Word: westmorelands
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...leader of U.S. forces in South Viet Nam from 1964 to 1968, General William Chi Ids Westmoreland directed the American military machine here at the height of war, with some 500,000 men under his command by the time of his departure. Like many other principals in the drama of the nation's longest war, Westmoreland is now far removed from the agony and ambiguity of Indochina. Leaving the Army two years ago after a final four-year hitch as Chief of Staff, "Westy"retired to his native South Carolina, where Westmoreland has been a proud and prominent name...
...Westmoreland's working uniform used to be fatigues that were faded with wear but always had perfect, knife-edge creases. Thus it is something of a shock to notice, as he waves a guest into his small carriage house on Prices Alley in the historic old section of Charleston, that he is wearing a pair of rumpled slacks, sport shirt with tail out, and a pair of soft black moccasins that have not lately seen much spit and polish. Yet the short gray hair is still carefully combed straight back, the lean jaw still juts. Taut...
...piles of books bearing on Viet Nam: Frances FitzGerald's Fire in the Lake, David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest, Walt Rostow's The Diffusion of Power, Daniel Ellsberg's Papers on the War. They provide context, checkpoints and sometimes hostile fire for Westmoreland as he works through his own recollections. Does he think that he can add to the work of the earlier analysts? "No one else had the vantage point I had," says Westmoreland. "Therefore I feel I can cast light on some of the situations we faced in a way that...
...Tarnish. Westmoreland's other chief enterprise is running a five-man operation known as the Governor's Task Force for Economic Growth, a $25,000-a-year post to which he was named in 1972 by Governor John West. It calls for Westmoreland to handle a wide variety of projects aimed at expanding the state's business and industry, from promoting its tourist attractions to Canadians, to seeking investment capital from visiting Japanese businessmen, to spreading the word to farmers about new agricultural methods. As usual, the general is double-timing on his new job. Driving alone...
...longer travel in the style to which he was long accustomed. Returning to Charleston after a business trip to Washington aboard a state-owned aircraft not long ago, Westmoreland found himself 18th in line for takeoff. "In the old days, I'd fly into a military airfield and they'd clear out everything a day ahead," he observed wryly. But the luster of his four stars still casts a glow. During a recent visit to a technical school in Denmark, S.C., Westmoreland found some of the students dressed in old combat jackets, their name tags still in place...