Winningest General?

[PoliticalChic]

Today, April 27th, is the birthday of the only general to force the unconditional surrender of three armies!

No other American general has done that.

Was it Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, George Washington or Winfield Scott?


None of 'em.


He was appointed Secretary of War.....turned around and gave the appointment back to the original holder of the office.



Who was it?

 

[PoliticalChic]

The man who fought a losing battle with cancer to complete his memoirs, so that he could leave an inheritance to his family.........

....Ulysses S. Grant.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Eisenhower and Grant were the only two West Point graduates to become president, and neither had ever been elected to any public office.

 

[editec]

What 3 armies did Grant force into unconditional surrender?

 

[PoliticalChic]

What 3 armies did Grant force into unconditional surrender?

Buckner's, Lee's, Pemberton's.
Ulysses S. Grant: The 'Unconditional Surrender Continues

 

[regent]

Yep, and FDR used the same phrase during WWII and now it has been questioned as prolonging the war with Japan. By the way, Grant was also called "butcher Grant" because of his tactics.

 

[whitehall]

The victors write the history books. If a general is willing to sacrifice unlimited troops he can overwhelm any enemy force but at a terrible cost to his own side. I would argue that the smartest general in US history was Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.

 

[regent]

The victors write the history books. If a general is willing to sacrifice unlimited troops he can overwhelm any enemy force but at a terrible cost to his own side. I would argue that the smartest general in US history was Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.

My take on generals is that most can do a good job if put into the right slot or command. Ike was given his job because of his diplomatic ability. To coordinate all the nations took a great deal of diplomacy. Patton was a great fighting general he was in the right slot but to put Patton in Ike's slot would have been a blunder. Lincoln had a real problem finding the right general. Those generals in the wrong slot cost America, but fortunately by the time one is a general and a war arises, most of the West Pointers knew the other officers weaknesses and strengths.

 

[whitehall]

Like I said, "the victors write the history books". There were strong rumors about Grant's dependence on alcohol but pop-history dismisses the allegations for obvious reasons. Grant ordered his Troops to "make waste" to the South and apparently the Union Army considered the order to be authorization for atrocity. Grant sanctioned his army to commit atrocities that modern commanders would be hanged for. Incidentally his political administration is considered by honest historians to be the most corrupt in US history.

 

[Sunni Man]

In my opinion the best general of the last 100 years was North Vietnam's legendary General Giap

Vo Nguyen Giap - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[whitehall]

In my opinion the best general of the last 100 years was North Vietnam's legendary General Giap

Vo Nguyen Giap - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Strange choice. Giap lost every major battle in the Vietnam conflict. After Tet his forces no longer existed but Walter Cronkite gave him some breathing room when he declared the US victory to be a "stalemate". Stupid LBJ gave Giap some more propaganda wiggle room when he threw in the towel on public T.V. and tearfully declared he would not run again.

 

[Sunni Man]

In my opinion the best general of the last 100 years was North Vietnam's legendary General Giap

Vo Nguyen Giap - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Strange choice. Giap lost every major battle in the Vietnam conflict. After Tet his forces no longer existed but Walter Cronkite gave him some breathing room when he declared the US victory to be a "stalemate". Stupid LBJ gave Giap some more propaganda wiggle room when he threw in the towel on public T.V. and tearfully declared he would not run again.

In his early years Gen. Giap helped defeat the Japanese as a field commander.

And as a General defeated both the French and later the Americans.

Gen. Giap was astute enough to realize that all wars have both a political and military aspect to them.

And that it's only the final outcome that matters in war. ..

 

[whitehall]

In my opinion the best general of the last 100 years was North Vietnam's legendary General Giap

Vo Nguyen Giap - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Strange choice. Giap lost every major battle in the Vietnam conflict. After Tet his forces no longer existed but Walter Cronkite gave him some breathing room when he declared the US victory to be a "stalemate". Stupid LBJ gave Giap some more propaganda wiggle room when he threw in the towel on public T.V. and tearfully declared he would not run again.

In his early years Gen. Giap helped defeat the Japanese as a field commander.

And as a General defeated both the French and later the Americans.

Gen. Giap was astute enough to realize that all wars have both a political and military aspect to them.

And that it's only the final outcome that matters in war. ..

A "field commander" didn't defeat the Japanese. He just followed orders. The French had no heart for war and when it came to real military strategy against the Americans Giap failed on every battlefield. Only the battles matter to the generals. The final outcome is political.

 

[HenryBHough]

In my opinion the best general of the last 100 years was North Vietnam's legendary General Giap

Vo Nguyen Giap - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Who could have guessed Giap was Muslim!

 

[Sunni Man]

A "field commander" didn't defeat the Japanese. He just followed orders. The French had no heart for war and when it came to real military strategy against the Americans Giap failed on every battlefield. Only the battles matter to the generals. The final outcome is political.

Make all of the excuses you want.....but America lost the Vietnam War.

btw I am a US Army VNV 1970-71 .

 

[HenryBHough]

America has not won a war since we lost the last president who understood that wars are meant to be won.

Rest in peace, Harry S Truman. Today's Democrats would try you as a war criminal.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Grant is the only CW general in the Civil War to destroy enemy armies in the field, and he did it more than once>

 

[Sunni Man]

America hasn't fought a Constitutional defensive war since WWII ..

 

[mamooth]

Zhukov.

Winningest general, that is. Mainly because he'd been fighting nonstop since 1941, not to mention thrashing the Japanese in 1938.

Maybe Ghenghis Khan did better, but I assume we're sticking with the modern era.

 

[whitehall]

Zhukov was nothing but a bulchivek butcher. The only thing he had going for himself was unlimited Russian cannon fodder. He gets credit for winning the battle of Moscow but the winter and lack of supplies killed the German army and he still lost an incredible amount of troops against German corpses.