Page 200 - Stand Down Vietnam
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General William Westmoreland
Commander of U.S. Military Operations – Vietnam
1964 -1968
“The last man in the world who should have been
criticized was the American soldier.
They should have criticized me.”
Westmoreland raised the U.S. troop levels to 500,000
men by the end of 1968.
He later served as the Army's Chief of Staff.
Throughout much of his term as commander of U.S.
military operations, General Westmoreland expressed
confidence in his public statements about the war.
By 1967, Westmoreland spoke in private that there
seemed to be no end in sight.
The massive Tet Offensive of 1968 undermined his public
calculations of American progress.
