Wedemeyer, Albert Coady, 1897-1989

General Albert Coady Wedemeyer (July 9, 1897 – December 17, 1989) was a United States Army commander who served in Asia during World War II from October 1943 to the end of the war. Previously, he was an important member of the War Planning Board which formulated plans for the Invasion of Normandy. He was General George Marshall's chief consultant when in the Spring of 1942 he traveled to London with General Marshall and a small group of American military men to consult with the British in an effort to convince the British to support the cross channel invasion. Wedemeyer was a staunch anti-communist. While in China during the years 1944 to 1945 he was Chiang Kai-shek's Chief of Staff and commanded all American forces in China. Wedemeyer supported Chiang's struggle against Mao Zedong and in 1947 President Truman sent him back to China to render a report on what actions the United States should take. During the Cold War, Wedemeyer was a chief supporter of the Berlin Airlift.

United States Army General. He began his military career graduating from the Military Academy West Point, as a Lieutenant in 1919, went on to graduate from the German Army General Staff College, learned German tactical operations and served in Berlin (1936-38). With the advent of Word War II, he returned to Washington D. C. and became the U.S. Military's foremost authority on German tactical operations. In 1943, he was assigned Major General Chief of Staff for Lord Mountbatten, the British Admiral who was Commander in Chief of the Allies' Southeast Asia Command. After the war, he was promoted Lieutenant General Army Chief of Plans and Operations in 1947, was sent to China and Korea, where he gave tactical assistance would have resulted in Nationalist armies performing far better in combat against the Communist Chinese. Retuning to America, he served as the 6th Army Commanding General in San Francisco. He retired in 1951, was promoted to four star General on July 19, 1954 and was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan in 1985. He died at age 92 in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

A 1919 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he was a temporary Lieutenant Colonel at the outbreak of World War II in December 1941. His first major assignment had come earlier in the year when President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the War Department to develop tactics to win the war that he believed the U.S. was destined to enter.