Leadership Dilemmas: Debating Dirty Hands

Abstract

During the early years of World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill directed the British air force to increase the campaign of its long-range bombers deep into Germany. The rules of warfare devised after the end of World War I warned against the bombing of civilian populations: indeed, British authorities appealed to these rules when protesting against the German air force attacks on Britain at the beginning of World War II. Churchill himself had written earlier in 1939 as a critic of the proposed concept of “terror” bombing of civilian populations. As the war dragged on, however, British policy moved from initial resistance against bombing of civilian populations toward acceptance of targeting German cities, even those without military bases, as priority targets. The plan was to destroy the morale of the German people, while complaining to allies about the evils of German attacks on British populations (Garrett 2004).