Book description
From the late 1960s to the late 1970s, the United States Army was a
demoralized institution in a country in the midst of a social
revolution. The war in Vietnam had gone badly and public attitudes
about it shifted from indifference, to acceptance, to protest. Army
Chief of Staff General Creighton Abrams directed a major
reorganization of the Army and appointed William E. DePuy (1919--1992)
commander of the newly established Training and Doctrine Command
(TRADOC), in 1973. DePuy already had a distinguished record in
positions of trust and high responsibility: successful infantry
battalion command and division G-3 in World War II by the age of
twenty-five; Assistant Military Attach? in Hungary; detail to CIA in
the Korean War; alternating tours on the Army Staff and in command of
troops. As a general officer he was General Westmoreland's operations
officer in Saigon; commander of the 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam;
Special Assistant to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; and
Assistant Vice Chief of Staff, Army. But it was as TRADOC Commander
that DePuy made his major contribution in integrating training,
doctrine, combat developments, and management in the U. S. Army. He
regenerated a deflated post-Vietnam Army, effectively cultivating a
military force prepared to fight and win in modern war. General
William E. DePuy: Preparing the Army for Modern War is the first
full-length biography of this key figure in the history of the U. S.
Army in the twentieth century. Author Henry G. Gole mined secondary
and primary sources, including DePuy's personal papers and extensive
archival material, and he interviewed peers, subordinates, family
members, and close observers to describe and analyze DePuy's unique
contributions to the Army and nation. Gole guides the reader from
DePuy's boyhood and college days in South Dakota through the major
events and achievements of his life. DePuy was commissioned from the
ROTC six months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, witnessed poor
training and leadership in a mobilizing Army, and served in the 357th
Infantry Regiment in Europe -- from the bloody fighting in Normandy
until victory in May 1945, when DePuy was stationed in Czechoslovakia.
Gole covers both major events and interesting asides: DePuy was asked
by George Patton to serve as his aide; he supervised clandestine
operations in China; he served in the Office of the Army Chief of
Staff during the debate over "massive retaliation" vs.
"flexible response"; he was instrumental in establishing
Special Forces in Vietnam; he briefed President Lyndon B. Johnson in
the White House. DePuy fixed a broken Army. In the process his
intensity and forcefulness made him a contentious figure, admired by
some and feared by others. He lived long enough to see his efforts
produce American victory in the Gulf War of 1991. In General William
E. DePuy, Gole presents the accomplishments of this important military
figure and explores how he helped shape the most potent military force
in the history of the world.
"" --
Henry G. Gole has taught at West Point, the U. S. Army College,
the University of Maryland, and Dickinson College. He is the author of
The Road to Rainbow: Army Planning for Global War, 1934--1940 and
Soldiering: Observations from Korea, Vietnam, and Safe Places. In
addition, he served as a rifleman in Korea and completed two tours as
a Special Forces Officer during the Vietnam War.
