General William Childs Westmoreland (1914- )
General William Childs Westmoreland was born on March 26, 1914, in Spartan burg Country, S.C. Westmoreland attended West Point, where he excelled in leadership. He became the captain of cadets and was the winner of a Pershing Award for leadership. Westmoreland graduated from West Point in 1936.
General Westmoreland began his career in the military during World War II. He served as a battalion commander of artillery in North Africa and Sicily and then as a staff officer. In Korea, Westmoreland commanded an airborned brigade. Shortly after, he commanded the 101st Airborne Division and the 19th Airborne Corps.
In 1956, General Westmoreland became the youngest major general in the Army at the age of 42. In 1960, General Westmoreland became the second-youngest superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point.
From 1964 to 1968, General Westmoreland became the chief of the Military Assistance Command in Vietnam. This organization was founded to aid South Vietnam's battle against the Communist forces. General Westmoreland initiated his strategy called "War of Attrition." This was when he sought to kill the Vietnamese Communist soldiers quicker than they were replaced.
General Westmoreland was also constantly reminded by the leaders from Washington to avoid the disaster that the French Army faced at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Due to this, Westmoreland kept military operations by units above 750 men.
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Following a devastating loss in the *Tet Offensive*, General Westmoreland requested 206,000 more troops for his strategy of attritionto be completed. This was rejected by President Johnson.
After 1968, General Westmoreland became Army Chief of Staff until his retirement in 1972. In 1974, he was defeated when he tried to run for governor of South Carolina. In 1984, he filed a 120 million dollar suit against CBS because of the way the network had portrayed him in a 1982 TV special. The suit was dropped in 1985. General Westmoreland wrote a book named "A Soldier Reports," which was his memoir of his 40 years in the army.
Photos Courtesy of Vietnam Photos
