Hull was taken prisoner by the British and was court-martialed upon his return to the United States. Washington also suffered his share of defeats. He was responsible for coming up with the idea of using force to restore constitutional order in Chechnya. One-stop digest of politics, economics, and culture. Their orientation, indeed the core of Scoutings values, is selflessness and service to others. They care about the one. Westmoreland didnt get it. Fighter Aircraft of All Time). Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. 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). His was one of just two French ships of the line to escape the destruction of the French fleet there. 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. 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. His prestige restored by his conduct during the Pastry War with France, Santa Anna once again claimed dictatorial powers. Lpez, possibly in a fit of madness, ordered the execution of hundreds of people, including some of his own family members. He decided to conduct of a war of attrition, using search and destroy tactics, in which the measure of merit was body count. This would be known as the Tet Offensive and would become a major turning point in the war. He retreated to Malta but was captured when that island fell to the British. Applications for the Gettysburg College-Gilder Lehrman MA program are open and considered on a rolling basis. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln. Others would say that it is not victory, but success in fulfilling a mission that counts. Its prewar population was reduced by more than half, and perhaps 90 percent of Paraguays fighting-age men perished. 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. Delivered Wednesday. 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. Instead the enemy proved willing to absorb horrifying losses and keep fighting. Michael Ray oversees coverage of European history and military affairs for Britannica. The world over, countries are embarking on ambitious projects of industrial policy. What a Lovely War and then in the 1989 television comedy series Blackadder Goes Forth. Find Paraguay on a map of South America. A more positive example is George Washington. (You May Also Like: 5 Israeli Weapons of War ISIS Should Fear). 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. Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy is a shadow of its former self.. Darius never showed up for the first battle and defeat (Battle of Granicus) because he didnt see Alexander as much of a threat to his empire. - 4 Worst: 1990 Cleveland Cavaliers. 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. This strategy inevitably failed as the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong maintained control over how the war was fought which was through guerilla warfare. How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command? Despite Lincoln's pleas for aggressive action, his Army of the Potomac moved hesitantly, its commander McClellan convinced himself that the Southern armies vastly outnumbered him when logic should have told him that it was the North that enjoyed an abundance of resources. Most younger officers who worked around General Westmoreland, excepting only a very few among his many aides-de-camp or executive officers and the like, had no personal relationship with this difficult and distant man. The resulting Peninsular Campaign (AprilJuly 1862) was a marvel of planning but something of a farce in execution. These operations were designed to seek out enemy forces and engage them in decisive battle. Varus placed his legions in a position where their fighting strengths would be minimized and that of the Germanic Cherusci tribesman maximized. The British gained control of the fort, dozens of cannons, the brig USS Adams (recommissioned the HMS Detroit), and virtually the entire Michigan Territory. How the North Vietnamese remember the conflict 40 years after the fall of Saigon. 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. My generation would likely vote for the year exactly one-half century ago as the absolutely worst year in our lifetimes. 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. Alexander, Napoleon, Rommel. Hundreds of thousands died of disease. Horacio Gates of the American Revolution was pretty bad. Delivered Thursday. 151. Lewis Sorleys new book, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, is being published today by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Historian Lewis Sorley author of 1999s well-regarded A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of Americans Last Years in Vietnam now zeroes in on General William Westmoreland. In reality, it is a collection of ideas, images, and information that enough people have chosen to preserve and disseminate. He was killed in combat on March 1, 1870. The heavily forested, swampy terrain made the Legions maneuvers impossible. He continued on to suffer defeats at Spion Kop and Vaal Krantz, almost letting the war slip away from the British. But the inducements encourage U.S. companies to invest only at homenot elsewhere. The premise was that, if he could kill enough of the enemy, they would lose heart and cease their aggression against the South Vietnamese. Abraham Lincoln. James K. Polk. Essential analysis of the stories shaping geopolitics on the continent. Download the FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. James Madison spared him from execution. 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. 10. 0. Diem's family was one of the earliest to convert to Catholicism, a religion he took . Feel free to mention any others you may know of in the comments. War is an extension of politics, and if commanders dont help secure the desired political ends, they get a failing grade. 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. 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. He ran as a Democrat against Lincoln in the 1864 presidential election. 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). 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. Want to read more on this topic or region? There are a number of contenders for the top places on such a roster. A Brief History. In 1940, after increasing pressure from dictator Benito Mussolini and facing demotion, Graziani followed orders and invaded Egypt with his Tenth Army. Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon Baines Johnson announced his fateful decision to double the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam. McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from scratch. This entire list could be populated with Roman commanders, but one manages to rise above the rest with an ineptitude that defies logic. 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. If it couldn't or wouldn't govern the country, who would? 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. Some would say that failure on the battlefield warrants censure. 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. A final humiliation came during Mexican-American War. As a military commander, Napoleon may have thebest batting averageof all time. 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. Gates thought otherwise, and fancied himself a better commander than George Washington. 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 1970s were scary times. Years later, when Marine Corps historians were at work on their history of the war, Westmoreland met with them. 1. Military. Finally, there was MacArthur's insubordination. Westmorelands general mistake: severely underestimating the Communists. The stabbed in the back myth did much to propel the ascent of Adolf Hitler, and Ludendorff was a key participant in the Beer Hall Putsch. More ways to stay updated on global news: By submitting your email, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to receive email correspondence from us. But MacArthur's strategy certainly helped unleash 300,000 Chinese "volunteers" who inflicted significant casualties on United Nations forces. These battlefield bumblers serve to provide that contrast. in history from Michigan State University in 1995. He lacked the schooling and relevant experience to understand the war and devise a viable approach to prosecuting it. 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. Percival was off mistreating Irish Republican Army (IRA) leaders during the Anglo-Irish War before commanding British Malaya in World War II. 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. 1 Erwin Rommel Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, popularly known as the Desert Fox, was a German field marshal of World War II. While there are plenty of books that analyze the keys to success, The Worst Military Leaders in History offers lessons of failure to avoid. Some 15,000 talents of gold (the so-called Gold of Tolosa) had vanished under his watch, never to be recovered. Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security. Hull responded by ordering the evacuation of Fort Dearborn, and the garrison was promptly massacred by a Potawatomi war band upon leaving the fort. Not only is Sorley a third-generation graduate of West Point a Vietnam veteran and a historian, but he worked for Westmoreland as well. The latest news, analysis, and data from the country each week. Sure, he won big at the Alamo. In a war that saw more than its share of unskilled politically appointed generals, Pillow was arguably the worst on either side. Hull, convinced that he was hopelessly outnumbered (he wasnt), surrendered Fort Detroit and its 2,000-man garrison without firing a shot. There was no warmth, no apparent interest in his associates as people. Men and material the Union could provide its armies. By the end of the conflict, America had unleashed the equivalent of 640 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs on Vietnam. In the end, the Romans leveled Carthage and salted the earth. 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.. You start by being the only thing that can frustrate Napoleon more than a Russian winter. The initial assault resulted in very high casualties for the Russians and an almost complete breakdown of morale in the Russian forces. Hannibal. 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. Todays list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam. Yes, Westmoreland was the general who lost Vietnam. Cornwallis later did redeem himself militarily. In a war that saw more than its share of unskilled politically appointed generals, Pillow was arguably the worst on either side. There were available better concepts of how to prosecute the war. How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command? 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. A Texan with the U.S. Army's 1 st Infantry Division, Nolan reportedly slipped away from his basecamp in Tay Ninh Province on Nov. 22, 1967 and turned himself over to the Viet Cong. Two of the more prominent of these mistakes, both with wide and sweeping results, were the June 22, 1941 invasion of the USSROperation Barbarossaand the December 11, 1941 unprovoked and unwarranted declaration of war on the United Statesagainst the advice of Hitler's Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop. Although Westmoreland denied it, he imposed a ceiling on the reported number of enemy by instructing his intelligence officers to adhere to a command position of not more than 300,000, even though newly acquired and more accurate data developed in his own headquarters then indicated a much higher figure. Because he never wanted to face a superior force, he refused to fight. But he was overly cautious by nature. James K. Polk. 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. Two years later, he lost a leg fighting the French. The world over, countries are embarking on ambitious projects of industrial policy. The self proclaimed Napoleon of the West didnt quite leave the same legacy as his idol. 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. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. The Worst Civil War Generals on the Confederacy Confederate Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow. Not that Fredendall didn't have real issues that would have tried any commander. By signing up, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to occasionally receive special offers from Foreign Policy. They dramatically upped their game, pressing the U.S. worldwide. 3. After only an eight-day siege, he surrendered his entire armya third of all British forces in America. 2. 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. And how might that be impacting the world? Westmoreland was on a treadmill. His bad luck didnt end at San Jacinto. So what is the standard of shame for induction? 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. Dispatched to India, he led campaigns to help subdue the subcontinent, replacing the crown jewel he had lost. He is the dumb ass who gave the order to exfoliate the jungles with agent orange. Percival surrendered Malaya to Japanese forces in early 1942, defying Winston Churchills own instructions for prolonged resistance. All rights reserved. Grachev played a key role in initiating and leading the First Chechen War. Test yourself on the week of Feb. 25: Nigeria votes, Finland builds a border wall, and Israel escalates repression. This week marks exactly one year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. Thus it was under Darius rule that the Persian Empire fell and was conquered. 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. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on. After being taken prisoner (again) by the British, Villeneuve was released but committed suicide rather than face Napoleons wrath. After early success in the Mexican War for Independence, the rest of his career didnt pan out the way he would have liked. He effectively pledged to become an agent for the U.S. but found that he had been deposed upon his return to Mexico. 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. You worked for GEN Westmoreland when he was Army Chief of Staff. Franz Conrad von Htzendorf of Austria couldnt decide which country he wanted to invade, so the German General Staff eventually took his armies away. 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. 2. Not one to let his own failings stand in the way of personal glory, Pillow submitted fanciful accounts of his actions at the Battles of Contreras and Churubusco to various newspapers, incurring the wrath of overall American commander Winfield Scott. Persian Gulf (1988) (Oil Platforms) 2. 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. After months of inactivity, McClellan was finally spurred to action by Pres. The enemy simply kept sending more and more replacements to make up his losses. 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. [i] However, the list is subjective, and open to debate, as top 10 lists tend to be. See the vast swaths of land to the north and south that arent Paraguay? 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. Muammar Al-Gaddafi. But Gates could have doomed the American Revolution. Santa Anna, a lifetime gambler, was known for his risk taking in battle, but also his brutality. Youre on the list! 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. 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. But with that kind of advantage in troops and firepower, who wouldnt? Would he be upset if he were alive to read this book today? 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 Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. 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. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. As for the British, they had lost the most valuable jewel of the Imperial crown. Copyright 2023 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved, as Continental Army commander during the momentous American defeat of a British army at Saratoga in 1777, The Five Best U.S. T he Civil War was America's bloodiest conflict. 336 pages | 16 halftones | 6 1/4 x 9 1/4. Santa Anna liked to call himself the Napoleon of the West. And, like Napoleon, he squandered it all in one grand campaign. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln. Tom Ricks, on his "Best Defense" blog has discussed the top 10 worst generals in U.S. history. Alas, call it the laws of probability or just cosmic karma, but every nation produces bad generals as well as good onesand America is no exception. 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. There appeared to be little serious planning for what would happen the day after Saddam was gone. When two able and progressive Nationalist generals, Pai Chunghsi and Li Tsung-jen, begged the generalissimo to adopt similar methods, Chiang rejected them outright. The pandemics outbreak brought rare reporting freedoms. Ludendorff is one of historys greatest examples of a general who can win battles but still loses the war. Maximus managed to form up his men but to no avail. The Texans only suffered 2 casualties, as opposed to hundreds of Mexican casualties. 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. 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. Watch the conversation or read the condensed transcript. Allied with Brock was the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who was head of the most formidable pan-Indian military force the continent had ever seen. 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. The most important, and also the saddest, is that in Vietnam and thereafter Westmoreland was willing to shade or misremember or deny or invent the record when his perceived interests were at stake. 10. America, the Middle East and the rest of the world are still reaping the consequences of those omissions. During the darkest days of the rebellion, when Washington's army had been kicked out of New York and King George's star seemed ascendant, the "Conway cabal" of disgruntled officers and politicians unsuccessfully schemed to out Washington and appoint Gates. Lyndon Johnson had no understanding of military affairs whatever, nor did Robert McNamara. Westmoreland held a press conference in which he categorically denied any such loss of confidence. He would eventually be betrayed and killed by a friend. Grachev has also been linked to corruption among the higher ranks of the military, specifically the assassination of journalist Dmitry Kholodov. Some captured Romans were placed in wicker cages and burned alive, others were enslaved or ransomed. A more minor case, but one revealing of Westmorelands character, stemmed from his unwillingness to level with his senior Marine subordinate at the time of the 1968 Tet Offensive. Who was the worst general in history? Who was the worst US general during the Vietnam War? NEW FOR SUBSCRIBERS: He was a teacher in the Chicago suburbs and Seoul, Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. How do you measure military leaders? Panama (1989) 2. Darius again was the first to flee the battle, abandoning all of his soldiers and his property to be taken by Alexander. 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. And how might that be impacting the world? 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. Despite the Union outnumbering the Confederates, McClellan was unable to crush Robert E. Lee after failing to pursue him into Virginia. In order, from most culpable down. On the other hand, there was that bad day at the Battle of Salamis when most of the Persian fleet went to the bottom. Caepio reportedly lived out the remainder of his life in luxury, however. 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. Little Mac would prove himself to be a superb organizer who kept his army well supplied, efficiently run, and happy. 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. (The leg did get a state funeral). Hull had served with distinction in the Revolutionary War and was appointed governor of the Michigan Territory in 1805. It would be nice if all American generals were great. History: Military History. On the other side of the trenches in World War I was Erich Ludendorff, commanding the armies of Germany. Critics say that Franks and senior officials, such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, concocted an invasion plan that used too few troops. Born in 1901 in Quang Binh Province (part of North Vietnam), Diem was the son of a well-educated mandarin (Vietnamese civil servant who took part in running the country) who served as the Minister of Rites and Grand Chamberlain to Emperor Thanh-Thai (1889-1907).
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