Frederick C. Weyand
Encyclopedia
Frederick Carlton Weyand (September 15, 1916 – February 10, 2010) was a U.S. Army General
. Weyand was the last commander of US military operations in the Vietnam War
from 1972–1973, and served as the 28th US Army Chief of Staff
from 1974-1976.
through the Reserve Officers Training Corps program at the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated in May 1938. He married Arline Langhart in 1940.
at Fort Leavenworth
in 1942 and served as adjutant of the Harbor Defense Command in San Francisco from 1942–1943. He moved on to the Office of the Chief of Intelligence for the US War Department General Staff in 1944. He became assistant chief of staff for intelligence in the China-Burma-India Theater from 1944–1945. In the immediate aftermath of the war he was in the Military Intelligence Service in Washington DC from 1945–1946
and the assistant chief of staff, G–3, of the 3d Infantry Division during the Korean War
from 1950–1951.
, in Europe, 1958–1959. He served in the Office of the United States Commander in Berlin in 1960 then became chief of staff for the Communications Zone, United States Army, Europe from 1960–1961. He was the deputy chief and chief of legislative liaison for the Department of the Army from 1961–1964.
responsible for III Corps Tactical Zone comprising the 11 provinces around Saigon. In 1968, he became chief of the Office of Reserve Components.
A dissenter from General William Westmoreland's more conventional war strategy, Weyand's experience as a former intelligence officer gave him a sense of the enemy's intentions. He realized that "the key to success in Vietnam was in securing and pacifying the towns and villages of South Vietnam" (Mark Salter, John McCain "Hard Call: The Art of Great Decisions"). Weyand managed to convince a reluctant General Westmoreland to allow him to redeploy troops away from the Cambodian border area closer to Saigon, significantly contributing to making the 1968 Tet Offensive a military catastrophe for North Vietnam.
In 1969, he then was named the military advisor to Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge
at the Paris Peace Talks. In 1970 he became assistant chief of staff for force development. Later in 1970, he became deputy commander and commander of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam
. He succeeded General Creighton Abrams
, who became the army Chief of Staff, as Commander of MACV on June 30, 1972. By the end of 1972 General Weyand had overseen the withdrawal of all United States military forces from South Vietnam
, 1973–1974; was Chief of Staff of the United States Army
, October 3, 1974–September 30, 1976; supervised Army moves to improve the combat-to-support troop ratio, to achieve a sixteen-division force, to enhance the effectiveness of roundout units, and to improve personnel and logistical readiness; retired from active service, October 1976.
on December 11, 2006, Murray Fromson
, a reporter for CBS
during the Vietnam War, stated that General Weyand had agreed to reveal himself as the confidential source for New York Times reporter R.W. Apple, Jr.'s August 7, 1967 story "Vietnam: The Signs of Stalemate." General Weyand, then commander of III Corps in Vietnam, was the unidentified high-ranking officer, who told Apple and Fromson (reporting the same story for CBS) that "I’ve destroyed a single division three times . . . I’ve chased main-force units all over the country and the impact was zilch. It meant nothing to the people. Unless a more positive and more stirring theme than simple anti-communism can be found, the war appears likely to go on until someone gets tired and quits, which could take generations." This story was the first intimation that war was reaching a stalemate, and contributed to changing sentiment about the war.
, which was also the home of the 25th Infantry Division. He became active in Hawai'i community affairs and held a number of prominent business positions, including corporate secretary and senior vice president of First Hawaiian Bank
between 1976 and 1982. He was an active member of the Rotary Club of Honolulu and a trustee of the now-dissolved Samuel M. Damon Estate, as well as the American Red Cross
Hawaii Chapter, where he served as chairman of the board in 1992 and director of the Honolulu Symphony
. He was active in the Sony Open golf tournament, Shriners
Club, the East-West Center
, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies
, and the Hawaii Theater.
He was also a member of the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program and a member of several military and veteran organizations such as the Association of the United States Army
, the Air Force Association
, the Military Officers Association of America
, the 25th Infantry Division Association, the Go for Broke Association (100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Infantry Regiment), the 3rd Infantry Division Association, and the associated 7th Infantry Regiment Association.
Weyand died on February 10, 2010 of natural causes
at the Kahala Nui retirement residence in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was survived by his wife Mary Weyand, whom he married after his first wife died in 2001, three children, two stepdaughters and two stepsons, and ten grandchildren.
General of the Army (United States)
General of the Army is a five-star general officer and is the second highest possible rank in the United States Army. A special rank of General of the Armies, which ranks above General of the Army, does exist but has only been conferred twice in the history of the Army...
. Weyand was the last commander of US military operations in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
from 1972–1973, and served as the 28th US Army Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff of the United States Army
The Chief of Staff of the Army is a statutory office held by a four-star general in the United States Army, and is the most senior uniformed officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Army, and as such is the principal military advisor and a deputy to the Secretary of the Army; and is in...
from 1974-1976.
Early career
Weyand was commissioned a second lieutenantSecond Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
through the Reserve Officers Training Corps program at the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated in May 1938. He married Arline Langhart in 1940.
World War Two
From 1940-1942 Weyand was assigned to active duty and served with the 6th Field Artillery. He graduated from the Command and General Staff CollegeCommand and General Staff College
The United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas is a graduate school for United States Army and sister service officers, interagency representatives, and international military officers. The college was established in 1881 by William Tecumseh Sherman as a...
at Fort Leavenworth
Fort Leavenworth
Fort Leavenworth is a United States Army facility located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, immediately north of the city of Leavenworth in the upper northeast portion of the state. It is the oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C. and has been in operation for over 180 years...
in 1942 and served as adjutant of the Harbor Defense Command in San Francisco from 1942–1943. He moved on to the Office of the Chief of Intelligence for the US War Department General Staff in 1944. He became assistant chief of staff for intelligence in the China-Burma-India Theater from 1944–1945. In the immediate aftermath of the war he was in the Military Intelligence Service in Washington DC from 1945–1946
Service After World War Two and During the Korean War
He was chief of staff for intelligence, United States Army Forces, Middle Pacific from 1946–1949. He graduated from the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning in 1950. He became commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment7th Infantry Regiment (United States)
The United States Army's 7th Infantry Regiment, known as "The Cottenbalers" from an incident that occurred during the Battle of New Orleans, while under the command of Andrew Jackson, when soldiers of the 7th Infantry Regiment held positions behind a breastwork of bales of cotton during the...
and the assistant chief of staff, G–3, of the 3d Infantry Division during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
from 1950–1951.
Prior to the Vietnam War
He served on the faculty of the Infantry School from 1952 to 1953. Following this assignment he attended the Armed Forces Staff College, and upon graduation became military assistant in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management until 1954. He moved on to become military assistant and executive to the Secretary of the Army from 1954 to 1957. He then graduated from the Army War College in 1958, moving on to command the 3d Battalion, 6th Infantry RegimentU.S. 6th Infantry Regiment
The 6th Infantry Regiment was formed in 1812. Its most famous commander was Zachary Taylor, later the twelfth President of the United States. The Motto, "Regulars, By God!" derives from the Battle of Chippawa, in which British general Riall noticed that the approaching regiment had on the uniforms...
, in Europe, 1958–1959. He served in the Office of the United States Commander in Berlin in 1960 then became chief of staff for the Communications Zone, United States Army, Europe from 1960–1961. He was the deputy chief and chief of legislative liaison for the Department of the Army from 1961–1964.
Vietnam War Service
Weyand became commander of the 25th Infantry Division, stationed in Hawaii, in 1964. He continued to lead the division as it was introduced into operations in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966. He served as the head of the 25th Division until 1967, when he became deputy, then acting commander, and finally commander of II Field Force, VietnamII Field Force, Vietnam
II Field Force, Vietnam was a United States Army Corps-level command during the Vietnam War.Activated on 15 March 1966, it became the largest corps command in Vietnam and one of the largest in Army history. II Field Force was assigned the lineage of the XXII Corps, a World War II corps in the...
responsible for III Corps Tactical Zone comprising the 11 provinces around Saigon. In 1968, he became chief of the Office of Reserve Components.
A dissenter from General William Westmoreland's more conventional war strategy, Weyand's experience as a former intelligence officer gave him a sense of the enemy's intentions. He realized that "the key to success in Vietnam was in securing and pacifying the towns and villages of South Vietnam" (Mark Salter, John McCain "Hard Call: The Art of Great Decisions"). Weyand managed to convince a reluctant General Westmoreland to allow him to redeploy troops away from the Cambodian border area closer to Saigon, significantly contributing to making the 1968 Tet Offensive a military catastrophe for North Vietnam.
In 1969, he then was named the military advisor to Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. was a Republican United States Senator from Massachusetts and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, South Vietnam, West Germany, and the Holy See . He was the Republican nominee for Vice President in the 1960 Presidential election.-Early life:Lodge was born in Nahant,...
at the Paris Peace Talks. In 1970 he became assistant chief of staff for force development. Later in 1970, he became deputy commander and commander of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam
Military Assistance Command, Vietnam
The U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, MACV, , was the United States' unified command structure for all of its military forces in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.-History:...
. He succeeded General Creighton Abrams
Creighton Abrams
Creighton Williams Abrams Jr. was a general in the United States Army who commanded military operations in the Vietnam War from 1968–72 which saw U.S. troop strength in Vietnam fall from a peak of 543,000 to 49,000. He served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1972 until shortly...
, who became the army Chief of Staff, as Commander of MACV on June 30, 1972. By the end of 1972 General Weyand had overseen the withdrawal of all United States military forces from South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
Post-Vietnam Commands and Chief of Staff
He was Commander in Chief of the United States Army, Pacific, 1973; was Vice Chief of Staff of the United States ArmyVice Chief of Staff of the United States Army
The Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army is the principal advisor and assistant to the Army Chief of Staff, the second-highest ranking officer in the US Army. He handles the day to day administration of the Army bureaucracy, freeing the Chief of Staff to attend to the interservice...
, 1973–1974; was Chief of Staff of the United States Army
Chief of Staff of the United States Army
The Chief of Staff of the Army is a statutory office held by a four-star general in the United States Army, and is the most senior uniformed officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Army, and as such is the principal military advisor and a deputy to the Secretary of the Army; and is in...
, October 3, 1974–September 30, 1976; supervised Army moves to improve the combat-to-support troop ratio, to achieve a sixteen-division force, to enhance the effectiveness of roundout units, and to improve personnel and logistical readiness; retired from active service, October 1976.
Confidential Source for 1967 New York Times Article
In an editorial in The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
on December 11, 2006, Murray Fromson
Murray Fromson
Murray Fromson is a former CBS correspondent and professor emeritus at University of Southern California's School of Journalism, and Center on Public Diplomacy...
, a reporter for CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
during the Vietnam War, stated that General Weyand had agreed to reveal himself as the confidential source for New York Times reporter R.W. Apple, Jr.'s August 7, 1967 story "Vietnam: The Signs of Stalemate." General Weyand, then commander of III Corps in Vietnam, was the unidentified high-ranking officer, who told Apple and Fromson (reporting the same story for CBS) that "I’ve destroyed a single division three times . . . I’ve chased main-force units all over the country and the impact was zilch. It meant nothing to the people. Unless a more positive and more stirring theme than simple anti-communism can be found, the war appears likely to go on until someone gets tired and quits, which could take generations." This story was the first intimation that war was reaching a stalemate, and contributed to changing sentiment about the war.
Promotion dates
| Rank | Temporary | Permanent |
|---|---|---|
| 2nd Lieutenant | May 1938 | 1938 |
| 1st Lieutenant | June 1941 | ? |
| Captain | February 1942 | July 1948 |
| Major | November 1942 | July 1953 |
| Lieutenant Colonel | March 1945 | September 1961 |
| Colonel | July 1955 | September 1966 |
| Brigadier General | July 1960 | August 1968 |
| Major General | November 1962 | August 1968 |
| Lieutenant General | August 1968 | ? |
| General | October 1970 | ? |
Post-Vietnam personal life
After retiring from the U.S. Army in 1976, Weyand moved to Honolulu, HawaiHawai
Hawai can mean:*Hawai, Tottori, town in Tottori Prefecture, Japan*Hawai, India, the administrative headquarters of Anjaw District, in Arunachal Pradesh, India*Hawai, New Zealand in New Zealand...
, which was also the home of the 25th Infantry Division. He became active in Hawai'i community affairs and held a number of prominent business positions, including corporate secretary and senior vice president of First Hawaiian Bank
First Hawaiian Bank
First Hawaiian Bank is a regional commercial bank headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii at the First Hawaiian Center. It is a subsidiary of BancWest Corporation, which itself is a subsidiary of the French banking company, BNP Paribas...
between 1976 and 1982. He was an active member of the Rotary Club of Honolulu and a trustee of the now-dissolved Samuel M. Damon Estate, as well as the American Red Cross
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
Hawaii Chapter, where he served as chairman of the board in 1992 and director of the Honolulu Symphony
Honolulu Symphony
The Honolulu Symphony, also known as the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, was founded in 1900. The Honolulu Symphony is the oldest symphony orchestra in the USA west of the Rocky Mountains. Originally housed in a clubhouse on the slopes of Punchbowl, the Honolulu Symphony now plays from the Neal S...
. He was active in the Sony Open golf tournament, Shriners
Shriners
The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, also commonly known as Shriners and abbreviated A.A.O.N.M.S., established in 1870, is an appendant body to Freemasonry, based in the United States...
Club, the East-West Center
East-West Center
The East–West Center , headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii, is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific and the United States....
, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies
Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies
The is a United States Department of Defense regional study, conference, and research center established in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States on September 4, 1995. The Center supports the United States Pacific Command theater security cooperation strategy of maintaining positive security...
, and the Hawaii Theater.
He was also a member of the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program and a member of several military and veteran organizations such as the Association of the United States Army
Association of the United States Army
The Association of the United States Army is a private, non-profit organization that acts primarily as an advocacy group for the United States Army. Founded in 1950, it has 125 chapters worldwide. Membership is open to everyone, not just Army personnel, nor is membership mandatory for soldiers,...
, the Air Force Association
Air Force Association
The Air Force Association is an independent, 501 non-profit, civilian education organization, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia...
, the Military Officers Association of America
Military Officers Association of America
The Military Officers Association of America, or MOAA, is an association of 370,000 military officers, including active duty, retired, National Guard, Reserve, and former officers and their families. It is an independent, nonprofit, and politically nonpartisan organization...
, the 25th Infantry Division Association, the Go for Broke Association (100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Infantry Regiment), the 3rd Infantry Division Association, and the associated 7th Infantry Regiment Association.
Weyand died on February 10, 2010 of natural causes
Death by natural causes
A death by natural causes, as recorded by coroners and on death certificates and associated documents, is one that is primarily attributed to natural agents: usually an illness or an internal malfunction of the body. For example, a person dying from complications from influenza or a heart attack ...
at the Kahala Nui retirement residence in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was survived by his wife Mary Weyand, whom he married after his first wife died in 2001, three children, two stepdaughters and two stepsons, and ten grandchildren.
External sources
- Weyand Bibliography in Commanding Generals and Chiefs of Staff of the Army, a publication of the United States Army Center of Military History.
- Murray Fromson's article revealing Weyand as source