Evan Haning, wtop.com

WASHINGTON – Americans once said, “We’ve never lost a war.” That was before Vietnam.

The Iraq war has officially ended and although few might call it a “win” for the U.S., those who conducted the war did attempt to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure and establish democracy.

The military and civilian officials who prosecuted the Iraq war – under two presidents – were influenced by Dr. Lewis Sorley’s Vietnam history, “A Better War.”

Sorley’s latest book is a biography. “Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam” examines the life of the photogenic general who was an Eagle Scout, First Captain of his West Point class, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, Superintendent at West Point, and President Lyndon Johnson’s choice to direct the war in Vietnam.

WTOP’s Evan Haning talked with Sorley at length about his understanding of Westmoreland’s mistakes, and what we can learn from them.

“His approach was to conduct what he called a war of attrition,” Sorley says, “and that did not work.”

Westmoreland’s autobiography was to be titled “The War Nobody Won.”

“But unfortunately, while he was writing it, somebody did win that war, so he had to come up with a new title,” says Sorley.

If there is something to be learned from Westmoreland’s failures, it may be the lesson that one learns from a bad boss.

“Once you put someone in command of a major enterprise, you don’t then just give them carte blanche. You monitor how they’re performing, you instruct them to make changes if you see that as necessary, and absent that, you replace them.”

Sorley is a third-generation graduate of the U.S. Military Academy who served in Vietnam, and in the Pentagon in the offices of both Westmoreland and Defense Secretary James. R. Schlesinger. Sorley also taught at West Point and the Army War College.

In May, Sorley was one of five West Point alumni honored as a Distinguished Graduate.

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