Starkadian land- and sea-dweller are natural enemies like Terrestrial men and wolves. If the pacifist Esperancians had discovered Starkad, then they would have tried to help the two species to coexist peacefully. Instead, the Merseians back the sea-dwellers, obliging the Terrans to back the land-dwellers. If the Merseians had been able to operate on Starkad without the Terrans' knowledge, then they would have gained a secret naval base closer to Terra but what is the point of fomenting a proxy planetary war? There is a point which Max Abrams wonders about and Dominic Flandry learns.
Ensign Flandry serves two purposes. First, its hero must have colourful adventures on other planets while advancing his career from the ground up. Secondly, events of future historical significance must occur, in this period involving inter-imperial conflict between Terra and Merseia. Flandry's eventual discovery brings together these two purposes. The Young Flandry Trilogy is a perfect later-written prequel to the Captain Flandry series within the Technic History.
4 comments:
Intelligence agencies tend to overemphasize the role of "clever tricks" and "cunning ploys" in governing the course of Great Power competition.
It's an occupational deformation.
Also they tend to overestimate the importance of ferreting out secrets.
In point of fact, the great weakness of intelligence operations is -interpretation- of the data.
Eg., Stalin got the complete German operational plan for Operation Barbarossa some time before the attack in 1941.
He didn't believe it, and attributed it to Anglo-French "disinformation" operations, and had several of the agents that got it for him transferred, or in a couple of instances, killed.
He basically didn't -want- to believe it, so he didn't. "Confirmation bias' is the technical term -- the human tendency to reject information that contradicts what we believe/want to believe.
(This near cost the Soviets WWII, because in ignoring it Stalin ordered deployments of Soviet troops far forward in 1941 -- which put them within reach of the German Army, whose main weakness was short range. It did cost the USSR another 3,000,000 dead soldiers at the very least.)
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And the Germans might have won the war if they had had the good sense to treat the peoples of the western USSR halfway decently. Those nations at first WELCOMED the Germans as liberators freeing them from the brutal tyranny of the Soviets. Another "what if" of history!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean:
True, but then they wouldn't have been Nazis.
The ideology included the idea that Germany needed to take land to the east & exile or kill the existing Slavic inhabitants.
Kaor, Jim!
Correct! It would have been far wiser if the Nazis had dumped their stupid bull twaddle about "sub-human Slavs."
Ad astra! Sean
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