Julian Ewell

Lieutenant General Julian Johnson Ewell (November 5, 1915 – July 27, 2009) was a United States Army officer who served in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. He commanded the 9th Infantry Division and II Field Force in South Vietnam, and attained the rank of lieutenant general. The son of a career Army officer, Ewell graduated from the New Mexico Military Institute and the United States Military Academy.

Commissioned as a second lieutenant of infantry in 1939, he volunteered for paratrooper training at the start of World War II. During the war, he commanded 3rd Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Division. He took part in a parachute jump into Normandy during the D-Day invasion, and continued to take part in combat against the Nazis in Europe. Ewell later commanded the 501st Regiment, which included participation in Operation Market Garden and the defense of Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge. He received the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism at Bastogne.

Following the war's end in 1945, Ewell continued his Army career, and his command assignments included the 9th Infantry Regiment in South Korea during the Korean War, Assistant Commandant of Cadets at West Point, Assistant Division Commander of the 8th Infantry Division, and Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff for the Combat Developments Command. During the Vietnam War, Ewell commanded the 9th Infantry Division (1968–1969) and II Field Force (1969–1970). He later served as military advisor to the U.S.-South Vietnamese delegation at the negotiations for the Paris Peace Accords and Chief of Staff of the NATO Southern Command.

Ewell's Vietnam service generated controversy, especially over concerns that his focus on "body counts" as a measure of success led to his subordinates inflating their numbers by counting civilian dead as enemy combatants. The most well-known operation he commanded was Operation Speedy Express. Out of an official enemy "body count" of 11,000, an internal Department of Defense report estimated that there may have been up to 7,000 civilian casualties. This earned him the nickname the "Butcher of the Delta" among soldiers of the 9th Division. Ewell was apparently proud of this nickname and saw nothing wrong with what the soldiers under his command had done. Ewell died in Virginia in 2009, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.