Frederick C . Weyand Frederick Carlton Weyand ( September 15 , 1916 – February 10 , 2010 ) was a U . S . Army General . Weyand was the last commander of US military operations in the Vietnam War from 1972 to 1973 , and served as the 28th US Army Chief of Staff from 1974 to 1976 . Career Summary . Early career . Weyand was commissioned a second lieutenant through the Reserve Officers Training Corps program at the University of California at Berkeley , where he graduated in May 1938 . He married Arline Langhart in 1940 . World War Two . From 1940 to 1942 , Weyand was assigned to active duty and served with the 6th Field Artillery . He graduated from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in 1942 and served as adjutant of the Harbor Defense Command in San Francisco from 1942 to 1943 . He moved on to the Office of the Chief of Intelligence for the US War Department General Staff in 1944 . He became assistant chief of staff for intelligence in the China - Burma - India Theater from 1944 to 1945 . In the immediate aftermath of the war he was in the Military Intelligence Service in Washington DC from 1945 to 1946 . Service After World War Two and During the Korean War . He was chief of staff for intelligence , United States Army Forces , Middle Pacific from 1946 to 1949 . He graduated from the U . S . Army Infantry School at Fort Benning in 1950 . He became commander of the 1st Battalion , 7th Infantry Regiment and the assistant chief of staff , G – 3 , of the 3d Infantry Division during the Korean War from 1950 to 1951 . Prior to the Vietnam War . He served on the faculty of the Infantry School from 1952 to 1953 . Following this assignment he attended the Armed Forces Staff College , and upon graduation became military assistant in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management until 1954 . He moved on to become military assistant and executive to the Secretary of the Army from 1954 to 1957 . He then graduated from the Army War College in 1958 , moving on to command the 3d Battalion , 6th Infantry Regiment , in Europe ( 1958 – 1959 ) . He served in the Office of the United States Commander in Berlin in 1960 then became chief of staff for the Communications Zone , United States Army , Europe from 1960 to 1961 . He was the deputy chief and chief of legislative liaison for the Department of the Army from 1961 to 1964 . Vietnam War Service . Weyand became commander of the 25th Infantry Division , stationed in Hawaii , in 1964 . He continued to lead the division as it was introduced into operations in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966 . He served as the head of the 25th Division until 1967 , when he became deputy , then acting commander , and finally commander of II Field Force , Vietnam responsible for III Corps Tactical Zone comprising the 11 provinces around Saigon . In 1968 , he became chief of the Office of Reserve Components . A dissenter from General William Westmoreland ' s more conventional war strategy , Weyand ' s experience as a former intelligence officer gave him a sense of the enemy ' s intentions . He realized that " the key to success in Vietnam was in securing and pacifying the towns and villages of South Vietnam " ( Mark Salter , John McCain " Hard Call : The Art of Great Decisions " ) . Weyand managed to convince a reluctant General Westmoreland to allow him to redeploy troops away from the Cambodian border area closer to Saigon , significantly contributing to making the 1968 Tet Offensive a military catastrophe for North Vietnam . In 1969 , he then was named the military advisor to Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge at the Paris Peace Talks . In 1970 he became assistant chief of staff for force development . Later in 1970 , he became deputy commander and commander of the Military Assistance Command , Vietnam . He succeeded General Creighton Abrams , who was appointed as Army Chief of Staff , as commander of MACV on June 30 , 1972 . By the end of 1972 General Weyand had overseen the withdrawal of all United States military forces from South Vietnam . Post - Vietnam Commands and Chief of Staff . Weyand served as Commander in Chief of the United States Army , Pacific in 1973 and was Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1973 to 1974 . He was then appointed as Chief of Staff of the United States Army and served from October 3 , 1974 to September 30 , 1976 . As chief of staff he supervised Army moves to improve the combat - to - support troop ratio , to achieve a sixteen - division force , to enhance the effectiveness of roundout units , and to improve personnel and logistical readiness . He retired from active service in October 1976 . Confidential Source for 1967 New York Times Article . In an editorial in " The New York Times " on December 11 , 2006 , Murray Fromson , a reporter for CBS during the Vietnam War , stated that General Weyand had agreed to reveal himself as the confidential source for New York Times reporter R . W . Apple , Jr . ' s August 7 , 1967 story " Vietnam : The Signs of Stalemate . " General Weyand , then commander of III Corps in Vietnam , was the unidentified high - ranking officer , who told Apple and Fromson ( reporting the same story for CBS ) that " I ’ ve destroyed a single division three times . . . I ’ ve chased main - force units all over the country and the impact was zilch . It meant nothing to the people . Unless a more positive and more stirring theme than simple anti - communism can be found , the war appears likely to go on until someone gets tired and quits , which could take generations . " This story was the first intimation that war was reaching a stalemate , and contributed to changing sentiment about the war . Post - Vietnam personal life . After retiring from the U . S . Army in 1976 , Weyand moved to Honolulu , Hawai , which was also the home of the 25th Infantry Division . He became active in Hawai ' i community affairs and held a number of prominent business positions , including corporate secretary and senior vice president of First Hawaiian Bank between 1976 and 1982 . He was an active member of the Rotary Club of Honolulu and a trustee of the now - dissolved Samuel M . Damon Estate , as well as the American Red Cross Hawaii Chapter , where he served as chairman of the board in 1992 and director of the Honolulu Symphony . He was active in the Sony Open golf tournament , Shriners Club , the East - West Center , the Asia - Pacific Center for Security Studies , and the Hawaii Theater . He was also a member of the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program and a member of several military and veteran organizations such as the Association of the United States Army , the Air Force Association , the Military Officers Association of America , the 25th Infantry Division Association , the Go for Broke Association ( 100th Infantry Battalion , 442nd Infantry Regiment ) , the 3rd Infantry Division Association , and the associated 7th Infantry Regiment Association . Weyand died on February 10 , 2010 of natural causes at the Kahala Nui retirement residence in Honolulu , Hawaii . He was survived by his wife Mary Weyand , whom he married after his first wife died in 2001 , three children , two stepdaughters and two stepsons , and ten grandchildren .