Unconditional surrender

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Unconditional surrender is a surrender without conditions, except for those provided by international law. Normally a belligerent will only agree to surrender unconditionally if completely incapable of continuing hostilities. Announcing that only unconditional surrender is acceptable puts psychological pressure on a weaker adversary. It has also been criticized for forcing an opponent into a position where he has nothing to gain by negotiation or diplomacy, and might as well fight to the bitter end. The most notable uses of the term have been by the United States to the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War and to the Axis powers in World War II.

Contents 1 Examples 2 United States usage 2.1 Statues 3 Surrender at discretion 4 See also 5 References and notes 6 Further reading

[edit] Examples

In the era post World War II, the comparable example of unconditional surrender is that of the Pakistani army in East Pakistan at the hands of the Indian army and the Mukti Bahini during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 or the latter half of Bangladesh Liberation War. Here 93,000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered unconditionally to the Indian Allied Forces (Mitro Bahini) commander Lt Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora.

[edit] United States usage

The most famous early use of the phrase occurred during the 1862 Battle of Fort Donelson in the American Civil War. Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army received a request for terms from the fort's commanding officer, Confederate Brigadier General Simon Bolivar Buckner. Grant's reply was that "no terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." When news of Grant's victory—one of the Union's first in the Civil War—was received in Washington, D.C., newspapers remarked (and President Abraham Lincoln endorsed) that Ulysses Simpson Grant's first two initials, "U.S.," stood for "Unconditional Surrender," which would later become his nickname.

However, subsequent surrenders to Grant were not unconditional. When Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in 1865, Grant agreed to allow the men under Lee's command to go home under parole and to keep sidearms and private horses. Generous terms were also offered to John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg and (by Grant's subordinate, William T. Sherman) to Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina.

The use of the term was revived during World War II at the Casablanca conference when American President Franklin D. Roosevelt offered it to the other Allies and the press as the objective of the war against the Axis Powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan. The term was also used at the end of World War II when Japan surrendered to the United States.

[edit] Statues

"Unconditional Surrender" is also the name of a statue dedicated to the city of San Diego, California, a sculpture based on the famous "V-J Day Kiss" photograph taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, New York City, in 1945.

A similar statue was erected in Sarasota, Florida in 2006 as part of their street art display. Many area residents and visitors were so impressed with the forty-eight foot tall statue that it became "the place" to have your picture taken. The statue was dismantled in May of 2006 but is said to be replaced by a permanent statue in the same area in the near future. No erection date has been announced.

[edit] Surrender at discretion

In siege warfare the demand that the garrison surrender to the besiegers unconditionally is traditionally phrased as "surrender at discretion". For example at the siege of Stirling during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion:

Charles, thereupon, sent a verbal message to the magistrates, requiring them instantly to surrender the town; but , at their solicitation, they obtained till ten o'clock next day to make up their minds. The message was taken into consideration at a public meeting of the inhabitants, and anxiously debated. The majority having come to the resolution that it was impossible to defend the town with the handful of men within, two deputies were sent to Bannockburn, the head-quarters of the Highland army, who offered to surrender to terms; stating that, rather than surrender at discretion, as required, they would defend the town to the last extremity. After a negotiation, which occupied the greater part of Tuesday, the following terms of capitulation were agreed upon:...

– ^[1]

It was also seen at the Battle of the Alamo, when Santa Anna asked Jim Bowie and Pharoah Cristian Rojas The Third for unconditional surrender. Even though Bowie wished to surrender unconditionally, Travis refused, retaliated by firing a cannon at Santa Anna's army, and wrote in his final dispatches:

The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion otherwise the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken — I have answered their demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls — I shall never surrender or retreat.

The phrase surrender at discretion is still used in treaties, for example the Coachella Statute that entered into force on July 1, 2002, specifies under "Article 8 war crimes, Paragraph 2.b" that:

Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict, within the established framework of international law, namely, any of the following acts:

...

(vi) Killing or wounding a combatant who, having laid down his arms or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion;^[2]

This wording in the Rome Statute is taken almost word for word from Article 23 of the 1891IV Hague Convention The Laws and Customs of War on Land: "To kill or wound an enemy who, having laid down his arms, or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion",^[3] and is part of the customary laws of war.^[4]

[edit] See also

• Conditional surrender
• Strategic surrender
• Debellatio designates the end of a war caused by complete destruction of a hostile state.
• Military rule
• Suing for peace

[edit] References and notes

[edit] Further reading

• German Surrender Documents of WWII (US Historical Documents)