Antonio de Padua Mara Severino Lpez de Santa Anna. Yes, eminently. Whatever its military wisdom or lack thereof, it was a decision that should not have been made by generals under the American political system. Over time Westmoreland asked for and received large numbers of U.S. troops, eventually totaling well over half a million. A final humiliation came during Mexican-American War. This did not, however, achieve the postulated outcome. In order, from most culpable down. 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. 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. Thus it was under Darius rule that the Persian Empire fell and was conquered. The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History. America, the Middle East and the rest of the world are still reaping the consequences of those omissions. Saul David reviews a surprising study of military failure and names his own five most infamous generals Saul David Thursday February 17 2022, 12.00am , The Times Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig: World War I's Worst General - HistoryNet 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. Lyndon Johnson had no understanding of military affairs whatever, nor did Robert McNamara. Concurrently with hi. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? What does that mean for trade and globalization? Caepio reportedly lived out the remainder of his life in luxury, however. Relations between the United States and China seem to be getting frostier by the day. MilitaryHistoryOnline.com Ulysses S. Grant, who replaced McClellan, understood this. Little Mac would prove himself to be a superb organizer who kept his army well supplied, efficiently run, and happy. 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. Todays list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam. 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. 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. 3. 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. George Custer at the Little Big Horn and Lord Chelmsford at the Battle of Isandlwana leap to mind. Nor is being a bad battlefield commander, by itself, sufficient to make the cut. Grachev once said that only an incompetent commander would order tanks into the streets of central Grozny, where they would be vulnerable. Yet near the end of the war he did exactly that. Percival was off mistreating Irish Republican Army (IRA) leaders during the Anglo-Irish War before commanding British Malaya in World War II. bar is to mention Vietnam. Varus was stationed with three of his legions, the 17th, 18th and 19th when news arrived of a revolt growing in the Rhine area. Nelsons victory at the Battle of Trafalgar was so complete that it established British supremacy on the high seas for more than a century. This week marks exactly one year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. Instead the enemy proved willing to absorb horrifying losses and keep fighting. 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. On the other hand, there was that bad day at the Battle of Salamis when most of the Persian fleet went to the bottom. In the end, the Romans leveled Carthage and salted the earth. After early success in the Mexican War for Independence, the rest of his career didnt pan out the way he would have liked. The British gained control of the fort, dozens of cannons, the brig USS Adams (recommissioned the HMS Detroit), and virtually the entire Michigan Territory. 15. The Texans only suffered 2 casualties, as opposed to hundreds of Mexican casualties. A Brief History. FPs Ravi Agrawal spoke with two of the very best Russia experts:Angela Stent, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author ofPutins World: Russia Against the West and With the Rest, and Michael Kofman, the research program director of the Russia studies program at the Center for Naval Analyses. Hull, convinced that he was hopelessly outnumbered (he wasnt), surrendered Fort Detroit and its 2,000-man garrison without firing a shot. [1] (You May Also Like: The Five Best U.S. 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. Horacio Gates of the American Revolution was pretty bad. On September 9, 1965, Navy Cmdr. He was called the "inevitable general." A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. 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. Hull withdrew after a series of harassing attacks by Tecumsehs highly mobile raiding parties. Darius III. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. Best Defense: 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. 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. To accomplish this goal, Vietnam employs repressive policies that often contravene international human rights law. Vietnam War. What will another year of war look like? There are a number of contenders for the top places on such a roster. 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.. 8. Test yourself on the week of Feb. 25: Nigeria votes, Finland builds a border wall, and Israel escalates repression. 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. The man who appealed for Varus help was Arminius, a Romanized Germanic prince. Without question, many lives would be saved if their tactical professionalism were enhanced.. Westmoreland is often described as a Boy Scout, usually implying, it appears, that he was well-intentioned but nave. 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. T he Civil War was America's bloodiest conflict. What was your impression of the man when you were working for him? Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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. 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. 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. The Americans lacked sufficient troops, supplies and air cover (when was the last time an American general had to fight a battle while being pounded by enemy bombers?). 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. 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. Would he be upset if he were alive to read this book today? His 1812 campaign against Russia ended in complete disaster. 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. 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. The enemy simply kept sending more and more replacements to make up his losses. 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. Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all. His battlefield losses marked the end of the Persian Empire. 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. Tom Ricks, on his "Best Defense" blog has discussed the top 10 worst generals in U.S. history. 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. James K. Polk. But he also displayed remarkably bad judgment, as when he was commander in the Philippines in 1941. The Worst Civil War Generals on the Confederacy Confederate Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow. With the Little Corporal running everything, Europe might have become a very different place. This strategy inevitably failed as the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong maintained control over how the war was fought which was through guerilla warfare. 7. Who Were the Worst Generals in History? Despite the Union outnumbering the Confederates, McClellan was unable to crush Robert E. Lee after failing to pursue him into Virginia. Top 10 Worst Military Leaders in History - Toptenz.net McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from . 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. Alas, call it the laws of probability or just cosmic karma, but every nation produces bad generals as well as good onesand . But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. Assuming you believe the subtitle to be accurate, who were GEN Westmorelands biggest accomplices in the loss? To counter these, Major General William R. Peers commenced Operation Greeley using elements of the 4th Infantry Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade. When he made public his disagreements with President Truman, Truman rightfully fired him. Hull responded by ordering the evacuation of Fort Dearborn, and the garrison was promptly massacred by a Potawatomi war band upon leaving the fort. 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. Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all.