Summary Of Alexander Keegan's False Heroic Hitler As Supreme Commander

and belief. Alexander would engage in dramatic antics, spending days in his tent in peevish anticipation of apology, and would don fabulous armor for engagements. Oration and rhetoric were vital to his success as he attempted to hearten at least a portion of his men. Alexander is the model of the great hero as commander. Alexander's behavior in battle clearly reflected his belief that he was kin to the Olympian gods, through Heracles. He literally gave up direction of his troops from afar to wade into the thickest of hand to hand combat and dispatch as many enemies. He shared some uncomfortable similarities with Adolf Hitler in his willingness to slaughtering conquered populations and Keegan's claim that Alexander destroyed much and created

Keegan covers Hitler's military strategy, his demand for loyalty until death and the failure of his reign as fuhrer. The latter pair was both the sole civilian dictators of their countries, in addition to being head of their armed forces. Hitler, although he paints himself the first soldier of the Reich is a psychologist and a technocrat, who seeks to provide moral leadership via demagoguery alone. Keegan's final example of command is Hitler, who, like Alexander, combined in one personality, supreme political ability and the planning inconsistencies that marred the invasion of Soviet Russia. Numerous accounts have detailed his stubborn refusal to contemplate the real circumstances of his armies in the East. Keegan offers a fresh and perspective on Hitler's strengths and deficiencies as a military leader. The figure that emerges from this analysis is more soldier and front-fighter than politician. Hitler politics was war, at least the preparation for war, and his unswerving goal was to realize the victory that seemed near in 1918. While stubbornness epitomized his larger strategy, meddling with details increasingly substituted for professional tactics. This, Keegan argues, was superficial generalship, haphazard, amateurish. It was also "false heroic," chiefly because it sought to eliminate the distance between commander and combat troops. Propaganda portrayed Hitler as a suffering hero allowing him to share the hardships of his soldiers. Adolph Hitler is the model of the false heroic commander. To begin, Keegan makes the case that Hitler always thought of himself as a military figure, starting with his service in the Austrian army in the First World War. Anyone familiar with the German army during World War II will not have any trouble recognizing that Hitler was the true overall commander of the German