US Army chief was godfather of ‘shock and awe’

IT’S considered bad form to speak ill of the dead, but I must make an exception regarding US Army General William Westmoreland, who passed away at the age of 91 on July 18.

It must be said he went to his grave as self-righteously patriotic as when he commanded all US forces in Vietnam.

Although I voluntarily served a tour as a Marine Corps sergeant in Da Nang, Dong Ha and Quang Tri with the 1st and 3rd Marine Divisions, and was down on the Batagnan peninsula south of Chu Lai with the Republic of Korea Marine Corps, I never saw the great man myself.