Here are some famous and not so famous quotes from one of the greatest military leaders in history, General Creighton Abrams (September 15, 1914 – September 4, 1974).

The following excerpts and more can be found in “Thunderbolt : General Creighton Abrams and the army of his times” by Lewis Sorley, 1992.

When Secretary of Defense McNamara recommended Abrams to be the Vice Chief of Staff (page 179):

When the January 1968 Tet Offensive showed that President Johnson and General Westmoreland had been lying, Abrams was promoted in June to command of U.S. Armed Forces in the Republic of South Vietnam (page 243):

When Abrams became chief of staff of X Corps (Group) in 1953 during a Korean stalemate (page 129):

For what it’s worth, the always superstitious and easily spooked Nazis feared his successes in battle most because they thought he was Jewish (NYT, 5 September 1974, Page 42).

The retreating Germans were said to be fascinated and terrified by Colonel Abrams because they assumed from his name that he was Jewish, and that he saw himself as a wrathful Jehovah taking destructive vengeance on the Germans for what they had done to the Jewish people. (Actually, he was [Catholic and] descended from a long line of New England Methodists.) […] In doing the job, Colonel Abrams collected the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, all with clusters, the Bronze Star and a dozen foreign decorations.

He was America’s greatest general after Ulysses Grant, as evidenced by his sense of what mattered most in peace and in war:

The longer I serve the more I become convinced that the single most important attribute of the professional officer is integrity. […] I don’t want war, but I am appalled at the human cost that we’ve paid because we wouldn’t prepare to fight.