February 8, 2020
Could a Single U.S. General Have Doomed the Entire Vietnam War?
Really?
by Warfare History Network
Key point: A slow troop build-up didn't make sense and was very costly. Washington made many mistakes and it would cost them the war and tens of thousands of lives.
In 1989, this writer had occasion to interview four-star General William Childs Westmoreland, now 86, formerly U.S. military commander in South Vietnam and at the time of the interview a retired Chief of Staff of the Army.
Not only had I read his memoirs just a few days before our meeting, but I had also served in the Vietnam War myself as an enlisted man of the U.S. Army 199th Light Infantry Brigade during 1966-1967, and thus had my own perspective on the struggle. When I met him in 1989, the general had already been a top soldier, pilot, diplomat, warrior, and confidant of presidents. He was still the ramrod-straight imperial proconsul of my youth.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/could-single-us-general-have-doomed-entire-vietnam-war-121411