history haig?

Question

in history i need to no why
source a showed haig didnt care about his men & why in some ways haig did care about his men.

Soure A:
"the nation must be taught to bear losses. no amount of skill on the psrt of the higher commanders, no training, however good, on part of the officerds and men, no superiority of arms and amunition, however great, will enable victories to be won without sacrifice of mens lives. the nation must be prepared for heavy casulaty lists"

Plzz Help


asap

Answer 1

General Alexander Haig was right. Even a light reading of the history of American warfare shows that what he said was true.

"Alexander Meigs Haig, the son of a lawyer, was born in Philadelphia on 2nd December , 1924. His father died when he was a child but a prosperous uncle helped to support the family.

Haig entered West Point in 1944. He graduated three years later as 214th in the class of 310. First Lieutenant Haig was sent to Japan and became aide-de-camp to General Alonzo Fox, deputy chief of staff to General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme Allied commander. Haig later married Fox's daughter.

Haig's next assignment was as aide-de-camp to General Edward Almond in Korea. He also spent three years in Europe before becoming company commander at West Point and executive officer at Annapolis. This was followed by a period in the Naval War College.

In 1959 Haig began a master's degree program in international relations at Georgetown University. The topic of his thesis in 1962 was the role of the military officer in the shaping of national security policy. After completing his degree Haig went to the International and Policy Planning Division of the Pentagon. This brought him into contact with Robert McNamara, Strom Thurmond and Fred Buzhardt.

In 1963 Joe Califano arranged for Haig to assimilate into the army some of the Cuban exile veterans of the Bay of Pigs operation. The following year Haig went to work for Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense. In 1965 went to the Army War College.

Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel he was sent to Vietnam in the spring of 1967 where he won the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism. In 1968 he returned to the United States where he was promoted to full colonel, and went to West Point as deputy commander."

Answer 2

Gawd SallyJM, she means a far more important Haig than Alexander... you Americans.

Your best bet is to get hold of any book by John Terraine- there's probably some stuff on the net. He's a British historian who defends Haig. He argues that Haig won the war (as in, 'stop complaining: he Won The War'), and that Haig recognised that the war had to be won in France by fighting Germany (others wanted to attack Germany's allies on other fronts such as Greece). Haig did recognise the importance of tanks as life-savers and he supported their use and development. He tried to use artillery to crush enemy defences when the French were still trying to swamp them with human waves.

The anti-Haig school is best represented by AJP Taylor.

While I think Haig was pretty incompetent, especially in 1917, it must be remembered ever nation suffered massive casualties in WW1 and the British only suffered the same as the French, Germans, Russians and Italians. There were few alternatives offered.

A general is employed to win wars, not to have comfortable soldiers... soldiers are, to any general, resources to be used. They should care about them but they also have to get them killed.

Answer 3

This quote by General Haig does NOT show he cared nothing for his men. It is a statement of fact that war results in casualties no matter how well armed and how good the commanders and troops are. That does not mean Haig didn't care. His point is if you go to war, expect casualties for sure.

Chow!!

Answer 4

he doesn't care because of the quote "the nation must be prepared for heavy casualty lists."

yet he does care because "no superiority of arms and ammunition"

that is all i can help you with, i don't even know what part of history your on about.
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Answer 5

You deserve another detention for not even knowing that The Battle of the Somme took place in 1916!