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Contact Info
Home Town Heavener
Last Address Arlington, VA
Date of Passing Aug 16, 2005
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
William E. Potts, 83, a retired Lieutenant General in the Army, a decorated veteran of three wars and a military intelligence official in the 1960s and 1970s, died of heart disease August 16, 2005, at Powhatan Nursing Home in Falls Church. He was a longtime Arlington resident.
General Potts was born in Heavener, Oklahoma, and graduated from Oklahoma Military Academy (now Rogers State University) in 1941.
At age 20, six weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he passed up an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy to enlist in the Army. He participated in the Normandy landings and led Armored Cavalry forces in reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines for Gen. George S. Patton's 3rd Army. His unit was so effective in night operations that the German army's general staff dubbed its soldiers "the ghosts of Patton's Army."
He was only 22 years old when Patton gave him a battlefield promotion to Major in recognition of his leadership as a battalion commander during the Lorraine campaign. He was seriously wounded during the fighting in France.
After World War II, he commanded the 72nd Tank Battalion in combat during the Korean War and the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment along the border between East Germany and West Germany in the late 1950s.
He also served almost five years in Vietnam, where he was responsible for implementing the buildup of Korean, Australian and New Zealand troops in 1965 and 1966. From 1969 to 1972, he served as head of combined military intelligence in Vietnam.
Between tours of duty in Vietnam, General Potts held a number of positions in military intelligence, including chief of staff of the Army Security Agency and assistant chief of staff for Army intelligence in the Pacific. After his last tour of duty in Vietnam, he served as the Army's assistant chief of staff for intelligence and as deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
General Potts received a second undergraduate degree, from the University of Maryland, in the 1950s, as well as two master's degrees from George Washington University, in management and personnel administration in 1955 and in international affairs in 1962. He was a doctoral candidate in executive development and contemporary international relations at American University but was reassigned to Vietnam before finishing the degree.
During his military career, he participated in 15 campaigns and was awarded 51 decorations, including the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Purple Heart and the French National Order of the Legion of Honor. He is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.
After his retirement in 1975, General Potts worked for General Research Corp., Computer Sciences Corp. and Raytheon Systems Co. before retiring a second time in 1999. He also headed a team that produced a 20-volume study of the Indochina conflicts for the Department of Defense and consulted with the federal government on intelligence and operational matters for use in future military operations.
Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Phase VII Campaign (1970-71)
From Month/Year
July / 1970
To Month/Year
June / 1971
Description This campaign was from 1 Jul 1970 to 30 June 1971. Fighting continued in Cambodia during early February before and after South Vietnam began its U.S.-aided drive in Laos, Lam Son 719, the most significant operation during this campaign.
Lam Son 719 was conducted out of I Corps by Vietnamese troops with US fire and air support. Their object was to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail and to destroy enemy bases at Techepone, Laos. The operation consisted of four phases. In Phases I, called Operation DEWEY CANYON II, the 1st Brigade, US 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) occupied the Khe Sanh area and cleared Route No. 9 up to the Laotian border. In the meantime, the US 101st Airborne Division conducted diversionary operations in the A Shau Valley. The US 45th Engineer Group had the mission of repairing Route No. 9 up to the Laotian border. This lasted from 30 January to 7 February 1971. During Phase II US forces continued to provide fire support, helilift, and tactical and strategic air support for ARVN units. This phase was 8 February to March 1971. Phase III ran from March to 16 March 1971; Phase IV was the withdrawal phase.
Faced with mounting losses, Lt. Gen. Hoang Xuan Lam, the commander of the invasion forces, decided to cut short the operation and ordered a withdrawal.
Lam Son 719, though it was less than a signal success, forestalled a Communist offensive in the spring of 1971. Enemy units and replacements enroute south were diverted to the scene of the action.
