General Westmoreland graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1936 and participated in the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944. Westmoreland also served in the Korean War (1950-1952). After a three year assignment as the superintendent of West Point (1960-1963), he took command of the 20,000 U.S. troops then in Vietnam. This was mid-1964. By the time Westmoreland left Vietnam in mid-1968, over 500,000 soliders were in country and a serious domestic crisis over the United States' effort in Southeast Asia was occuring.

After his departure from Vietnam, Westmoreland became the Army's Chief of Staff, a position he held from 1968 until his retirement from the Army in 1972. In 1974 he made an unsuccessful bid for the governorship of South Carolina. In 1976 he published a memoir, A Soldier Reports. In 1982 Westmoreland initiated a law suit against the CBS television network. He claimed CBS had lied about his conduct while commanding the troops in Vietnam. Westmoreland dropped the suit on February 13, 1985, after 18 weeks of trial.

In a poll of historians published in November, 1995, Westmoreland was ranked as the second worst commander in the 20th century. His legacy of leadership, needless to say, is problematic and complicated.

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