The Worst American Civil War Generals and Commanders To accomplish this goal, Vietnam employs repressive policies that often contravene international human rights law. 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. 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. For its part, Washington has made a series of policy choices over the last few years that can be summed Show moreup as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. 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. Hull, convinced that he was hopelessly outnumbered (he wasnt), surrendered Fort Detroit and its 2,000-man garrison without firing a shot. It wouldn't take a large force to slice through the ramshackle Iraqi army and topple Saddam Hussein, but securing a country the size of Iraq required a larger force. The War of the Triple Alliance devastated Paraguay. Arminius cut off his head and sent it to another Germanic leader as a present. How theyve practiced the art of war is immaterial, too. Among the most detrimental and problematic policies are the incarceration of drug users in compulsory treatment centers, and the stigmatization and abuse of consumers by the police. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? Darius again was the first to flee the battle, abandoning all of his soldiers and his property to be taken by Alexander. Civil War Casualties | American Battlefield Trust Operational Culture General Training LREC SME Support Training Course Catalog Cognitive Dimension Training Additional Resources . Others would say that it is not victory, but success in fulfilling a mission that counts. Still, it is his world-changing defeat at Yorktown that merits memorializing. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. But there was something that not even the factories of New York and Chicago could produce, and that was time. Feel free to mention any others you may know of in the comments. 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? In a war that saw more than its share of unskilled politically appointed generals, Pillow was arguably the worst on either side. Creighton Abrams was an U.S. Army General who commanded American military operations in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1972. 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. In the end, the Romans leveled Carthage and salted the earth. 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. The enemy simply kept sending more and more replacements to make up his losses. Lpez was the son of Carlos Antonio Lpez, a dictator who had done much to modernize Paraguay in the mid-19th century. When two able and progressive Nationalist generals, Pai Chunghsi and Li Tsung-jen, begged the generalissimo to adopt similar methods, Chiang rejected them outright. Black Vietnam Veterans on Injustices They Faced: Da 5 Bloods - Time Luckily for the colonists, the Empire also had Cornwallis, a peer of the realm and truly pitiful commander. However, Ludendorff and German General Staff chief Helmuth von Moltke had altered the Schlieffen PlanGermanys overall battle plan for fighting a two-front warin a way that had weakened the attacking army on the Western Front. As the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, he faced a two-front war, an insurgency in the South and an invading army from the North. Westmoreland was on a treadmill. The latest news, analysis, and data from the country each week. At the Battle of Gaugamela, he helped make Alexander great by losing half his army to the Macedonian upstart. 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. Not that Fredendall didn't have real issues that would have tried any commander. 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. According to formerly classified Army documents, an investigation disclosed that from at least March 1968 through October 1969, "Vietnamese [civilian] detainees were subjected to maltreatment" by. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. 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. After early success in the Mexican War for Independence, the rest of his career didnt pan out the way he would have liked. He was killed in combat on March 1, 1870. Alas, call it the laws of probability or just cosmic karma, but every nation produces bad generals as well as good onesand . What does that mean for trade and globalization? 7 Of The Worst Military Leaders In History, That You Didn't Know About The man who appealed for Varus help was Arminius, a Romanized Germanic prince. Some historians are a little more sympathetic towards Percivals legacy nowadays arguing that Percival had been dealt an unusually bad hand. Lpez, possibly in a fit of madness, ordered the execution of hundreds of people, including some of his own family members. Concurrently with hi. 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. 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. James Jay Carafano is a leading expert in national security and foreign policy challenges. James Madison spared him from execution. Yet Fredendall's solution was to order an Army engineer company to build a giant bunker a hundred miles from the front lines. The Cimbri destroyed Caepios force and, emboldened by their success, marched on Maximuss camp. He thought he could take over the war from the South Vietnamese, bring it to a successful conclusion, and then hand their country back to them and go home in triumph. Necessarily, more is lost to time than is remembered. Publication of the PROVN Study, whose precepts were later implemented with great success by Westmorelands successor, illustrated a matter of fundamental importance. - 2 Worst: 2007 Washington Wizards. All the enemys losses were quickly made up. Haig was cruelly mocked, first in the satirical musical Oh! Whatever its military wisdom or lack thereof, it was a decision that should not have been made by generals under the American political system. At this point, things somehow got worse for Hull. 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. Who Were the Worst Generals in History? (You May Also Like: 5 Israeli Weapons of War ISIS Should Fear). But the inducements encourage U.S. companies to invest only at homenot elsewhere. 5. In the opening month of World War I, Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg scored a crushing victory over the Russians at Tannenberg. He lacked the schooling and relevant experience to understand the war and devise a viable approach to prosecuting it. All related (37) Sort Recommended Doug Szabo Author has 972 answers and 137.7K answer views Nov 27 My vote goes to adm Otto Zumwalt. In 1940, after increasing pressure from dictator Benito Mussolini and facing demotion, Graziani followed orders and invaded Egypt with his Tenth Army. Despite the Union outnumbering the Confederates, McClellan was unable to crush Robert E. Lee after failing to pursue him into Virginia. Thus it was under Darius rule that the Persian Empire fell and was conquered. [i] However, the list is subjective, and open to debate, as top 10 lists tend to be. The heavily forested, swampy terrain made the Legions maneuvers impossible. Thats the point. Scilit | Article - A Slow March from Social Evil to Harm Reduction Only FP subscribers can submit questions for FP Live interviews. Where is Carthage you ask? The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. Lincoln relieved McClellan but reinstated him after the devastating Union defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run. He continued to view attrition as the most effective strategy for defeating Germany; the British lost some 420,000 men at the Somme. He bears a lot of responsibility for one the greatest reversals of military fortune ever experienced by a super power. rs worth well over $400 billion. Grachev has also been linked to corruption among the higher ranks of the military, specifically the assassination of journalist Dmitry Kholodov. The Vietnam War, as Seen by the Victors - The Atlantic It was anotherhistory-changingevent, the birth of a truly exceptional nation. Westmorelands first resort in claiming progress in the war was always body count, but in fact this was meaningless. How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command? Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. Westmoreland told him, "We're killing these people at a ratio of 10 to 1.". Muammar Al-Gaddafi. 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. Here's What You Need To Remember:The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. These American commanders have lost the battle for history. 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. The world over, countries are embarking on ambitious projects of industrial policy. Again fighting outnumbered Texans, this time Santa Anna would lose the battle stunningly. General Earle Wheeler was essentially a staff officer with virtually no troop leading experience, much less combat acumen. 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. 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. At Brownstown, south of Detroit, two dozen warriors under Tecumseh routed more than 200 American militiamen escorting a supply column intended for Detroit. Like it or not, the U.S. military would become the governing authority. 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. Instead the enemy proved willing to absorb horrifying losses and keep fighting. 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. Still, he choked in the big game. 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. 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. Men and material the Union could provide its armies. Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy is a shadow of its former self.. Dispatched to India, he led campaigns to help subdue the subcontinent, replacing the crown jewel he had lost. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. Even if Moscow holds onto territory, the war has wrecked its future. Hulls nerve was shattered. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals. Little Mac would prove himself to be a superb organizer who kept his army well supplied, efficiently run, and happy. [1] These two instances are illustrative of many, many more, ranging from his actions or lack of action in combat situations to his determination to take over the war and win it with U.S. forces to his resultant failure to build up South Vietnamese forces to the validity of body count to the decision to close Khe Sanh to his actions when Lang Vei was overrun to denying predictions he had made of an early end to the war to claims of not being surprised at Tet 1968 to denying a post-Tet request for many additional U.S. forces. 10. The Worst Military Leaders in History review from Ancient Rome to Vietnam 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. Alexander, Napoleon, Rommel. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. Pillow escaped during the night, leaving Simon B. Buckner to surrender the fort and 15,000 Confederate troops. There is no Carthage. After the Germans attacked, Gamelin was eventually removed from his post, but by then it was too late. Marine Corps Casualties 1775-2016 - Marine Corps University Over time Westmoreland asked for and received large numbers of U.S. troops, eventually totaling well over half a million. Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics Not only is Sorley a third-generation graduate of West Point a Vietnam veteran and a historian, but he worked for Westmoreland as well. McClellan was a proto-Douglas MacArthur who bad-mouthed his president and commander-in-chief. But the rash advance into North Korea was a blunder of strategic proportions. Westmorelands devotion to advancing his own interests, even when necessary by misrepresentation, was fundamentally at odds with what Scouting is all about. Your guide to the most important world stories of the day. Driven into exile in 1845, he contacted U.S. Pres. Maximus managed to form up his men but to no avail. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln. The initial assault resulted in very high casualties for the Russians and an almost complete breakdown of morale in the Russian forces. In reality, it is a collection of ideas, images, and information that enough people have chosen to preserve and disseminate. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on Today's list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam Advancing in dispersed columns across the northern half of the peninsula was an invitation to be destroyed piecemeal. He decided to conduct of a war of attrition, using search and destroy tactics, in which the measure of merit was body count. 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. Jacob Zuma is a cherry on the top of the world's worst leader cake. Darius was a different sort of game-changer. Allied with Brock was the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who was head of the most formidable pan-Indian military force the continent had ever seen. Simultaneously, he contacted Maximilian to offer the young emperor his services.