Your opinion on the greatest military commanders of the Cold War era?

orwelans II

Banned
In my opinion, the greatest military commanders are those who have talents, insight and skills in the tactical, operational and political-strategic levels of contemporary warfare. Furthermore, they creatively utilise those skills to overcome an enemy with an overwhelmingly superior force over and over in all three segments.

I to my knowledge, only 4 military leaders from this period can be described as having achieved that feat:

Ahmad Shah Massoud

Vo Nguyen Giap

Fidel Castro

Moshe Dayan

Do you disagree with these choices or conditions? Do you have a different way of determining great military commanders? Do you think someone else from this period should be added to my list?
 
General Ridgeway in his superb leadership after taking over after the death of General Walker saved the United Nations forces from collapse during the Korean War and made possible the negotiated settlement that emerged. He then took over after MacArthur was sacked and continued to do a superb job as Supreme Commander UN forces.

Massoud did a great job in Afghanistan, but the principal reason for the Soviet withdrawal was the Soviet collapse, not pressure from the Afghanis

Castro had the advantage of fighting a corrupt police state ruled by an even more corrupt dictator who was cut off from support because he (Batista) was that inept.

Giap deserves every bit of praise

I have read mixed reviews regarding Dayan from Israeli sources, so interested to see what opinions are on him.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peng_Dehuai or which Chinese general was responsible for their rout of the US and Allied forces in Korea. To go from being crushed and occupied by Japan to forcing world's superpower to run from the field is impressive.

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Giap lost some after the 1968 debacle.

That was a political win, but military disaster, and kicked upstairs after the just as bad loss in 1972

He was good at getting his own troops killed. Wasteful.

I just read Mark Bowden's "Hue 1968" (finished yesterday). According to Bowden, Giap (and Ho Chi Minh) both thought the Tet Offensive was ill advised and overly ambitious. Ho was in poor health at this point and had little power, while the Party overruled the Army and insisted on Tet and Giap was sent to Moscow to get him out of the way. (also really interesting book, particularly valuable are the wealth of accounts from surviving VC and PAVN veterans).

Considering Giap was a history teacher and all of his training was on the job, I would call him one of the most gifted amateurs to ever lead an army.
 
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