To Win Without Fighting: Difference between revisions
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But the charge never comes... instead, a single soldier marches out of the allied ranks. [[The Hero]] gives the enemy a chance to surrender themselves, explaining that this is a [[Last Second Chance]] and that failure to relinquish their weapons will result in their painful and bloody slaughter. And it works.
[[General Ripper]] is ignored as men throw down their weapons and surrender in droves to the good guys. [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] desperately tries to restore order but is defeated and maybe even murdered by the soldiers he has been oppressing the spirits of for so long. The [[Evil Overlord]] screams in frustration and indicates for his [[Five-Bad Band]] to defend him, only for the [[Token Good Teammate]] to be the first to break ranks, followed shortly by the rest of the group and finally, to the [[Big Bad
Related is [[Talking the Monster to Death]], where a character lacks overwhelming tactical superiority but instead wins by diplomacy. This is opposite to [[Violence Is the Only Option]], where any attempt to resolve the situation peacefully either fails or turns out to be a trick by the villains.
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== [[Film]] ==
* In ''[[Fail Safe]],'' a political scientist (Walter Matthau) recommends that the president (Henry Fonda) allow an accidental nuclear strike to proceed, since it will cause the Soviets to simply surrender as a matter of ruthless efficiency.
* In ''[[The Last of the Mohicans]]''
** The Siege of Fort William Henry was a textbook example of 18th century siege warfare. If the attackers could get close enough to destroy the fort's walls, and if the defenders were unable to call for reinforcements in time, then the attackers would almost certainly win. Traditionally, once the attackers had successfully battered down the wall, they offered the defenders the chance to honorably surrender. Otherwise they would storm the breach and kill everybody inside.
* In ''[[Star Wars]]'' the idea with the Death Star, a giant battle station able to blow off entire planets, is not so much to use it, but to use the fear of what it could do to hold rebellious systems in line. In the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] the Tarkin Doctrine is fully explained, referencing experiences with the Star Destroyers. While much smaller than the Death Star, they were still much bigger than any other warship before them, a fact which would by itself often keep people from fighting. Which, in Tarkin's words made it possible to ''"Rule through the fear of force rather than through force itself"''. In the end, the doctrine backfired when people, instead of becoming fearful, got angry over what the Death Star could
* [[Bruce Lee]] in ''[[Enter the Dragon]]'' describes his fighting style to an [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy]] as "the art of fighting without fighting." Then proceeds to demonstrate it by tricking him into a tiny row-boat being dragged behind the ship.
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* Frank Herbert's ''[[Dune|Heretics of Dune]]''. In the [[Backstory]], Miles Teg was a famous Bene Gesserit military commander.
{{quote|Teg's reputation was an almost universal thing throughout human society of this age. At the Battle of Markon, it had been enough for the enemy to know that Teg was there opposite them in person. They sued for terms. }}
* Subverted in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]],'' when Gandalf marches up to the Black Gate and demands that Sauron surrender; he wants Sauron to think that he has the Ring, and only someone with the Ring would be powerful enough to be so brazen. (This point is lost in the movie; despite that Merry and Pippin say that "the enemy thinks we have the Ring," there's no mention of Sauron later thinking that ''Gandalf or Aragorn'' having
** Played straight when Numenor marches on Mordor and the orcs flee and the sight of the Numenorian army, forcing [[Big Bad|Sauron]] to surrender.
* Happens once in the [[Hand of Thrawn]] duology. The [[Big Bad Duumvirate]] are using a scheme to make it look as if Grand Admiral Thrawn, the greatest military genius the galaxy has ever known, is [[Back From the Dead]], and the galaxy's not sure if this is a trick or not. One group sends a small force against him as a test. The Duumvirate manages to figure out who they are and start the opening move of one of Thrawn's responses against these people, a response which had the last time totally decimated their taskforce. Convinced, the small force flees.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]''
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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*** They had also hoped to reduce the American presence in the Pacific by feigning an invasion in Alaska. Unfortunately the U.S. had already cracked the Japanese secret codes and knew that the invasion of Alaska was a feint, allowing them to focus their entire strength on the Pacific.
*** Additionally, many of the ships sunk during the attack were later pulled from the bottom of the ocean and repaired. Only a few were deemed irrevocably lost.
* [[Gulf War|Operation Desert Storm]] had many instances of this as most of the Iraqi army surrendered to the Allied
** There was also at least one instance of an Iraqi unit so desperate to surrender and avoid getting destroyed in battle, that they tried to surrender to an Italian film crew. Other units [http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/dstorm/ds5.htm surrendered to a UAV] (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle).
*** The UAV wasn't an act of simply being desperate to surrender; in Gulf 1 the UAVs in use were Navy, used for shore bombardment spotting for the ''Iowa''-class battleships. The Iraqis correctly deduced that the presence of the UAV meant they were shortly to suffer 16" bombardment. With no defense against the battleship guns, they took the smart way out.
* In WWII [[wikipedia:Ghost Army|some American forces]] from a series of art schools got some German units to surrender without resisting, by approaching them with a fake army (inflatable tanks, speakers playing tank noises and radio sounds, inflatable infantry and even inflatable artillery!
* Epaminondos is famous for winning at Leuctra (by overweighting one wing to make the side opposed collapse before the Spartans could compensate, while pulling back, "refusing" the other to buy time). His greatest achievement though was to realize that Sparta's economy and military system was dependent on the labor of large numbers of Helots who had little reason to love Sparta and much reason not to. All he had to do was have an army-in-being for a long enough time in Spartan territory, large enough to survive, and the Helots would all run away at once knowing their masters were busy. No Helots, no Sparta. In retrospect it seems odd that someone didn't think of this earlier. Sparta could have recovered from losing Leuctra or any given battle. It could never recover from losing its Helots.
** Actually, plenty of Greek (And Persian) strategists realized
* The Great Stand on Ugra. In 1476 Russian prince Ivan III started to deny the traditional tribute to the Mongols. The Horde, weakened by the internal strife and the war with the Crimea, managed to send the punitive expedition only in 1480, and while their army was numerous, they failed to adequately arm and supply it, hoping that it could be reinforced and supplied by their Lithuanian allies. They also hoped that Ivan's quarrels with his brothers would prevent him from mounting adequate defense. However, when the two armies come to a head at Ugra river, it became obvious that not only was Russian army much better equipped
* Essentially this is what police negotiators WANT to happen, as the authorities will always outnumber the suspects in a siege like situation. Many times however this fails, as the suspects are extremely desperate.
** One good reason against the death penalty. If death is already certain, there's nothing to gain by surrendering.
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