William Westmoreland

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General William Westmoreland
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General William Westmoreland

William Childs Westmoreland (March 26, 1914 – July 18, 2005) was a U.S. Army General who commanded American military operations in the Vietnam War at its peak from 1964 to 1968 and who served as US Army Chief of Staff from 1968 to 1972.

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[edit] Early career

William Westmoreland was born in Spartanburg County, South Carolina in 1914. His upper class family was involved in the banking and textile industries. Westmoreland, an Eagle Scout and recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo from the Boy Scouts of America as an adult, entered West Point in 1932 after one year at The Citadel. Westmoreland was a member of a distinguished class at West Point; his classmates included Creighton Abrams and Benjamin O. Davis Jr.. His initial motive for entering was to "see the world." Following graduation in 1936 he became an artillery officer and served in several different commands, taking part in combat operations in Tunisia, Sicily, France and Germany, and reaching the ranks of lieutenant colonel and subsequently colonel during combat operations in Europe during World War II. Westmoreland always balanced a reputation as a stern taskmaster with that of an officer who cared about his men and took a great interest in their welfare. One called him "the most caring officer, for soldiers, that I have ever known".

During World War II, his battalion was selected to be the artillery support for the 82nd Airborne Division. By war’s end, he was serving as the chief of staff of the 9th Infantry Division. His connection with the 82nd continued after the war when Westmoreland commanded the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the 82nd and then served as the division chief of staff.

[edit] Regimental and divisional commands

[1] Westmoreland's World War II experience with the 82nd Airborne led to his being asked by General James M. Gavin to join the 82nd as a regimental commander after the war, which was the beginning of his professional association with airborne and airmobile troops. He served with the 82nd Airborne for four years.

During the Korean War he commanded the 187th Regimental Combat Team.

In late 1953 Westmoreland was promoted brigadier general and spent the next 5 years at The Pentagon. At age 42, in 1956, he became the youngest major general in the Army. In 1958 he assumed command of the 101st Airborne Division. In 1960 he became superintendent of West Point, and in 1963 became commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps.

[edit] Vietnam

In June 1964, he became deputy commander of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), assuming command from General Paul D. Harkins. As the head of the MACV he was known for highly publicized, positive assessments of US military prospects in Vietnam. However, as time went on, the strengthening of North Vietnamese combat forces in the South led to regular requests for increases in US troop strength, from 16,000 when he arrived to its peak of over 500,000 in 1968 when he was promoted to Army Chief of Staff.

Under Westmoreland's leadership, the United States "won every battle until it lost the war." The turning point of the war was the 1968 Tet Offensive, in which Communist forces, having baited Westmoreland into committing nearly 40% of his strength to Khe Sanh, attacked cities and towns throughout South Vietnam. US and South Vietnamese troops successfully fought off the attacks, and the Communist forces took heavy losses, but the ferocity of the assault shook public confidence in Westmoreland's previous assurances about the state of the war. Political debate and public opinion led the Johnson administration to limit further increases in US troops in Vietnam.

Westmoreland was convinced that the Vietnamese communists could be destroyed by fighting a war of attrition that, theoretically, would render the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese unable to fight. His war strategy was marked by heavy use of artillery, airpower and attempts to engage the communists in large-unit battles. However, the NVA and the Viet Cong had a firm grasp on the battlefield initiative and so were able to dictate the pace of attrition to fit their own goals. Westmoreland repeatedly rebuffed or suppressed attempts by John Paul Vann, Victor Krulak and Lew Walt to shift to a "pacification" strategy.((Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann And America in Vietnam))

Westmoreland said about the US involvement in Vietnam: "It's not that we lost the war militarily. The fact is we as a nation did not make good our commitment to the South Vietnamese."

[edit] Post-Vietnam

Westmoreland served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1968 to 1972, then retired from the Army. Many military historians have pointed out that Westmoreland became Chief of Staff at the worst time in history with regards to the Army. Guiding the Army as it transitioned to an all-volunteer force, he issued many policies to try to make Army life better and more palatable for America's youth. However, many hard-liners scorned these as too liberal. For example, Westmoreland allowed soldiers to wear sideburns and drink beer in the mess hall. Westmoreland ran unsuccessfully for Governor of South Carolina in 1974. He published his autobiography A Soldier Reports the following year. Westmoreland later served on a task force to improve educational standards in the state of South Carolina.

[edit] Westmoreland Vs. CBS: The Uncounted Enemy

In 1982, Mike Wallace interviewed Westmoreland for the CBS special The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception. The documentary, prepared largely by CBS producer George Criles, alleged that Westmoreland and others had deliberately underestimated Vietcong troop strength during 1967 in order to maintain morale and popular support for the war.

In Westmoreland v. CBS, Westmoreland sued Wallace and CBS for libel, and a long and arduous trial process began. After the trial was in progress, Westmoreland surprisingly settled with CBS for an apology, about as much as they had originally offered. Some contend that Judge Leval's instructions to the jury over what constituted "actual malice" to prove libel were so weighted in favor of the defense that Westmoreland's lawyers were certain he would lose. Others point out that the settlement occurred after two of Westmoreland's former intelligence officers, Major General Joseph McChristian and Colonel Gains Hawkins, testified to the accuracy of the substantive allegations of the broadcast, which were that Westmoreland ordered changes in intelligence reports on Viet Cong troop strengths for political reasons. Some disagreement remains as to the appropriateness of some of the journalistic methods.

A deposition by McChristian indicates that his organization developed improved intelligence on the number of irregular Viet Cong combatants shortly before he left Vietnam on a regularly scheduled rotation. The numbers troubled Westmoreland, who feared that the press would not understand them. He did not order them changed but instead did not include the information in reporting to Washington, which in his view was a decision that the data were not appropriate to report.

Based on later analysis of the information from all sides, it appears clear that Westmoreland could not sustain a libel suit because CBS's principal allegation was that he had caused intelligence officers to suppress facts. However, Westmoreland's anger was caused by the implication of the broadcast that his intent was fraudulent and that he ordered others to lie, which was not accurate--he had influenced reports in a way that was acceptable within his command responsibility. [citation needed]

During the acrimonious trial, Mike Wallace was hospitalized for depression, and despite the legal conflict separating the two, Westmoreland and his wife sent him flowers. Wallace's memoir is generally sympathetic to Westmoreland, although he makes it clear he disagreed with him on issues.

[edit] Views

In a 1998 interview for George magazine, Westmoreland dismissed the battlefield prowess of his opponent North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap. "Of course, he [Giap] was a formidable adversary," Westmoreland told correspondent W. Thomas Smith, Jr. "Let me also say that Giap was trained in small-unit, guerilla tactics, but he persisted in waging a big-unit war with terrible losses to his own men. By his own admission, by early 1969, I think, he had lost, what, a half million soldiers? He reported this. Now such a disregard for human life may make a formidable adversary, but it does not make a military genius. An American commander losing men like that would hardly have lasted more than a few weeks."

Through the end of his life, he maintained that the United States did not lose the war in Vietnam; he stated instead that "our country did not fulfill its commitment to South Vietnam. By virtue of Vietnam, the U.S. held the line for 10 years and stopped the dominoes from falling."

Among the many honors he received during his service, Westmoreland was awarded four Distinguished Service Medals, the Bronze Star, the Presidential Unit Citation, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Master Parachutist Badge and numerous foreign decorations.

Despite the controversy of Vietnam and the CBS suit, Westmoreland was nonetheless hailed as a popular and beloved commander by many of those under his command. One of the highlights of his life was leading a large parade in Chicago in 1986 that honored the Vietnam veterans. Many of the men proudly wore badges inscribed "WESTY'S WARRIORS".

[edit] Quotation

   
“
 The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does a Westerner. Life is plentiful. Life is cheap in the Orient. -- Interview in Hearts and Minds (film), 1974.
   
”

[edit] Personal data

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

On July 23, 2005, he was buried at the West Point Cemetery, United States Military Academy.

[edit] Dates of rank

[edit] Image gallery

William Westmoreland on February 19, 1965 Time Magazine cover

William Westmoreland on January 7, 1966, Time Magazine cover when he was named Man of the Year

William Westmoreland on his third (and final) Time Magazine cover of May 5, 1967

Herbert Elmer Abrams' portrait of General Westmoreland

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Tom Mascaro, The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception (Chicago, IL, The Museum of Broadcast Communications)
  • W. Thomas Smith Jr., An old soldier sounds off: General Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam until 1968, talks of war and General Giap (New York, N.Y., George, Nov. 1998)
  • General William C. Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports (Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1976)
  • Mike Wallace with Gary Paul Gates, Between You and Me (N.Y., Hyperion, 2005)

[edit] External links

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Preceded by
Garrison Holt Davidson		 Superintendents of the United States Military Academy
1960–1963		 Succeeded by
James Benjamin Lampert
Preceded by
Paul D. Harkins		 Commander, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam
1964–1968		 Succeeded by
Creighton Abrams
Preceded by
Harold K. Johnson		 Chief of Staff of the United States Army
1968–1972		 Succeeded by
Bruce Palmer, Jr.
(Acting)
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