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WESTMORELAND'S LEGACY

In telling the 70 year history of the XVIII Airborne Corps, we've arrived at the period between 1962 and 1973. During this time, this man, William Westmoreland, was a large figure - perhaps the dominant figure - in our Army.
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Westy's reputation was darkened by the Vietnam War.

In this tweet thread, our friend, Dr. @Erikhistorian, historian for @USArmyCMH, reexamines the man and his controversies.

Regardless of what you think about Westmoreland, these four videos are worth your time.
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Let's start with Westmoreland's early life, education, and WWII service.
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After WWII, Westy commanded the @TheRakkasans in the Korean War and then the @101stAASLTDIV.

By 1963, he'd developed a reputation as perhaps our Army's finest airborne leader.
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Westmoreland arrived in Vietnam in 1964. He found himself burdened with constraints amidst a complex, confounding war.
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So how should we think about the criticism of Westmoreland? How should we consider his leadership in Vietnam? Here, Dr. Villard offers insight from his deep scholarship on this subject, presenting context that may allow us to rethink the man's legacy.

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More from @18airbornecorps

14 May
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THE XVIII AIRBORNE CORPS DURING THE VIETNAM WAR

As we continue our journey through the past 70 years of XVIII Airborne Corps history, we find ourselves in the period between 1962 and 1973, a time in which the US became increasingly embroiled in the Vietnam War.
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As we've seen, during this time, the 101st Airborne Division deployed to the Vietnam War for virtually the entire US commitment there. The XVIII Airborne Corps HQ and all other Corps units, however, were kept out of Vietnam, just as they were kept out of the Korean War.
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SecDef Robert McNamara believed a showdown with the Soviets or other Communist friendly forces might occur at any time. Therefore, the XVIII Airborne Corps was kept back in the US as a ready reserve to deploy elsewhere if needed.
Read 7 tweets
10 May
1 of 12: #TDIDH - May 10, 1969

19-year-old Sergeant James Spears: “Have you ever been inside a hamburger machine? We just got cut to pieces by extremely accurate machine-gun fire.”

[images enhanced by @Erikhistorian]
2/12: Military planners referred to the 3,000 foot tall highland as "Hill 937." North Vietnamese Army (NVA) fighters called it "The Mountain of the Crouching Beast." Members of the
@101stAASLTDIV
knew it as a version of hell on earth. We would come to know it as Hamburger Hill.
3 of 12: Over the coming 10 days, this hill would serve as a metaphor for war itself.

We're going deep into this story in the coming days.
Read 12 tweets
9 May
We hope you and your Families are enjoying a relaxing Mother's Day Sunday.

This Tuesday we'll continue the 70-year story of the XVIII Airborne Corps with the period between 1962 and 1973.

For now, let's recap the history from 1951 to 1962.

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In this first portion of our documentary, we cover the Corps' rebirth and the years 1951 to 1953. The Corps was just coming together on Fort Bragg.
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Next up, the years 1953 to 1958. This period saw the 101st Airborne joined the Corps and big training exercises on Bragg and Campbell.
Read 5 tweets
7 May
Many are talking about Episode 27 of the 18th Airborne Corps podcast, which tells the incredible, inspiring story of Army Lt Colonel Ken Nguyen. Ken's story is one shared by many Vietnam war refugees, ~ 1.3M of whom now live in the US.

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Ken was born in Saigon in 1975, just before the capital of S. Vietnam fell to the communists. His father [pictured here, 1959 with Ken's Mom], an LTC with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), was captured, tortured, & forced into hard labor & political indoctrination
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This picture of Ken's family (Ken is the baby) in March 1975 is the only photo the family was allowed to keep; all other photographs of Ken's Dad in uniform, along with any remnants of his uniform, were destroyed by the communists.

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Read 7 tweets
6 May
All month we're honoring the 70th anniversary of the rebirth of the XVIII Airborne Corps, a unit established on Fort Bragg on May 21, 1951.

One of the main symbols of the Corps to the world is the Iron Mike statue on Fort Bragg.

Here is Iron Mike's story.

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The story starts with this man. You know Robert Sink. He commanded the 506th (aka the 5-Oh-Sink) in WWII and is portrayed by Dale Dye in Band of Brothers (and Robert Gould in A Bridge Too Far). There's also a Distinguished Visitors house on Bragg named after him.
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Well, you may not have known that Robert was the 6th commander of the XVIII Airborne after its rebirth in 1951. He commanded the corps from 1957 - 1960.

In 1958, Sink ordered his staff to build a monument representative of the Corps.
Read 21 tweets
1 May
This unit, the XVIII Airborne Corps, was established toward the end of WWII for a single purpose: to command and control all the airborne forces during the final airborne assaults planned to strike into Holland and Berlin and end the war.

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Once the Germans surrendered, this Corps was no longer needed and was promptly deactivated.

By 1951, however, the world was once again in conflict.
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A new war was raging in Korea that required an enormous commitment of forces. Even more ground troops were needed to keep the Soviet Union in check.

For this latter requirement, 70 years ago this month the XVIII Airborne was reborn on Fort Bragg.
Read 11 tweets

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