WESTMORELAND: HERO IN HIS OWN MIND

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dustoff_400LIES AND PROPGANDA COULD MAKE A HERO FROM HORSE SHIT

NOTHING COULD HELP WESTMORELAND, PIGEON IN UNIFORM

BY G. DUFF

I was hoping that the lies about famous General Westmoreland had died with the thousands his incompetence and lies had led to an early grave but, as luck would have it, the bullshit wagon has pulled away from the loading dock again.

Westmoreland, the puffed up face of American power in Vietnam, at least until he was tossed out on his ass, has been an icon of heroics to those who know nothing of history or warfare and even less about Vietnam

Famous for beating CBS in a lawsuit wherein Westmoreland proved that stories of Vietnam veterans suffering from PTSD, suicides, unemployment, high crime rates and severe family problems were lies.  Because of this "defeat" by Westmoreland, Congress and the VA kept research and treatment for PTSD on hold for decades and made no attempts to reach out to Vietnam veterans.

Westmoreland’s win in the lawsuit, was helped along by withheld statistics, outright lies and a massive coverup.  The result, as we now know, IS TENS OF THOUSANDS OF VIETNAM VETERANS DEAD AT THEIR OWN HANDS, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS WITH UNTREATED PTSD AND A VA HEALTH SYSTEM THAT ALLOWED A GENERATION TO DIE OF AGENT ORANGE RELATED DISEASES WHILE THE NATION LOOKED AWAY.

     

disneylandvietnam_400ENTRANCE TO "DISNEYLAND VIETNAM"

 This is the text of an email received from a friend and disabled veteran who served in Westmoreland’s command:

Westmoreland flew in to our LZ with a group of his REMFers while we were getting our first hot meal that month, Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings. The General decided his speech to the troops was more important than our hot meal, so there we stood in the rain while our mess kits filled slowly with water and cooled off the turkey, diluted the gravy and floated the peas away. Men threw soggy rolls and I can’t enjoy turkey to this day! Have you heard this story? It’s TRUE! First Cav.
John
(One of my other friends was on the chopper with Westie that day.  He’s recovering from heart valve replacement which was needed after damage done by chemotherapy to treat one of his several agent orange cancers.  His stories of Westie’s exploits go on for hours. g)

Westmoreland was famous while in Vietnam.  The unpublished truth is that he "had a price on his head" as an infamously incompetent leader who spent the lives of his men in fruitless airborne assaults, totally contrary to counter-insurgency tactics of the day and the time proven tactics we now teach.  His strategy was to plan around the needs of the news media who enjoyed the drama of inexperienced troops being ferried into unfamiliar territory only to be extracted, often under the most unpleasant circumstances.  His legacy was thousands of American dead and an enemy controlling more and more of Vietnam.

While Marines with little or no money or supplies held the northern part of Vietnam, area of the most severe combat, Westmoreland drained resources they would have used in their highly successful civil action programs which placed troops in daily contact with local villagers and their defense forces.  Westmoreland hated this concept and worked hard to see it ended, no matter how successful it was.

Studies of the travel records of the period showed that Westmoreland, headquartered in a "palatial compound" of 4 star dining and swimming pools, spent much time courting the press, much of it in the US.  His "heroic" participation consisted of staged photo opportunities with the troops.  It boggles the mind to think how well he would have fit in today.

Westmoreland’s other legacy was that of allowing rear eschelon leaders to duck combat for a luxurious lifestyle while continually lying to the press and Congress about imaginary battles, enemy casualties and successes.  By controlling the press and entertaining the endless Congressional junkets always satisfied with a good meal and "friendly entertainment", Vietnam rolled on year after year fueled by military incompetence and outright corruption. 

Vietnam for many was a war of wild parties, massage parlors and underage prostitutes delivered in the ruined splendor of the decaying remains of French occupation.

This legacy has become an endemic disease in the military and has established a standard many of our top military leaders love descending to.

Few reading the history of the Vietnam War are aware of the malaise of leadership during the war or how well so many lived and how profitable and enjoyable the war had become for Pentagon brass.  With decades of fiction, lies and "TV", the suffering of the very small percentage of combat troops and the tortuous overwork of many support personnel while others literally vacationed in Vietnam is a forgotten story.

Westmoreland’s legacy of bullshit, lies and suffering lives on with the fewer and fewer surviving veterans of the Vietnam war who suffered needlessly under his misguided leadership in the field and his pride driven coverup of one of the greatest social disasters in American history, the destruction of the Vietnam veteran.

gduff_01Gordon Duff is a Marine Vietnam veteran, 100% Combat Disabled and a regular contributor.

 

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Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades. Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world's largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues. Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than "several" countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.