Politics & Power Quote by William Westmoreland

Westmoreland’s line reads like a simple clearing of the throat, but it’s really a strategic redeployment of blame. Coming from the U.S. general most associated with Vietnam’s grinding stalemate, “The military don’t start wars. Politicians start wars” is less an objective civics lesson than a bid to redraw the moral map after the fact. It narrows the military’s role to execution, not choice, as if the institution that plans campaigns, requests resources, and shapes threat assessments is merely a neutral instrument waiting for orders.

The intent is reputational triage: protect the soldier’s ethic and the military’s legitimacy by relocating failure to the elected class. The subtext is sharper: if wars go badly, look to Washington’s cowardice or confusion, not to the uniformed bureaucracy. That framing conveniently sidesteps how militaries can generate momentum of their own-through doctrine, institutional incentives, and the quiet pressure of “if we don’t act now” briefings that limit what politicians feel able to decide.

Context matters. Post-Vietnam America was sorting its narratives: protest, betrayal, “support the troops,” and the emerging habit of separating “the war” from “the warrior.” Westmoreland’s claim plugs directly into that cultural wiring. It reassures the public that the armed forces remain honorable, even when outcomes are disastrous, by imagining a clean chain of causality: politicians choose, soldiers obey. The rhetoric is absolution disguised as accountability-and it works because it offers a tidy villain in a messy democratic reality.