Matthew Ridgway

1. Lead

Matthew Ridgway (3 March 1895 – 26 July 1993) was one of the great American generals of the twentieth century, and one of the most respected soldiers of his generation. He is best remembered for Korea, where, in December 1950, he took command of the Eighth Army at the darkest moment of the war — after the Chinese intervention had driven the United Nations forces into a headlong retreat, after the army’s commander, General Walton Walker, had been killed in a road accident, and after the army’s morale had, in the words of one officer, “collapsed” — and where, in a matter of weeks, he restored the army’s confidence, stopped the Chinese advance, and turned a retreat into a counter-offensive that carried the war back to the 38th Parallel.

He was, in the words of the historian Clay Blair, “the man who saved Korea”, and he was, in the words of his own soldiers, “the general who came when we needed him most”. But Ridgway’s career was much longer than Korea: he had commanded the 82nd Airborne Division in Sicily, in Normandy and in the Ardennes in the Second World War, he had commanded the United Nations forces in Korea after the relief of Douglas MacArthur, and he had served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army, where he opposed the Eisenhower administration’s “New Look” defence policy and paid for his opposition with his career.

Ridgway was, by all accounts, a soldier of unusual character: a man of great physical courage, of strict discipline, and of a personal style that was, in the words of one of his officers, “austere to the point of severity”.

He wore a hand grenade on his chest — a habit he had acquired in the Second World War, when he had wanted his men to know that he was willing to fight as a rifleman — and he visited the front lines every day, talking to the soldiers, eating with them, and sharing their dangers.

He was also a soldier of unusual intellect: he spoke French and Spanish, he had studied at the Army War College, and he was, in the words of the historian David Halberstam, “the most thoughtful general of his generation”. This article tells his story: the West Point cadet, the airborne commander, the saviour of the Eighth Army, and the Chief of Staff who stood up to a president — and it examines the evidence for his achievements, and for the controversies that surrounded them.

2. Key Facts

Born	3 March 1895, Fort Monroe, Virginia, United States
Died	26 July 1993 (aged 98), Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania, United States
Nationality	American
Role / Office	Commander, 82nd Airborne Division (1942–1944); Commander, XVIII Airborne Corps (1944–1945); Commander, Eighth Army, Korea (1950–1951); Commander, United Nations Forces, Korea (1951–1952); Chief of Staff, United States Army (1953–1955)
Known for	Saving the Eighth Army in Korea in the winter of 1950–1951; commanding the 82nd Airborne on D-Day; succeeding MacArthur in Korea
Spouse / Family	Julia Caroline Blount (married 1917, divorced); Margaret “Peggy” Dabney (married 1947); son Matthew Ridgway Jr.
Military rank	General (four stars)
Awards	Distinguished Service Cross (two); Distinguished Service Medal (three); Silver Star; Presidential Medal of Freedom (1986)

3. Early Life and Education

West Point and the Interwar Army

Matthew Bunker Ridgway was born on 3 March 1895 at Fort Monroe, Virginia, the son of Colonel Thomas Ridgway, an artillery officer, and Ruth Bunker Ridgway. He grew up on army posts, and he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1913, graduating in 1917, in the class that would produce more generals than any other in American history — a class that included Dwight D.

Eisenhower and Omar Bradley, both of whom would become Ridgway’s superiors in the Second World War. Ridgway served in the First World War, but he did not see combat: he was sent to the Mexican border, and then to West Point, where he taught Spanish and where he coached the football team.

In the interwar years he served in a series of staff and command appointments, in the United States, in Nicaragua, in China and in the Philippines, and he attended the Army War College, where he was, in the words of one of his instructors, “the best student I ever taught”. He was, by 1941, a colonel, and he was, in the words of General George Marshall, “a man to watch”.

The Airborne

In 1942 Ridgway was given command of the 82nd Infantry Division, which was being converted into an airborne division, and he became, in effect, one of the fathers of the American airborne. He trained the division in the United States, and he led it in its first combat jumps: in Sicily, in July 1943, where the division’s drop was scattered by high winds and by friendly fire, and where Ridgway himself jumped with his men; and in Normandy, on D-Day, 6 June 1944, where the 82nd dropped behind Utah Beach and fought to secure the causeways across the flooded marshes.

Ridgway was, in Normandy, a divisional commander who fought as a rifleman: he carried a rifle and a hand grenade — the grenade taped to his chest, a habit he would keep for the rest of his career — and he visited the front lines every day, talking to his men and sharing their dangers.

In September 1944 he was given command of the XVIII Airborne Corps, and he led it in Operation Market Garden, in the Netherlands, and in the Battle of the Bulge, in the Ardennes, where his corps held the northern shoulder of the German offensive. By the end of the war he was, in the words of one historian, “the best airborne commander in the American army”.

4. The Second World War: Sicily, Normandy, the Bulge

Sicily and Normandy

Ridgway’s Second World War service was, in the words of one historian, “a textbook of airborne warfare”. In Sicily, in July 1943, the 82nd’s drop was, by any measure, a disaster: the transport aircraft were scattered by high winds, they were fired on by Allied ships, and the paratroopers landed over a wide area, many of them miles from their objectives.

Ridgway, who had jumped with his men, rallied the scattered units, and the division fought its way to its objectives, and it was, in the end, a success — but it was a success that taught Ridgway, and the American army, the limits of airborne operations.

In Normandy, on D-Day, the 82nd’s drop was better planned, and it was, for the most part, successful: the division secured the causeways across the Merderet River, it held the town of Sainte-Mère-Église — the first town in France to be liberated — and it fought, for a month, in the hedgerows of Normandy, against German counter-attacks.

Ridgway was wounded in Normandy, and he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his leadership. His division’s performance in Normandy was, in the words of General Bradley, “the finest divisional performance of the war”.

Market Garden and the Bulge

In September 1944 Ridgway, now commanding the XVIII Airborne Corps, took part in Operation Market Garden, the great Allied attempt to seize the bridges over the Rhine in the Netherlands and to end the war by Christmas. The operation failed: the British 1st Airborne Division was destroyed at Arnhem, and the Allied advance was stopped.

Ridgway’s corps — the 82nd and the 101st Airborne Divisions — fought well, and they held their objectives, but they could not, on their own, win the battle. In December 1944, when the Germans launched their great counter-offensive in the Ardennes — the Battle of the Bulge — Ridgway’s corps was rushed to the front, and it held the northern shoulder of the German attack, around the town of St.

Vith, and it played a key part in stopping the offensive. By the end of the war Ridgway was a lieutenant general, and he was, in the words of General Eisenhower, “one of the ablest commanders in the American army”.

He had, in three years of war, commanded a division and a corps in four major campaigns, and he had earned a reputation for courage, for discipline, and for a personal style that inspired his men.

5. Korea: Saving the Eighth Army

The Darkest Hour

In December 1950 Ridgway was sent to Korea, to take command of the Eighth Army, at the darkest moment of the Korean War. The United Nations forces, under General MacArthur, had advanced to the Yalu River, on the border with China, in the autumn of 1950, and they had been, in November, attacked by a massive Chinese intervention — some 300,000 Chinese troops, in the words of one historian, “came out of the night” — and they had been driven back in a headlong retreat.

The Eighth Army’s commander, General Walton Walker, had been killed in a road accident on 23 December 1950, and the army was, in the words of one officer, “a beaten army, without confidence, without a plan, and without a leader”.

Ridgway arrived in Korea on 26 December 1950, and he found an army in retreat, with its units scattered, its supply lines stretched, and its morale, in his own words, “at rock bottom”. He was, at fifty-five, a general who had fought in two wars, and he was, in the words of the historian Clay Blair, “the right man, in the right place, at the right time”.

Restoring the Army

Ridgway’s first act was to restore the army’s confidence. He visited the front lines every day, talking to the soldiers, eating with them, and telling them, in plain language, that the Chinese were not supermen, that they could be beaten, and that the Eighth Army was going to beat them.

He sacked the commanders who had lost their nerve, he reorganised the army’s supply system, and he insisted on discipline: he ordered his officers to stop retreating, to hold their ground, and to attack the Chinese whenever they had the chance.

He also changed the army’s tactics: instead of retreating in the face of the Chinese “human wave” attacks, he ordered his troops to hold their positions, to let the Chinese come to them, and to kill them with artillery and with air power — a tactic that, in the words of one historian, “turned the Chinese strength into a weakness”.

Within weeks, the Eighth Army had stopped retreating, and in January and February 1951 it launched a series of counter-offensives — Operations Killer and Ripper — that drove the Chinese back across the 38th Parallel and recaptured Seoul, the South Korean capital, in March 1951. The turnaround was, in the words of the historian David Halberstam, “one of the great feats of generalship in American history”.

The Grenade on His Chest

Ridgway’s most famous habit — the hand grenade he wore taped to his chest — was, in Korea, a symbol of his leadership. He had acquired the habit in the Second World War, when he had wanted his men to know that he was willing to fight as a rifleman, and he kept it in Korea, where his soldiers saw it every day, and where it became, in the words of one of them, “a sign that the general was with us, and that he was not afraid”.

The grenade was, in reality, a harmless practice grenade, but the soldiers did not know that, and they did not need to: the point was that Ridgway was at the front, that he was sharing their dangers, and that he was, in the words of another soldier, “the kind of general you would follow anywhere”.

The grenade, and the daily visits to the front, were the heart of Ridgway’s leadership: he led by example, and he led from the front, and his soldiers followed him because they knew that he would not ask them to do anything he would not do himself.

6. Commander of the United Nations Forces

Succeeding MacArthur

In April 1951, President Harry Truman relieved General MacArthur of his command in Korea, after MacArthur had publicly disagreed with the administration’s policy of a limited war, and Ridgway was appointed to succeed him as commander of the United Nations forces in Korea and as commander of the Far East.

It was, in the words of one historian, “the hardest act to follow in American military history”: MacArthur was a legend, and Ridgway was, by comparison, an unknown. Ridgway’s task was to hold the line in Korea, to negotiate an armistice, and to keep the war limited — a task that, in the end, he carried out with great skill.

He stabilised the front at the 38th Parallel, he repelled the great Chinese spring offensive of April and May 1951 — the largest Chinese attack of the war, in which the Chinese lost, by American estimates, some 70,000 men — and he began the armistice negotiations at Kaesong in July 1951, which would, after two more years of fighting, end the war in July 1953.

He was, in the words of President Truman, “a soldier’s soldier”, and he was, in the words of the historian Clay Blair, “the man who won the peace, if not the war”.

The Armistice Negotiations

The armistice negotiations, which Ridgway began and which his successors continued, were long, difficult and, at times, bitter. The Chinese and the North Koreans demanded the return of all prisoners, the Americans demanded a voluntary repatriation, and the negotiations dragged on for two years, while the fighting continued along the 38th Parallel.

Ridgway’s part in the negotiations was, in the end, limited: he was replaced as commander in May 1952 by General Mark Clark, and he left Korea to become the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, in succession to Eisenhower. But his contribution to the war was, in the words of one historian, “decisive”: he had saved the Eighth Army, he had stopped the Chinese, and he had made it possible for the United Nations to negotiate from a position of strength, rather than from a position of defeat.

The Korean War ended, in July 1953, in a stalemate — a divided Korea, at the 38th Parallel, much as it had been before the war — and Ridgway’s achievement was, in the end, not a victory, but a rescue: he had saved an army, and he had saved a country, from a defeat that had seemed, in December 1950, inevitable.

7. Chief of Staff and the “New Look”

Supreme Allied Commander in Europe

After Korea, Ridgway served as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (SACEUR) from 1952 to 1953, in succession to Eisenhower, who had left to become President of the United States. As SACEUR, Ridgway commanded the NATO forces in Europe, and he was responsible for the defence of Western Europe against the Soviet Union, at the height of the Cold War.

He was, in the words of one historian, “a soldier who understood the politics of the alliance”, and he worked, with great skill, to build the NATO forces and to reassure the European allies that the United States would defend them. In August 1953 he was appointed Chief of Staff of the United States Army, the highest post in the army, and he served in that post until 1955.

It was, in the end, a post that would end his career, because it put him in conflict with the President he had once served under — Dwight Eisenhower — and with the administration’s defence policy.

Opposition to the “New Look”

The Eisenhower administration’s defence policy — the “New Look” — was based on the idea that the United States could deter the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons, and that it did not need a large conventional army. Ridgway disagreed: he believed that the United States needed a strong army, capable of fighting a limited war, and that the “New Look” would leave the United States unable to respond to a conventional attack.

He said so, publicly and privately, to the President, to the Secretary of Defense, and to Congress, and he was, in the words of one historian, “the most outspoken Chief of Staff in American history”. His opposition made him enemies in the administration, and in 1955 Eisenhower declined to reappoint him as Chief of Staff, and Ridgway retired from the army, at the age of sixty.

He was, in the words of the historian David Halberstam, “a general who told the truth, and who paid for it with his career” — and his warning about the dangers of relying on nuclear weapons would, in the years that followed, be vindicated by the war in Vietnam, in which the United States needed, above all, a strong conventional army.

8. Later Life and Death

Retirement and Writing

After his retirement in 1955, Ridgway lived at Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, where he wrote his memoirs — Soldier: The Memoirs of Matthew B. Ridgway (1956) — and where he was, for many years, a respected figure in American military life.

He was consulted by presidents and by generals, he was interviewed by historians, and he was, in the words of one of them, “the conscience of the American army”. He was, in his later years, a critic of the Vietnam War, which he regarded as a mistake, and he was, in the words of his son, “a man who had seen too much war, and who wanted no more of it”.

He remained, to the end, a soldier: he kept his uniform, he kept his grenade, and he kept, in the words of one visitor, “the bearing of a man who had commanded armies”. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in the United States, in recognition of his service in the Second World War and in Korea.

Death in 1993

Ridgway died on 26 July 1993, at the age of ninety-eight, at Fox Chapel, and he was buried with full military honours at Arlington National Cemetery, in the section reserved for the most distinguished soldiers of the American army. His death was noted in the American press, and it was, for the most part, respectful: he was remembered as the general who had saved the Eighth Army, as the commander of the 82nd Airborne, and as the Chief of Staff who had stood up to a president.

In the years since, his reputation has only grown: the opening of the archives, the work of historians, and the testimony of his soldiers have shown that Ridgway’s achievement in Korea — the restoration of an army’s confidence, the stopping of a Chinese offensive, and the turning of a retreat into a counter-offensive — was one of the great feats of generalship in American history.

He remains, in the words of the historian Clay Blair, “the greatest American general of the Korean War, and one of the greatest of the twentieth century”.

9. Legacy of Matthew Ridgway

The Saviour of the Eighth Army

Ridgway’s legacy is, above all, the legacy of the man who saved the Eighth Army in Korea. In December 1950, the Eighth Army was, in the words of one historian, “a beaten army”, and the United Nations forces in Korea were, in the words of another, “on the verge of evacuation”.

Ridgway, in a matter of weeks, restored the army’s confidence, stopped the Chinese advance, and turned a retreat into a counter-offensive — and he did so, in the words of his own soldiers, “by being there, by talking to us, and by showing us that we could win”.

His leadership in Korea is studied in military academies to this day, and it is, by common consent, one of the great examples of generalship in the twentieth century: a general who led from the front, who restored an army’s morale, and who won a battle that had seemed, to everyone else, to be lost.

In Korea, Ridgway is remembered as a hero: the South Korean government named a street after him in Seoul, and the Korean War Memorial in Seoul honours him as one of the great commanders of the war.

The Soldier’s Soldier

Ridgway’s legacy is also that of a “soldier’s soldier” — a general who led from the front, who shared the dangers of his men, and who was, in the words of one of his officers, “the kind of general you would follow anywhere”.

His habit of wearing a grenade on his chest, his daily visits to the front lines, his insistence on discipline and on personal example — these were, in the end, the heart of his leadership, and they are the reason why his soldiers remembered him with affection and with respect, long after the war was over.

In the United States, Ridgway is remembered in the names of streets and of schools, in the 82nd Airborne Division, which still honours him as one of its great commanders, and in the Army War College, where his leadership in Korea is studied as a model of generalship.

He remains, in the words of the historian David Halberstam, “the most respected general of his generation” — a judgement that, for a man who served in three wars and who commanded armies in two of them, is a fitting epitaph.

10. Assessment by Historians

The General

Historians assess Ridgway as one of the great American generals of the twentieth century, and they do so on the basis of his record in the Second World War and in Korea. In the Second World War, he commanded a division and a corps in four major campaigns, and he earned a reputation for courage, for discipline, and for a personal style that inspired his men.

In Korea, he saved an army, stopped a Chinese offensive, and turned a retreat into a counter-offensive — a feat that, in the words of the historian Clay Blair, “has no parallel in American military history”. His critics, on the military side, point to the limits of his achievement: he did not win the Korean War, and the war ended, in 1953, in a stalemate, at the 38th Parallel, much as it had begun.

The point is fair, and it is also, in the end, beside the point: Ridgway was not asked to win the war, he was asked to save an army and to hold a line, and he did both, with a skill and a determination that no other general of his generation could have matched.

The most balanced assessments conclude that Ridgway was a great general, and that his achievement in Korea was one of the great feats of generalship in American history.

The Man

Ridgway the man is, by all accounts, a man of great character: a soldier of strict discipline, of personal courage, and of a moral clarity that, in the words of one historian, “was rare in his generation”. He was, as his opposition to the “New Look” showed, a man who was willing to stand up to a president, and to pay for it with his career, and he was, as his criticism of the Vietnam War showed, a man who was willing to say, in public, that a war was a mistake.

He was also, as his soldiers remembered, a man who cared for his men: he visited the front lines every day, he ate with them, and he shared their dangers, and he was, in the words of one of them, “a general who loved his soldiers”.

The most balanced assessments present Ridgway as he was: a great general, a brave man, and a man of principle, whose achievement in Korea, and whose stand against the “New Look”, make him one of the most respected soldiers in American history. He remains, in the words of the historian David Halberstam, “the soldier’s soldier, and the general’s general”.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Matthew Ridgway?
Matthew Ridgway (1895–1993) was an American general who commanded the 82nd Airborne Division in the Second World War, saved the Eighth Army in Korea in the winter of 1950–1951, commanded the United Nations forces in Korea, and served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army.

How did Ridgway save the Eighth Army in Korea?
He arrived in Korea on 26 December 1950, after the Chinese intervention had driven the United Nations forces into retreat and after General Walker had been killed. He restored the army’s confidence by visiting the front daily, sacked commanders who had lost their nerve, and ordered his troops to hold their ground and to kill the Chinese with artillery and air power. Within weeks the army stopped retreating and launched counter-offensives that recaptured Seoul in March 1951.

Why did Ridgway wear a grenade on his chest?
He wore a hand grenade taped to his chest, a habit from the Second World War, to show his men that he was willing to fight as a rifleman. In Korea it became a symbol of his leadership: his soldiers saw it every day, and it told them that their general was at the front and was not afraid.

What happened to MacArthur in Korea?
In April 1951 President Truman relieved General MacArthur of his command, after MacArthur had publicly disagreed with the administration’s policy of a limited war. Ridgway succeeded him as commander of the United Nations forces in Korea.

What was the “New Look”?
The “New Look” was the Eisenhower administration’s defence policy, based on deterring the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons rather than with a large conventional army. Ridgway, as Chief of Staff, opposed it, arguing that the United States needed a strong army capable of fighting a limited war. Eisenhower declined to reappoint him in 1955, and Ridgway retired.

When did Ridgway die?
He died on 26 July 1993, aged ninety-eight, at Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania, and he was buried with full military honours at Arlington National Cemetery.

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Sources

1. Wikipedia, “Matthew Ridgway” — life, the 82nd Airborne, Korea and Chief of Staff.
2. Matthew B. Ridgway, Soldier: The Memoirs of Matthew B. Ridgway (Harper, 1956) — Ridgway’s own account of his career.
3. Clay Blair, The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950–1953 (Times Books, 1987) — Ridgway’s command of the Eighth Army and of the United Nations forces.
4. David Halberstam, The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War (Hyperion, 2007) — Ridgway’s leadership in Korea.
5. Roy Appleman, Ridgway Duels for Korea (Texas A&M University Press, 1990) — the winter of 1950–1951 and the counter-offensives.
6. James M. Gavin, On to Berlin (Viking, 1978) — the 82nd Airborne in the Second World War and Ridgway’s command.
7. The National Archives (US), Records of the Eighth Army in Korea — Ridgway’s orders and reports, December 1950 to April 1951.