William Westmoreland

United States Army general (1914-2005)

Quotes

“Well, the Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does the Westerner. Life is plentiful, life is cheap in the Orient. And, as the philosophy of the Orient expresses it - life is - is not important.”
“To Kitsy, Stevie, Rip, and Margaret, and to the valiant men and women of the United States and other nations who served the cause of freedom in South Vietnam.”
“Despite a number of near misses, I came through the war unscathed. In Tunisia a shell hit my vehicle but without harm to me, and in Sicily an exploding mine blew up my vehicle, but I was thrown clear. On the Roer River in Germany, just as I got out of my Jeep and entered a company command post, a mortar shell struck my vehicle. In the Remagen bridgehead on the Rhine a shell demolished a latrine moments after I had departed. Somehow none of the enemy shells had my number.”
“Among a stream of visitors to the 9th Division in England, while it was preparing for D-Day in the early months of 1944, was Prime Minister Winston Churchill. When he arrived to address the assembled troops, he went at first not to the speaker's stand but behind a small outbuilding. He reappeared minutes later buttoning his fly, making sure no one missed the reason for the delay. The troops loved it.”
“Khe Sanh will stand in history, I am convinced, as a classic example of how to defeat a numerically superior besieging force by co-ordinated application of firepower.”
“There is, General Douglas MacArthur said, "no substitute for victory." For all who would face reality, the truth of those words was proven not only in South Vietnam but in all of Indochina.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Nickname: Westy
Born: ( 1914-03-26 ) 26 March 1914, Saxon, South Carolina , U.S.

Article

William Childs Westmoreland (26 March 1914 – 18 July 2005) was a United States Army general, most notably the commander of United States forces during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968. He later served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1968 to 1972. Born into a prosperous family in Upstate South Carolina, he demonstrated leadership abilities from an early age as a Boy Scout and attended the US Military Academy in West Point, graduating at the top of his class in 1936. He excelled during his service in the European theater during World War II, and in the Korean War, leading to him becoming one of the youngest general officers of the time. After returning from Korea, he continued to climb the ranks within the Army, serving as Superintendent of West Point from 1960 to 1963.

Following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, American involvement in Vietnam steadily escalated, beginning with combat advisors. Westmoreland was sent to South Vietnam in January 1964, and took command of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) in June. In Vietnam, Westmoreland adopted a strategy of attrition against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam, to drain them of manpower and supplies. He used artillery and air power on a huge scale.