by the British and was court-martialed upon his return to the United States. The Top Ten. 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). He ran as a Democrat against Lincoln in the 1864 presidential election. His senior staff lacked diversity of experience and professional outlook, consisting mostly of people with backgrounds similar to his own, especially airborne. There is no Carthage. What does that mean for trade and globalization? 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. With high hopes set upon his shoulders at the beginning of the American Civil war, quickly becoming General-in-Chief of the Union Army, McClellan would earn the distinction as a general of little action. Grant left politics to the politicians and did what had to be done. Gates thought otherwise, and fancied himself a better commander than George Washington. 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. 5. Luckily for the colonists, the Empire also had Cornwallis, a peer of the realm and truly pitiful commander. Here are five of America's worst generals: Great generals have great talents, and usually egos and ambitions to match. 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. Defining that is like defining a bad meal. 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. Feel free to mention any others you may know of in the comments. Many of these generals had their worst defeats when their countries were least prepared for conflict, such as the hapless Soviet generals who faced the German infiltration of Russia in 1941. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Pillow pulled the troops back to the fort to resupply them. Delivered Wednesday. 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. Publication of the PROVN Study, whose precepts were later implemented with great success by Westmorelands successor, illustrated a matter of fundamental importance. Years later, when Marine Corps historians were at work on their history of the war, Westmoreland met with them. Thats the point. Darius family would be captured and even lost the Battle of Gaugamela, where so many factors were in his favor. In 334 BC, Alexander the Great invaded the Persian Empire. You may opt out at any time. Some historians are a little more sympathetic towards Percivals legacy nowadays arguing that Percival had been dealt an unusually bad hand. Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon Baines Johnson announced his fateful decision to double the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam. Because he never wanted to face a superior force, he refused to fight. Download the FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. 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. The last king of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, Darius was not quite as qualified to rule a mighty empire as his predecessors were. George Brinton McClellan, a self-proclaimed Young Napoleon, ran dreadful campaigns, but he doesnt make the grade because he was canned before he could lose the entire war. Others were experienced military men who should have known better than to take the risks they took - or not take the risks they should have. Hundreds of thousands died of disease. The Americans lacked sufficient troops, supplies and air cover (when was the last time an American general had to fight a battle while being pounded by enemy bombers?). 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. Even if Moscow holds onto territory, the war has wrecked its future. Perhaps Mao would have intervened anyway. He gritted his teeth and wore down the Confederacy with incessant attacks until the South could take no more. The Romans marched right into the ambush that Arminius laid thus leading to the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. As for the British, they had lost the most valuable jewel of the Imperial crown. bar is to mention Vietnam. Not that Fredendall didn't have real issues that would have tried any commander. The rise of American-made chatbots has kicked off a flurry of Chinese activity. Lpez, possibly in a fit of madness, ordered the execution of hundreds of people, including some of his own family members. 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. 5. How does an admiral make a list of the worst generals? On the other hand, there was that bad day at the Battle of Salamis when most of the Persian fleet went to the bottom. In a war that saw more than its share of unskilled politically appointed generals, Pillow was arguably the worst on either side. 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. How theyve practiced the art of war is immaterial, too. Keep up with the world without stopping yours. On March 24, 1976, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1 st Viscount of Alamein, hero of World War II, died at home in England. 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. But the inducements encourage U.S. companies to invest only at homenot elsewhere. 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.
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