WILLIAM C WESTMORELAND

William C Westmoreland

William C. Westmoreland

Introduction

William Childs Westmoreland was born on 26 March 1914 in the County of Spartanburg, South Carolina (USA) and died on 18 July 2005 in Charleston, South Carolina, was a general American of the U.S. Army who went famous as commander of U.S. military operations in the Vietnam War between 1964 and 1968.

Biography

He was a student at the Military Academy at West Point; he was an officer during World War II in the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division and participated in the campaigns of Tunisia, in Sicily, of France, of Belgium (Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne in December 1944 to January 1945) and Germany. He ended the war with the rank of colonel. Under the leadership of Westmoreland, the United States "won every battle until they lost the war."

The turning point of the war was the Tet offensive in 1968, in which the forces communists attacked towns and villages across South Vietnam. The U.S. and South Vietnamese troops successfully repulsed the attacks, and the Communist forces suffered heavy losses. However, the ferocity of the attacks shook the confidence that the public could listen to feed that Westmoreland had renewed assurances about the future of war (in November 1967, he told Congress: "With resolution, trust, patience, determination and continued support, we will prevail in Vietnam against Communist aggression ").

The pro-war sentiment collapses among cabinet members and advisers of Johnson. The political debate and public opinion containment the Johnson administration to slow increases in U.S. troops in Vietnam. Westmoreland has withdrawn from this front soon after, replaced in his post by General Creighton Abrams, and he became Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army from 1968 to 1972. Retired from the army in 1972, he died in July 2005 in a retirement home at the age of 91.

Discussion

Westmoreland had the best military bearing since Pershing. Like him, he would be a stickler for the rule book. Like him, he would display a leadership style that was more studied than spontaneous; he would often seem to be checking off in his head the actions expected of a leader in a given situation. But he got results--and got noticed. As an artillery officer battering Rommel's forces in North Africa, he ventured into enemy territory well out front of his guns to locate targets. He did the same, in Sicily in support of the 82nd Airborne Division, forging one of his life's key friendships--with Brig. Gen Maxwell Taylor on the Rhine, he established a defense of the main bridgehead at Remagen, walking ahead of the first jeep to guide it through mud and rain and inky predawn darkness.

Westmoreland emerged from World War II a much sought-after officer, one rumored to be on Eisenhower's "rocket list" for advancement. He punched his ticket in all the right places in the next two decades, leading airborne troops in Korea, studying management at Harvard, serving as secretary to the general staff under Chief of Staff Maxwell Taylor and as commandant of West ...