Scapegoats
General Michael Scott of the Scotts Guards knows whereof he speaks – during his service in the Falklands War of 1982, he questioned his own orders. They were changed and Scott bore full responsibility, knowing that he could have become a scapegoat had his plan failed. This soldier’s point of view serves the author well in the thirteen diverse case studies from military history. From a 1757 British Navy execution for “failure to do his utmost” to the suicide of Captain Charles McVay years after the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, tragedies abound. Gettysburg and Alfred Dreyfus, actions of the Yom Kippur War and the Rwanda massacres–all powerful stories of miscarriages of military justice. Illustrations and battle strategy maps further illuminate. The stories behind both familiar and lesser-known myths allow readers to make a reasoned judgment, thanks to Scott’s detailed and accessible study.
