William Childs Westmoreland (March 26, 1914 – July 18, 2005) was a United States Army general, who most notably commanded U.S. forces during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968.

From Westmoreland’s arrival in South Vietnam in January 1964, his brief was to achieve outright victory over the Northern-backed Viet Cong, with minimal US casualties, without provoking the Chinese by attacks on the North. Even some of his critics acknowledged that these demands were contradictory, and when casualties inevitably mounted, he was accused of pursuing a war of attrition. During his period of command, both the Battle of Ia Drang (Nov. 1965) and the Tet Offensive (Jan. 1968) were technically US victories, but public discord with the war was sowed by media broadcasting and college students (who had deferred their draft status) were putting pressure through protesting on the government to end the war. By the time he left to become Army chief of staff, US manpower in Vietnam had reached a peak of 535,000. Westmoreland’s strategy, based on artillery and air power, was tactically successful but politically allowed the enemy to destroy the American public's support for the war.