Following on from our list of the greatest and most successful military commanders, we are presenting this list of the worst. 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 1940, after increasing pressure from dictator Benito Mussolini and facing demotion, Graziani followed orders and invaded Egypt with his Tenth Army. 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. [i] However, the list is subjective, and open to debate, as top 10 lists tend to be. Argentina, Brazil, and the Brazilian puppet government in Uruguay formed an alliance, and on May 1, 1865, they declared war on Paraguay. Yet, Hannibal nevertheless ranks as one of the worlds epic fails. 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. There are a number of contenders for the top places on such a roster. In other words, this book is a "how-not-to" guide to leadership. Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama. Sun Wu Sun Zi, or Sun Tzu, was a prominent military general during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) who is always regarded as one of the greatest military strategists in China and even the World. Still, it is his world-changing defeat at Yorktown that merits memorializing. Necessarily, more is lost to time than is remembered. While British cannons shelled the fort from the Canadian side of the river, Tecumseh marched his warriors through a forest clearing in an endless parade. Grant had encircled the fort. But for whatever reason, some American commanders have lost the battle for history. 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. They kept it as a war trophy, exhibiting the leg at. 1. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. Of course, that is what they did when Ludendorff pushed for the use of unrestricted submarine warfare against Allied shipping. These are the incompetents, the idiots, the bumblers who have represented armies or nations at war only to lead them to defeat or shame. Follow him on Twitter:@Mipeck1. 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The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. Hull had served with distinction in the Revolutionary War and was appointed governor of the Michigan Territory in 1805. 15. When major U.S. ground force deployments were under consideration in July 1965, for example, LBJ worried that North Vietnam would respond by pouring in more men of its own. He is the dumb ass who gave the order to exfoliate the jungles with agent orange. Grenada (1983) 3. Lewis Sorleys new book, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, is being published today by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. What does that mean for trade and globalization? Elmo Zumwalt was a U.S. admiral and commander of American naval forces in Vietnam. 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. Sure, he was the greatest commander of the Second Punic War, a titanic contest between Carthage and Rome. If Gates had been in command, we might be paying for our groceries with shillings and pence. 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. bar is to mention Vietnam. His 1812 campaign against Russia ended in complete disaster. His bad luck didnt end at San Jacinto. The premise was that, if he could kill enough of the enemy, they would lose heart and cease their aggression against the South Vietnamese. A key plank in the Democratic platform that year was, appropriately, not fighting, and McClellan lost in a rout. 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. in history from Michigan State University in 1995. 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. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, by Lewis Sorley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. . Todays list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam, Want to read more on this topic or region? He was found guilty of 11 counts, and only the intervention by Pres. His work as an observer during the Crimean War gave him insight into the importance of logistics for an industrialized army, and years spent as the chief of engineering for the Illinois Central Railroad made him aware of the transformative nature of rail transport. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. A Brief History. Percival surrendered Malaya to Japanese forces in early 1942, defying Winston Churchills own instructions for prolonged resistance. War is an extension of politics, and if commanders dont help secure the desired political ends, they get a failing grade. His battlefield losses marked the end of the Persian Empire. In the summer of 1967, the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) initiated a series of attacks in western Kontum Province. The resulting Peninsular Campaign (AprilJuly 1862) was a marvel of planning but something of a farce in execution. Where is Carthage you ask? 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. For the most accurate and up-to-date information, consult individual encyclopedia entries about the topics. 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. 5. He was called the inevitable general. A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. 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. The enemy simply kept sending more and more replacements to make up his losses. Think about how history would have been different if Hannibal had a military plan to outlast Roman might. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. He gritted his teeth and wore down the Confederacy with incessant attacks until the South could take no more. Lebanon (1982-1984) 240. Join in-depth conversations and interact with foreign-policy experts with. 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. After achieving moderate success in Libya and Ethiopia, the Butcher of Ethiopia became Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Royal Armys General Staff and of Italian North Africa at the start of World War II. 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.. Percival was off mistreating Irish Republican Army (IRA) leaders during the Anglo-Irish War before commanding British Malaya in World War II. Hull was thoroughly outclassed. Some captured Romans were placed in wicker cages and burned alive, others were enslaved or ransomed. Whatever its military wisdom or lack thereof, it was a decision that should not have been made by generals under the American political system. Gamelin also chose not to disperse Frances vast number of superior tanks. 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. History: Military History. Registration for summer courses begins March 18, 2023 and ends June 7, 2023. Applications for the Gettysburg College-Gilder Lehrman MA program are open and considered on a rolling basis. Woefully inexperienced U.S. soldiers found themselves against Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps veterans. Delivered Wednesday. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. Delivered Monday-Friday. A curated selection of our very best long reads. Considering some militants as instruments of regional influence while fighting others has had disastrous consequences. For many soldiers, a major tipping point happened when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, news of which reaches the soldiers in Da 5 Bloods during one particularly stirring scene . 10. Luckily for the colonists, the Empire also had Cornwallis, a peer of the realm and truly pitiful commander. 0. But the inducements encourage U.S. companies to invest only at homenot elsewhere. However, not even they managed to get themselves court-martialed and sentenced to death for ineptitude on the battlefield. Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all. When it came to military command, Westmoreland was everybody's all-Americanuntil he met his Waterloo. 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. But his crowning achievement was bad generalship in Korea. Create an FP account to save articles to read later and in the FP mobile app. But its not just the United States. On September 9, 1965, Navy Cmdr. (You May Also Like: The Five Best U.S. And how might that be impacting the world? Here's What You Need To Remember:The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. How the North Vietnamese remember the conflict 40 years after the fall of Saigon. In 1847, U.S. troops once again surprised Santa Anna and captured his prosthetic leg. In considering who should receive such a dubious honor, Ive consciously excluded bad leaders. (You May Also Like: The Five Best Generals in U.S. History). 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. Again fighting outnumbered Texans, this time Santa Anna would lose the battle stunningly. Brock, sensing an opportunity, advised an immediate march on Fort Detroit. 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. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. These operations were designed to seek out enemy forces and engage them in decisive battle. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. Darius was a different sort of game-changer. Relations between the United States and China seem to be getting frostier by the day. Varus trust in Arminius was an obvious and terrible misjudgment. 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. 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. This infuriated the Marines, who viewed it as evidence that Westmoreland lacked confidence in them. With the Little Corporal running everything, Europe might have become a very different place. But Franks, who commanded the invasion, made a bad situation worse. 6. 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. One-stop digest of politics, economics, and culture. He ran as a Democrat against Lincoln in the 1864 presidential election. 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. America, the Middle East and the rest of the world are still reaping the consequences of those omissions. 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. Years later, when Marine Corps historians were at work on their history of the war, Westmoreland met with them. 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. Although he outnumbered Magruders Army of the Peninsula 10-to-1, McClellan settled in for a monthlong siege. Hulls nerve was shattered. 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. Caepio was born into a noble family and became consul in 106 BC. 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. 4. Find Paraguay on a map of South America. On September 2, 1945, hours after the Japanese signed their unconditional surrender in World War II, communist leader Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam, hoping. - 2 Worst: 2007 Washington Wizards. 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. When two able and progressive Nationalist generals, Pai Chunghsi and Li Tsung-jen, begged the generalissimo to adopt similar methods, Chiang rejected them outright. 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. 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. Despite reports of the build-up of German forces and even knowing the date of the Germans attack, Gamelin did nothing, stating that he would await events. In the end, the Romans leveled Carthage and salted the earth. Hundreds of thousands died of disease. Lyndon Johnson had no understanding of military affairs whatever, nor did Robert McNamara. What will another year of war look like? You may opt out at any time. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. Mexican general Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna probably wished that everyone really did remember the Alamo, because: (1) he actually did win that battle (he outnumbered his opponents between 10- and 30-to-1); and (2) during the 13-day siege, he somehow resisted the urge to betray all his allegiances and change sides. Finally, there was MacArthur's insubordination. Darius did not take the field against Alexander until a year and a half after Granicus, at the Battle of Issus. Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all. Alas, call it the laws of probability or just cosmic karma, but every nation produces bad generals as well as good onesand . This strategy inevitably failed as the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong maintained control over how the war was fought which was through guerilla warfare. Military 88,594. 1968 takes the cake for me. Russias war is receiving critical assistance from authoritarian regimes around the world. - 3 Best: 1987 Los Angeles Lakers. 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. Who was the worst general in history? 10 Redvers Buller Rommel is by far the greatest military general of the . 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 initial assault resulted in very high casualties for the Russians and an almost complete breakdown of morale in the Russian forces. Hull was taken prisoner by the British and was court-martialed upon his return to the United States. 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. 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. Concurrently with hi. But beyond the goals of one leader in Moscow, it is also clear that Ukraine has suffered horrors of a historic nature. While there are plenty of books that analyze the keys to success, The Worst Military Leaders in History offers lessons of failure to avoid. 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. Grachev played a key role in initiating and leading the First Chechen War. But there was something that not even the factories of New York and Chicago could produce, and that was time. Yes, the landing at Inchon unhinged the initial North Korean offensive. In 1941, Graziani resigned his commission after the British counterattacked and the Tenth Army was completely defeated during Operation Compass. This was true in matters both great and small. 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. The 1970s were scary times. Best Defense: Watch the conversation or read the condensed transcript. Perhaps Mao would have intervened anyway. Keep up with the world without stopping yours. Although he managed to escape the battle unharmed, Caepio was stripped of his Roman citizenship and exiled. Assuming you believe the subtitle to be accurate, who were GEN Westmorelands biggest accomplices in the loss? He earned a B.A. Not later than the autumn of 1966 the leaders of both services involved in fighting the ground war in VietnamArmy Chief of Staff General Harold K. Johnson and Marine Commandant General. Exactly. 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. Following on from our list of the greatest and most successful military commanders, we are presenting this list of the worst. 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. Grant left politics to the politicians and did what had to be done. Pillow escaped during the night, leaving Simon B. Buckner to surrender the fort and 15,000 Confederate troops. When all is said and done, it doesnt matter how nice, brave, courageous, gutsy, loyal, or brilliant commanders theyve been. 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. 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. At the Battle of Gaugamela, he helped make Alexander great by losing half his army to the Macedonian upstart. He couldnt. Once again, McClellan worked his organizational magic, restoring the morale of a shattered Union army. After eight years at Foreign Policy, here are the ten most popular Best Defense posts. 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. 151. Not only is Sorley a third-generation graduate of West Point a Vietnam veteran and a historian, but he worked for Westmoreland as well. 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. [1] 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. It doesnt matter if theyve won more often than theyve lost. As a military commander, Napoleon may have thebest batting averageof all time. A final humiliation came during Mexican-American War. Jacob Zuma is a cherry on the top of the world's worst leader cake. 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. Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) 24. He continued on to suffer defeats at Spion Kop and Vaal Krantz, almost letting the war slip away from the British. Arminius cut off his head and sent it to another Germanic leader as a present. Your guide to the most important world stories of the day. Its prewar population was reduced by more than half, and perhaps 90 percent of Paraguays fighting-age men perished. 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.
worst generals in vietnam