Forgive me if this is the wrong forum, but I really couldn’t decide where to put it. Since this is research for a story I’m writing (not the Norse myth one,which I’m putting on the back burner), I decided on the Cafe.
Anyway…I’m looking for examples in either fiction or history of soldiers who got in trouble with their superiors for being too merciful with their enemies. I’m not talking about examples of poltroonery or malfeasance; I mean soldiers who declined to take advantage of a tactical or strategic opportunity because they felt to do so would be immoral, and then got in trouble for it. The opposite of war crimes, in short.
Can anyone think of any examples? Again, historical, literary, cinematic, or dramatic examples are all welcome. If you can supply a link with a summary of the incident in question, that would be great. Thanks in advance.
In The Thin Red Line, Capt. Staros is reprimanded and ultimately ‘promoted’ out of the field by Lt Colonel Tall (Nolte) for not ordering his company into a suicidal frontal assault against a dug in Japanese position.
In** Generation Kill**, Lt Fick creates some minor trouble when he prevents his captain from ordering a pointless ‘danger close’ artillery strike.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Picard got a fair amount of stick from his superiors, including having his loyalty brought into question, for choosing not to infect the Borg Hugh with a virus that would wipe out the rest of the collective.
There was that episode with Dean Stockwell on the original Twilight Zone where Dean Stockwell as a young lieutenant came into an entrenched infantry squad at the end of WWII while fighting the Japanese in a dug-in position. Mortars didn’t work, so the LT ordered the charge. I think this also had George Kennedy as the Sarge.
Then the LT flips sides, and… well, you know.
Positions of power often offer opportunities to abuse the position and the authority that comes with it. It is the responsibility of the person holding the power to use it - morally, ethically and professionally.
Remember when Guantanomo news first started hitting public? Soldiers in the Gulf then had to start wearing camera mounts on their helmets. Not that I’m saying abuses were commited under previous military commands, but many decisions are based upon whether or not anybody is watching.
IIRC, the German general in charge of occupied Paris was ordered by Hitler to burn the city to the ground when Allied troops were about to take it. The general refused to, and instead withdrew his troops, leaving the city intact. Considering who he worked for, I can’t imagine he got anything BUT trouble for his decision.
In the Masterpiece Theater version of A Town Called Alice (I never read the book), Jean, the plucky heroine–an Australian in Malaya who is a prisoner of the Japanese in WWII–steals an exotic chicken to feed her starving fellow prisoners, under the nose of her not-too-bright captor, a Japanese non-com. The non-com gets caned by his superiors when they find out, putting a serious chill on the captor/prisoner relationship.