and forever changed American diplomatic policies. “Unconditional Surrender” look how well that worked out for World War II, our two greatest enemies are now two of our greatest allies.
My personal top 10:
1. Alexander the Great
come on, you can’t argue with the general that conquered most of the civilized world, led by example, suffered few casualties, never lost a battle, always out numbered and did it all by the age of 32.
2. Napoleon Bonaparte
flat out one of the best generals ever, I’d probably put him ahead of Alexander the Great considering he faced often times united world powers, but unlike Alexander, he had lost battles and towards the end of his life lost much of his competence as a commander.
3. Gaius Julius Caesar
Lost very few battles, perfected the siege, was a ruthless commander and a cunning diplomat, and analyzed his enemies to perfection. much like Bonaparte and Alexander, he led by example, suffered with his men and gained their love, admiration and trust.
4. Hannibal Barca
216 B.C., The Battle of Canae. Outnumbered and facing the mighty Romans who showed the power of their infantry in the First Punic War. Barca encircled the Romans while outnumbered and gave greater understanding to tactics such as: encirclement, envelopment and the two prong pincer attack. This would greatly affect the Prussian School of Thought, particularly the Schlieffen Plan.
5. Sun Tzu
A competent Chinese commander who influenced every school of thought from China to Westpoint, including business adminstration.
6. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Not a brilliant tactician, but influenced by John J. Pershing, George Washington, General Greene and the American school of Military thought, his emphasis and brilliance would be on the most forgotten aspect of war and the part that ultimately wins wars: Grand Strategy, something the U.S. sadly forgot in the Second Indochina War
7. Vo Nguyen Giap
Speaking of the Second Indochina War, which other High School history teacher obsessed with military history has defeated two of the world’s greatest military powers? Granted he received help from the Soviet Union and China, and influenced by Mao Tse-Tung’s theories on Protracted War, he proved to be a supreme strategist.
8. Erwin Rommel
One only needs to look at the North Afrika Corps to see this man’s brilliance.
9. Stonewall Jackson
Everyone knows his story
10. Douglas MacArthur
A supreme disappointment in the Korean War, which drops him down to number 10. His actions in WWI were admirable but got a lot of his men killed. He became a supreme commander and strategist with his theory on Triphibious Warfare, compatible to Nimitz’s theory of Island Hopping. He was also a great diplomat and one of the few American Generals to understand Asia.
Honorable Mention:
George S. Patton, Helmuth von Moltke, Gaius Marius, Genghis Khan, John J. Pershing, U.S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Forrest Green, Jeffrey Joffre, William Westmoreland, Mao Tse-Tung, Georgii Zhukov and Mikhail N. Tukhachevsky.
One of my personal favorites is Arminius, the Germanic warlord who crushed the Roman forces under Publius Quinctilius Varus at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
Trained by the Romans, Arminius turned against them and led ten to fifteen thousand Germanic tribesmen against a force of twenty to twenty-five thousand Romans (three legions, three alae, and six auxiliary cohorts). Only two to three thousand Roman troops escaped the slaughter, with nearly every senior officer either being killed in action or committing suicide to restore their honor. The three legions, the 17th, 18th, and 19th, were never restored, a rare occurrence in the Roman Army.