Albert C. Wedemeyer – One Of The Less Known Generals Of WWII

Posted: 9/20/2012

A New Biography

Just read a book review in the Wall Street Journal about this amazing guy titled “The Man With A Plan”   by Jonathan W. Jordan published on 9/10/2012. The book itself is titled “General Albert C. Wedemeyer” by John J. McLaughlin.

Some Excerpts From The Book Review

My apologies to the Wall Street Journal for liberally quoting passages from this review, but I was so stunned by what I was reading that I could not help myself (Emphasis added):

·         “"World War II," wrote Adm. William Leahy, President Roosevelt's wartime chief of staff, "was the best-charted war ever fought. Everybody had charts for everything. We even had a section of the Government devoted solely to telling the rest of the Government how to make charts." The ubiquitous charts—together with such equally mundane cousins as tables, memoranda and staff studies—were the first weapons that America's high command wielded against the three Axis empires.”

·         “He foresaw another war with Germany and, in the late 1930s, attended the German army's prestigious general-staff school, the Kriegsakademie. There he learned the art of blitzkrieg alongside his future enemies. He watched Nazi brownshirts strut around Berlin, venting their hatred against Jews. He was in Vienna during the Anschluss, and he saw the Czechoslovakian crisis unfold from the German perspective.

Wedemeyer's report summarizing German tactics and organization brought him to the attention of George C. Marshall …  Marshall assigned Wedemeyer to the War Plans Division and tasked him with reducing America's mobilization requirements to a single document. In the summer of 1941, in response to a request from Roosevelt, Wedemeyer's team expanded this into a blueprint on how to defeat America's likely enemies in a future war.

Completed in an astonishing 90 days, this plan [Victory Plan] laid down all the critical politico-military-industrial assumptions for the looming conflict, correctly identifying America's adversaries and where the main fighting would take place and estimating the industrial capacity needed to feed the war machines of China, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States and how much war materiel could be spared to allies.”

·         “Wedemeyer methodically argued the case for a 1943 invasion at a White House meeting with Roosevelt, Churchill and the Anglo-American chiefs of staff in June 1942, and he offered a direct and unapologetic rebuttal to Churchill's preferred invasion of North Africa. "Churchill could not have been pleased as the mid-level American officer categorically presented information that undermined his grand scheme," Mr. McLaughlin writes.”

·         “Wedemeyer, to the end of his days, insisted that the Allies lost an opportunity to win the war a year earlier, to save American lives and, perhaps, to have staved off Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe.”

·         “by dispatching … to a seemingly dead-end assignment in the China-Burma-India theater … Marshall continued to hold a high opinion of him, and he was given key commands in Asia: serving as chief of staff to Louis Mountbatten … and … as chief of staff to the Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek [and and commander of U.S. forces in China (1944–46)]. … then turn his considerable analytical skills toward the quandaries of postwar China and the 1948 Berlin blockade.”

·         “Historians such as the late John Keegan have praised Wedemeyer as "one of the most farsighted and intellectual military minds America has ever produced."”

Can you imagine that this US general was attending the Preußische Kriegsakademie (Prussian Military Academy) in Berlin from 1936-38 just before WWII, the same academy where, e.g., Carl von Clausewitz was one of its first students?

Wedemeyer In China

“After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (1919), Wedemeyer was assigned to Tientsin, China, where he studied Mandarin Chinese.” (Encyclopedia Britannica).

“During his time in the CBI [China-Burma-India command], Wedemeyer attempted to motivate the Nationalist Chinese government to take a more aggressive role against the Japanese in the war. He was instrumental in expanding the Hump airlift operation with additional, more capable transport aircraft, and continued Stilwell's programs to train, equip, and modernize the Nationalist Chinese Army. His efforts were not wholly successful, in part because of the ill will engendered by his predecessor, as well as continuing friction over the role of Communist Chinese forces. Wedemeyer also supervised logistical support for American air forces in China.” (Wikipedia).

“His 1947 report of the situation in China and Korea, which warned of an imminent Communist triumph in China unless greater U.S. support was given to the Nationalists, was deemed so sensitive that its publication was suppressed for two years.” (Encyclopedia Britannica).

President Ronald Reagan On Wedemeyer

On May 23, 1985 general Wedemeyer received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Reagan’s remarks about this general were very generic: “As one of America's most distinguished soldiers and patriots, Albert C. Wedemeyer has earned the gratitude of his country and the admiration of his countrymen. In the face of crisis and controversy, his integrity and his opposition to totalitarianism remained unshakeable. For his resolute defense of liberty and his abiding sense of personal honor, Albert C. Wedemeyer has earned the thanks and the deep affection of all who struggle for the cause of human freedom.”. Reagan’s remarks about, e.g., Chuck Yeager were better chosen.

US Army Center For Military History On Wedemeyer

Apparently this center offers a 170 pages publication as a PDF file on the Victory Plan on their website, but it is scanned as an image and therefore not searchable. That is very clever or simply useless! Optical character recognition software is not a tool employed by CMH it seems.

The CMH also offers a Google powered custom search, but you cannot filter or drill down. Very clever or useless! So when you enter Wedemeyer as a search term you get “About 180 results (0.16 seconds)” and there is no way to narrow it down say by biography etc.

Wikipedia On Wedemeyer

The Wikipedia entry on Arthur C. Wedemeyer is surprisingly short and unremarkable on his contributions to the War Plans Division. It is almost like “oh, by the way …”. His work for the CBI (see above) is ‘enriched’ with trivialities, but at least you get a better understanding of US involvement in China against Japanese invaders.

Surprisingly, Wikipedia seems to lack an entry for the army War Plans Division, but it has entry on the Air War Plans Division. I presume, they are not the same. Wedemeyer cannot be found in this article.