64 Facts About Matthew Ridgway

General Matthew Bunker Ridgway was a senior officer in the United States Army, who served as Supreme Allied Commander Europe and the 19th Chief of Staff of the United States Army.

Matthew Ridgway held the latter post until the end of the war in mid-1945, commanding the corps in the Battle of the Bulge, Operation Varsity and the Western Allied invasion of Germany.

Several historians have credited Matthew Ridgway for turning the war around in favor of the UN side.

Matthew Ridgway persuaded President Dwight D Eisenhower to refrain from direct military intervention in the First Indochina War to support French colonial forces, thereby essentially delaying the United States' Vietnam War by over a decade.

Matthew Ridgway received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on 12 May 1986.

Matthew Ridgway lived in various military bases all throughout his childhood.

Matthew Ridgway graduated in 1912 from English High School in Boston and applied to United States Military Academy at West Point because he thought that would please his father.

Matthew Ridgway failed the entrance exam the first time due to his inexperience with mathematics, but after intensive self-study he succeeded the second time.

Matthew Ridgway graduated from there on 20 April 1917, two weeks after the American entry into World War I, and received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Infantry Branch of the United States Army.

Matthew Ridgway was disappointed that he was not assigned to combat duty during the war, feeling that "the soldier who had had no share in this last great victory of good over evil would be ruined".

In 1930, Matthew Ridgway became an advisor to the Governor-General of the Philippines.

Matthew Ridgway graduated from the Army Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1935 and from the Army War College at Washington Barracks, District of Columbia, in 1937.

Unlike his men, Matthew Ridgway did not first go through airborne jump school before joining the division.

Matthew Ridgway successfully converted the 82nd into a combat-ready airborne division and remained in command and eventually earned his paratrooper wings.

Matthew Ridgway helped plan the airborne element of the invasion of Sicily.

Matthew Ridgway strongly objected to this unrealistic plan, which would have dropped the 82nd on the outskirts of the Italian capital of Rome in the midst of two German heavy divisions.

The first operation involving Matthew Ridgway was Operation Market Garden where his 101st Airborne Division dropped near Eindhoven to secure the Bridges between Eindhoven and Veghel on the road to Arnhem.

Matthew Ridgway dropped with his troops and was in the forefront of the Divisions part of the fighting.

Matthew Ridgway led the corps in the Western Allied invasion of Germany.

At war's end, Matthew Ridgway was on a plane headed for a new assignment in the Pacific theater of war, under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, with whom he had served while a captain at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Matthew Ridgway spoke highly of British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, stating that his time serving under Montgomery was "most satisfying" and that "He gave me the general outline of what he wanted and let me completely free".

Matthew Ridgway was a commander at Luzon until October 1945 when the XVIII Airborne Corps was disbanded.

Matthew Ridgway was then given command of the United States forces in the Mediterranean Theater, with the title Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean.

Matthew Ridgway was placed in charge of the Caribbean Command in 1948, controlling United States forces in the Caribbean, and in 1949 was assigned to the position of Deputy Chief of Staff for Administration under then Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General J Lawton Collins.

In December 1947, Matthew Ridgway married Mary Princess "Penny" Anthony Long, his third wife.

When Matthew Ridgway took command of Eighth Army, the Army was still in a tactical retreat, after its strong foray into North Korea had been met with an unexpected and overwhelming Communist Chinese advance in the Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River.

Matthew Ridgway was successful in turning around the morale of Eighth Army.

Matthew Ridgway was unfazed by the Olympian demeanor of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, then overall commander of UN forces in Korea.

Matthew Ridgway was encouraged to retire to successive defensive positions, as was currently under way, and hold Seoul as long as he could, but not if doing so meant that Eighth Army would be isolated in an enclave around the capital city.

Matthew Ridgway asked specifically that if he found the combat situation "to my liking" whether MacArthur would have any objection to "my attacking".

Matthew Ridgway replaced officers who did not send out patrols to fix enemy locations, and removed "enemy positions" from commanders' planning maps if local units had not been in recent contact to verify that the enemy was still there.

Matthew Ridgway established a plan to rotate out those division commanders who had been in action for six months and replace them with fresh leaders.

Matthew Ridgway sent out guidance to commanders at all levels that they were to spend more time at the front lines and less in their command posts in the rear.

Matthew Ridgway then led his troops in Operation Thunderbolt, a counter-offensive in early 1951.

Matthew Ridgway oversaw the desegregation and integration of United States Army units in the Far East Command, which significantly influenced the wider army's subsequent desegregation.

Matthew Ridgway continued the bombing of North Korea, which destroyed much of the country's infrastructure and killed many civilians.

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

Matthew Ridgway assumed from MacArthur the role of military governor of Japan, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.

Matthew Ridgway was the second and last person to hold the title of SCAP before General Headquarters was abolished by General Order No 10 on the day Japan's sovereignty was restored.

Matthew Ridgway was relieved as commander of the Far East Command two weeks later.

In May 1952, Ridgway succeeded General Dwight D Eisenhower as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe for the fledgling North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Matthew Ridgway urged the Anglo-French-American high commissioners for Germany to pardon all German officers convicted of war crimes on the Eastern Front of World War II.

On 17 August 1953, Ridgway succeeded General J Lawton Collins as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army.

Matthew Ridgway prepared a comprehensive outline of the massive commitment that would be necessary for success, which dissuaded the President from intervening.

Matthew Ridgway was concerned that Eisenhower's proposal to significantly reduce the size of the army would leave it unable to counter the growing Soviet military threat, as noted by the 1954 Alfhem affair in Guatemala.

Matthew Ridgway was the leader of the "Never Again Club" within the US Army that regarded the Korean War which ended in a draw as something of a debacle and were strongly opposed to fighting another land war in Asia, especially against China.

Matthew Ridgway argued that only the commitment of seven American infantry divisions could save the French at Dien Bien Phu, and predicted that if the United States intervened in Vietnam, then so too would China.

Matthew Ridgway wrote that if China entered the Indochina War, then the United States would have to commit 12 divisions to Vietnam.

Against Radford, Matthew Ridgway argued having the United States bogged down in a land war in Asia fighting the Chinese would be a costly distraction from Europe, a place that he maintained was far more important than Vietnam.

Matthew Ridgway felt that Radford as an admiral who had never fought against the Chinese was too dismissive of Chinese power, and he did not see the dangers of the United States fighting yet another trying struggle against the Chinese, in less than a year after the end of the Korean war.

Disagreements with the administration over its downgrading of the army in favor of the United States Navy and the United States Air Force, prevented Matthew Ridgway from being appointed to a second term.

In November 1967, Ridgway was recruited to join the "Wise Men", a group of retired diplomats, politicians and generals who assembled from time to time to give their advice on the Vietnam War to President Lyndon B Johnson.

Shortly after his divorce, Matthew Ridgway married Margaret Wilson Dabney, the widow of a West Point graduate, and in 1936 he adopted Peggy's daughter Virginia Ann Dabney.

Matthew Ridgway remained active in retirement, both in leadership capacities and as a speaker and author.

Matthew Ridgway relocated to the Pittsburgh suburb of Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania, in 1955 after accepting the chairmanship of the board of trustees of the Mellon Institute as well as a position on the board of directors of Gulf Oil Corporation, among others.

In 1960, Matthew Ridgway retired from his position at the Mellon Institute but continued to serve on multiple corporate boards of directors, Pittsburgh civic groups and Pentagon strategic study committees.

Matthew Ridgway continued to advocate for a strong military to be used judiciously.

Matthew Ridgway gave many speeches, wrote, and participated in various panels, discussions, and groups.

Matthew Ridgway advocated maintaining a chemical, biological, and radiological weapons capability, arguing that they could accomplish national goals better than the weapons currently in use.

In 1976, Matthew Ridgway was a founding board member of the Committee on the Present Danger, which urged greater military preparedness to counter a perceived increasing Soviet threat.

On 5 May 1985, Matthew Ridgway was a participant in US President Ronald Reagan's visit to Kolmeshohe Cemetery near Bitburg, when former Luftwaffe ace fighter pilot Johannes Steinhoff in an unscheduled act firmly shook his hand in an act of reconciliation between the former foes.

Matthew Ridgway died at his suburban Pittsburgh home on 26 July 1993, of cardiac arrest, at the age of 98.

Matthew Ridgway was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.

Matthew Ridgway considered leadership to have three primary ingredients: character, courage, and competence.