Best American General of All Time?

[Smitty-48]

Irrelevant. Led a badass amphibious landing at Vera Cruz, the first of its kind in American history. It was like D-Day except instead of French Villages the troops saw donkey shows and panhandlers.

Whupped by untrained Canadian farmers.

He was new at the job at that point. I'll bet your first day of work was a lot different than your last one.

My first day in battalion?

That was when I was at my zenith. Fresh out of Battleschool.

Green troops are the best troops.

Experience is meaningless, all war is logistics in the end.

The side whose soldiers question less, wins.

[heydaralon]

What do you think about John Pershing? How do these motherfuckers get tanks, missiles and whatnot named after them?

[Smitty-48]

What do you think about John Pershing? How do these motherfuckers get tanks, missiles and whatnot named after them?

Pershing rose to prominence by fighting in the Original Vietnam against the Moro in the Philippines.

Aesthetic.

[heydaralon]

I forget what episode Dan brought this up, but he said that generals are pretty much the same the world over, irrespective of the cultures and politics in their society. Do you believe this to be true? Would a Canadian or Russian general be pretty similar in temperment and personality and strategizing to an American one?

[Smitty-48]

I forget what episode Dan brought this up, but he said that generals are pretty much the same the world over, irrespective of the cultures and politics in their society. Do you believe this to be true? Would a Canadian or Russian general be pretty similar in temperment and personality and strategizing to an American one?

Every military has a personality, the Generals are expressions of that.

Canadian Generals are hyper professional, ultra expert, highly trained, but inexperienced with actual war.

Russian Generals are cronies for the most part.

American Generals suffer from Imperial Hubris.

[Smitty-48]

One of the things that made Vo Nguyen Giap a Bonaparte, was that he was not military, he was a history teacher.

The thing that drove him was that the French beat his wife to death.

Vengeance is a helluva drug.

[Smitty-48]

Having been an infantry rifleman, I don't put that much stock in Generals.

Their job is basically all logistics. Get the troops and kit to the right place at the right time.

Colonels are more important in the end. Colonels get the troops to fight once you get them in place.

Like I've said, I think Charles Alvin Beckwith was the best commander in Vietnam.

He's the real John Rambo Jesus. One Man Army. Exponential Force Multiplier.

[heydaralon]

One of the things that made Vo Nguyen Giap a Bonaparte, was that he was not military, he was a history teacher.

The thing that drove him was that the French beat his wife to death.

Vengeance is a helluva drug.

holy shit. Do the Vietnamese today have good relationship with France, or are they still pissed? Do you think they hate France more than they hate America?

[Smitty-48]

One of the things that made Vo Nguyen Giap a Bonaparte, was that he was not military, he was a history teacher.

The thing that drove him was that the French beat his wife to death.

Vengeance is a helluva drug.

holy shit. Do the Vietnamese today have good relationship with France, or are they still pissed? Do you think they hate France more than they hate America?

The French flipped to their side. The French Left embraced them. The French called it the Dirty War.

When the French troops came back from Indochina, the unionized dockworkers spit on them as they came off the ships.

[Smitty-48]

French lefties in the munitions factories were sabotaging French ammo so that it would be duds, in solidarity with the Viet Minh.