The Worst Military Leaders in History review from Ancient Rome to 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. 1. Yet backstabbing your commander-in-chief in the middle of a war is taking ambition a little too far. General Westmoreland had complete freedom of action in deciding how to prosecute the war within South Vietnam. 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. Think about how history would have been different if Hannibal had a military plan to outlast Roman might. - 4 Worst: 1990 Cleveland Cavaliers. Thus, almost by default, Westmoreland was left to go his own way, year after bloody year. Thus the progress Westmoreland claimed in racking up huge body counts did nothing to win the war. Even a string of bad days does not guarantee entry. 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. 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. Sorley skillfully uses Westmoreland's own words to show time and again his duplicity at worst and his lack of touch with reality at best. Its prewar population was reduced by more than half, and perhaps 90 percent of Paraguays fighting-age men perished. Follow him on Twitter:@Mipeck1. Westmorelands general mistake: severely underestimating the Communists. How does an admiral make a list of the worst generals? In the opening month of World War I, Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg scored a crushing victory over the Russians at Tannenberg. My generation would likely vote for the year exactly one-half century ago as the absolutely worst year in our lifetimes. For one thing, we wouldnt haveSpartacuson Netflix. In 1847, U.S. troops once again surprised Santa Anna and captured his prosthetic leg. He was also supremely gifted at overestimating the size of his opponents armies to a degree that beggared belief. 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 . The Texans only suffered 2 casualties, as opposed to hundreds of Mexican casualties. His prestige restored by his conduct during the Pastry War with France, Santa Anna once again claimed dictatorial powers. Concurrently with hi. Dispatched to India, he led campaigns to help subdue the subcontinent, replacing the crown jewel he had lost. McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from . Some 15,000 talents of gold (the so-called Gold of Tolosa) had vanished under his watch, never to be recovered. 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. And he was able to inflict massive casualties on the enemy. Michael Peck is a contributing writer at Foreign Policy and a writer for War Is Boring. Then, in an ill-advised comeback, he met his Waterloo. For its part, Washington has made a series of policy choices over the last few years that can be summed Show moreup as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. There is no Carthage. 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. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. In reality, it is a collection of ideas, images, and information that enough people have chosen to preserve and disseminate. Darius did not take the field against Alexander until a year and a half after Granicus, at the Battle of Issus. Consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus was Caepios superior officer, but Caepio refused to obey Maximus or even put his forces into a shared camp with him. 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. Seared into all who fought it and many who merely lived through it that conflict remains a bitter stew of second-guessing and recriminations. 4. 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. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals. The Germanic fighters demolished the three Roman legions. In 334 BC, Alexander the Great invaded the Persian Empire. Antonio de Padua Mara Severino Lpez de Santa Anna. 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 After being taken prisoner (again) by the British, Villeneuve was released but committed suicide rather than face Napoleons wrath. But all that remains of his would-be empire today is a flaky French pastry. These Vietnam War photos taken by U.S. Army photographers reveal a side of the conflict that few people have ever seen. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. This is one of the more controversial ones, but Douglas MacArthur is incredibly overrated in the annals of the US military, in my . 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. The war soon ended in a Russian defeat, with hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties. While Muammer Al-Gaddafi isn't into the funny business in his politician reign, he most certainly is one of a highly egotistical leader and a member who represents more of the "self" rather than all else. The 1970s were scary times. But he was overly cautious by nature. Hundreds of thousands died of disease. So long Fort Bragg, welcome Fort Liberty: The Pentagon's naming Despite Lincoln's pleas for aggressive action, his Army of the Potomac moved hesitantly, its commander McClellan convinced himself that the Southern armies vastly outnumbered him when logic should have told him that it was the North that enjoyed an abundance of resources. Westmorelands devotion to advancing his own interests, even when necessary by misrepresentation, was fundamentally at odds with what Scouting is all about. He first demonstrated his ineptitude during the Mexican-American War, where he had received an appointment to the rank of major general from his friend Pres. 1 Erwin Rommel Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, popularly known as the Desert Fox, was a German field marshal of World War II. Following on from our list of the greatest and most successful military commanders, we are presenting this list of the worst. James K. Polk. Gamelin was commander of the French forces in World War II and is largely responsible for the fall of France into German control during the Battle of France. (You May Also Like: The Five Best Generals in U.S. History). Applications for the Gettysburg College-Gilder Lehrman MA program are open and considered on a rolling basis. up as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. Hannibal. At Yorktown, he allowed himself to be taken by surprise and outmaneuvered by Washington and the French fleet. 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. The Worst American Civil War Generals and Commanders Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. But beyond the goals of one leader in Moscow, it is also clear that Ukraine has suffered horrors of a historic nature. The alternative was to split the United States asunder. How do you measure military leaders? 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. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? Varus trust in Arminius was an obvious and terrible misjudgment. 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. Despite the Union outnumbering the Confederates, McClellan was unable to crush Robert E. Lee after failing to pursue him into Virginia. Sure, he won big at the Alamo. 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). Listing MacArthur as one of America's worst generals will be controversial. The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest darkened Emperor Augustus remaining years and he was heard, upon occasion, to moan, Quinctilius Varus, give me back my Legions!, Notable mention: George Custer, Joseph Hooker, Ambrose Burnside, Charles Cornwallis, John II of France, Top 10 Utterly Bizarre Things Banned In China, Top 10 Military Bases Linked To UFOs (That Aren't Area 51), 10 Bizarre Military Inventions That Almost Saw Deployment, 10 Futuristic Sci-Fi Military Technologies That, 10 Awesome French Military Victories You've Never Heard Of, 10 Oddities That Interrupted Military Battles, Top 10 Top-Level Domains That Caused Controversies, 10 Controversial Toys You Might Already Have in Your Home, Ten Absolutely Vicious Fights over Inherited Fortunes, 10 Female Film Pioneers Who Shaped the Movies, Ten True Tales from Americas Toughest Prison, 10 Times Members of Secretive Societies and Organizations Spilled the Beans, 10 Common Idioms with Unexpectedly Dark Origins, 10 North American Animals with Misplaced Reputations, 10 Japanese Weapons Invented Too Late To Win World War II, 10 Ways The History Of Thanksgiving Is Nothing Like You Imagined, 10 Great Buildings That Were Not Built Quite Well Enough. Vietnam War. 44 Declassified Vietnam War Photos The Public Wasn't Meant To See Military greatness can most easily be defined by comparison. He couldnt. Darius again was the first to flee the battle, abandoning all of his soldiers and his property to be taken by Alexander. Arminius cut off his head and sent it to another Germanic leader as a present. The Worst Military Leaders in History - University Of Chicago Press Grant had encircled the fort. Was My Lai just one of many massacres in Vietnam War? 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. Grachev has also been linked to corruption among the higher ranks of the military, specifically the assassination of journalist Dmitry Kholodov. The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. Is Weiss correct? Percival surrendered Malaya to Japanese forces in early 1942, defying Winston Churchills own instructions for prolonged resistance. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. But its not just the United States. A more positive example is George Washington. George Custer at the Little Big Horn and Lord Chelmsford at the Battle of Isandlwana leap to mind. Top 10 Traitors In US History - Listverse 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. Army Chief of Staff General Harold K. Johnson put one forth in the PROVN Study, a Program for the Pacification and Long-Term Development of Vietnam. That document held that Westmorelands approach was not working and could not work because it ignored the real war in South Vietnams hamlets and villages, where the covert enemy infrastructure was through coercion and terror dominating the rural populace. Watchthe conversation onFP Live, the magazines forum for live journalism, orreada condensed transcript. 9. Despite fresh salvos of Western sanctions, Tehran and Moscow are buddying up on defense ties. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on 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. Is your subtitle The General Who Lost Vietnam fair? General William Childs Westmoreland (1914- 2005) with President Johnson in South Vietnam #1. Napoleon. 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. Instead of holding a natural defense line around Pyongyang, which would have given the United Nations control of most of the peninsula, the UN troops retreated all the way back into South Korea in a humiliating reverse for U.S. power after the crushing victory of World War II. 336 pages | 16 halftones | 6 1/4 x 9 1/4. One-stop digest of politics, economics, and culture. On a visit to Vietnam Senator Hollings from Westmorelands home state of South Carolina was told by Westmoreland: Were killing these people, the enemy, at a ratio of 10 to 1. Said Hollings, Westy, the American people dont care about the ten. Westmorelands first resort in claiming progress in the war was always body count, but in fact this was meaningless. Weekly update on whats driving U.S. national security policy. The premise was that, if he could kill enough of the enemy, they would lose heart and cease their aggression against the South Vietnamese. 9 Noteworthy Bog Bodies (And What They Tell Us), 12 Novels Considered the Greatest Book Ever Written, Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution, https://www.britannica.com/list/9-worst-generals-in-history. Vice President, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute. General Earle Wheeler was essentially a staff officer with virtually no troop leading experience, much less combat acumen. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail. World War I provided a forum for any number of truly horrible commanders to assert themselves. When all is said and done, it doesnt matter how nice, brave, courageous, gutsy, loyal, or brilliant commanders theyve been. But the inducements encourage U.S. companies to invest only at homenot elsewhere. The Vietnam War, as Seen by the Victors - The Atlantic When two able and progressive Nationalist generals, Pai Chunghsi and Li Tsung-jen, begged the generalissimo to adopt similar methods, Chiang rejected them outright. Nelsons victory at the Battle of Trafalgar was so complete that it established British supremacy on the high seas for more than a century.
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