biography
| name: |
Ridgway, Matthew (Bunker)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1895–1993)
|
| biography:
| US soldier, born in Fort Monroe,Virginia, USA. He trained at West Point (1917), then served in various overseas posts, and at the outbreak of World War 2 was with the War Plans Division of the War Department. He commanded the 82nd Airborne Division in Sicily and Italy (1943) and in the Normandy invasion (1944), and led an airborne corps in NW Europe (1944–5). He replaced MacArthur as commander of United Nations forces in Korea (1951) and succeeded Eisenhower as head of NATO (1952), thereby becoming the first American to hold the supreme commands in both the Pacific and Atlantic areas. As army chief-of-staff (1953–5), he argued successfully against commitment of US forces in Vietnam. After retiring from the army, he served as chairman of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research (1955–60). |
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