Tuesday 15 August 2017

Changing Sides

"'...you've long been in the forefront of resistance to the Roidhunate. However, such attitudes can change overnight. History's abulge with examples. For instance, England's rebellious North American colonies calling on the French they fought less than two decades before; or America a couple of centuries later, allied first with the Russians against the Germans, then turning straight around and -' He stopped. 'This doesn't mean anything to you, does it?'"
-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 339-606 AT p. 481.

A Dennitzan does not know Terrestrial history of over a thousand years previously. We have recently discussed enemies becoming allies. See combox here, also here.

Ian Fleming highlighted post-War security problems:

"'...you know what M is, independent old devil. He's never been happy about NATO Security. Why, right in the SHAPE Intelligence Division there are not only a couple of Frenchmen and an Italian, but the Head of their Counter Intelligence and Security section is a German!'
"Bond whistled."
-Ian Fleming, "From A View To A Kill" IN Fleming, For Your Eyes Only (London, 1964), pp. 7-37 AT p. 18.

M and Bond had fought the Germans and Italians and some of the French had collaborated. We will continue to see amazing turnarounds.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And I have discussed how a legitimate concern for security could be carried to excess in my "An Unexpected Contradiction" note. I speculated that, given how Naval Intelligence had learned of Aycharaych's telepathic abilities in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, it was a dangerous mistake not to have told Flandry and Aline Chang-Lei of that some years later in "Honorable Enemies."

And, in the real world, considering how there WERE traitors like Alger Hiss and Kim Philby secretly working for the USSR in the US and UK, I can sympathize with M's unhappiness about security. I also know it's important to avoid paranoia and obsessive overkill.

Sean