Customer Reviews

A Soldier Reports

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book is the memoir of one of America's most controversial military leaders. I found it refreshing to read of his background and upbringing. He briefly covers his days as a cadet at West Point where he graduated in 1936, the horse dawn artillery days, and his role in World War II where he fought with distinction in North Africa and Europe with the Ninth Division. We see his fast rise to a Brigadier General before thirty years of age and later (1952-53) in role in the Korean War. He served as superintendent of West Point (1960-64), attained (1964) the rank of general (4 start) and commanded (1964-68) U.S. military forces in Vietnam. He then assumed the position of army chief of staff, which he held until his retirement in 1972.

I was saddened as I read Westmoreland's comments on one of the early killed in action lists that crossed his desk. It included 2LT John J. Pershing III, grandson of World War I supreme commanding general "Blackjack" Pershing. The book looks at the Viet-Nam war from Westmoreland's point of view. It explains his decision making process. It is more than an after action report. It is worth reading if you are a political or military history junkie. His relationship with Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara are not covered in the detail I would have liked. This is the story of a decent man, giving his best to his country in difficult times.

Any person, particularly military, who goes to pages 218 through 220 of General Westmoreland's personal biography will soon learn that it was he who allowed the enemy to keep their safe havens, allowed the enemy the use of the Mekong River as a major resupply route using foreign ships to transport weapons and ammunition to the enemy inside Cambodia where they would then use those same weapons to kill our forces and allied forces on the South Vietnamese side of the border with Cambodia and our forces could not fire back at that enemy who was killing and wounding them. If you were to go to my book "Expendable Elite - One Soldier's Journey Into Covert Warfare" - a book we proved to be true in Federal Court in 2006 - you will read how an Army Captain was sent to prison for firing back at the enemy who had killed some of his men from inside Cambodia. This was because General Westmoreland had presided over the enemy having safe-havens that were "off limits" to our forces.
I attempted to get Generl Westmoreland court martialled for aiding the enemy and was stopped only by the fact of his having died before The Judge Advocate General of the United States Army could follow through on it.[ASIN:0977795314 Expendable Elite: One Soldier's Journey into Covert Warfare.] My publisher and I were sued by the Special Forces Association as they attempted to bankrupt us and intimidate us into declaring my book as fiction. We proved in Federal Court that it was indeed nonfiction and we included in our defense the truth about General Westmoreland's aiding the enemy. It cost my courageous publisher (Kris Millegan of Trine Day)over $200,000.00 to prove that my book was the truth and nothing but the truth.