Adele Woodhouse Erb Sullivan | |
---|---|
![]() Sullivan in 1967 | |
26th DAR President General, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution | |
In office 1965–1968 | |
Preceded by | Marion Moncure Duncan |
Succeeded by | Betty Newkirk Seimes |
Personal details | |
Born | Adele Woodhouse May 20,1907 Trenton,New Jersey,U.S. |
Died | April 22,1999 91) Wilton,Connecticut,U.S. | (aged
Adele Woodhouse Erb Sullivan served as the 26th President General of the Daughters of the American Revolution and noted for her 1968 visit to Vietnam with General William C. Westmoreland.
Adele Woodhouse was born on 20 May 1907 in Trenton,New Jersey,to William Woodhouse and Adaline Dearth. [1] She attended Rider College. Adele first married Harold E. Erb,who died in 1957,and later married William H. Sullivan Jr.,who died in 1985. She had one daughter,Nancy Erb,and two granddaughters. She died on 22 April 1999 in Wilton,Connecticut,and is buried at Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum. [2] [3]
Sullivan joined the DAR in 1930 as a Junior Member with the Matinecock Chapter of Flushing,Queens and later transferred to the Harvey Birch Chapter. Her Patriot Ancestor was Israel Matson of Philadelphia. She served as Regent of the Matinecock Chapter (1941–1944),was State,and later National,Chairman of the Radio Committee,New York Vice Regent (1950–1953),New York State Regent (1953–1956),and Recording Secretary General (1956-1959). She ran against Alice B. Haig for the position of President General. [1] [2]
Sullivan's administration was known as the Diamond Jubilee Administration,commemorating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the DAR. One of Sullivan's goals was to increase DAR membership from 185,000 to 200,000 by the end of the anniversary. [4] "Winkie" the owl was the symbol of the administration. The highlight of her administration was her visit to Vietnam in 1968. [2]
The executive board for the Sullivan administration was: [5]
Although the DAR declares itself to be a non-political organization,they have long spoken out publicly regarding political issues under the guise of Patriotism. This trend continued during the Sullivan administration. Sullivan herself personally advocated on topics such as Vietnam and peace protests,immigration quotas,and disarmament. [6] [7] When asked about black membership in the DAR,Sullivan answered indirectly;she replied that she did not know if the DAR had any black members (the DAR does not record the race of members on applications),but stated that "with all the intermarriage in the United States,we undoubtedly have members or women eligible for membership who ancestry includes someone of the Negro race." [8]
McCall's magazine published a feature titled “If I Were President”in their January 1968 edition. Sullivan was one of sixteen women who "made a distinct and varied contribution to our national life" what they would do as the first female President of the United States. Other women interviewed included Margaret Chase Smith,Betty Friedan,Leontyne Price,and Martha Griffiths. Sullivan spoke in favor of officially declaring war in Vietnam War,a strong national defense,and a stronger role of "the church" in the United States. [9] Sullivan was very much aware of the power of the media and the impact that it could have on the DAR. She was often interviewed and appeared on television shows,such as The David Susskind Show and reported that she preferred live events over recorded ones which were "too easy to edit." [8]
Highlights of the Sullivan administration: [5] [1]
The Sullivan administration coincided with the US ground war in Vietnam,which greatly impacted the administration's activities. In keeping with its mission of Patriotism,the DAR strongly supported American soldiers fighting in Vietnam while it denigrated those in the "so-called peace movement," citing their "long hair,beards,and untidy dress." [10] Sullivan warned against "an ideological war planned to capture the minds of men through propaganda," the danger of apathy toward Communism,and the importance of educating children on the "correct facts" of America. [11] The DAR Magazine featured a multipage section for the National Defense Committee each month,which often focused on the war in Vietnam or Communism. Guest writers included John S. McCain Jr.,who wrote about fighting Communism in February 1966,Charles E. Whittaker,who spoke against mass disobedience in January 1966,and Daniel J. Flood,who warned of Communism in the Panama Canal in January 1967. In the fall of 1967,Sullivan declined to allow folk-singer Joan Baez perform at DAR Constitution Hall,as the singer's pacifist viewpoints,lack of paying taxes,and "reported activities" were not "in line with [their] objectives," and that the DAR was "very much behind our boys in Vietnam." [12]
Sullivan herself visited Bethesda Naval and Walter Reed Hospitals and encouraged all DAR members,as part of "Operation Appreciation," to do the same in their communities. Members could support troops by providing gift cards,cigarettes or baked goods,as well as writing to family members of soldiers. [13] However,in her monthly letter to members in the May 1968 edition of the DAR Magazine,Sullivan reflected that the DAR "as a Society,[has] made no tangible contribution to assist our fighting forces" in Vietnam. She reported that after consulting with a number of DAR and US government officials,it was decided that "a personal visit by the President General of the NSDAR to the combat area would be the greatest contribution our Society could make to the war effort at this time." [14]
Reportedly,based in part on the DAR's action against Beaz,the organization gained the attention of General William C. Westmoreland,who thought that a visit from Sullivan to Vietnam would be a "worthwhile contribution" to the US effort there. [1] [15] [16] Sullivan and other DAR representatives arrived Vietnam on 21 January 1968. While there she visited hospitals and presented 47 Americanism pins to wounded soldiers in recognition of their bravery. [15] Upon returning to the US,she stated that,"American boys there believe in the war. They believe in their leaders. They don't know what's the matter with some of the people back home,like those who are burning their draft cards." [17]
William Childs Westmoreland was a United States Army general,most notably the commander of United States forces during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968. He served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1968 to 1972.
The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in supporting the American Revolutionary War. A non-profit group,the organization promotes education and patriotism. Its membership is limited to direct lineal descendants of soldiers or others of the American Revolution era who aided the revolution and its subsequent war. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and have a birth certificate indicating that their gender is female. DAR has over 190,000 current members in the United States and other countries. The organization's motto is "God,Home,and Country".
The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. The Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) launched a surprise attack on 30 January 1968 against the forces of the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN),the United States Armed Forces and their allies. It was a campaign of surprise attacks against military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam. The name is the truncated version of the Lunar New Year festival name in Vietnamese,Tết Nguyên Đán,with the offense chosen during a holiday period as most ARVN personnel were on leave. The purpose of the wide-scale offensive by the Hanoi Politburo was to trigger political instability in a belief that mass armed assault on urban centers would trigger defections and rebellions.
Creighton Williams Abrams Jr. was a United States Army general who commanded military operations in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1972. He was then Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1972 until his death in 1974.
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Westmoreland v. CBS was a $120 million libel suit brought in 1982 by former U.S. Army Chief of Staff General William Westmoreland against CBS,Inc. for broadcasting on its program CBS Reports a documentary entitled The Uncounted Enemy:A Vietnam Deception. Westmoreland also sued the documentary's narrator,investigative reporter Mike Wallace;the producer,investigative journalist and best-selling author George Crile,and the former CIA analyst,Sam Adams,who originally broke the story on which the broadcast was based.
Cao Văn Viên was a four-star army general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He rose to the position of Chairman of the South Vietnamese Joint General Staff. Considered one of "the most gifted" of South Vietnam's military leaders,he was previously called an "absolute key figure" and one of "the most important Vietnamese military leaders" in the U.S.-led fighting during the Vietnam War. Along with Trần Thiện Khiêm he was one of only two four-star generals in the entire history of South Vietnam.
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During the Cold War in the 1960s,the United States and South Vietnam began a period of gradual escalation and direct intervention referred to as the "Americanization" of joint warfare in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. At the start of the decade,United States aid to South Vietnam consisted largely of supplies with approximately 900 military observers and trainers. After the assassination of both Ngo Dinh Diem and John F. Kennedy close to the end of 1963 and Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 and amid continuing political instability in the South,the Lyndon Johnson Administration made a policy commitment to safeguard the South Vietnamese regime directly. The American military forces and other anti-communist SEATO countries increased their support,sending large scale combat forces into South Vietnam;at its height in 1969,slightly more than 400,000 American troops were deployed. The People's Army of Vietnam and the allied Viet Cong fought back,keeping to countryside strongholds while the anti-communist allied forces tended to control the cities. The most notable conflict of this era was the 1968 Tet Offensive,a widespread campaign by the communist forces to attack across all of South Vietnam;while the offensive was largely repelled,it was a strategic success in seeding doubt as to the long-term viability of the South Vietnamese state. This phase of the war lasted until the election of Richard Nixon and the change of U.S. policy to Vietnamization,or ending the direct involvement and phased withdrawal of U.S. combat troops and giving the main combat role back to the South Vietnamese military.
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The order of battle for the Viet Cong concerned a contested American intelligence issue of the Vietnam War. Arising In the mid-1960s,its focus was the count of enemy combatants. Often called the order of battle controversy,the debate came to divide the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),and challenge military intelligence. The politics and strategy of the war became involved in the debate.
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