Summary
On April 28, 1967, Gen. William C. Westmoreland was accorded a rare honor, that of addressing a joint session of Congress. As he ticked off indicators of progress in the war in Vietnam, the general seemed the embodiment of the military professional: trim and erect, with prominent eyebrows and a jutting chin that did not encourage contradiction. "Given the nature of the enemy," he said, "it seems to me that the strategy we are following at this time is the proper one, and that it is producing results."
The storm of applause that greeted Westmoreland may have marked the zenith of his career, for just a few years later he would be ignored by Congress, reviled by much of the public and regarded as something of a pariah within the service in which he had spent most of his adult life.See the full content of this document
Extract
The General From Central Casting
Born in South Carolina, the son of the manager of a textile mill, Westmoreland demonstrated an early interest in the military. He went to West Point, where he was named first captain in the year of his graduation, 1936. He brought energy and drive to the mundane posts to ...
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