Shortly after his promotion, he married Katherine S. Van Deusen in The couple had three children. Westmoreland commanded the th Airborne Infantry in The Korean War , was commander of the st Airborne Division and, at the age of 42, became the youngest major general in the United States Army. Westmoreland in Vietnam In , Westmoreland was named superintendent of the U. Military Academy at West Point. In June , he was promoted to senior military commander of U. He was instrumental in increasing the number of U.
They all looked alike. They all dressed alike," said a marine captain. Innocent civilians were often killed by mistake. He ordered military operations to be carried out by units of no fewer than men. After unsuccessfully running for governor of South Carolina in , he penned his autobiography, A Soldier Reports.
For the remainder of his life he worked to defend his actions in Vietnam. He died in Charleston, SC on July 18, Actively scan device characteristics for identification.
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Military and Naval History Expert. But by virtue of the policy of my government, we could not fight the overt war or deploy military troops overtly into those countries. And that was a major problem. A major problem. That gave the enemy a sanctuary that was of benefit to him. I mean, when he moved into the South Vietnamese soil, he was defeated, he took great casualties; but then he moved across into Cambodia or to Laos, licked his wounds, and restored his military capability.
And that is why the war lasted so long. It was a frustrating experience for us We were winning on the battlefield, but whether we were winning strategically is another matter. But the strategy came from Hanoi and there was little that we could do about it. And the people in Washington - the Secretary of Defense and [the people in] the White House - understood [that] from a military standpoint, [our policies involved] a restraint that was inevitably going to prolong the war.
I mean, I think this was well-understood, but nevertheless, it was [our] policy, based on the fact that we were not the aggressors. We were not going to be party to enlarging the war We saw the Tet Offensive coming and we were prepared for it. And the enemy took tremendous casualties there; and we felt that the magnitude of those casualties would result in the enemy coming up with some sort of diplomatic solution.
But that never took place. The American public were caught by surprise. We were making military progress at the time -- which [is] a statement of fact. And when the Tet Offensive took place, the American people were not prepared for that, and I assume some significant responsibility for that. If I would have to do it over again, I would have made known the forthcoming Tet Offensive. At that time, I didn't want the enemy to know that I knew what was going to happen.
I did know. I made a mistake in not making that known to the American public, because they were caught by surprise and that was a very much of a negative factor. Westmoreland was permanently tainted as the commander of what became the worst military defeat ever suffered by the US. This aura clung to him even years after he had retired. In , during the presidential primaries, he was on the same flight to Charleston, South Carolina, as Republican candidate Ronald Reagan. Reagan's aides whispered to him not to sit next to the general, lest he be smeared by association.
Though U. General Creighton W. Army in He returned to South Carolina, where he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for governor in He eventually dropped the suit, with both sides claiming victory. In the years following the U. William Westmoreland died in , at the age of But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. William Seward was a politician who served as governor of New York, as a U. Seward spent his early career as a lawyer before winning a seat in the New York State Senate in An ardent For the next 77 days, U.
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