Is This the Worst Intelligence Chief in the US Army’s History?
Charles Willoughby, General Douglas MacArthur’s intelligence chief during the Korean War, bears responsibility for one of the U.S. Army’s biggest military disasters.
By Franz-Stefan Gady
January 27, 2019
U.S. Army General Charles A. Willoughby is most likely the worst intelligence chief the U.S. Army has ever had. Alongside General Douglas MacArthur, whom he served as head of intelligence during the Korean War, Willoughby is responsible for one of the biggest military disasters in U.S. military history: The rout of the 8th U.S. Army and its South Korean allies in November/December 1950 from the Yalu River on the border between North Korea and China down to below the 38th parallel bisecting the Korean Peninsula. The “Big Bugout†– as the retreat was called – covered some 120 miles in ten days and cost the lives of thousands of American and South Korean soldiers.
The Korean War started in June 1950 when communist North Korea invaded South Korea. Battle-hardened North Korean forces equipped with Soviet weaponry – in particular the T-34 tank – quickly routed South Korean forces and the understrength U.S. troops stationed there. The North seized Seoul and bottled up UN forces on the southeastern tip of the Korean Peninsula in the so-called Pusan Perimeter, where they were in danger of being annihilated or pushed off the peninsula. In response, Douglas MacArthur, the overall commander of UN forces at the time, launched a daring surprise amphibious assault on the city of Incheon in September 19, which liberated Seoul in a few days and partially cut North Korean supply lines, forcing the North Korean Army to give up the fight at Pusan and retreat back across the 38th parallel.
https://thediplomat.com/2019/01/is-this-the-worst-intelligence-chief-in-the-us-armys-history/
