Chapter 22

The Ten Best Generals in U.S. Military History

In This Chapter

Achieving greatness

Heeding brilliant combat leadership

Promoting master planners and strategists

For every general on this list, there are half a dozen others who deserve recognition. But this is a short list. It’s only for the best of the best, the greatest of the great. I base these selections on several criteria: the difficulty of their respective missions; their ability to think, plan, and strategize to achieve national wartime objectives; and, as much as anything else, their personal combat leadership. To avoid sparking needless controversy, I have listed the generals alphabetically.

Dwight Eisenhower (1890–1969)

The amazing thing about Eisenhower is that he never actually led soldiers in combat, yet he became a great general. In World War I, when he was a young officer, he never got the opportunity to serve overseas. During World War II, he was too high ranking to actually fight in battle. Eisenhower’s great strengths of generalship were personal character, approachability, wisdom, level-headedness, and diplomacy.

A vast coalition of nations comprised the Allied armed forces in World War II. As supreme commander, Eisenhower’s task was to unite all the divergent, multinational egos around the task of defeating Germany, and he succeeded mightily. He made friends easily and worked well with practically everyone from Winston Churchill to George Patton. Eisenhower was a paragon of reason, good humor, and steadiness. His low-key demeanor and passion for meeting his men firsthand endeared him to hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers.

In commanding the Normandy invasion, Eisenhower was under more pressure than any other American general in history. Failure would have jeopardized Western civilization for generations. Basically, he had to succeed. Working with a broad array of Allied soldiers, he devised a winning invasion plan. Then, in the months after the invasion, he successfully led the largest, most complicated ground campaign in modern history. After the war, he presided over the denazification of Germany, sowing the seeds of democracy in that country. Later, during the Cold War, he was the first commander of NATO military forces. Oh, and as if that wasn’t enough, he spent eight good years in the Oval Office, too. . . .

James Gavin (1907–1990)

Gavin was the very essence of a fighting general. He dressed like an ordinary soldier, talked like one, and fought like one, too. At 36 years old, he was the youngest two-star general in the U.S. Army in World War II. He was an airborne pioneer, helping to create America’s paratrooper units in 1942 and 1943. He started his combat career as a regimental commander but, because of his brilliant leadership, eventually was promoted to divisional command. At Sicily, Normandy, and Holland, he jumped into combat alongside his troopers in the 82nd Airborne Division, earning the nickname “Jumping Jim.” Many of the division’s admiring troopers also called him “Slim Jim” because of his athletic build and youthful appearance.

His leadership philosophy was that officers “should be first out the door [on a combat jump] and last in the chow line.” On the ground, Gavin was an inspirational figure, planning attacks, figuring out the enemy’s weak points, risking his neck in firefights. At La Fiere, Normandy, on June 9, 1944, he personally led an almost-suicidal attack to capture a vital causeway from the Germans. Time and again, whether in Normandy, Holland, or the Battle of the Bulge, he was in the middle of the fighting. In so doing, he helped make the 82nd Airborne Division a premier fighting unit.

Nor was he just a warrior. He was a leader in desegregating the armed forces. An African American soldier once referred to him as the most colorblind officer in the U.S. Army. After World War II, while serving as a lieutenant general, he restructured the Army’s ground forces and pushed for the use of helicopters, the wave of the future. In the 1950s, he correctly denounced America’s over-reliance on airpower at the expense of ground combat forces. After retiring from the Army in 1958, he served as U.S. ambassador to France, fostering good relations. He was an early opponent of the war in Vietnam, mainly because he thought it would require a massive influx of American troops. As usual, Gavin was proved right.

Thomas Jackson (1824–1863)

“Stonewall” Jackson never lost a battle. During the Civil War, he was the most competent, audacious commander in the Confederate Army. He was a devout Christian and an introvert who nonetheless drove his men mercilessly. His performances in several Civil War battles, such as both Bull Runs, the 1862 Valley campaign, Fredericksburg, and especially Chancellorsville, were among the best of all time. Chancellorsville was particularly impressive. He devised a surprise attack that stunned the Yankees. But his ingenuity cost him his life. After this surprise attack, while scouting at night to plan a follow-up attack, one of his own soldiers mistook him for a Union commander and shot him. Jackson died eight days later. The South could never replace him.

Robert E. Lee (1807–1870)

The man’s very name is still hallowed throughout the South. He was no mere symbol, though. He was a truly great commander. Lee was the consummate military professional, who understood strategy, tactics, and everything in between. The Virginian was blessed with an amazing feel for terrain. He was personally courageous, and he had an uncanny ability to judge the essential character of friend and foe alike. He was offensive-minded, aggressive even to a fault. This was a product of his quiet, cool self-confidence. More than any of that, Lee was well-mannered, polite, kind, and incorruptible.

These qualities made him an inspirational leader for Confederate soldiers, most of whom would have followed him into hell itself. As commander of the Army of North Virginia, the South’s main military force, he won victory after victory at such battles as Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Many Civil War historians believe that, without Lee, the South would not have lasted more than two years. He almost single-handedly held his army together through years of adversity. By the end of the war, he was the most revered commander on both divides of the Civil War. Northerners respected him. Southerners loved him. He may have lost the war, but he earned an enduring place as a legend in U.S. military history.

George Marshall (1880–1959)

Winston Churchill aptly called him the “organizer of victory” in World War II. Marshall was chief of staff of the U.S. Army during the war, which was, more or less, the top job in the military at that time. Although Marshall would rather have been leading troops in combat, he fought the war from a desk in Washington, D.C., directing the grand strategy. More than anyone else, he harnessed the enormous power of the wartime United States for victory. Marshall had a major impact on nearly every aspect of the Allied war effort. As a first-rate strategic thinker, he was a principal architect of the “Germany First” policy, the cross-channel invasion of France, the strategic air campaign in Europe and the Pacific, and the island-hopping campaign that defeated Japan.

Like his protégé Eisenhower, Marshall’s greatest leadership asset was his personal character. He was austere, honest, hardworking, and reasonable in his dealings with everyone from the president to congressmen, high-ranking Allied leaders, and his own subordinates.

Universally respected by the end of the war, he retired from the Army. During the Cold War, he subsequently served as secretary of state and defense. He also authored, in 1948, the European Recovery Plan to help Europeans rebuild their shattered countries. We generally know that program as the Marshall Plan.

George Patton (1885–1945)

Like Lee, the very name of Patton is legendary, and with good reason. He was the most effective American ground combat general in World War II. Flamboyant, foul-mouthed, tempestuous, and brave, Patton was a hard-charging, aggressive commander who never lost a battle. More than anyone else in the U.S. Army, he understood the potency of combined arms — tanks, infantry, planes, and so on — working together on the battlefield. A warrior to the core, he yearned for action. Mystical and maudlin, he believed he had lived many previous lives as a soldier, from ancient times through the Civil War.

In Tunisia, he defeated the Germans at the Battle of El Guettar. In so doing, he made a major contribution to Allied victory in North Africa. A few months later, he led American soldiers to victory in Sicily. The 1944 campaign in France and the Battle of the Bulge were his greatest moments. Under Patton’s driving leadership, his Third Army fought across Europe, killed thousands of enemy soldiers, and contributed mightily to Allied victory. Patton was mortally wounded in a car accident after the war.

Matthew Ridgway (1895–1993)

Born on a military post to a soldier father, Ridgway was the embodiment of a military professional. As commander of the 82nd Airborne Division at Sicily and Normandy, he earned a reputation as the best two-star general in the Army. In fact, he was such an effective leader that, by the fall of 1944, he was promoted to corps command of several airborne divisions. Ridgway’s leadership style was hands-on. He was steely, hard-nosed, and ruthless. Two things mattered to him: victory and his soldiers. He took care of both in World War II.

Ridgway’s greatest achievements came after World War II, though. In December 1950, the American/United Nations war effort in Korea was at a low point. Communist forces were on the offensive, threatening to win the war. At this point, Ridgway assumed command. In just a few weeks, he authored an amazing turnaround in the military situation, pushing the Communists back across the 38th parallel, in effect saving the non-Communist government of South Korea. Later, after the war in Korea stabilized, he served as Army chief of staff. When the Eisenhower administration contemplated intervening to help the French fight a war in Vietnam, Ridgway persuaded his old friend Eisenhower not to intervene, delaying U.S. entry in Vietnam by a decade.

Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. (1934–)

In spite of a tendency toward volcanic, even abusive, temper tantrums, Schwarzkopf became one of the great generals in U.S. military history. The son of a general and a successful combat leader in the Vietnam War, Schwarzkopf had a deep reverence for the Army and its fighting soldiers. He strongly believed that training them to ultimate fighting efficiency would prevent casualties and win wars. During the Army’s post-Vietnam malaise, he helped rejuvenate the Army into a potent all-volunteer fighting force. Then, during the Gulf War, 1990–1991, he put that force to the test.

As the supreme commander of multinational coalition military forces with the mission of expelling Saddam Hussein’s Iraq from Kuwait, his role was similar to Eisenhower’s in World War II. Though he lacked Eisenhower’s charm, he drew upon years of experience in the Middle East, and was no less successful in keeping the coalition together. When it came time to fight the war, he and his staff devised a brilliant offensive plan that brought victory, with minimal casualties, after only four days of ground fighting. In terms of strategizing and fulfilling the nation’s wartime objectives at the least possible cost, Schwarzkopf has no peer among post–World War II American generals.

Winfield Scott (1786–1866)

Scott had it all. He was a first-rate combat leader. He was a professional soldier to the core. Moreover, he was an excellent strategic thinker who knew how to accomplish wartime objectives. He served in the Army from 1808 to 1861, longer than any soldier, before or since. He led troops in the War of 1812 as a 27-year-old general in the battles of Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane, both American victories. Scott was badly wounded at Lundy’s Lane, and it took him many months to recuperate. For several decades after the war, he was the Army. He rose to major general, the highest rank at that time. He wrote the field manuals, devised the doctrine, and oversaw the education of cadets at West Point. Basically, he ran every aspect of the Army.

His shining moment came in 1847–1848 during the Mexican War. Working closely with his Navy colleagues, Scott oversaw the first major amphibious invasion in U.S. military history, at Veracruz, Mexico. Using a combination of dash, boldness, imagination, maneuver, firepower, and diplomacy, he advanced some 300 miles, conquered Mexico City, and won the war. He did this in spite of the fact that he was heavily outnumbered and poorly supplied. Plus, he was deep inside enemy country, with about one-third of his army down with disease at any given time. Scott’s campaign was one of the most brilliant in American military history.

After an abortive run for the presidency in 1852, he returned to his post in charge of the Army. When the Civil War broke out, he was very old but still nominally in charge. He suggested blockading southern ports and seizing control of the river systems. Policymakers and subordinates initially ridiculed his plan, so he retired in November 1861. However, the North’s victory resulted, in part, from Scott’s blueprint.

George Washington (1732–1799)

Washington won very few battles, presided over a ragged, ill-trained army, and did not regularly perform great feats of courage. So why was he great? He was an adept planner, a first-rate organizer, a charismatic personality, and a brave combat leader when he needed to be. More than anyone else in his time, he understood that the Revolution was a mindset, not necessarily a mass movement. His main goal was to mobilize public opinion, not vast armies, for the Revolution. For him, this meant that he must keep his army intact, wearing down the British over time, demonstrating to the American people that independence was possible and desirable. He did this superbly, over the course of seven long years of up-and-down warfare. In that time, he earned a reputation as an honest, patriotic American, a giant among men.

His leadership was characterized by personal modesty, self-restraint, and a broad vision about what was best for the country at any given time. He was the ultimate big-picture thinker. By 1783, when the war ended and the United States earned its independence, he was the very symbol of American nationhood. He took that status very seriously, setting strong precedents for every future American military leader. He did the same, from 1789–1797, as the new American republic’s first president.