Ridgway's Greatest Tactical Decisions | The General Who Stopped China

In February 1951, 4,500 men of the 23rd Infantry Regiment were about to be surrounded at a Korean village called Chipyong-ni. The corps commander ordered them out. Matthew Ridgway cancelled the order and told them to stay. Eight years earlier, the same general had fought just as hard to stop his own paratroopers from jumping on Rome. This is the story of Ridgway's biggest calls, told on animated maps: Giant II, the airborne strike on Rome that he fought until it was called off with the planes already in the air; the night jumps into the Salerno beachhead; Operation Varsity on the Rhine, built on the lessons of Arnhem; and Korea, where he took over a beaten Eighth Army, sent it back into the hills, and held the ring at Chipyong-ni. We also look at the arguments against him: whether Varsity was needed at all, why Operation Killer caught so little, and the 1954 fight in Washington over Dien Bien Phu, where his answer was no. ═══════════════════════════════ ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Planes in the air, and the order to call it off 01:34 Sicily 1943: a division scattered 02:09 Giant II: a drop on Rome 03:48 Salerno: "Can do" 05:34 Saint Vith and the fortified goose egg 06:59 Operation Varsity: the Rhine, 1945 10:17 Korea: the longest retreat 12:06 The meat grinder 13:46 Chipyong-ni: the ring 14:51 The retreat order, and the reversal 17:13 Task Force Crombez 18:37 Operation Killer and Operation Ripper 20:43 Peng's spring offensive 21:26 Dien Bien Phu, 1954 22:52 The jump that never happened ═══════════════════════════════ 📚 SOURCES Billy C. Mossman, Ebb and Flow: November 1950 – July 1951 (U.S. Army Center of Military History) Russell A. Gugeler, Combat Actions in Korea (U.S. Army Center of Military History) Roy E. Appleman, Ridgway Duels for Korea James A. Huston, Out of the Blue: U.S. Army Airborne Operations in World War II Barry Gregory, on Operation Varsity Army Historical Foundation, "Operation Varsity: The Last Airborne Deployment of World War II" HistoryNet: "How Gen. Ridgway Saved the 82nd Airborne From a Suicide Mission in Rome", "Chipyong-ni", "The Man Who Saved Korea" Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State (Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954) Korean War Online; Military.com; HistoryOfWar.org Casualty figures, especially Chinese losses at Chipyong-ni, are contested. Where sources disagree, the video says so. Maps: terrain built from open elevation data; rivers, roads and railways © OpenStreetMap contributors. Archive footage: public domain. Was Varsity worth it? Tell us yes or no in the comments, and subscribe to Marshal's Map for the next battle. #Ridgway #KoreanWar #MilitaryHistory #WW2 #ChipyongNi