Background

Matthew Bunker Ridgway was born on March 3, 1895, at Fort Monroe, Virginia, United States. He was the son of an army artillery officer, Thomas Ridgway, a native of Staten Island, New York, and Ruth Starbuck Bunker, of Garden City, Long Island, New York. He had one sister. In 1901, after his father returned from a tour in China, the family moved from Long Island to a series of army postings, including Fort Walla Walla, Washington, and Fort Snelling, Minnesota.

Education

Between 1907 and 1912, Matt attended schools in North Carolina, Virginia, and Boston. He was admitted to West Point on June 14, 1913, graduating in May 1917.

In 1924 Ridgway took the new, much revised infantry course at Fort Benning, finishing first in his class. He then graduated from the Command and General Staff School (currently United States Army Command and General Staff College) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1935, and from the Army War College in 1937.

Career

After graduation from West Point, Ridgway was sent to Eagle Pass, Texas, on the Mexican border, where he commanded an infantry company. In September 1918 the army ordered Ridgway to West Point, where he served as a Spanish instructor until 1925. The new academy superintendent, General Douglas Mac-Arthur, appointed him director of athletics. This prominent position helped him earn prime assignments to the Fort Benning infantry school in Georgia, and from there to the Fifteenth Infantry Regiment in Tianjin, China.

After China, Ridgway resumed troop duty with the Ninth Infantry Regiment in San Antonio, Texas, where the brigade commander, Major General Frank R. McCoy, took notice of him and invited him on a high-level military political mission to conduct and supervise elections in Nicaragua. Ridgway’s fluent Spanish made him an obvious choice and he jumped at the chance to go to Central America, even though he had to abandon his plans to try out for the 1928 Olympic pentathlon.

Ridgway held a variety of staff, school, and politico-military assignments through the 1930s. These school assignments placed him in line for generalship if war came.

In 1939, Ridgway accompanied General George C. Marshall on an important military mission to Brazil, and Marshall soon appointed him the army’s desk officer for Latin America. Despite some cloak-and-dagger work in Latin America, he loathed the desk job. By the end of January 1942, General Marshall assigned him to be General Omar Bradley’s assistant division commander for the Eighty-second Division, a position that carried with it Ridgway’s first star. Within seven more months he would get command of the famed Eighty-second Division, and with it his second star. In twenty-five months, he had risen from major to major general.

Shortly after Ridgway took command of the Eighty-second, the outfit was converted into an airborne division, requiring Ridgway to train his men in an entirely new technology that the army had never before used in combat. The Eighty-second Airborne fought valiantly under Ridgway’s command in the big airborne operations during the invasions of Sicily and Normandy.

On June 6, 1944 (D day) Ridgway became the first Allied major general on French soil - the only one to drop in by parachute. But the air corps tended to scatter troops when they dropped them in both operations, so that the soldiers were insufficiently concentrated to carry out their missions without sustaining heavy casualties.

Ridgway was given command of the Eighteenth Airborne Corps in recognition of his combat victories against significant odds and despite serious technological obstacles during the Normandy campaign. But Ridgway had yet to prove himself at high command - late in 1944 Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower rated him thirty-one out of his thirty-two corps commanders. Eisenhower reevaluated his opinion of Ridgway after the Battle of the Bulge, writing General Marshall early in 1945 that Ridgway was one of the three top corps commanders in the European theater.

Ridgway commanded several more successful operations in the war against Germany, including Operation VARSITY, a drop on the far side of the Rhine River and the envelopment of the Ruhr River, in which his forces took 317,000 German prisoners. At the end of the war he successfully managed the Eighteenth Airborne Corps "dash to the Baltic" from central Germany - a logistical tour de force designed to cut the Red Army off from Denmark. He was promoted to lieutenant general on June 4, 1945.

Postwar life offered a rich succession of posts between 1945 and 1950: commander of U.S. forces in the Mediterranean; U.S. Army representative to the United Nations Military Staff Committee; representative to the Inter-American Defense Board; and commander in chief, Caribbean theater. As deputy chief of staff for administration, he became the Pentagon point man on the Korean War.

On December 22, 1950, General Walton H. Walker, commander of the U.S. Eighth Army in Korea, was killed in an auto crash. Ridgway rushed from Washington to Korea to assume the command. Ridgway's task in Korea was difficult. Chinese General Peng Dehuai 's massive Chinese forces had crushed the UN troops that had advanced up toward the North Korea-China border at the Yalu River, forcing them into a massive retreat south below the 38th parallel. On their sweep from the north, the Chinese had mauled the First Cavalry Division, the Second Infantry Division, and the South Korean forces. The Eighth Army's morale had been drained. Some military experts doubted if the United States could maintain a foothold on the Korean peninsula.

It was the perfect job for Ridgway, who was noted for his motivational skills. Ridgway assumed command of the U.S. 8th Army and organized the counteroffensive which drove the Chinese and North Koreans out of South Korea. Promoted in 1951 to the rank of general, he succeeded Gen. Douglas MacArthur as Allied commander in the Far East and continued the successful defense of South Korea. He subsequently oversaw the end of the U.S. occupation of Japan in 1952.

Unlike the other generals who directed the Korean War, Ridgway rejected MacArthur's strategy for victory - an Allied advance to the Yalu River. Instead, he conducted a limited war until President Harry Truman transferred him to Europe to succeed Gen. Dwight Eisenhower as supreme commander of the Allied Powers in Europe in 1952.

Eisenhower had lobbied against the appointment because he felt that Ridgway lacked political sensitivity. As president, Eisenhower kicked Ridgway upstairs to the office of army chief of staff (in July 1953) and then declined to reappoint him in 1955.

Ridgway retired from the army as a four-star general and as America’s top soldier in 1955 and worked until 1960 as director of the Mellon Industrial Research Institute in Pittsburgh - one of the predecessors of Carnegie Mellon University. Matthew also authored two books: Soldier (1956) and The Korean War (1967).

Ridgway died of cardiac arrest on July 26, 1993 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the age of ninety-eight and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

Achievements

• Ridgway is remembered as a great commander because of the war in Indochina that he tried to prevent, as much as for the battles that he won in Europe and Korea. He was an excellent chief of staff because of his recognition of the limitations of American power.
  
  Ridgway's many military decorations included the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Legion of Merit. During a logistical tour de force designed to cut the Red Army off from Denmark, Ridgway won an Oak Leaf Cluster to the Silver Star for venturing out onto a bridge over the Elbe River that was under fire from German 88s, in order to encourage the engineers to finish the bridge in record time (he had been awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in the airborne invasion of Holland in September 1944). Ridgway was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1986 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1991.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Korean War

    (It is a book that takes a close look at MacArthur, his fa...)

    1967
  • Soldier: The Memoirs of Matthew B. Ridgway 1956

Religion

Ridgway was a devoutly religious man. Christian values were naturally adopted during Ridgway's youth and guided his thoughts and actions throughout his life. While serving as an advisor to the United States Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly and a member of that body's Military Staff Committee during 1946 - 1947, Ridgway served also as a vestryman at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York.

As a soldier in battle, Ridgway often carried in his pocket a small military prayer book containing well-known religious passages from both the Old and New Testament. His men discovered Ridgway was fearless in battle in part because of his Christian faith. He felt he would not be killed until the appointed time.

Politics

As chief of staff, U.S. Army, Ridgway opposed Eisenhower’s "New Look" defense policy, which limited defense expenditures and built up the air force at the expense of the army. He advocated a strong ground army, warning against Eisenhower's emphasis on airpower and nuclear weapons.

In the 1960s Ridgway became famous for his criticism of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s decision to send combat troops to Vietnam. He was later invited to the White House (in March 1968) as one of the "wise men" who advised Johnson to negotiate a withdrawal. He actively supported Ronald Reagan for president in 1980, and he traveled with Reagan on his controversial trip to the German Army burial ground at Bitburg in 1985.

Views

Ridgway considered leadership to have three primary ingredients: character, courage, and competence. He described character - including self-discipline, loyalty, selflessness, modesty, and willingness to accept responsibility and admit mistakes - as the "bedrock on which the whole edifice of leadership rests." His concept of courage included both physical and moral courage. Competence included physical fitness, anticipating when crises will occur and being present to resolve them, and being close to subordinates - communicating clearly and ensuring that they are treated and led well and fairly.

Quotations: "The hard decisions are not the ones you make i in the heat of battle. For harder to make are those involved in speaking your mind about some harebrained scheme which proposes to commit troops to action under conditions where failure is almost certain and the only results will be the needless sacrifice of priceless lives."

"Every mission accomplished."

"No ground gained was ever relinquished."

"Your job is to point that rifle into the other guy's face and shoot him dead."

Membership

In 1951 Ridgway was elected an honorary member of the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati.

• Virginia Society of the Cincinnati , United States

  1951

Personality

Although he was not strong as a military politician, Ridgway was an excellent commander because he combined impressive personal courage with managerial and logistical skill. A highly successful, if often underrated, military officer, Ridgway was a gifted organizer, strategic planner, and political‐military coalition leader.

Ridgway had an extraordinary memory, rattling off the names of as many as 5,000 of his men, even years after he met them. This gave each soldier a sense that the commander cared for them.

General Ridgway was nicknamed "Old Iron Tits." This was because he wore hand grenades at chest level.

Quotes from others about the person

• George C. Mitchell: "His concern and consideration for the welfare of his troops, his courage to be upfront sharing the dangers of the battlefield, and the confidence and charisma that his personality and character projected inspired others to follow his directions."
  
  Colin Powell: "No soldier ever performed his duty better than this man. No soldier ever upheld his honor better than this man. No soldier ever loved his country more than this man did. Every American soldier owes a debt to this great man."

Connections

Shortly before his West Point graduation, Ridgway married the first of three wives, Julia Caroline Blount, with whom he had two daughters. On June 16, 1930, the couple divorced, and Ridgway subsequently lost touch with his daughters. A few days after the divorce was final, the young officer married Margaret ("Peggy") Wilson Dabney. In 1936 he adopted Peggy’s daughter. Peggy divorced him in June 1947. In December 1947 he married Mary Princess ("Penny") Anthony, a descendant of Susan B. Anthony, whom Ridgway admired for her love of the outdoors and the strenuous life. Their son was born in 1949. He was hit by a train and killed during a canoe portage at the age of twenty-one.

Father:

Thomas Ridgway

(August 18, 1861, Brooklyn, New York, United States - May 5, 1939, San Diego County, California, United States)

Col. Thomas Ridgway served in various artillery assignments in California and Kansas before he transferred to the eastern United States in 1898. He eventually went to the Coast Artillery Corps and in 1912, he received a promotion to colonel of the Coast Artillery. He commanded the Coast Defenses of Pensacola, Florida, and later of Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to his short tenure as Hawaiian Department commander, Ridgway served as the commander for Coast Defenses of Oahu from March to September 1919. Thomas Ridgway retired as a colonel on 28 October 1919 after over 40 years of service.

Mother:

Ruth Starbuck Bunker Ridgway

(January 20, 1876, New York, United States - September 28, 1956, San Diego County, California, United States)

Spouse:

Mary Princess Anthony Long

(1918–1997)

Sister:

Ruth Ridgway Beardslee

1891–1963

ex-spouse:

Julia Caroline Blount

Daughter:

Constance Ridgway

Daughter:

Shirley Blount Ridgway Perry

(July 10, 1920, West Point, New York, United States - September 14, 2012, Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States)

A graduate of the Katherine Gibbs School, Shirley worked at MIT in the chemical engineering department during WW II. Her love of opera led her to serve as an overseer of The New England Conservatory and on the boards of the Boston Concert Opera, Opera Boston Theater, Boston Lyric Opera, and her crowning achievement - president of Sarah Caldwell's Guild of the Opera Company of Boston.

Shirley's civic memberships included the Women's Republican Club of Wellesley, The House and Garden Club of Wellesley where she served as a president, the Wellesley College Club, and 54 years in the Wellesley Country Club. She was also an active member of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Wellesley and she served as the Director of Winbro Group, LTD.

ex-spouse:

Margaret Wilson Dabney

step-daughter:

Virginia Ann Dabney

Son:

Matthew Ridgway, Jr.

(1949 - 1970)

References

• Matthew B. Ridgway: Soldier, Statesman, Scholar, Citizen Using Ridgway's personal papers, George Mitchell offers a unique and compelling view of this authentic American hero.
  1999
• Matthew Ridgway The greatest American general of the twentieth century wasn't Dwight Eisenhower or George Patton or Douglas MacArthur. The honor, according to New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming, belongs to Matthew Ridgway, who led America's Eighth Army to victory in Korea. Here, in this essay, is his courageous story.
  2016
• Ridgway's Paratroopers: The American Airborne in World War II A book by Clay Blair chronicles the history of America's paratroopers in World War II and recounts the achievement of General Matthew Ridgway in successfully implementing the new airborne warfare.
  1985
• MacArthur's Korean War Generals A longtime historian of American military leadership in the crucible of war, Stephen R. Taaffe takes a close critical look at how the highest ranking field commanders of the Eighth Army acquitted themselves in the first, decisive year in Korea.
  2016
• General Matthew B. Ridgway: From Progressivism to Reaganism, 1895-1993 Detailing the life and legacy of one of America's highest profile military commanders, this biography by Jonathan M. Soffer looks at how Ridgway maintained his corporatist ideals through the critical days of World War II and the Cold War.
  1998
• Ridgeway Duels for Korea A book by Roy Edgar Appleman
  1990
• 82nd Airborne: Normandy 1944 A book by Stephen Smith. On August 15, 1942, the 82nd Airborne became the US Army’s first airborne division. Commanded by Major General Matthew B. Ridgway, they trained exhaustively for their new role, which involved parachuting from C-47s and insertion by Waco CG-4A gliders.
  2017
• The War for Korea, 1950-1951: They Came from the North Book 2 of 2 in the War for Korea Series. In the second volume of a monumental trilogy, Allan R. Millett now shifts his focus to the twelve-month period from North Korea's invasion of South Korea on June 25, 1950, through the end of June 1951 - the most active phase of the internationalized "Korean War."
  2010
• The Cold War U.S. Army: Building Deterrence for Limited War The Cold War marked a new era for America's military, one dominated by nuclear weapons and air power that seemed to diminish the need for conventional forces. Ingo Trauschweizer chronicles the U.S. Army's struggles with its identity, structure, and mission in the face of those challenges, showing how it evolved, redefined its mission more than once, and ultimately transformed itself.
  2008