5 Worst U.S. Generals

[DicedT]

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/commanders-chaos-the-5-worst-generals-us-history-11630

[mirth]

Glad to see MacArthur made the list. Though you probably could have populated it entirely with Civil War Generals.

[Steelgrave]

I've always despised MacArthur. His actions in the 1932 Bonus Army debacle (which also reflected poorly on a Major George Patton) were disgraceful. True to form, he ignored a direct Presidential order to stand down and ordered a further attack on the veterans, leading to more casualties among men who had served in WWI and their families gathered at the camp. One of the most shameful episodes in American history and true to form for a man who thought himself superior to the civilian leadership and the soldiers he led.

[Boggit]

I've always despised MacArthur. His actions in the 1932 Bonus Army debacle (which also reflected poorly on a Major George Patton) were disgraceful. True to form, he ignored a direct Presidential order to stand down and ordered a further attack on the veterans, leading to more casualties among men who had served in WWI and their families gathered at the camp. One of the most shameful episodes in American history and true to form for a man who thought himself superior to the civilian leadership and the soldiers he led.

I'd never heard of the incident, but looked it up after I saw your post. What a disgrace! I'm surprised Eisenhower endorsed MacArthur's actions after the event.

[Steelgrave]

I believe Eisenhower was no more than a Light Colonel at the time, while MacArthur was not only Chief of Staff but also politically connected. I'm disappointed at Eisenhower (as well as Patton) but I'm not overly surprised.

[Staggerwing]

Patton, mentioned in passing above, may have been a good general in the technical sense but he held some shockingly extreme views on those he considered 'subhuman' such as anyone who was Jewish. His own writings make it well known that he actually sympathized with the Nazis and referred to Jews as 'lower than animals' and even going so far as to leave the German administrative and guard staff in charge of at least one if not more of the camps that his army 'liberated' and making no provisions for bettering the fates of the camp prisoners. When hostilities ended and the survivors of the death camps were moved to US-run facilities (which were in themselves concentration camps) Patton allowed those camps under his command to be run no better than the hell-holes the survivors had been moved out of. It actually required intervention from the White House for things to improve and this was only over Patton's enraged objections. What a guy.

[Boggit]

Patton, mentioned in passing above, may have been a good general in the technical sense but he held some shockingly extreme views on those he considered 'subhuman' such as anyone who was Jewish. His own writings make it well known that he actually sympathized with the Nazis and referred to Jews as 'lower than animals' and even going so far as to leave the German administrative and guard staff in charge of at least one if not more of the camps that his army 'liberated' and making no provisions for bettering the fates of the camp prisoners. When hostilities ended and the survivors of the death camps were moved to US-run facilities (which were in themselves concentration camps) Patton allowed those camps under his command to be run no better than the hell-holes the survivors had been moved out of. It actually required intervention from the White House for things to improve and this was only over Patton's enraged objections. What a guy.

I didn't know about that side of Patton. I know that he was happy to try and conceal war crimes committed by Americans like the Chenogne massacre, which makes him a hypocrite in terms of what he had to say about Malmedy. You can't expect to keep the moral high ground if you sink as low as those you accuse.

Of course the press loved him, and he loved them, but despite the drama associated with him, I don't rate him very high as a general. He was fine in pursuit situations when he was facing relatively little organised opposition Sicily, France 1944-5. I think the US had better, but less dramatic generals whose fighting qualities were overlooked by history because of the propaganda power of the press. Bradley, Hodges, and Collins all seem workaday compared to the press version of the "dashing, bold Patton", but frankly they were involved more in the actual 'breaking' of the German army in France. He gets a lot of credit for the victory at the Bulge but ironically Hasso von Manteuffel, commander of 5 PzArmee gave Montgomery more credit for stabilising the situation into a coherent battle than he gave to Patton.

[Boggit]

I found a pretty bad one for you... General William Wright of the 89th Division, AEF. With the knowledge of the impending armistice, he ordered an assault on Stenay as he understood they had some baths his troops could wash in. This assault cost the lives of 365 US soldiers for an objective that could have been obtained without any loss of life a couple of hours later - and he knew that! I'm sure his troops didn't hold the high opinion of him that Washington obviously did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Wright#World_War_I

[airboy]

MacArthur both made some brilliant strategic moves and some amazingly idiotic mistakes.

Losing the entire Air Force in the 1941 after Pearl Harbor was beyond dumb.  But many of the combined arms operations against Japan worked amazingly well.  Inchon was just brilliant.

His continuing to advance towards China after Inchon was essentially a Joint Chiefs/Presidential decision.
He was an egomaniac, but he transformed Japan into a successful democracy that has now been an effective government for 70 years.  It would be difficult to fault him for continuing to conquer North Korea but not give him credit for transforming Japan.  You either give people credit for strategic/political decisions - or you don't. 

American Caesar is an amazing biography of MacArthur.  You get a sense of both his genius, his occasional idiocy, and his pretty much constant megalomania. 

[Grimnirsson]

Hasso von Manteuffel, commander of 5 PzArmee gave Montgomery more credit for stabilising the situation into a coherent battle than he gave to Patton

One of the most brilliant commanders the Germans had btw so his opinion should count. C:-)