Mike Jackson, a British Army officer participating in the NATO intervention in Yugoslavia in the 1990s, refused to obey orders to capture a Russian-held airport (which could have sparked direct conflict between NATO troops and the Russian Army):
Mike Jackson served in the NATO chain of command, reporting to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, American four-starGeneralWesley Clark. Under Jackson’s command, the ARRC deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina in March 1999,[13] where Jackson served his second tour of duty in the Balkans, commanding KFOR, NATO’s multi-national peacekeeping force established at the end of the Kosovo War. He gained significant media attention in June 1999 after a confrontation with Clark in which he refused to block the runways of the Russian-occupied Pristina Airport and isolate the Russian troops there, thus preventing them from flying in reinforcements.[40][41] In one heated discussion with Clark, Jackson reputedly told him “I’m not going to start the Third World War for you”.[40] He later told the BBC he believed that obeying the order would have led to the possibility of an armed confrontation with Russian troops, which he felt was not “the right way to start off a relationship with Russians”.
By the same token, there are probably a whole lot of unsung heroes right now who are working to make sure that Russia/Ukraine/NATO are able to navigate as best as possible this scary new phenomenon of fighting a massive, bloody, tragic, near-total, yet still limited war over the future of Ukraine, without escalating into a potentially nuclear direct conflict between Russia and NATO. Most notably, Ukraine holding back from attacking targets inside Russian territory and Russia holding back from attacking targets inside NATO territory, even though it must be extremely tempting to do so.
There are definitely lots of heroic stories from WW2 where commanders went out of their way to protect civilians, or refused to destroy towns / cultural landmarks even when it would’ve been tactically advantageous (taking Kyoto off the list of atom-bomb targets is a famous example, although there doesn’t seem to have been much pressure to keep Kyoto on the list—there have been many smaller-scale showdowns where the pressure to attack a treasured cultural site must have been much higher), or refused to cooperate with Nazi authorities who were rounding up Jews and others as part of the Holocaust. (Same goes for people who refused to cooperate with other oppressive police states, such as the east-German Stasi or Soviet KGB). Unfortunately I am not familiar with many specific stories.
It would be interesting if anyone could name sufficiently large-scale examples of a corporation making a strongly virtuous decision against a strong profit motive. Ie, a cigarette / gambling / tobacco company deciding to wind down their activities or change their business strategy (in a way that actually helped long-term, rather than just creating an opening for someone less scrupulous), or lobby for regulations that would hurt them but serve the public interest, or etc.
Similarly, it would be interesting to hear examples of people inside non-military government agencies who made important decisions that went against their personal incentives. There are many Watergate-like stories of law-enforcement agencies investigating corruption even though higher-ups want to shut down the investigations. I could also imagine there might be some heroic stories along the lines of someone at the FDA approving an experimental medicine for, say, HIV, despite public disapproval of homosexuality at the time and the notorious culture of risk-averse safetyism at public health agencies. (The first confirmed cases of “community spread” of Covid-19 were discovered by intrepid researchers breaking CDC orders that mandated who was allowed to be tested and what tests were allowed to be used!)
Not quite as dramatic as a commander disobeying military orders, but a similar category includes basically all “could-be dictators” who could’ve assumed absolute control and used it for selfish ends, but instead worked to create a better society and then willingly relinquished power at the end of their terms. These people might not have been under external pressure to continue ruling, but they probably resisted strong personal temptation and the pressure of their supporters/allies:
George Washington refusing to run for a third term in office in 1796, setting the precedent of the two-term US presidency.
(Probably a whole lot of George-Washington-like figures in post-colonial countries in Latin America / Asia / Africa that gained their independence and adopted democracy over the past 200 years! Unfortunately I can’t name many detailed examples.)
Juan Carlos De Borbon was the King of Spain in the 1970s, pretended to be supportive of Fransisco Franco’s fascist government, and due to that loyalty he was hand-picked by Franco to succeed him in leading Spain’s autocracy after Franco’s death. But actually, shortly after Franco died, Juan Carlos revealed his true colors, pivoting towards enthusiastically embracing democratic reforms and shepherding Spain through a bloodless transition to democracy!! He later abdicated the throne in 2014, ending the monarchy. This story has always been a huge moral inspiration to me.
Mikhail Gorbechev helping dismantle the Soviet Union. (To a lesser extent, you could count Deng Xiaoping in China who pivoted China towards capitalism and away from the insane chaos of the Mao era. To an even lesser extent, you could count Khrushchev in the Soviet Union, who “de-Stalinized” the USSR but otherwise kept the oppressive communist system going.)
Al Gore notably decided to respect the (controversial) decision of the Supreme Court after the ridiculously-close presidential election of 2000, refusing to go full-steam and litigate the election indefinitely out of respect for the nation’s civic integrity.
The “Ibrahim Prize” is a Nobel-Prize-like award given out “to a former African executive head of state or government on criteria of good governance, democratic election and respect of terms limits”—basically for people who make like George Washington and do the right thing at the end of their term. It has been awarded seven times since 2007, including an honorary retrospective award to Nelson Mandela, and most recently to Mahamadou Issoufou in 2020 after the first-ever peaceful democratic transition of power in Niger.
José Figueres Ferrer was victorious in the Costa Rican civil war, after which he appointed himself head of the provisional junta.
Sounds like trouble — but he only ruled for 18 months, during which time he abolished the army and extended the franchise to women and nonwhite people. Then he stepped down and there have been fair elections since.
I came here alarmed just half way through reading Zoe Williams’ weekly summary of this post, which includes a mention to this answer. I haven’t read anything else.
I really encourage you to get to know more about Juan Carlos de Borbón (JC). You seem to have a very skewed view of his morals and his alignment with democracy.
He abdicated the throne in benefit of his son, who is the current king of Spain. And he did it because it was not feasible for the “royal dynasty”[?? “casa real” in Spanish] to keep covering his legal problems any longer, not because he wanted. So it was basically the family (and surrounding establishment) that kicked him out to save the monarchy, not that he abdicated to end it. After abdicating moved to the Emirates and could not return to visit Spain for a long while, while “they” sorted out his issues with the law.
In addition, in 23 February 1981 (23F) there was an attempt of coup in Spain. Officially, JC was against it. This rejection, however, has been very, very questioned. One cannot know for sure, in part because the Spanish governments keep on prolonging the time period that state secrets stay secret, but it seems very plausible that JC, at least, was not against it (it is said to be proven that he knew about it). It is less clear if he just tolerated it, supported it, or if he pushed for it. Relatedly, it took him very long (I think 18h) to address the Spanish citizens in TV supporting the “constitutional order”.
HBO Spain has coincidentally premiered a documentary in form of a short series called Save the King (Salvar el Rey), which is centered in the “silence pact” for covering his constant bad practices, from corruption to affairs. Disappointingly, it seems that even this documentary does almost not say anything about his 2 biggest dark moments: the mentioned 23F, and the death of his younger brother due to a gun shot while they both were together in a room when he was 18. [I actually don’t believe that JC killed his brother, at least in purpose]
I am sorry, but I think that you will have to find someone else’s story to get moral inspiration :-)
Thank you for all these details! It’s true, I was only aware of the general outlines of Spain’s transition to democracy. I guess it is more correct to say that I am inspired by the /abstract fantasy/ of inheriting the reins to an oppressive government and then turning everything around in a virtuous and altruistic way, rather than by the messy real-world character flaws that feature in the actual histories of Deng Xaoping, Juan Carlos, Mikhail Gorbechav, etc.
Mike Jackson, a British Army officer participating in the NATO intervention in Yugoslavia in the 1990s, refused to obey orders to capture a Russian-held airport (which could have sparked direct conflict between NATO troops and the Russian Army):
Mike Jackson served in the NATO chain of command, reporting to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, American four-star General Wesley Clark. Under Jackson’s command, the ARRC deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina in March 1999,[13] where Jackson served his second tour of duty in the Balkans, commanding KFOR, NATO’s multi-national peacekeeping force established at the end of the Kosovo War. He gained significant media attention in June 1999 after a confrontation with Clark in which he refused to block the runways of the Russian-occupied Pristina Airport and isolate the Russian troops there, thus preventing them from flying in reinforcements.[40][41] In one heated discussion with Clark, Jackson reputedly told him “I’m not going to start the Third World War for you”.[40] He later told the BBC he believed that obeying the order would have led to the possibility of an armed confrontation with Russian troops, which he felt was not “the right way to start off a relationship with Russians”.
By the same token, there are probably a whole lot of unsung heroes right now who are working to make sure that Russia/Ukraine/NATO are able to navigate as best as possible this scary new phenomenon of fighting a massive, bloody, tragic, near-total, yet still limited war over the future of Ukraine, without escalating into a potentially nuclear direct conflict between Russia and NATO. Most notably, Ukraine holding back from attacking targets inside Russian territory and Russia holding back from attacking targets inside NATO territory, even though it must be extremely tempting to do so.
There are definitely lots of heroic stories from WW2 where commanders went out of their way to protect civilians, or refused to destroy towns / cultural landmarks even when it would’ve been tactically advantageous (taking Kyoto off the list of atom-bomb targets is a famous example, although there doesn’t seem to have been much pressure to keep Kyoto on the list—there have been many smaller-scale showdowns where the pressure to attack a treasured cultural site must have been much higher), or refused to cooperate with Nazi authorities who were rounding up Jews and others as part of the Holocaust. (Same goes for people who refused to cooperate with other oppressive police states, such as the east-German Stasi or Soviet KGB). Unfortunately I am not familiar with many specific stories.
It would be interesting if anyone could name sufficiently large-scale examples of a corporation making a strongly virtuous decision against a strong profit motive. Ie, a cigarette / gambling / tobacco company deciding to wind down their activities or change their business strategy (in a way that actually helped long-term, rather than just creating an opening for someone less scrupulous), or lobby for regulations that would hurt them but serve the public interest, or etc.
Similarly, it would be interesting to hear examples of people inside non-military government agencies who made important decisions that went against their personal incentives. There are many Watergate-like stories of law-enforcement agencies investigating corruption even though higher-ups want to shut down the investigations. I could also imagine there might be some heroic stories along the lines of someone at the FDA approving an experimental medicine for, say, HIV, despite public disapproval of homosexuality at the time and the notorious culture of risk-averse safetyism at public health agencies. (The first confirmed cases of “community spread” of Covid-19 were discovered by intrepid researchers breaking CDC orders that mandated who was allowed to be tested and what tests were allowed to be used!)
Not quite as dramatic as a commander disobeying military orders, but a similar category includes basically all “could-be dictators” who could’ve assumed absolute control and used it for selfish ends, but instead worked to create a better society and then willingly relinquished power at the end of their terms. These people might not have been under external pressure to continue ruling, but they probably resisted strong personal temptation and the pressure of their supporters/allies:
George Washington refusing to run for a third term in office in 1796, setting the precedent of the two-term US presidency.
(Probably a whole lot of George-Washington-like figures in post-colonial countries in Latin America / Asia / Africa that gained their independence and adopted democracy over the past 200 years! Unfortunately I can’t name many detailed examples.)
Juan Carlos De Borbon was the King of Spain in the 1970s, pretended to be supportive of Fransisco Franco’s fascist government, and due to that loyalty he was hand-picked by Franco to succeed him in leading Spain’s autocracy after Franco’s death. But actually, shortly after Franco died, Juan Carlos revealed his true colors, pivoting towards enthusiastically embracing democratic reforms and shepherding Spain through a bloodless transition to democracy!! He later abdicated the throne in 2014, ending the monarchy. This story has always been a huge moral inspiration to me.
Mikhail Gorbechev helping dismantle the Soviet Union. (To a lesser extent, you could count Deng Xiaoping in China who pivoted China towards capitalism and away from the insane chaos of the Mao era. To an even lesser extent, you could count Khrushchev in the Soviet Union, who “de-Stalinized” the USSR but otherwise kept the oppressive communist system going.)
Al Gore notably decided to respect the (controversial) decision of the Supreme Court after the ridiculously-close presidential election of 2000, refusing to go full-steam and litigate the election indefinitely out of respect for the nation’s civic integrity.
The “Ibrahim Prize” is a Nobel-Prize-like award given out “to a former African executive head of state or government on criteria of good governance, democratic election and respect of terms limits”—basically for people who make like George Washington and do the right thing at the end of their term. It has been awarded seven times since 2007, including an honorary retrospective award to Nelson Mandela, and most recently to Mahamadou Issoufou in 2020 after the first-ever peaceful democratic transition of power in Niger.
José Figueres Ferrer was victorious in the Costa Rican civil war, after which he appointed himself head of the provisional junta.
Sounds like trouble — but he only ruled for 18 months, during which time he abolished the army and extended the franchise to women and nonwhite people. Then he stepped down and there have been fair elections since.
Not really. He abdicated in favor of his son, who is the present king of Spain. Ending the monarchy is an idea that never crossed his mind.
I came here alarmed just half way through reading Zoe Williams’ weekly summary of this post, which includes a mention to this answer. I haven’t read anything else.
I really encourage you to get to know more about Juan Carlos de Borbón (JC). You seem to have a very skewed view of his morals and his alignment with democracy.
He abdicated the throne in benefit of his son, who is the current king of Spain. And he did it because it was not feasible for the “royal dynasty”[?? “casa real” in Spanish] to keep covering his legal problems any longer, not because he wanted. So it was basically the family (and surrounding establishment) that kicked him out to save the monarchy, not that he abdicated to end it. After abdicating moved to the Emirates and could not return to visit Spain for a long while, while “they” sorted out his issues with the law.
In addition, in 23 February 1981 (23F) there was an attempt of coup in Spain. Officially, JC was against it. This rejection, however, has been very, very questioned. One cannot know for sure, in part because the Spanish governments keep on prolonging the time period that state secrets stay secret, but it seems very plausible that JC, at least, was not against it (it is said to be proven that he knew about it). It is less clear if he just tolerated it, supported it, or if he pushed for it. Relatedly, it took him very long (I think 18h) to address the Spanish citizens in TV supporting the “constitutional order”.
HBO Spain has coincidentally premiered a documentary in form of a short series called Save the King (Salvar el Rey), which is centered in the “silence pact” for covering his constant bad practices, from corruption to affairs. Disappointingly, it seems that even this documentary does almost not say anything about his 2 biggest dark moments: the mentioned 23F, and the death of his younger brother due to a gun shot while they both were together in a room when he was 18. [I actually don’t believe that JC killed his brother, at least in purpose]
I am sorry, but I think that you will have to find someone else’s story to get moral inspiration :-)
Thank you for all these details! It’s true, I was only aware of the general outlines of Spain’s transition to democracy. I guess it is more correct to say that I am inspired by the /abstract fantasy/ of inheriting the reins to an oppressive government and then turning everything around in a virtuous and altruistic way, rather than by the messy real-world character flaws that feature in the actual histories of Deng Xaoping, Juan Carlos, Mikhail Gorbechav, etc.