who was your bravest national general ?

And as for McArthur... the guy promised to defend Corregidor till doom and left after Bataan defence line was broken. His soldier in the Phillipines nicknamed him "bunker man" or something like that. The fact that he is today considered brave is thanks to his skill at propaganda warfare. He wasn't even a good strategist, only a one shot wonder. And Inchon only worked because it was an act of desperation and the N.Koreans didn't expect it.  

If you're looking for a brave American general of WWII, go for Patton.

The credit for South Pacific goes mostly to Nimitz.

It is very hard for a Turk to decide, but Mustafa Kemal, Alparslan and the Ottoman ak�nj� generals were best. But Sultan Baybars and Tamerlane were great generals to

Father Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon.
Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza.

I think Id say Stanislaw Zolkiewski, especially after his warrior like detah at Cecora in 1621, i thinkw as the year.

 

   Mustafa Kemal Atat�rk  a  Nation has followed him and a Nation is going to follow him!

Originally posted by edgewaters I disagree with alot of people's picks in this thread. No WW2 general was brave; they were among the safest military leaders in all history up to that point. Brave with other people's lives, perhaps! Being a good tactician or strategist is another thing from being brave.

I think the safest ones were those in WWI, in WWII airial bombardment was implemented.

Originally posted by Laelius Well, I'm Canadian and I'll have to go with Tecumseh! He gets no credit here, though. Like any great Canadian figure the Americans love him but he gets none at home.   Tecumseh was NOT Canadian, he was the leader of a separate sovereign Nation.  His efforts during the War of 1812 were largely a case of "My enemies enemy..."  he would have just as easily fought the Canadian government if given the chance.  This might come as a surprise to you but North America'a indigenous peoples hate the Canadian government just as much as they do the American one.

 

Well, its true he was not a Canadian, but alot of other foreign figures and allies operating under their own agendas are considered heroes of nations other than their own. I consider him a great figure in Canadian history. Many of the French also consider themselves a separate and sovereign nation, and certainly were before the Treaty of Paris, but there are plenty of figures like Cartier and Champlain who are considered great Canadian figures. We all know they weren't actually Canadians in the current sense of the term, but, we still consider them crucial to Canadian history.

As far as native attitudes towards the US + Canada, what you say hasn't always been true and certainly wasn't in 1812. Canada was the British, and natives - particularly those of the Eastern Woodlands, such as the Iroquois - had a fairly good rapport with the British, at least in comparison to the US. The British had, after all, supplied most of the arms they used in recent conflicts with the US such as the Northwest Indian War (only 17 years before 1812 and definately a forerunner of Tecumseh's campaign), and it was in Britain's interests to maintain good relations with them during this period. The Iroquois today still take pride in the special relationship they have with the Crown (although their support in 1812 was a bit divided, but not because many had any preference for Americans - they knew Washington as Caunotaucarius, the Town Destroyer, stemming from the Sullivan Expedition (only 33 years before 1812). Rather, some felt that the Americans would win and to survive they should side with them). Some native figures, like Joseph Brant, were even outright British military officers - ironic, considering he could not become a sachem among the Iroquois since it was hereditary.

The British never mounted anything resembling the Sullivan expedition, never conducted anything like the buffalo slaughter, etc. The situation in 1812 was quite different. Modern Canada is a different story - in the 20th century it conducted resettlements in the north, had its boarding schools and impoverished reservations and jails filled with natives and its Okas and Ipperwashes, but, you can't retroactively apply all that to the situation in 1812.

Edited by edgewaters

Constantine XI

His answer to Mohammed II

"To give you the City is neither my right nor any other's of its inhabitans; for, by a common desicion, all of us we shall prefer to die and we shall not spare our lives"

May 29, 1453

I can't believe no one mentioned Gen. Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller.