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' Wrote:"When surrounded on all sides, you can attack from any direction."
-Unknown
Don't know why I missed this way back, but what you were looking for is this :
Gentlemen, for the first time in the history of this campaign, we are now in a position to attack the enemy in any direction. ~ General Creighton Abrams
I'm not 100% certain, but I believe I encountered that statement in a book about the Korean War titled Retreat, Hell! Were Just Attacking in a Different Direction : the epic story of the 1st Marines in Korea, by Jim Wilson. Apart from that, I'm wanting to posit Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge, but my quickie research says that Abrams was part of the relief force for Bastogne, although it might have applied somewhere nearby in Winter 1944.
I am sure that it originated from one of those two, and Abrams was involved in both. Your paraphrase provides an accurate picture of the tactical situation at the time, which the rhetorical flourish of the actual quotation does not. Generally, file it under the heading Optimism.
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I think there may be a similar phrase employed by Chesty Puller (Lewis Burwell Puller) with the first Marines in Korea as my 'Corp history lessons -may- dictate.
"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things."