General Westmoreland dead at 91; led US buildup in Vietnam
WASHINGTON - General William Westmoreland, the highly decorated former commander of US forces in Vietnam whose name became synonymous with the US military debacle in Southeast Asia, has died at a retirement home in Charleston, South Carolina. He was 91. Westmoreland, a veteran of three wars and recipient of three dozen military decorations during his career, commanded US forces in Vietnam from 1964-68, a critical period in the conflict.
Chief architect of the "war of attrition" strategy, he came home from Southeast Asia to find himself identified with macabre body counts and seemingly endless requests for more US troops.
The plain-spoken general maintained in decades following the US withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975 that the war had not been a failure and that history would vindicate the US military involvement there.
He blamed the war's worst follies on president Lyndon Johnson, charging in his memoir "War in Vain?" that the Democratic president -- insecure and too eager to please -- refused to make the tough choices Westmoreland advocated.
In that memoir, Westmoreland lashed out at critics and blamed the ultimate US and South Vietnamese military defeat on "politicians and policymakers" in Washington "who forced us to fight with one hand."
The four-star general said the conflict might have ended in a US victory had Johnson not "listened to too much faulty advice" and ignored his plan to step up bombing of North Vietnam and invade Cambodia and Laos.
"Washington timidity was an outgrowth of the advice of well-intentioned but naive officials and of its effects on a president so politically oriented that he tried to please everybody rather than bite the bullet and make the hard decisions," Westmoreland wrote.
He defended his strategy of trying to win a war of attrition, despite its unpopularity dating from World War I, on grounds that a full land invasion was out of the question.
As recently as 1991, Westmoreland maintained that US aims in Vietnam were realized: Communism was checked in Southeast Asia, he told The Los Angeles Times, China's influence diminished, and hundreds of thousands of fleeing Vietnamese proved communism a failure and embarrassment to its adherents.
"Few people realize that the way history has unfolded, our objectives have been met in Vietnam without our having to keep a single soldier there ... The history books haven't caught up with history yet -- but I think they will."
An outspoken critic of the media during the war, Westmoreland questioned whether journalists were loyal to the communist North or US-backed South.
Westmoreland was honored as Time Magazine's "Man of the Year" in 1965. In its profile, the news weekly described him as a "sinewy personification of the American fighting man."
"As commander of all US forces in South Vietnam ... (he) directed the historic buildup, drew up the battle plans, and infused the 190,000 men under him with his own idealistic view of US aims and responsibilities," Time wrote.
The US television network CBS, in a 1982 documentary, said zealous idealism in the fight against communism impelled Westmoreland to intentionally underestimate the number of enemy forces in Vietnam in 1967 to demonstrate progress in a deeply and increasingly unpopular conflict.
The general sued CBS for libel, asking damages of 120 million dollars and testifying that he told Johnson that it would take another three to five years to win the war.
Westmoreland dropped the suit after four months, saying, "I consider that I have won. I'm going to try to fade away."
His compensation was a statement by CBS saying it respected the general's service and "never intended to assert and does not believe that General Westmoreland was unpatriotic or disloyal ..."
Born in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, on March 26, 1914, William Childs Westmoreland graduated from West Point and served in North Africa and Europe during World War II and in Korea.
He was promoted to brigadier general at the age of 38 and later became the youngest major general in the US Army.
A soldier of legendary toughness, Westmoreland took to parachuting ahead of his troops to test wind conditions after five men under his command died in a practice jump.
Westmoreland served as Army chief of staff -- his last official post -- and retired in 1972 to his home state of South Carolina, sharing a home in the historic district of Charleston with his wife of nearly 50 years.
After retiring, he ran for governor of South Carolina but failed to win the Republican Party nomination.
Westmoreland and his wife had a son and two daughters.
Agence France Presse - July 19, 2005.
U.S. Vietnam-era military chief Westmoreland dies
WASHINGTON - Gen. William Westmoreland, who commanded U.S. military operations in the Vietnam War, died on Monday night at a retirement home in Charleston, South Carolina, said Linda Maines, night supervisor at the facility.
Westmoreland, who lived at the Bishop Gadsden retirement community with his wife, was 91. The cause of death was not immediately available.
The silver-haired officer, whose name will always be linked to the Vietnam War, was known for highly publicized and positive assessments of U.S. military prospects in the conflict.
Westmoreland led U.S. troops in Vietnam from 1965 until 1968. Under his command, the number of fighting men rose from just a few thousand to more than 500,000, but victory remained out of reach despite the escalating U.S. involvement.
As protest movements against the undeclared war grew at home, Westmoreland kept pushing for more troops and arms in the field.
Under his command, search and destroy tactics were used, as was the defoliant Agent Orange and the liquid fire, napalm. But efforts to drive the Viet Cong from the countryside were not particularly successful.
Westmoreland tried to win the war by first winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people, but the increasing American involvement in the war proved as unpopular there as it did at home.
The turning point of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam was in January and February 1968 during Tet, the lunar new year -- previously a traditional cease-fire period.
The Viet Cong launched the Tet offensive against more than 100 cities and military bases, catching U.S. troops off guard. The Viet Cong held on for weeks with some of the bloodiest and most violent fighting of the war. The strength and ability of the communist troops stunned U.S. forces. Casualties were very high.
Westmoreland requested more troops to widen the war after the Tet offensive but there was a growing conviction in Washington that a military victory was no longer possible. Westmoreland wanted an additional 206,000 U.S. troops. Instead, President Lyndon Johnson, who also announced his intention not to run for reelection, ordered restrictions on bombings to the north.
High-profile lawsuit
That year Westmoreland was recalled, spending the four years until his retirement in 1972 as Army Chief of Staff -- a largely ceremonial post.
After Vietnam, Westmoreland was highly critical of both the Johnson and Nixon administrations in conducting the war. He also denounced American television and newspapers for alleged distortions that turned people against the war.
"A lesson to be learned," he said, "is that young men should never be sent into battle unless the country is going to support them."
Westmoreland launched a $120 million lawsuit against CBS and its 1982 documentary, "The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception." He claimed the piece defamed him by accusing him of deceiving President Johnson about the enemy's strength.
After two years of legal battles and a 65-day trial, Westmoreland reached a settlement with CBS and withdrew the suit before a verdict was reached. Both sides claimed victory.
An award-winning West Point graduate in 1936, Westmoreland moved up quickly to artillery battalion commander, seeing action in North Africa and Sicily in 1942. After D-Day on June 6, 1944, he was promoted to colonel and soon became chief of staff for the 9th Infantry Division.
He saw more combat service in Korea with the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat team and later was deputy assistant chief of staff for manpower with the
Pentagon in Washington.
In 1955, after attending Harvard Business School, Westmoreland took a job as secretary to the General Staff in Washington and was soon appointed major general, at 41 the youngest man to hold that rank in the army.
After a stint as commander of the 101st Airborne Division, where Westmoreland would "do anything the men would," he was appointed at 47 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as superintendent of West Point.
At the U.S. Military Academy, where he initiated sweeping curriculum changes, Westmoreland was well-liked by students and faculty.
Born William Childs Westmoreland on March 26, 1914, in Spartanburg County in South Carolina, he is survived by his wife Katherine. They had three children.
Reuters - July 19, 2005.
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