Image Credit: General Douglas MacArthur (center), Commander in Chief of United Nations Forces, observes the shelling of lightly defended Incheon from the U.S. Navy amphibious force command ship USS Mount McKinley (AGC-7) on 15 September 1950. Wikipedia
Franz-Stefan Gady, The Diplomat: Is This the Worst Intelligence Chief in the US Army’s History?
Charles Willoughby, General Douglas MacArthur’s intelligence chief during the Korean War, bears responsibility for one of the U.S. Army’s biggest military disasters.
U.S. Army General Charles A. Willoughby is most likely the worst intelligence chief the U.S. Army has ever had. Alongside General Douglas MacArthur, whom he served as head of intelligence during the Korean War, Willoughby is responsible for one of the biggest military disasters in U.S. military history: The rout of the 8th U.S. Army and its South Korean allies in November/December 1950 from the Yalu River on the border between North Korea and China down to below the 38th parallel bisecting the Korean Peninsula. The “Big Bugout” – as the retreat was called – covered some 120 miles in ten days and cost the lives of thousands of American and South Korean soldiers.
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WNU Editor: Not a bright spot in the history of the U.S. Army.
If you've ever read, "The Corps" series by W.E.B. Griffin, you've been privy to many a tale of Gen. Willoughby's arrogance and incompetence. His was a prelude to the thinking that caused the Vietnam War and its result.
ReplyDeleteThis old guy was in Pusan when we got pushed down to that smallish area before the Inchon landing got our military moving northward again...China of course entered the war to assist the North Koreans but with the ok of
ReplyDeleteRussia. Seldom noted or mentioned but Russian planes involved in that war but played down from the public lest the war get significantly enlarged