Military 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. 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. - 2 Worst: 2007 Washington Wizards. This week marks exactly one year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. This did not, however, achieve the postulated outcome. 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. Following on from our list of the greatest and most successful military commanders, we are presenting this list of the worst. Some would say that failure on the battlefield warrants censure. Without question, many lives would be saved if their tactical professionalism were enhanced.. Darius was a different sort of game-changer. The alternative was to split the United States asunder. By signing up, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to occasionally receive special offers from Foreign Policy. A final humiliation came during Mexican-American War. It would be nice if all American generals were great. 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. Sure, they ganged up on the Spartans at the Pass of Thermopylae. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. This proved possible only with enemy cooperation, since they could break contact and limit casualties as they wished by withdrawing into sanctuaries across the border. James Bond Stockdale was flying his A-4 Skyhawk on a mission over North Vietnam, just days after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, when his plane took fire and hurtled d Creighton Abrams was an U.S. Army General who commanded American military operations in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1972. Yes, the landing at Inchon unhinged the initial North Korean offensive. McClellan was a proto-Douglas MacArthur who bad-mouthed his president and commander-in-chief. General Westmoreland had complete freedom of action in deciding how to prosecute the war within South Vietnam. These are the incompetents, the idiots, the bumblers who have represented armies or nations at war only to lead them to defeat or shame. The premise was that, if he could kill enough of the enemy, they would lose heart and cease their aggression against the South Vietnamese. Allied with Brock was the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who was head of the most formidable pan-Indian military force the continent had ever seen. Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy is a shadow of its former self.. Lpez, possibly in a fit of madness, ordered the execution of hundreds of people, including some of his own family members. 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 Summer 2023 term begins June 1, 2023 and ends August 24, 2023. Tom Ricks, on his "Best Defense" blog has discussed the top 10 worst generals in U.S. 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. His prestige restored by his conduct during the Pastry War with France, Santa Anna once again claimed dictatorial powers. Even now, the easiest way to get into an argument at a V.F.W. But there was something that not even the factories of New York and Chicago could produce, and that was time. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. Darius quickly lost everything and became nothing but a fugitive. And he was able to inflict massive casualties on the enemy. Two years later, he lost a leg fighting the French. These battlefield bumblers serve to provide that contrast. By Lewis Sorley Best Defense Saigon bureau chief. The war soon ended in a Russian defeat, with hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties. A final humiliation came during Mexican-American War. - 4 Worst: 1990 Cleveland Cavaliers. Washington also suffered his share of defeats. He spoke up in Honolulu, during an important U.S. planning conference in February 1966, observing that we can beat up North Vietnamese regiments in the high plateau for the next twenty years and it will not end the war. Westmorelands later dismissive comment was that Ambassador Lodge does not have a deep feel of military tactics and strategy.. Operational Culture General Training LREC SME Support Training Course Catalog Cognitive Dimension Training Additional Resources . Watchthe conversation onFP Live, the magazines forum for live journalism, orreada condensed transcript. His bad luck didnt end at San Jacinto. Explore the benefits of your FP subscription. In reality, it is a collection of ideas, images, and information that enough people have chosen to preserve and disseminate. Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) 24. 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. Would he be upset if he were alive to read this book today? 0. I flew into Vietnam in June 1968 as a young . But his crowning achievement was bad generalship in Korea. After his defeat by the Texans at the Battle of San Jacinto, Santa Anna was captured. . He was soon released, however, and, as more capable French admirals either died or somehow incurred Napoleons disfavor, a path to the top echelons of command was opened for Villeneuve. General Earle Wheeler was essentially a staff officer with virtually no troop leading experience, much less combat acumen. But the rash advance into North Korea was a blunder of strategic proportions. Gamelin also chose not to disperse Frances vast number of superior tanks. Here is a list of the 10 most famous Chinese generals in history. Watchthe conversation onFP Live, the magazines forum for live journalism, orreada condensed transcript. 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. But MacArthur's strategy certainly helped unleash 300,000 Chinese "volunteers" who inflicted significant casualties on United Nations forces. The unprecedented violence of battles such as Shiloh, Antietam, Stones River, and Gettysburg shocked citizens and international observers alike. 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. It was anotherhistory-changingevent, the birth of a truly exceptional nation. If Gates had been in command, we might be paying for our groceries with shillings and pence. But Franks, who commanded the invasion, made a bad situation worse. Download the new FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. Military. Read More. Cornwallis later did redeem himself militarily. 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. Not only is Sorley a third-generation graduate of West Point a Vietnam veteran and a historian, but he worked for Westmoreland as well. - 1 Best: 1996 Chicago Bulls. Michael Ray oversees coverage of European history and military affairs for Britannica. HANOI, VIETNAMForty years ago, on April 30, 1975, Nguyen Dang Phat experienced the happiest day of his life . Thus, almost by default, Westmoreland was left to go his own way, year after bloody year. My generation would likely vote for the year exactly one-half century ago as the absolutely worst year in our lifetimes. Cue the protests from other parts of the globe: A chorus of nations are accusing Washington of fostering unfair competition. A very significant instance was his determination to arbitrarily hold down the estimate of enemy strength during a 1967 order of battle controversy. Top 10 Most Underrated Military Generals. 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. 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. Stay updated on the topics you care about with email alerts. 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. In the autumn of 1804 he was placed in charge of the French fleet at Toulon and tasked with drawing the British fleet under Horatio Nelson to the Caribbean. After occupying Jerusalem and crucifying 2,000 Jewish rebels in Judaea, Varus went off to govern Germania and tame barbarian tribes. When he made public his disagreements with President Truman, Truman rightfully fired him. There are issues around killing and counting unarmed civilians (non-combatants) as enemy combatants, as well as inflating the number of actual enemy who were killed in action (KIA).For search and destroy operations, as the objective was not to . But he also displayed remarkably bad judgment, as when he was commander in the Philippines in 1941. A common view holds that 138,708 Allied personnel surrendered or were killed by fewer than 30,000 Japanese. But then MacArthur thrived on controversy like bread thrives on yeast. 10 Redvers Buller Publication of the PROVN Study, whose precepts were later implemented with great success by Westmorelands successor, illustrated a matter of fundamental importance. The pandemics outbreak brought rare reporting freedoms. Weekly update on whats driving U.S. national security policy. His 1812 campaign against Russia ended in complete disaster. He couldnt. The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History. Here's What You Need To Remember:The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. Villeneuve lost 20 ships, while Nelson lost none. Having amassed roughly twice as many losses in a single day as Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of Wellington, had suffered during the entire Peninsular War, Haig saw no reason to change tactics. 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. Like it or not, the U.S. military would become the governing authority. 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). George Custer at the Little Big Horn and Lord Chelmsford at the Battle of Isandlwana leap to mind. The suppression of drug consumption and trade is high on the Government of Vietnam's agenda. 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 initial assault resulted in very high casualties for the Russians and an almost complete breakdown of morale in the Russian forces. On September 9, 1965, Navy Cmdr. 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. Necessarily, more is lost to time than is remembered. 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. Many historians credit Benedict Arnold and others with being the real victors of Saratoga. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? While there are plenty of books that analyze the keys to success, The Worst Military Leaders in History offers lessons of failure to avoid. Francisco Solano Lpez managed to stumble into a war with pretty much all of that. (Photo: Warner Bros.) Roger Ebert called "Gods and Generals" a film "Trent Lott would enjoy," referring to the Senator's praise of segregationist Strom Thurmond. The 1970s were scary times. Gods and Generals (2003) Loss $61 million These are actually Civil War reenactors and probably the only people who paid to see the movie. 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. Driven into exile in 1845, he contacted U.S. Pres. 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. After eight years at Foreign Policy, here are the ten most popular Best Defense posts. 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. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? Hull withdrew after a series of harassing attacks by Tecumsehs highly mobile raiding parties. 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. But beyond the goals of one leader in Moscow, it is also clear that Ukraine has suffered horrors of a historic nature. 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. Others would say that it is not victory, but success in fulfilling a mission that counts. 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. This would be known as the Tet Offensive and would become a major turning point in the war. 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. 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. Registration for summer courses begins March 18, 2023 and ends June 7, 2023. How does an admiral make a list of the worst generals? He decided to conduct of a war of attrition, using search and destroy tactics, in which the measure of merit was body count. Still, it is his world-changing defeat at Yorktown that merits memorializing. 2. His forces outnumbered Alexanders men by at least a 2 to 1 ratio, but Darius was still outflanked, defeated and forced to flee. 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. Ulysses S. Grant, who replaced McClellan, understood this. Ulysses S. Grant made his Civil War debut at the Battle of Belmont against Confederate Gen. Gideon Pillow. On the other hand, there was that bad day at the Battle of Salamis when most of the Persian fleet went to the bottom. He graduated second in his class at West Point (well ahead of classmates Stonewall Jackson, George H. Gordon, and George Pickett). You worked for GEN Westmoreland when he was Army Chief of Staff. He earned a B.A. What will another year of war look like? Have your boss report to the French gentleman whose name begins with J at a place which begins with D which is five grid squares to the left of M. The Kasserine disaster had repercussions. 13,091. 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. After early success in the Mexican War for Independence, the rest of his career didnt pan out the way he would have liked. Westmoreland told him, "We're killing these people at a ratio of 10 to 1.". Jacob Zuma is a cherry on the top of the world's worst leader cake. Delivered Friday. At Yorktown, he allowed himself to be taken by surprise and outmaneuvered by Washington and the French fleet. See the vast swaths of land to the north and south that arent Paraguay? Simultaneously, he contacted Maximilian to offer the young emperor his services. 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. (You May Also Like: The Five Best U.S. To say that he failed in both regards is to dramatically understate the case. 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). Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. Grant had encircled the fort. McClellan and Burnside in particular. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. Pierre de Villeneuve had his first brush with history when he bravely ran away at the Battle of the Nile. Thuong, 52, is the youngest member of the party's Politburo, the country's top decision-making body, and is widely regarded as being close to General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam's most . Your guide to the most important world stories of the day. A former British officer, Gates rose to fame as Continental Army commander during the momentous American defeat of a British army at Saratoga in 1777. Lebanon (1982-1984) 240. What was the worst battle of Vietnam? This strategy inevitably failed as the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong maintained control over how the war was fought which was through guerilla warfare. Delivered Monday-Friday. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. The 1970s were scary times. By the end of the conflict, America had unleashed the equivalent of 640 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs on Vietnam. 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. 1968 takes the cake for me. 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. What is a bad general? The rise of American-made chatbots has kicked off a flurry of Chinese activity. You may opt out at any time. Delivered Monday-Saturday. 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. Of course, that is what they did when Ludendorff pushed for the use of unrestricted submarine warfare against Allied shipping. 10. Who was the worst general in history? Many of the charges leveled against him have also been laid at the feet of . Unfortunately the fates of the former Republic Vietnam (Sout. Although he outnumbered Magruders Army of the Peninsula 10-to-1, McClellan settled in for a monthlong siege. There are a number of contenders for the top places on such a roster. Napoleon. What defines Santa Anna is his utter failure to subdue the Texican rebels and block American expansion. He was also supremely gifted at overestimating the size of his opponents armies to a degree that beggared belief. 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. 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. Despite the Union outnumbering the Confederates, McClellan was unable to crush Robert E. Lee after failing to pursue him into Virginia. 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. 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. 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. 1 Erwin Rommel Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, popularly known as the Desert Fox, was a German field marshal of World War II. This might have ended okay for Germany, provided they didnt do something like provoke a previously neutral country with Allied sympathies and an effectively bottomless war chest. What myths or misperceptions surround Westmoreland that you would like to clear up, if any? 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. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, by Lewis Sorley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. . Major General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend The idiot who, seeking self aggrandisement, led his army, Force D, to disaster at Kut in WW1. Vice President, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute. This was heeded about as well as any piece of parental advice, anywhere ever. Sure, he was the greatest commander of the Second Punic War, a titanic contest between Carthage and Rome. Haig was cruelly mocked, first in the satirical musical Oh! Despite fresh salvos of Western sanctions, Tehran and Moscow are buddying up on defense ties. But the argument is unbalanced. Caepio reportedly lived out the remainder of his life in luxury, however. If pressed to rank the miscreants, I would place Wheeler first, then LBJ, and then McNamara, with all entitled to recognition as important accomplices in dooming the endeavor. He continued to view attrition as the most effective strategy for defeating Germany; the British lost some 420,000 men at the Somme. How well that would have worked can be seen when Gates was sent to command American troops in the South. He was certainly nave, but the Boy Scouts need to be defended here. The Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files contains records of 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War. In the opening month of World War I, Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg scored a crushing victory over the Russians at Tannenberg.
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