Wedemeyer, Albert Coady.

Wedemeyer, Albert Coady, born on 09-07-1897 in Omaha, Nebraska, to Albert Anthony Wedemeyer (1859-1931 and his wife Mageret Coady Wedemeyer ( 1890-1958), graduated of Creighton Prep High School. In 1919, he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point . As an U.S. officer, he was appointed to the German war college Kriegsakademie/war academy in Berlin, 1936-38.  Wedemeyer was included in 1938 German manoeuvres, which gave him unique insight into German tactical operations. When he returned to Washington, in 1938, Wedemeyer analyzed Germany’s grand strategy and dissected German thinking. Wedemeyer thus became the U.S. military’s foremost authority on German tactical operations, whose “most ardent student” was George C. Marshall.

Wedemeyer was greatly influenced, and his career aided, by his father-in-law, Lieutenant General Stanley Dunbar Embick, he died age 80, on 23-10-1957, who was at that time Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of the War Plans Division. At the outbreak of World War II, Wedemeyer ranked as lieutenant colonel and was assigned as a Staff Officer to the war-plans division of the United States War Department. Notably, in 1941 he was the chief author of the Victory Program, which advocated the defeat of Germany’s armies in Europe as the prime war objective for the U.S. This plan was adopted and expanded as the war progressed. Additionally, Wedemeyer helped to plan the Normandy Invasion. In 1943, Wedemeyer was reassigned to the South-East Asia Theatre to be Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander of the South East Asia Command (SEAC), Lord Louis Mountbatten. On 27-10-1944, General Wedemeyer received a telegram from General George C. Marshall directing him to proceed to China to assume command of U.S. forces in China, replacing General Joseph Stilwell. In his new command, Wedemeyer was also named Chief of Staff to the Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek.

The telegram contained a host of special instructions and limitations on Wedemeyer’s command when dealing with the government of Nationalist China. Wedemeyer later recalled his initial dread over the assignment, as service in the China theater was considered a graveyard for American officials, both military and diplomatic. When Wedemeyer actually arrived at Stilwell’s headquarters after Stilwell’s dismissal, he was dismayed to discover that Stilwell had intentionally departed without seeing him, and did not leave a single briefing paper for his guidance, though departing U.S. military commanders habitually greeted their replacement in order to thoroughly brief them on the strengths and weaknesses of headquarters staff, the issues confronting the command, and planned operations. Searching the offices, Wedemeyer could find no documentary record of Stilwell’s plans or records of his former or future operations. General Wedemeyer then spoke with Stilwell’s staff officers but learned little from them because Stilwell, according to the staff, kept everything in his “hip pocket”. In 1948, Wedemeyer supported General Lucius D. Clay

   plan to create an airbridge during the Berlin Crisis. After the Communist victory in 1949, Wedemeyer became intimately associated with the China Lobby and openly voiced his criticism of those responsible for the “loss of China.” In 1951, Wedemeyer retired, but was promoted to 4* General on 09-07- 1954. In 1951, after the outbreak of the Korean War, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy said that Wedemeyer had prepared a wise plan that would keep China a valued ally, but that it had been sabotaged; “only in treason can we find why evil genius thwarted and frustrated it.” The evil geniuses, McCarthy said, included General George Marshall. Wedemeyer became a hero to the anti-Communist movement in the United States, giving many lectures around the country.  In 1957 he was affiliated with the National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena. On 23-05-1985, Wedemeyer was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan.

Friends Advice, in Boyds, Maryland, was his permanent home throughout his military career and after his retirement in 1951, until his death in 1989. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992

     Wedemeyer died, 17-12- 1989, old age 92, in Fort Belvoir, Virginia and here with his wife Margeret Coady Wedemeyer,   who died old age 89, on 20-11-1958, on the Arlington Cemetery, Section 30.