Background

Creighton Williams Abrams was born on September 15, 1914, in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. He was the oldest of three children of Creighton Abrams and Nellie Randall.

Education

Creighton Abrams attended Agawam High School where he was captain of an undefeated football team and valedictorian and senior class president. Later he studied at the United States Military Academy from which he graduated in 1936. Abrams also graduated from the Command and General Staff College in 1949 and the Army War College in 1953.

Career

Creighton Abrams started his career in 1936 when he joined the 1st Cavalry Division where he served from 1936 to 1940. After leaving the 1st Cavalry Division, he joined the freshly created 1st Armored Division, as a lieutenant. During World War II, Abrams emerged as one of the most aggressive and effective tank commanders in the United States Army. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1942 and in September 1943 he was given command of the 37th Tank Regiment. His battalion participated in the breakout from the Normandy beachhead in late July 1944 and the sweep into the Brittany peninsula and the advance to the Seine in August. In September, the battalion was the spearhead of General George Patton's drive toward Metz, capturing Sainte Genevieve in an action that permitted the Fourth Armored Division's crossing of the Moselle and its capture of Nancy on September 15. When the Germans broke through in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, Abrams led the task force that raised the siege of Bastogne.

After World War II, Creighton Abrams served as the head of the department of tactics at the Armored School in Fort Knox, from 1946 to 1948. Later he served as the commander of the 63rd Tank Battalion in Europe, from 1949 to 1951. The battalion was part of the 1st Infantry Division. In 1951, he was appointed commander of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. He held this post until 1952. During the final stage of the Korean War, he served successively as chief of staff of I Corps, IX Corps, and X Corps, helping plan defenses against the last major Communist attacks. Abrams was promoted to brigadier general in 1956 and to major general in 1960. He commanded the 3rd Armored Division in Germany during some of the intense years of the Cold War from 1960 to 1962. In 1963, he was promoted to lieutenant general and assigned to command of V Corps in Europe. In 1964, Abrams was promoted to full general and became vice-chief of staff of the United States Army.

In 1967, then-President Lyndon Johnson sent Abrams to Vietnam as deputy commander of United States Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), subordinate to General William Westmoreland. Abrams worked to improve the army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), which performed well when it bore the brunt of the enemy's offensive, which began on January 30, 1968. Abrams assumed command of MACV in the summer of 1968, in the wake of an announcement that peace talks would begin in Paris. He was responsible for holding the line militarily in South Vietnam while the United States executed a gradual withdrawal and turned over military responsibility to the South Vietnamese. Although the number of United States troops available to him was reduced much more rapidly than he would have preferred, Abrams maintained relentless pressure on Vietcong and North Vietnamese positions in South Vietnam. He gradually shifted American strategy from the search and destroy operations Westmoreland had favored to one that concentrated on defending the population of South Vietnam. He also presided over a vast augmentation of the South Vietnamese armed forces, leaving them with one of the largest and best-equipped armies in the world.

In 1970, he let the policy of "Vietnamization" succeed and himself led incursions in Cambodia and Laos. In 1972, he successfully became the chief of army staff, after Westmoreland retired. During the little more than two years he served in that capacity, he struggled to protect the Army against the anti-military backlash that developed in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. He presided over a major reorganization which increased the number of divisions from 13 to 16 he felt the United States needed to maintain its global commitments.

Achievements

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  Creighton Abrams was a United States Army general who was known as an outstanding tank commander in the United States Army during World War II. He is best remembered for commanding the military in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1972. He took up the challenging task of "Vietnamization" of the army of South Vietnam and successfully did so even after the United States troops reduced in size from 500,000 to less than 30,000. He also made significant contributions during the Korean War.
  
  Abrams received numerous awards, including the Bronze Star, the Army Distinguished Service Medal, the Distinguished Service Cross, the United Nations Korea Medal, and the Defense Distinguished Service Medal.
  
  The United States Army's main battle tank, the M1 Abrams, was named after Creighton Abrams.

Religion

Abrams was raised as Methodist Protestant, but converted to Catholicism during his time in Vietnam.

Politics

Abrams disdained most of the politicians with whom he was forced to deal, in particular Robert McNamara and McGeorge Bundy, and had an even lower opinion of defense contractors, whom he accused of war profiteering.

Views

Quotations: "When eating an elephant take one bite at a time."

"You people are telling me what you think I want to know. I want to know what is actually happening."

"It is soldiers who pay most of the human cost. In war it is extraordinary how it all comes down to the character of one man."

"While we are guarding the country, we must accept being the guardian of the finest ethics. The country needs it and we must do it."

Personality

Creighton Abrams earned a reputation in World War II as a hard-driving master of the offensive who believed that he could reduce his own casualties by striking the enemy with maximum violence. At the same time, those who knew him said that he knew how to motivate people to give their best efforts and "be all they could be." He also cared about his soldiers and had compassion and affection for them.

Physical Characteristics: In his youth, Creighton Abrams was of average height, stocky, and muscular. Also, he was a heavy cigar smoker.

Creighton Abrams died of complications from lung cancer surgery.

Quotes from others about the person

• General Robert Shoemaker: "For people of his generation, Abrams was driving the Army. It’s not necessarily the Chief of Staff who’s driving the Army unless he has the moral authority to go with his official position. In his day Abe drove the Army."
  
  General George Patton: "He had his faults, just like anybody else, but not very damn many of them!"

Connections

Creighton Abrams married Julia Harvey in 1936. The marriage produced six children.

Father:

Creighton Williams Abrams

Creighton Williams Abrams (born 1899) was a railroad worker.

Mother:

Nellie Louise (Randall) Abrams

(born 1866)

Spouse:

Julia Berthe (Harvey) Abrams

Julia Berthe Abrams (April 12, 1915 – January 31, 2003) was a humanitarian and the founder of the army group called Arlington Ladies.

Son:

Creighton Williams Abrams III

Creighton Williams Abrams III is currently the Executive Director of the Army Historical Foundation.

Son:

Robert Bruce Abrams

Robert Bruce Abrams (born November 18, 1960) is a four-star general in the United States Army who currently serves as the commander of United States Forces Korea.

Son:

John N. Abrams

General John Nelson Abrams (September 3, 1946 – August 20, 2018) was a United States Army four-star general who commanded the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command from 1998 to 2002.

Daughter:

Noel Bradley

Daughter:

Jeanne Daley

Daughter:

Elizabeth Doyle

References

• Thunderbolt: General Creighton Abrams and the Army of His Times Thunderbolt is a stirring portrait of the quintessential soldier and of the transformation of the United States Army from the horse brigades of the 1930s to the high-tech military force of today.
  1992
• General Creighton Abrams and the Operational Approach of Attrition in the Vietnam War This book proposes that the United States Armed Forces consistently followed a strategy of attrition from the introduction of battalion-sized combat troops in 1965, through the Westmoreland-Abrams transition, and ultimately encouraged the South Vietnamese to follow this strategy during the period of Vietnamization.
  2014
• General Creighton Abrams: Ethical Leadership at the Strategic Level This United States Army War College student author examines General Abrams' ethical leadership at all levels of the Army. He concludes that Abrams' ethical leadership was instrumental in the Army's successful handling of racial issues during the 1960s, in enabling the military to conduct an orderly withdrawal from Vietnam, in rebuilding the Army after the Vietnam War, and is still evident in Army organization and leadership today.
  2013