Military Masterminds: These Are America's 5 Greatest Generals

Michael Peck

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Rank them. 

Fortunately, President Truman got rid of MacArthur as supreme UN commander and appointed Ridgway, a noted World War II paratroop general, famous for wearing a grenade strapped to his uniform. Appalled by the defeatist "bug out" retreat fever of his forces, Ridgway fired inadequate officers and demanded aggressiveness from his troops. But for all his bellicosity, Ridgway's tactics were methodical, sound and calibrated to the strengths of his troops and the nations from which they came.

What makes a great general? Napoleon, who knew a thing or two about generalship, said he would rather have a lucky general than a good one. Yet he didn't mean a commander who blithely staked the fortunes of war on a roll of the dice, as if combat were a spin at the Vegas roulette wheel. A lucky general was one with a cool head who could take advantage of opportunities.

(This first appeared several years ago.)

Some qualities seem universal: perseverance, shrewdness and keeping cool during a crisis. Others are debatable: Some would say a professional military education from institutions such as West Point is a necessity, while Vo Nguyen Giap, the schoolteacher who became the general that defeated professional French and American commanders, might disagree.

Either way, in its nearly 250-year history, America has produced some very good and very bad generals. Each was great in his own way, in the circumstances of his time and in the qualities that America needed.

But greatness they earned, and here are five of the best:

George Washington:

It was Washington's misfortune to end up on the $1 bill. The portrait of what appears to be an effete old man in a wig has caused future generations of Americans to underestimate him.

In reality, he was a physically tough and mentally ruthless commander. He had to be. His successors, like Grant or Eisenhower, might have lost a war for the United States. For Washington, defeat of the American Revolution meant losing the only war that mattered.