4. Watchthe conversation onFP Live, the magazines forum for live journalism, orreada condensed transcript. Had Lincoln retained McClellan in command of the Union armies, many former Americans might still be whistling "Dixie.". What will another year of war look like? In other words, this book is a "how-not-to" guide to leadership. In the opening month of World War I, Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg scored a crushing victory over the Russians at Tannenberg. Operational Culture General Training LREC SME Support Training Course Catalog Cognitive Dimension Training Additional Resources . Lpez, possibly in a fit of madness, ordered the execution of hundreds of people, including some of his own family members. Hulls nerve was shattered. Vietnam War. Yet Fredendall's solution was to order an Army engineer company to build a giant bunker a hundred miles from the front lines. These battlefield bumblers serve to provide that contrast. While this century witnessed many great leaders, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dr. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi . Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all. Percival was off mistreating Irish Republican Army (IRA) leaders during the Anglo-Irish War before commanding British Malaya in World War II. While Hull dithered, Brock captured Fort Michilimackinac, establishing British control of the Straits of Mackinac. America, the Middle East and the rest of the world are still reaping the consequences of those omissions. Want to read more on this topic or region? Explore the benefits of your FP subscription. 1968 takes the cake for me. Westmoreland told him, "We're killing these people at a ratio of 10 to 1.". 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. 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. 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. Dispatched to India, he led campaigns to help subdue the subcontinent, replacing the crown jewel he had lost. McClellan truly disappointed president Lincoln at the Battle of Antietam where the North and South would fight the bloodiest battle of the war. What is a bad general? McClellan was a superb organizer, a West Point-trained engineer who did much to build the Union army almost from scratch. In the summer of 1967, the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) initiated a series of attacks in western Kontum Province. 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. In considering who should receive such a dubious honor, Ive consciously excluded bad leaders. Cornwallis later did redeem himself militarily. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on. This did not, however, achieve the postulated outcome. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. Considering some militants as instruments of regional influence while fighting others has had disastrous consequences. 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. What was your impression of the man when you were working for him? Fighter Aircraft of All Time, his army being routed by a smaller force of Redcoats and Loyalists at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina in 1780, 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, Listing MacArthur as one of America's worst generals will be controversial, 5 Israeli Weapons of War ISIS Should Fear, But MacArthur's strategy certainly helped unleash 300,000 Chinese "volunteers" who inflicted significant casualties on United Nations forces, But Franks, who commanded the invasion, made a bad situation worse, Critics say that Franks and senior officials, such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, concocted an invasion plan that used too few troops. - 1 Best: 1996 Chicago Bulls. He is the dumb ass who gave the order to exfoliate the jungles with agent orange. 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. The Worst Military Leaders in History is meant to be thought-provoking, and it surely is that." ARMY Magazine "Few subjects get military historians and history buffs talking like a debate over the best military leaders in history. 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. Villeneuve was then to return in secret and help establish naval dominance of the English Channel in preparation for a land invasion of Britain. 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. Grant had encircled the fort. He continued to view attrition as the most effective strategy for defeating Germany; the British lost some 420,000 men at the Somme. His prestige restored by his conduct during the Pastry War with France, Santa Anna once again claimed dictatorial powers. Delivered Monday-Saturday. But the argument is unbalanced. 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. The Russian president got many things wrong about invading Ukrainebut not everything. While there are plenty of books that analyze the keys to success, The Worst Military Leaders in History offers lessons of failure to avoid. Darius III. Thats an automatic disqualification from Hall membership. Hannibal. Thus there was little internal capacity for debating or evaluating his chosen course of action. 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. Thus it was under Darius rule that the Persian Empire fell and was conquered. Defining that is like defining a bad meal. Keep up with the world without stopping yours. 8. 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 He was called the inevitable general. A West Point graduate, he served in World War II and Korea. Download the FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. Somalia (1992-1994) 2. At Yorktown, he allowed himself to be taken by surprise and outmaneuvered by Washington and the French fleet. 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. Although Nelson was killed in combat at Trafalgar, Villeneuve outlived him only by six months. But the rash advance into North Korea was a blunder of strategic proportions. Needs to Talk About the Risk of War With China, Putin Has Assembled an Axis of Autocrats Against Ukraine, The Conversation About Ukraine Is Cracking Apart. He still had his defenders, but they were in the last trench, barely holding on. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Darius did not take the field against Alexander until a year and a half after Granicus, at the Battle of Issus. My generation would likely vote for the year exactly one-half century ago as the absolutely worst year in our lifetimes. Unfortunately the fates of the former Republic Vietnam (Sout. The rise of American-made chatbots has kicked off a flurry of Chinese activity. James Jay Carafano is a leading expert in national security and foreign policy challenges. Many historians have said Bragg was one of the worst generals of the Civil War, having lost most of his battles. Would he be upset if he were alive to read this book today? This was heeded about as well as any piece of parental advice, anywhere ever. Implementing the attrition strategy, Westmoreland typically employed a series of large unit sweeps conducted in the deep jungle regions along South Vietnams western borders. According to formerly classified Army documents, an investigation disclosed that from at least March 1968 through October 1969, "Vietnamese [civilian] detainees were subjected to maltreatment" by. 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. So what is the standard of shame for induction? 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. 10. Todays list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam. 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. A key plank in the Democratic platform that year was, appropriately, not fighting, and McClellan lost in a rout. In 1847, U.S. troops once again surprised Santa Anna and captured his prosthetic leg. 5. This entire list could be populated with Roman commanders, but one manages to rise above the rest with an ineptitude that defies logic. He continued on to suffer defeats at Spion Kop and Vaal Krantz, almost letting the war slip away from the British. Thats the point. It would be nice if all American generals were great. He was responsible for coming up with the idea of using force to restore constitutional order in Chechnya. Who was the worst US general during the Vietnam War? 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. 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. Hull withdrew after a series of harassing attacks by Tecumsehs highly mobile raiding parties. And he was able to inflict massive casualties on the enemy. Despite fresh salvos of Western sanctions, Tehran and Moscow are buddying up on defense ties. - 2 Worst: 2007 Washington Wizards. Instead the enemy proved willing to absorb horrifying losses and keep fighting. Yes, Westmoreland was the general who lost Vietnam. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. 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. 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. Is Weiss correct? 2. 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. The Cimbri destroyed Caepios force and, emboldened by their success, marched on Maximuss camp. Fort Bragg was named in 1918 during the Jim Crow era. 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. This would be known as the Tet Offensive and would become a major turning point in the war. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. By the end of the conflict, America had unleashed the equivalent of 640 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs on Vietnam. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, Chinas Censors Are Afraid of What Chatbots Might Say, The U.S. - 4 Worst: 1990 Cleveland Cavaliers. What will another year of war look like? 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. On September 9, 1965, Navy Cmdr. 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. Delivered Wednesday. Napoleon. Is your subtitle The General Who Lost Vietnam fair? 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 Wallace Greeneboth saw Westmorelands approach as fatally flawed and agreed on a viable alternative. Instead of sweeping around the French defenses in a massive flanking movement, the Germans were checked at the First Battle of the Marne. The resulting Peninsular Campaign (AprilJuly 1862) was a marvel of planning but something of a farce in execution. There is now little doubt that Putin failed in his initial goals: Kyiv is still Show morestanding, Ukrainians are determined to keep fighting, and the West has so far stayed resolute in its support of Ukraine. Again fighting outnumbered Texans, this time Santa Anna would lose the battle stunningly. Tom Ricks, on his "Best Defense" blog has discussed the top 10 worst generals in U.S. history. The suppression of drug consumption and trade is high on the Government of Vietnam's agenda. But Franks, who commanded the invasion, made a bad situation worse. 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. (The leg did get a state funeral). To accomplish this goal, Vietnam employs repressive policies that often contravene international human rights law. 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. The self proclaimed Napoleon of the West didnt quite leave the same legacy as his idol. 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. The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. Best Defense: These 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. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? 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. Westmorelands general mistake: severely underestimating the Communists. In the end, the Romans leveled Carthage and salted the earth. 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. Grenada (1983) 3. Think about how history would have been different if Hannibal had a military plan to outlast Roman might. The Vietnam War body count controversy centers on the counting of enemy dead by the United States Armed Forces during the Vietnam War (1955-1975). Not one to let his own failings stand in the way of personal glory, Pillow submitted fanciful accounts of his actions at the Battles of Contreras and Churubusco to various newspapers, incurring the wrath of overall American commander Winfield Scott. Alas, as a historian, he passed on the opportunity to answer Battlelands questions about what Vietnam should teach us about Afghanistan, and who, if anyone, is todays Westmoreland, during our email chat earlier this week: Whats the most important thing you learned writing Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam? 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. To that Hollings responded, "Westy, the American people don't care about the ten. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln. Darius family would be captured and even lost the Battle of Gaugamela, where so many factors were in his favor. At the height of the Cold War, he dealt decisively with neither. 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. While there were a host of bad generals serving on both sides during the American Civil Warmostly on the Union side unfortunatelythe one that usually gets the most credit for dragging out the war as long as he did is Union General George McClellan. 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. The 1970s were scary times. 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. 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. . And how might that be impacting the world? 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. 1. On March 24, 1976, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1 st Viscount of Alamein, hero of World War II, died at home in England. Delivered Thursday. As a military commander, Napoleon may have thebest batting averageof all time. Some would say that failure on the battlefield warrants censure. Lyndon Johnson had no understanding of military affairs whatever, nor did Robert McNamara. But he was overly cautious by nature. 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. Join in-depth conversations and interact with foreign-policy experts with. 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. Lewis Sorleys new book, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, is being published today by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 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. After his defeat by the Texans at the Battle of San Jacinto, Santa Anna was captured. This week marks exactly one year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. 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. 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. He earned a B.A. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. By December 1864 Paraguay was at war with Brazil, and, when Argentina denied a request for the transit of a Paraguayan army across its territory, Lpez declared war on that country as well. How does an admiral make a list of the worst generals? McClellan was a proto-Douglas MacArthur who bad-mouthed his president and commander-in-chief. Darius quickly lost everything and became nothing but a fugitive. Exactly. Caepio may have been a terrible general, but he was apparently an exceptional thief. 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. 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. Create an FP account to save articles to read later and in the FP mobile app. Eschewing a direct overland march to the Confederate capital of Richmond, McClellan orchestrated an impressive amphibious landing of more than 100,000 troops at Fort Monroe, at the southeast end of the peninsula between the James and York rivers. Cue the protests from other parts of the globe: A chorus of nations are accusing Washington of fostering unfair competition. Weekly update on whats driving U.S. national security policy. Listing MacArthur as one of America's worst generals will be controversial. He was indeed a capable warrior, as shown by the South Pacific campaign and the Inchon landing in Korea. But his crowning achievement was bad generalship in Korea. Michael Peck is a contributing writer at Foreign Policy and a writer for War Is Boring. These are the incompetents, the idiots, the bumblers who have represented armies or nations at war only to lead them to defeat or shame. Panama (1989) 2. Hull had served with distinction in the Revolutionary War and was appointed governor of the Michigan Territory in 1805. 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.. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on Gamelin also chose not to disperse Frances vast number of superior tanks. What does that mean for trade and globalization? Quintus Servilius Caepio takes the cake amongst the worst Roman generals ever to take command of a legion though. To counter these, Major General William R. Peers commenced Operation Greeley using elements of the 4th Infantry Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Its prewar population was reduced by more than half, and perhaps 90 percent of Paraguays fighting-age men perished. He graduated second in his class at West Point (well ahead of classmates Stonewall Jackson, George H. Gordon, and George Pickett). Following on from our list of the greatest and most successful military commanders, we are presenting this list of the worst. Starting with the battle of Long Island, he lost way more fights than he wonyet he managed to win the war. A monthly digest of the top articles read by FP subscribers. Without question, many lives would be saved if their tactical professionalism were enhanced.. 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. 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. 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. 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. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, by Lewis Sorley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. . 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. 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. And how might that be impacting the world? James Madison spared him from execution. His forces outnumbered Alexanders men by at least a 2 to 1 ratio, but Darius was still outflanked, defeated and forced to flee. He deprived the South Vietnamese of modern weaponry, giving U.S. and other allied forces priority for issue of the new M-16 rifle and other advanced military wherewithal. 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. standing, Ukrainians are determined to keep fighting, and the West has so far stayed resolute in its support of Ukraine. Grachev played a key role in initiating and leading the First Chechen War. Alas, call it the laws of probability or just cosmic karma, but every nation produces bad generals as well as good onesand .