William Westmoreland

William Westmoreland was a U.S. Army general who commanded American forces in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968 and served as Army chief of staff from 1968 to 1972.

Attrition warfare: A strategy that seeks to wear down an enemy through sustained losses of personnel and materiel. Westmoreland relied on inflicting losses to weaken North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces.
Credibility gap: The perceived divide between official statements and what the public believes about government actions or events. Westmoreland’s optimistic accounts of progress deepened doubts about official Vietnam War reporting.
Lyndon B. Johnson: The 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. Johnson oversaw U.S. escalation in Vietnam while Westmoreland commanded American forces.
West Point: The United States Military Academy, a federal undergraduate college and officer-training institution in New York. Westmoreland graduated from the academy in 1936 and began his Army career as an officer.
Search and destroy: A military tactic of locating enemy forces, attacking them, and withdrawing after the engagement. It became a prominent operational method under Westmoreland’s command in Vietnam.
Walter Cronkite: An American broadcast journalist who anchored the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981. Cronkite’s 1968 assessment of the war challenged the optimism associated with Westmoreland’s briefings.
Robert McNamara: A U.S. defense secretary from 1961 to 1968 who directed major policy during the Vietnam War. McNamara helped shape the civilian strategy Westmoreland carried out in Vietnam.
World War II: A global war fought from 1939 to 1945 between the Axis powers and the Allies. Westmoreland gained combat command experience in Europe during the war.
Body count: A tally of enemy personnel reported killed in military operations. U.S. commanders used reported enemy deaths as a measure of progress during Westmoreland’s tenure.
Vietnamization: A U.S. policy of transferring combat responsibilities in Vietnam to South Vietnamese forces. It followed Westmoreland’s command as the United States shifted away from large-scale ground combat.

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