Called the “inevitable general,” William Westmoreland proved inevitably inadequate
Here’s What You Need to Remember: War is an extension of politics, and if commanders don’t help secure the desired political ends, they get a failing grade. And if they not only fail to deliver, but wind up sinking their own side in the process, and change history, they earn a spot in the Hall of Military Shame.
How do you measure military leaders? When all is said and done, it doesn’t matter how nice, brave, courageous, gutsy, loyal or brilliant commanders they’ve been. It doesn’t matter if they’ve won more often than they’ve lost. How they’ve practiced the art of war is immaterial, too.
War is an extension of politics, and if commanders don’t help secure the desired political ends, they get a failing grade. And if they not only fail to deliver, but wind up sinking their own side in the process, and change history, they earn a spot in the Hall of Military Shame.
In considering who should receive such a dubious honor, I’ve consciously excluded bad leaders. From Kaiser Wilhelm to Hitler and Saddam Hussein and Gadhafi, there is no end of national leaders who squandered their nation’s blood and treasure in futile conflicts.
Nor is being a bad battlefield commander, by itself, sufficient to make the cut. Innumerable battlefield commanders have had disastrous days at the office. George Custer at the Little Big Horn and Lord Chelmsford at the Battle of Isandlwana leap to mind.
Even a string of bad days does not guarantee entry. George Brinton McClellan, a self-proclaimed “Young Napoleon,” ran dreadful campaigns, but he doesn’t make the grade because he was canned before he could lose the entire war. A more positive example is George Washington. Starting with the battle of Long Island, he lost way more fights than he won—yet he managed to win the war. That’s an automatic disqualification from Hall membership.
So what is the right standard of shame? It’s quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all.
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