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. Armchair historians often generalize that during the American Civil War, while the Union held a clear advantage in material, the Confederacy could field superior commanders. Fort Bragg was named in 1918 during the Jim Crow era. 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. 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. Military Percival surrendered Malaya to Japanese forces in early 1942, defying Winston Churchills own instructions for prolonged resistance. The world over, countries are embarking on ambitious projects of industrial policy. After his defeat by the Texans at the Battle of San Jacinto, Santa Anna was captured. Major General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend The idiot who, seeking self aggrandisement, led his army, Force D, to disaster at Kut in WW1. It was anotherhistory-changingevent, the birth of a truly exceptional nation. In the famous Battle of the Alamo, Santa Anna struggled to defeat about 250 Texans with 2,400 Mexicans and subsequently lost nearly 600 men. Westmoreland held a press conference in which he categorically denied any such loss of confidence. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. In the end, the Romans leveled Carthage and salted the earth. This would be known as the Tet Offensive and would become a major turning point in the war. This week marks exactly one year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. Todays list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam. Necessarily, more is lost to time than is remembered. The Texans only suffered 2 casualties, as opposed to hundreds of Mexican casualties. There is no Carthage. Where is Carthage you ask? Approaching his 60th birthday and exhibiting a timidity that had no place in a general about to lead an invasion, Hull also had the misfortune of facing two of the most gifted commanders ever to operate in North America. 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. 8. Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy is a shadow of its former self.. . 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 Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial LectureThomas E. Ricks is a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). He lacked the schooling and relevant experience to understand the war and devise a viable approach to prosecuting it. Thus there was little internal capacity for debating or evaluating his chosen course of action. Franz Conrad von Htzendorf of Austria couldnt decide which country he wanted to invade, so the German General Staff eventually took his armies away. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail. - 2 Worst: 2007 Washington Wizards. Vietnam War. Gods and Generals (2003) Loss $61 million These are actually Civil War reenactors and probably the only people who paid to see the movie. Woefully inexperienced U.S. soldiers found themselves against Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps veterans. These are the incompetents, the idiots, the bumblers who have represented armies or nations at war only to lead them to defeat or shame. At Brownstown, south of Detroit, two dozen warriors under Tecumseh routed more than 200 American militiamen escorting a supply column intended for Detroit. Yet, Hannibal nevertheless ranks as one of the worlds epic fails. 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. But his crowning achievement was bad generalship in Korea. His invasion of Canada came to an abrupt halt when he failed to capture Fort Malden, a British position that was a laughably short distance from Hulls headquarters at Fort Detroit. Delivered Thursday. 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. And how might that be impacting the world? 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. Assuming you believe the subtitle to be accurate, who were GEN Westmorelands biggest accomplices in the loss? They dramatically upped their game, pressing the U.S. worldwide. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. There were available better concepts of how to prosecute the war. Men and material the Union could provide its armies. 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. Varus himself, seeing all hope was lost, committed suicide. McClellan was removed from command immediately after. The latest news, analysis, and data from the country each week. On the night of August 15, 1812, Tecumseh led his forces across the Detroit River, and Brock followed the next morning. If Gates had been in command, we might be paying for our groceries with shillings and pence. Without question, many lives would be saved if their tactical professionalism were enhanced.. There are a number of contenders for the top places on such a roster. 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. 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. Routed by U.S. forces under Winfield Scott, Santa Anna was again driven into exile. While serving in Vietnam . Weekly update on whats driving U.S. national security policy. The alternative was to split the United States asunder. Not only is Sorley a third-generation graduate of West Point a Vietnam veteran and a historian, but he worked for Westmoreland as well. Once again, McClellan worked his organizational magic, restoring the morale of a shattered Union army. Innumerable battlefield commanders have had disastrous days at the office. The 20th century is the most violent century in history. As a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he theoretically had some influence there, at least to the extent he could shape the collective viewpoint, but even then LBJ and McNamara were famously impervious to advice from the Joint Chiefs. 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. Delivered Monday-Friday. Who was the worst general in history? 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. Argentina, Brazil, and the Brazilian puppet government in Uruguay formed an alliance, and on May 1, 1865, they declared war on Paraguay. 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. The Western Front was a much bigger stage upon which to fail, however, and British commander Douglas Haig made the most of the opportunity. 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. Is Weiss correct? 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. Explore the benefits included in your subscription. His was one of just two French ships of the line to escape the destruction of the French fleet there. What is a bad general? How theyve practiced the art of war is immaterial, too. The resulting Peninsular Campaign (AprilJuly 1862) was a marvel of planning but something of a farce in execution. 1968 takes the cake for me. This strategy inevitably failed as the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong maintained control over how the war was fought which was through guerilla warfare. With the Little Corporal running everything, Europe might have become a very different place. Nor is being a bad battlefield commander, by itself, sufficient to make the cut. Pierre de Villeneuve had his first brush with history when he bravely ran away at the Battle of the Nile. Hull responded by ordering the evacuation of Fort Dearborn, and the garrison was promptly massacred by a Potawatomi war band upon leaving the fort. George McClellan is one of those generals who really looks great on paper. 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. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on It was a humiliating baptism of fire for the U.S. Army in Europe, and more important, caused British commanders to dismiss their Yank allies as amateur soldiers for the rest of the war. Tom Ricks, on his "Best Defense" blog has discussed the top 10 worst generals in U.S. history. But the rash advance into North Korea was a blunder of strategic proportions.
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