Westmoreland: A Biography of General Willian C. Westmoreland - Hardcover

Zaffiri, Samuel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688111793 ISBN 13: 9780688111793

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 1994

Synopsis

The first full portrait of the general who commanded American forces in Vietnam follows William Westmoreland's career through his military successes and failures, and includes an account of his lawsuit against CBS

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

A biography of the military commander who, in this sound and balanced portrayal, was bound by his training and convictions to win an unwinnable war, ultimately the costliest in US history. Zaffiri (Hamburger Hill, not reviewed), a Vietnam veteran, relates the life of a remarkable general whose career was shattered by his involvement in the Vietnam War. The book opens with perhaps the high point of Westmoreland's professional life: a speech before a joint session of Congress, an honor reserved previously for the likes of Pershing, Eisenhower, and MacArthur. As the applause and adulation fade away, the author dissolves to the general's ancestry and early life. Coming from a southern military family, he forsook the family tradition of attendance at The Citadel to go to West Point. He demonstrated courage and leadership during WW II in North Africa and elsewhere, becoming a hero and stepping on the Army's fast track. He was frustrated by the political nature of the Korean War, in which he also served. Coming to the Pentagon, he became a prot‚g‚ of Maxwell Taylor, later JFK's military advisor. This ultimately led to his tenure as commander of MAC-V (Military Assistance Command--Vietnam). The Tet offensive, though in truth a disaster for the Communists, convinced both Congress and the American public that Westmoreland had deceived them about possibilities for success and broke the resolve of the US to prosecute the war. Although he still achieved his long-held dream of becoming Army chief of staff, he would live out his life in the shadow of perceived failure. A gubernatorial run in his native South Carolina and his famous libel suit against CBS round out the story. Based on meticulous research and interviews with many key figures (including Westmoreland himself), the book offers a fair hearing for a man who has been alternately overlooked and maligned by history. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Booklist:

Zaffiri moves quickly through Westmoreland's high-school days and distinguished West Point career to focus on the army artillery officer in action. During World War II, Westmoreland rose rapidly to the rank of colonel because of his innovative commands of crack units. For instance, Westmoreland's battalion of the Ninth Division undertook a 789-mile, four-day march in North Africa after Rommel's rout of American armored and infantry at the Kasserine Pass; Westmoreland's men turned Rommel back. Westmoreland distinguished himself in every post, but Zaffiri, a Vietnam veteran himself, devotes most of his book to the general's command in Vietnam--the one that Westmoreland will always be identified with. Zaffiri's portrait is based partly on interviews with Westmoreland and his associates, such as McGeorge Bundy and Maxwell Taylor. It characterizes Westmoreland as a shrewd commander who set his troops on the path to victory but who could not attain that victory because of American domestic politics. Lyndon Johnson springs vividly to life, and Zaffiri takes a fresh look at wranglings between marine and army commanders that Westmoreland had a certain flair for adjudicating. He discusses the rather gentle way in which Westmoreland rejected Robert McNamara's ill-conceived plan to bulldoze the DMZ. Zaffiri also shows how the rumors that Westmoreland falsified battlefield statistics were generated and follows that controversy through its lives as a CBS documentary and Westmoreland's lawsuit against CBS. Zaffiri's is the first full biography of Westmoreland; it's admiring but pulls no punches. John Mort

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0688111793
• ISBN 13: 9780688111793
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 502