Top 37 Quotes & Sayings by William Westmoreland

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American military man William Westmoreland.

Last updated on September 18, 2024.

William Childs Westmoreland was a United States Army general, most notably commander of United States forces during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968. He served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1968 to 1972.

American - Military man | March 26, 1914 - July 18, 2005

Source: Wikipedia

As the senior commander in Vietnam, I was aware of the potency of public opinion - and I worried about it.

William Westmoreland

I've made this statement many times: If I would have to do it over again, I would have made known the forthcoming Tet Offensive.

William Westmoreland

The military don't start wars. Politicians start wars.

William Westmoreland

It's the first war we've ever fought on the television screen and the first war that our country ever fought where the media had full reign.

William Westmoreland

We had the best food any battlefield ever had.

William Westmoreland

I haven't yet figured out how I was made first captain, because I was not an outstanding student. I was an adequate student.

William Westmoreland

It became very clear that Hanoi was in effect strategically running the Viet Cong operation.

William Westmoreland

We moved in to help the Vietnamese defend their country and confront the Viet Cong.

William Westmoreland

Vietnam was the first war ever fought without any censorship. Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.

William Westmoreland

The last man in the world who should have been criticized was the American soldier. They should have criticized me.

William Westmoreland

President Johnson did not want the Vietnam War to broaden. He wanted the North Vietnamese to leave their brothers in the South alone.

William Westmoreland

I was participating in my own lynching, but the problem was I didn't know what I was being lynched for.

William Westmoreland

When the soldiers came home from Vietnam, there were no parades, no celebrations. So they built the Vietnam Memorial for themselves.

William Westmoreland

Militarily, we succeeded in Vietnam. We won every engagement we were involved in out there.

William Westmoreland

The military lead turbulent lives, but they are people like everybody else.

William Westmoreland

I don't take criticism lying down.

William Westmoreland

The Vietnam memorial is a masterpiece. The names of the dead are listed there, chronologically. Just the names.

William Westmoreland

War is fear cloaked in courage.

William Westmoreland

By the end of the summer of 1973 I thought it was virtually impossible for South Vietnam to survive. How in the heck could they?

William Westmoreland

I don't think I have been loved by my troops, but I think I have been respected.

William Westmoreland

We were succeeding. When you looked at specifics, this became a war of attrition. We were winning.

William Westmoreland

My wife was my greatest asset. I didn't marry her until after World War II, but she has complemented me in every job I've ever had.

William Westmoreland

Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.

William Westmoreland

I do not believe that the men who served in uniform in Vietnam have been given the credit they deserve. It was a difficult war against an unorthodox enemy.

William Westmoreland

When I took command in Vietnam, I gave great emphasis to food and medical care - and to the mail.

William Westmoreland

Television is an instrument which can paralyze this country.

William Westmoreland

In the end, we lost IndoChina to the communists. But we did not lose Southeast Asia.

William Westmoreland

We'll blast them back into the stone ages!

William Westmoreland

Anytime it was advertised that I was going to be at a particular place, the radicals would be there, the cameras with TV news.

William Westmoreland

We have reached an important point when the end begins to come into view.

William Westmoreland

My wife was my greatest asset. I didn't marry her until after World War II, but she has complemented me in every job I've ever had

William Westmoreland

This was a type of war that we'd had no experience with before. Some of our policies were kind of trial and error in character.

William Westmoreland

I have no apologies, no regrets. I gave my very best efforts.... I've been hung in effigy. I've been spat upon. You just have to let those things bounce off .

William Westmoreland

I see battlefields that are under 24-hour real or near-real time surveillance of all types. I see battlefields on which we can destroy anything we can locate through instant communications and almost instantaneous application of highly lethal firepower.

William Westmoreland

They're asking women to do impossible things. I don't believe women can carry a pack, live in a foxhole, or go a week without a bath.

William Westmoreland

The politicians in Washington just had no idea about the complexity of the situation in South Vietnam.

William Westmoreland