If it couldn't or wouldn't govern the country, who would? Is Weiss correct? 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. In All U.S. Military History, These Are the 5 Worst Generals Seriously, who represents The British Empire; had the worlds greatest navy, enough cash to hire half the mercenaries of Europe, and the advantage of having a pretty pathetic-looking foe: a rag-tag army of ill-equipped rebels. 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. Essential analysis of the stories shaping geopolitics on the continent. Youre on the list! Outstanding commanders such as George H. Thomas, Phil Sheridan, and William Tecumseh Sherman routinely bested their Confederate opponents. It's not the first time that someone thought he was smarter than his boss. 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. Follow him on Twitter:@Mipeck1. His war of attrition, search and destroy tactics, and emphasis on body count did nothing to affect the war in the hamlets and villages of South Vietnam, where the enemys covert infrastructure was left free to continue using coercion and terror to dominate the rural populace. The pandemics outbreak brought rare reporting freedoms. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, by Lewis Sorley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. . This week marks exactly one year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. 8. Darius did not take the field against Alexander until a year and a half after Granicus, at the Battle of Issus. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? Michael Peck is a contributing writer at Foreign Policy and a writer for War Is Boring. Scilit | Article - A Slow March from Social Evil to Harm Reduction Whatever its military wisdom or lack thereof, it was a decision that should not have been made by generals under the American political system. Want to read more on this topic or region? General Wheeler was often just flat wrong in what he told the President. Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama. Darius was a different sort of game-changer. 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. 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. A very influential visitor, Senator "Fritz" Hollings from Westmoreland's home state of South Carolina, had warned him about reliance on such ratios. 2. In a war that saw more than its share of unskilled politically appointed generals, Pillow was arguably the worst on either side. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. Top 10 Utterly Useless Military Commanders - Listverse Argentina, Brazil, and the Brazilian puppet government in Uruguay formed an alliance, and on May 1, 1865, they declared war on Paraguay. 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. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on 4. Somalia (1992-1994) 2. 2. So unused to being challenged, the United States has become so filled with anxiety over China that sober responses are becoming nearly impossible. [1] A key plank in the Democratic platform that year was, appropriately, not fighting, and McClellan lost in a rout. in history from Michigan State University in 1995. 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. A monthly digest of the top articles read by FP subscribers. - 2 Worst: 2007 Washington Wizards. He worked under Adolf Hitler's Third Reich as a leading general and gained fame from his battles in North Africa. A dull, unfeeling, unimaginative, smug "Colonel Blimp" of the worst sort. From Kaiser Wilhelm to Hitler and Saddam Hussein and Gadhafi, there is no end of national leaders who squandered their nations blood and treasure in futile conflicts. All rights reserved. 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. 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. And once again, at the Battle of Antietam, McClellans terminal case of the slows (as Lincoln called it) prevented the exploitation of a possible war-ending vulnerability in Confederate defenses. He earned a B.A. After the war, the phrase lions led by donkeys came to be associated with the British army for what should be obvious reasons. You start by being the only thing that can frustrate Napoleon more than a Russian winter. How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command? Franz Conrad von Htzendorf of Austria couldnt decide which country he wanted to invade, so the German General Staff eventually took his armies away. Others would say that it is not victory, but success in fulfilling a mission that counts. Vice President, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute. Darius quickly lost everything and became nothing but a fugitive. The alternative was to split the United States asunder. Feel free to mention any others you may know of in the comments. The world over, countries are embarking on ambitious projects of industrial policy. Top 10 Most Underrated Military Generals - TheTopTens Who were the most feared soldiers in Vietnam? - 2023 Answer (1 of 4): The former Cham general/leader Che Bong Nga was killed in the battle against the enemy Dai Viet (old Vietnam) but Che Bong Nga was LUCKY to be mentioned by the enemy Dai Viet historians to allow people to remember him. He was indeed a capable warrior, as shown by the South Pacific campaign and the Inchon landing in Korea. Jacob Zuma is a cherry on the top of the world's worst leader cake. . Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, Chinas Censors Are Afraid of What Chatbots Might Say, The U.S. 13,091. To say that he failed in both regards is to dramatically understate the case. 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 defines Santa Anna is his utter failure to subdue the Texican rebels and block American expansion. Delivered Wednesday. 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. Westmoreland held a press conference in which he categorically denied any such loss of confidence. General Failure - The Atlantic Yet, Hannibal nevertheless ranks as one of the worlds epic fails. But his crowning achievement was bad generalship in Korea. America, the Middle East and the rest of the world are still reaping the consequences of those omissions. Implementing the attrition strategy, Westmoreland typically employed a series of large unit sweeps conducted in the deep jungle regions along South Vietnams western borders. His battlefield losses marked the end of the Persian Empire. Lyndon Johnson had no understanding of military affairs whatever, nor did Robert McNamara. After being taken prisoner (again) by the British, Villeneuve was released but committed suicide rather than face Napoleons wrath. As for the British, they had lost the most valuable jewel of the Imperial crown. Marine Corps Casualties 1775-2016 - Marine Corps University How theyve practiced the art of war is immaterial, too. There is no Carthage. Critics say that Franks and senior officials, such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, concocted an invasion plan that used too few troops. Vietnam War body count controversy - Wikipedia Here is a list of the 10 most famous Chinese generals in history. The premise was that, if he could kill enough of the enemy, they would lose heart and cease their aggression against the South Vietnamese. All the enemys losses were quickly made up. He was called the "inevitable general." A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. But the award for the biggest Persian loser goes to Darius III. Gen. Charles Cornwallis. Maximus managed to form up his men but to no avail. Vietnam War. Instead of sweeping around the French defenses in a massive flanking movement, the Germans were checked at the First Battle of the Marne. Seared into all who fought it and many who merely lived through it that conflict remains a bitter stew of second-guessing and recriminations. 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. Delivered Thursday. Military See the vast swaths of land to the north and south that arent Paraguay? 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. Commanders of Chaos: The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History Was My Lai just one of many massacres in Vietnam War? Assuming you believe the subtitle to be accurate, who were GEN Westmorelands biggest accomplices in the loss? To that Hollings responded, "Westy, the American people don't care about the ten. The Cimbri destroyed Caepios force and, emboldened by their success, marched on Maximuss camp. Todays list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam. This is, obviously, a problematic quality when ones title is general-in-chief of the entire Union army. Only recently have those in the defense and military complex begun to look at how we rate generals. He effectively pledged to become an agent for the U.S. but found that he had been deposed upon his return to Mexico. When it came to military command, Westmoreland was everybody's all-Americanuntil he met his Waterloo. Had Lincoln retained McClellan in command of the Union armies, many former Americans might still be whistling "Dixie.". 3. 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. Here's What You Need To Remember:The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History. Officially labelled a defector by the Pentagon, many suspected Nolan, an African American, changed sides after suffering a lifetime of racial discrimination. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. Your guide to the most important world stories of the day. Grachev has also been linked to corruption among the higher ranks of the military, specifically the assassination of journalist Dmitry Kholodov. 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. Gamelin also chose not to disperse Frances vast number of superior tanks. When all is said and done, it doesnt matter how nice, brave, courageous, gutsy, loyal, or brilliant commanders theyve been. Dispatched to India, he led campaigns to help subdue the subcontinent, replacing the crown jewel he had lost. 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. Grenada (1983) 3. 7 Of The Worst Military Leaders In History, That You Didn't Know About Driven into exile in 1845, he contacted U.S. Pres. 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. Santa Anna, a lifetime gambler, was known for his risk taking in battle, but also his brutality. Arminius cut off his head and sent it to another Germanic leader as a present. By signing up, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to occasionally receive special offers from Foreign Policy. Fortunately, along came Reaganif not for that, Westmorelands military reversals could well have signaled the beginning of our end. Like it or not, the U.S. military would become the governing authority. World War I provided a forum for any number of truly horrible commanders to assert themselves. He continued to view attrition as the most effective strategy for defeating Germany; the British lost some 420,000 men at the Somme. The British gained control of the fort, dozens of cannons, the brig USS Adams (recommissioned the HMS Detroit), and virtually the entire Michigan Territory. 1. 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. Darius family would be captured and even lost the Battle of Gaugamela, where so many factors were in his favor. 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 worst military leaders since Napoleon | History 101 Delivered Friday. Find Paraguay on a map of South America. 5. Instead he simply sent more and more replacements to make up his losses. 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. 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. There appeared to be little serious planning for what would happen the day after Saddam was gone. What he did not divulge publicly was that the United States. Civil War Casualties | American Battlefield Trust They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. While Maximus was conducting negotiations with the Cimbri, a Germanic tribe that had invaded the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul, Caepio rashly attacked the Cimbri army on October 6, 105 BCE. 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. Routed by U.S. forces under Winfield Scott, Santa Anna was again driven into exile. His forces outnumbered Alexanders men by at least a 2 to 1 ratio, but Darius was still outflanked, defeated and forced to flee. In 1941, Graziani resigned his commission after the British counterattacked and the Tenth Army was completely defeated during Operation Compass. The inept Luigi Cadorna of Italy fought a dozen battles on the Isonzo before his army completely collapsed at Caporetto. It would be nice if all American generals were great. Westmorelands general mistake: severely underestimating the Communists. 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. (You May Also Like: The Five Best U.S. Westmoreland told him, "We're killing these people at a ratio of 10 to 1.". Westmoreland is often described as a Boy Scout, usually implying, it appears, that he was well-intentioned but nave. Allied with Brock was the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who was head of the most formidable pan-Indian military force the continent had ever seen. Delivered Wednesday. Germanic tribes sacrificed Roman officers on altars to their gods. His senior staff lacked diversity of experience and professional outlook, consisting mostly of people with backgrounds similar to his own, especially airborne. He decided to conduct of a war of attrition, using search and destroy tactics, in which the measure of merit was body count. Download the FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. But for whatever reason, some American commanders have lost the battle for history. 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. NEW FOR SUBSCRIBERS: 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. Soon after declaring himself dictator of Mexico, rebels who opposed the Mexican dictatorship created three new republics, one of them being the Republic of Texas. 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.. Diem's family was one of the earliest to convert to Catholicism, a religion he took . The Worst Civil War Generals on the Confederacy Confederate Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow. A very significant instance was his determination to arbitrarily hold down the estimate of enemy strength during a 1967 order of battle controversy. Major General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend The idiot who, seeking self aggrandisement, led his army, Force D, to disaster at Kut in WW1. 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. 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. In 1847, U.S. troops once again surprised Santa Anna and captured his prosthetic leg. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. The unprecedented violence of battles such as Shiloh, Antietam, Stones River, and Gettysburg shocked citizens and international observers alike. The War of the Triple Alliance devastated Paraguay. What is the standard of shame for induction? Caepio may have been a terrible general, but he was apparently an exceptional thief. 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. Although he outnumbered Magruders Army of the Peninsula 10-to-1, McClellan settled in for a monthlong siege. But the argument is unbalanced. History: Military History. When it came to military command, Westmoreland was everybodys all-Americanuntil he met his Waterloo. If there was a saving grace for America, it was that he wasn't commanding an army. As Lincoln well knew, the only way the Union could lose the war was if the North eventually grew tired and agreed to allow the South to secede. 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. A final humiliation came during Mexican-American War. At this point, things somehow got worse for Hull. Because he never wanted to face a superior force, he refused to fight. Explore the benefits included in your subscription. He bears a lot of responsibility for one the greatest reversals of military fortune ever experienced by a super power. Listing MacArthur as one of America's worst generals will be controversial. Westmorelands devotion to advancing his own interests, even when necessary by misrepresentation, was fundamentally at odds with what Scouting is all about. 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. 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. Alexander, Napoleon, Rommel. Yes, eminently. 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. 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. Ludendorff is one of historys greatest examples of a general who can win battles but still loses the war. Villeneuve was then to return in secret and help establish naval dominance of the English Channel in preparation for a land invasion of Britain. To counter these, Major General William R. Peers commenced Operation Greeley using elements of the 4th Infantry Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade.