William Westmoreland

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General William C. Westmoreland

William Childs Westmoreland (born March 26, 1914 in Spartanburg , South Carolina , † July 18, 2005 in Charleston , South Carolina) was a general in the US Army , commanding general of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam and thus commander in chief of US forces in the Vietnam War between 1964 and 1968.

Military career

Westmoreland (left) in the Oval Office speaking to President Johnson, 1967
South Vietnam, October 26, 1966 (from left): Lyndon B. Johnson, William Westmoreland, Nguyễn Văn Thiệu , Nguyễn Cao Kỳ (far right)

Westmoreland graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1936 . He commanded an artillery battalion in North Africa during World War II . He took part in the landing in Casablanca and in the invasion of Sicily , Operation Husky , the start of the Italian campaign in 1943.

At the end of the war he served as chief of staff of the 9th US Infantry Division and then switched to the airborne troops . During the Korean War he led a paratrooper battalion and rose to command the 101st Airborne Division, which is legendary among the US military . After a period at the National War College , Westmoreland was promoted to general in 1964 and posted to the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara .

This began his activity as nominal commander in chief of the American armed forces in the Vietnam War . However, his influence was always limited, as he had no control over the associated units and operations of the US Air Force and US Navy , nor over the activities of the CIA in Vietnam. With his doctrine of superior firepower and air mobility, he did not succeed until 1967 in stopping the advance of the Viet Cong in rural areas, but at least in slowing it down. The Tet offensive in 1968 made it clear, however, that Westmoreland's strategies had by no means crushed the Communist guerrillas in their ability to act. During his time as commanding general in Vietnam, the number of US soldiers (initially called " military advisors ") rose from 15,000 (1964) to 500,000 (1968). Not least because of this, his name was corrupted by political activists in the USA in "General Wastemoremen" (General Waste More Men).

When he called for a further 206,000 men and a mobilization of the reserve units as well as an extension of the war to neighboring countries in order to interrupt the enemy's supply lines and even called for the use of nuclear weapons against Hanoi , the general was replaced by US President Lyndon B. Johnson in June 1968 recalled and replaced by General Creighton Abrams . The irony of the story is that two years after his recall, the war was extended to Cambodia and Laos, as he had already vehemently called for during his command, but President Johnson refused and only his successor Richard Nixon had initiated.

He then served until his retirement in 1972 with almost no influence as Chief of Staff of the Army . Westmoreland pushed in his memorandum Was in Vain? to blame for the failure of the so-called “war of attrition” on President Johnson, who had pursued his goals in Vietnam too insecurely and too indulgently.

In 1974 Westmoreland failed with his candidacy for governor of South Carolina in the internal party primary of the Republicans , where he finished only second.

In 1965, he was man of the year of Time Magazine .

Private life

In 1947 he married Katherine (Kitsy) Stevens van Deusen. They had three children, two daughters named Katherine and Margaret, and son James Ripley. William Westmoreland died on July 18, 2005 at the age of 91 in the Bishop Gadsden Retirement Home in Charleston , South Carolina.

On July 23, 2005, he was buried with military honors in the West Point Military Academy cemetery.

Awards

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

Quotes

"We can already see the light at the end of the tunnel." (At a congress hearing on the situation in Vietnam)

Works

  • A Soldier Reports . Doubleday, 1976.
  • The Secret Vietnam War: The United States Air Force in Thailand 1961–1975 . MacFarland & Co., 1996.
  • Was in Vietnam: The History of America's Conflict in Southeast Asia . Salamander Books, 1998.

Web links

Commons : William Westmoreland  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Westmoreland, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Westmoreland, William Childs (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American General in the US Army, Commander in Chief of the US Forces in Vietnam (1964–1968)
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Spartanburg , South Carolina
DATE OF DEATH July 18, 2005
Place of death Charleston , South Carolina