Lyman L. Lemnitzer

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General Lyman L. Lemnitzer

Lyman Louis Lemnitzer (born August 29, 1899 in Honesdale , Pennsylvania , † November 12, 1988 in Washington, DC ) was a general in the US Army , from 1959 to 1960 the 21st Chief of Staff of the Army , from 1960 to 1962 the fourth chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and from 1963 to 1969 the fifth Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO and thus also commander of the US European Command .

Military career

Training and first uses

Lemnitzer graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in July 1920 and was assigned to a coastal artillery unit as a second lieutenant on request . Therefore he graduated from the Coastal Artillery School in Fort Monroe and then served with his unit in the United States and the Philippines from 1921 to 1926 . In 1923 he married Katherine Mead Tyron and was then promoted to First Lieutenant in June 1925 . From 1926 to 1930 Lemnitzer was employed as a trainer for natural and experimental philosophy at the academy in West Point. He then served from 1931 to 1934 as a troop and staff officer in the Philippines, to return to West Point from 1934 to 1935 and teach there again. Lemnitzer was promoted to captain in August 1935 , served as a tactical instructor at the Coastal Artillery School until 1936 and graduated from Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth and in 1940 the US Army War College . Then he served from 1940 to 1941 in the 70th coastal artillery regiment and the 38th coastal artillery brigade ( air defense ). In this assignment he was promoted to major in July 1940 and provisional lieutenant colonel in December 1941 . Until 1942 Lemnitzer served as a planning and operations officer in the General Staff of the US Army . He was then promoted to Provisional Colonel by June 1942, and then to Provisional Brigadier General .

World War II and Korean War

From 1942 to 1943 he took command of the 34th US Coastal Artillery Brigade and was also planning and operations officer at the Allied headquarters under General Eisenhower in England and North Africa , as well as Deputy Chief of Staff of the 5th US Army in North Africa. In this role, he was also involved in planning the invasion of North Africa, Operation Torch , and Sicily , Operation Husky , involved.

In 1944 he was promoted twice, only in May to provisional major general and to permanent brigadier general in June. Lemnitzer then served from 1944 to 1945 as chief of staff to the US commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean . From 1945 to 1947, Lemnitzer served on the Joint Strategic Survey Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . He then took over as deputy director of the National War College until 1949 and was then director of the US Secretary of Defense's office for military assistance until 1959 . In 1952 Lemnitzer was promoted again twice, in April to permanent major general and in August to provisional lieutenant general . From 1951 to 1952 he commanded the 11th US Airborne Division in the United States and the 7th US Infantry Division in the Korean War .

He then served as deputy chief of staff for planning and research until 1955, was promoted to provisional general at the end of this assignment in March 1955 and was then used as commanding general of US troops in the Far East and the 8th US Army . From 1955 to 1957 Lemnitzer was also used as commander of the UN troops in Korea and as governor of the Ryūkyū Islands . He was then the Deputy Chief of Staff of the US Army until 1959 and took over the post of Chief of Staff of the Army on July 1, 1959 from General Maxwell D. Taylor .

Staff assignments and service in Europe

On October 1, 1960 Lemnitzer was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . In this role, however, he made himself unpopular with US President John F. Kennedy , as he was a keen advocate of military solutions during the Bay of Pigs invasion and the prelude to the Vietnam War . He also had to testify before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about his knowledge of Major General Edwin Anderson Walker . Walker was an extreme racist who was discharged from the army for wanting to spread his views in the army.

Lemnitzer was one of the signatories of the plan for Operation Northwoods in 1962. By staged terrorist attacks on US facilities, a pretext for the invasion of Cuba should be created. However, President Kennedy refused to approve. Lemnitzer signed anyway and gave orders to blow up a naval ship of their own off Cuba and to hold it against the Cubans as their act. As a result, Lemnitzer's tenure as chairman was not extended for another two years, and he was succeeded on October 1, 1962 by General Maxwell D. Taylor , who enjoyed Kennedy's confidence. Although the post of chairman actually marks the end of a military career, as it is the highest post in the US armed forces, Lemnitzer, unusually, took over command of the US European Command on November 1, 1962 and two months later, on November 1, 1962 January 1963, also the post of Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). He took over the post during the difficult period of the Cyprus crisis from 1963 to 1964 and France's withdrawal from NATO in 1966. Lemnitzer held the post of SACEUR until his retirement in July 1969.

After his active service, he was a member of the US President's Commission on CIA activities within the United States (known as the Rockefeller Commission ) in 1975 , which was set up by US President Gerald Ford to investigate questionable activities of the Central Intelligence Agency's foreign intelligence agency within the United States .

Lemnitzer died on November 12, 1988 in Washington, DC and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His wife Katherin Tyron Lemnitzer (1901–1994) is buried there with him.

Awards

Selection of decorations, sorted based on the Order of Precedence of the Military Awards:

Web links

Commons : Lyman Lemnitzer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ US Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba (ABSNews.go.com, May 1, 2001; English)
personal data
SURNAME Lemnitzer, Lyman L.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lemnitzer, Lyman Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American general, 21st Chief of Staff of the Army
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Honesdale , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 1988
Place of death Washington, DC