William Westmoreland William Childs Westmoreland ( March 26 , 1914 – July 18 , 2005 ) was a United States Army general , who commanded U . S . military operations in the Vietnam War at its peak ( 1964 – 68 ) , including during the Tet Offensive . He adopted a strategy of attrition against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese army . He later served as U . S . Army chief of staff from 1968 to 1972 . Early life . William Westmoreland was born in Spartanburg County , South Carolina , to Eugenia Talley Childs and James Ripley Westmoreland . His upper - middle - class family was involved in the local banking and textile industries . William was an Eagle Scout at Troop 1 Boy Scouts and became an Eagle Scout at the age of 15 , and recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo from the Boy Scouts of America as a young adult . After spending a year at The Citadel in 1932 he was appointed to attend the United States Military Academy . His motive for entering West Point was " to see the world " . He was a member of a distinguished West Point class that also included Creighton Abrams and Benjamin O . Davis Jr . Westmoreland graduated as first captain — the highest graduating rank — and received the Pershing Sword , which is given to the most able cadet at the academy . Westmoreland also served as the superintendent of the Protestant Sunday School Teachers . Following graduation in 1936 , he became an artillery officer and served in several different commands . In World War II he saw combat in Tunisia , Sicily , France , and Germany . He reached the temporary wartime rank of colonel , and on October 13 , 1944 , was appointed the chief of staff of the 9th Infantry Division . Westmoreland established a balanced reputation as a stern taskmaster who cared about his men and took a great interest in their welfare . One called him " the most caring officer , for soldiers , that I have ever known " . After the war he completed a three - month management program at Harvard Business School . As Stanley Karnow noted , " Westy was a corporation executive in uniform . " In 1962 Westmoreland was admitted as an honorary member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati . Vietnam . In June 1964 , he became deputy commander of Military Assistance Command , Vietnam ( MACV ) , assuming direct control from General Paul D . Harkins . Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara told President Lyndon B . Johnson in April that Westmoreland was " the best we have , without question " . As the head of the MACV he was known for highly publicized , positive assessments of U . S . military prospects in Vietnam . However , as time went on , the strengthening of communist combat forces in the South led to regular requests for increases in U . S . troop strength , from 16 , 000 when he arrived to its peak of 535 , 000 in 1968 when he was promoted to Army chief of staff . On April 28 , 1967 , Westmoreland addressed a joint session of Congress . " In evaluating the enemy strategy , " he said , " it is evident to me that he believes our Achilles heel is our resolve . . . . Your continued strong support is vital to the success of our mission . . . . Backed at home by resolve , confidence , patience , determination , and continued support , we will prevail in Vietnam over the communist aggressor ! " The 29 - minute speech was interrupted 19 times by applause , but congressional and popular support for the war thereafter continued to decline . Westmoreland claimed that under his leadership , United States forces " won every battle " . The turning point of the war was the 1968 Tet Offensive , in which communist forces , having staged a diversion at the Battle of Khe Sanh , attacked cities and towns throughout South Vietnam . U . S . and South Vietnamese troops successfully fought off the attacks , and the communist forces took heavy losses , but the ferocity of the assault shook public confidence in Westmoreland ' s previous assurances about the state of the war . Political debate and public opinion led the Johnson administration to limit further increases in U . S . troop numbers in Vietnam . Nine months afterward , when the My Lai Massacre reports started to break , Westmoreland resisted pressure from the incoming Nixon administration for a cover - up , and pressed for a full and impartial investigation by Lieutenant General William R . Peers . However , a few days after the tragedy , he had praised the same involved unit on the " outstanding job " , for the " U . S . infantrymen had killed 128 Communists [ " sic " ] in a bloody day - long battle " . Post 1969 Westmoreland also made efforts to investigate the Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat massacre a year after the event occurred . Westmoreland was convinced that the Vietnamese communists could be destroyed by fighting a war of attrition that , theoretically , would render the Vietnam People ' s Army unable to fight . His war strategy was marked by heavy use of artillery and airpower and repeated attempts to engage the communists in large - unit battles , and thereby exploit the anti - communists ' vastly superior firepower and technology . However , the North Vietnamese Army ( NVA ) and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam ( NLF ) were able to dictate the pace of attrition to fit their own goals : by continuing to fight a guerrilla war and avoiding large - unit battles , they denied the Americans the chance to fight the kind of war they were best at , and they ensured that attrition would wear down the American public ' s support for the war faster than they . Westmoreland repeatedly rebuffed or suppressed attempts by John Paul Vann and Lew Walt to shift to a " pacification " strategy Westmoreland had little appreciation of the patience of the American public for his time frame , and was struggling to persuade President Johnson to approve widening the war into Cambodia and Laos in order to interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail . He was unable to use the absolutist stance , " we can ' t win unless we expand the war " [ into Cambodia and Laos ] . Instead , he focused on " positive indicators , " which ultimately turned worthless when the Tet Offensive occurred , since all his pronouncements of " positive indicators " didn ' t hint at the possibility of such a last - gasp dramatic event . Tet outmaneuvered all of Westmoreland ' s pronouncements on " positive indicators " in the minds of the American public . Although the communists were severely depleted by the heavy fighting at Khe Sanh when their conventional assaults were battered by American firepower , as well as tens of thousands of deaths in the Tet Offensive , American political opinion and the panic engendered by the communist surprise sapped U . S . support for the war , even though the events of early 1968 put the United States and South Vietnam into a much stronger military position . Post - Vietnam . Westmoreland was replaced by General Creighton Abrams in June 1968 , the decision being announced shortly after the Tet Offensive . Although the decision had been made in late 1967 , it was widely seen in the media as a punishment for being caught off guard by the communist assault . Westmoreland served as c hief of staff of the United States Army from 1968 to 1972 , then retired from the Army . Many military historians have pointed out that Westmoreland became chief of staff at the worst time in history with regard to the Army . Guiding the Army as it transitioned to an all - volunteer force , he issued many directives to try to make Army life better and more palatable for America ' s youth — e . g . , allowing soldiers to wear sideburns and to drink beer in the mess hall . However , many hard - liners scorned these as too liberal . Westmoreland ran unsuccessfully for governor of South Carolina in 1974 . He published his autobiography the following year . Westmoreland later served on a task force to improve educational standards in the state of South Carolina . He was mentioned in a " Time " magazine article as a potential candidate for the 1968 Republican nomination . In 1986 , Westmoreland served as grand marshal of the Chicago Vietnam Veterans parade . The parade , attended by 200 , 000 Vietnam veterans and more than half a million spectators , did much to repair the rift between Vietnam veterans and the American public . Westmoreland versus CBS : " The Uncounted Enemy " . Mike Wallace interviewed Westmoreland for the CBS special " The Uncounted Enemy : A Vietnam Deception " . The documentary , shown on January 23 , 1982 , and prepared largely by CBS producer George Crile III , alleged that Westmoreland and others had deliberately underestimated Viet Cong troop strength during 1967 in order to maintain U . S . troop morale and domestic support for the war . Westmoreland filed a lawsuit against CBS . In " Westmoreland v . CBS " , Westmoreland sued Wallace and CBS for libel , and a lengthy legal process began . While the trial was in progress , Westmoreland suddenly settled with CBS for an apology , no more than CBS had originally offered . Some contend that Judge Leval ' s instructions to the jury over what constituted " actual malice " to prove libel convinced Westmoreland ' s lawyers that he was certain to lose . Others point out that the settlement occurred after two of Westmoreland ' s former intelligence officers , Major General Joseph McChristian and Colonel Gains Hawkins , testified to the accuracy of the substantive allegations of the broadcast , which were that Westmoreland ordered changes in intelligence reports on Viet Cong troop strengths for political reasons . Disagreements persist about the appropriateness of some of the methods of CBS ' s editors . A deposition by McChristian indicates that his organization developed improved intelligence on the number of irregular Viet Cong combatants shortly before he left Vietnam on a regularly scheduled rotation . The numbers troubled Westmoreland , who feared that the press would not understand them . He did not order them changed , but instead did not include the information in reporting to Washington , which in his view was a decision that the data was not appropriate to report . Based on later analysis of the information from all sides , it appears clear that Westmoreland could not sustain a libel suit because CBS ' s principal allegation was that he had caused intelligence officers to suppress facts . Westmoreland ' s anger was caused by the implication of the broadcast that his intent was fraudulent and that he ordered others to lie . During the acrimonious trial , Mike Wallace was hospitalized for depression , and despite the legal conflict separating the two , Westmoreland and his wife sent him flowers . Wallace ' s memoir is generally sympathetic to Westmoreland , although he makes it clear he disagreed with him on issues surrounding the Vietnam War and the Nixon Administration ' s policies in Southeast Asia . Views . In a 1998 interview for " George " magazine , Westmoreland criticized the battlefield prowess of his direct opponent , North Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap . " Of course , he [ Giap ] was a formidable adversary , " Westmoreland told correspondent W . Thomas Smith Jr . " Let me also say that Giap was trained in small - unit , guerrilla tactics , but he persisted in waging a big - unit war with terrible losses to his own men . By his own admission , by early 1969 , I think , he had lost , what , a half million soldiers ? He reported this . Now such a disregard for human life may make a formidable adversary , but it does not make a military genius . An American commander losing men like that would hardly have lasted more than a few weeks . " In the 1974 film " Hearts and Minds " , Westmoreland opined that " The Oriental doesn ' t put the same high price on life as does a Westerner . . . . We value life and human dignity . They don ' t care about life and human dignity . " Westmoreland ' s view was heavily criticized by Nick Turse , the author of the book " " Kill Anything That Moves : The Real American War in Vietnam . " " Nick argued that actually many killed Vietnamese people were actually innocent civillians , and the Vietnamese casualties were not just caused by military cross - fire but were directs result of the U . S . policy and tactics , for example the policy " kill everything that moves " which enable the U . S . soldiers to shot civillians which have " suspicious behavior " . Nick concluded that , after " spoken to survivors of massacres by United States forces at Phi Phu , Trieu Ai , My Luoc and so many other hamlets , I can say with certainty that Westmoreland ’ s assessment was false " . And Westmoreland himself was the one who concealed the evidence of atrocities from the American public when he was the Army Chief of Staff . Historian Derek Frisby also criticized Westmorland ' s view during the interview with Deutsche Welle : For the remainder of his life , he maintained that the United States did not lose the war in Vietnam ; he stated instead that " our country did not fulfill its commitment to South Vietnam . By virtue of Vietnam , the U . S . held the line for 10 years and stopped the dominoes from falling . " Personal life . Westmoreland initially met his future wife , Katherine ( Kitsy ) Stevens Van Deusen , while stationed at Fort Sill ; she was nine years old at the time and was the daughter of the post executive officer , Col . Edwin R . Van Deusen . Westmoreland met her again in North Carolina when she was nineteen and a student at UNC Greensboro . The couple married in May 1947 and later had three children : a daughter , Katherine Stevens ; a son , James Ripley II , and another daughter , Margaret Childs . Just hours after Westmoreland was sworn in as Army chief of staff on July 7 , 1968 , his brother - in - law , Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Van Deusen ( commander of 2nd Battalion , 47th Infantry Regiment ) , was killed when his helicopter was shot down in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam . Westmoreland died on July 18 , 2005 , at the age of 91 at the Bishop Gadsden retirement home in Charleston , South Carolina . He had suffered from Alzheimer ' s disease during the final years of his life . He was buried on July 23 , 2005 , at the West Point Cemetery , United States Military Academy . The General William C . Westmoreland Bridge in Charleston , South Carolina , is named in his honor . In 1996 , the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution authorized the General William C . Westmoreland award . The award is given each year in recognition to an outstanding SAR veterans volunteer . Dates of rank . United States Military Academy class of 1936 < br > < br > Retired from active service in July 1972 . Awards and decorations . General Westmoreland earned the following U . S . and foreign decorations and awards :