General Category > Military History
Could a Single U.S. General Have Doomed the Entire Vietnam War?
rangerrebew:
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
TomSea:
This is a good article, I'm not sure if the headline goes along with the article and it certainly wasn't Westmoreland, as I read it, who would have doomed the entire Vietnam war.
But it's a good historic article... it doesn't seem to me to blame anyone in particular. Maybe I'm missing it.
Bigun:
The Vietnam war was lost before it began by REMF in Washington who refused to allow the men charged with prosecuting it to do so properly. End of story.
EdinVA:
The article does not reflect the headline but a good read.
It took all 500+ congress critters and the president to screw up Vietnam, the generals were just the tools.
sneakypete:
--- Quote from: Bigun on February 11, 2020, 05:50:58 pm ---The Vietnam war was lost before it began by REMF in Washington who refused to allow the men charged with prosecuting it to do so properly. End of story.
--- End quote ---
@Bigun
And there it is. We won every major battle fought,and still managed to "lose" the war. We DID win it militarily,but lost on the political front.
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