Low Information Voter on Nostr: Well, Devil's Advocate, but I know a conspiracy that involved over 700 people that ...
Well, Devil's Advocate, but I know a conspiracy that involved over 700 people that I've never read a word published about in the five decades since it happened.
On the second day of the Battle of Coral-Balmoral, 1 RAR mutinied and threatened to kill its Commanding Officer. The resulting stand-off lasted an hour, and ended with the CO surrendering the desperately-scarce barbed wire he'd ordered used to defend the LZ he'd planned to escape via, so that the troops could instead use it to reinforce the perimeter. He also agreed to leave Vietnam and let his 2IC take over, which he duly did.
Army being Army, that guy then received a promotion, a medal, and a coveted do-nothing posting to Sandhurst on exchange.
But he never again commanded troops in the field.
Nobody was punished for the mutiny, not even the junior officers who'd instigated it. One of them eventually became deputy Prime Minister for a time.
Nobody talked to the press. Nobody bragged in public. A (now deceased) family member used to talk about it to teenage me, but only when he was too drunk to get out of his chair.
Conspiracies happen.
And large groups of people /can/ keep a secret if nobody is trying too hard to uncover it.
On the second day of the Battle of Coral-Balmoral, 1 RAR mutinied and threatened to kill its Commanding Officer. The resulting stand-off lasted an hour, and ended with the CO surrendering the desperately-scarce barbed wire he'd ordered used to defend the LZ he'd planned to escape via, so that the troops could instead use it to reinforce the perimeter. He also agreed to leave Vietnam and let his 2IC take over, which he duly did.
Army being Army, that guy then received a promotion, a medal, and a coveted do-nothing posting to Sandhurst on exchange.
But he never again commanded troops in the field.
Nobody was punished for the mutiny, not even the junior officers who'd instigated it. One of them eventually became deputy Prime Minister for a time.
Nobody talked to the press. Nobody bragged in public. A (now deceased) family member used to talk about it to teenage me, but only when he was too drunk to get out of his chair.
Conspiracies happen.
And large groups of people /can/ keep a secret if nobody is trying too hard to uncover it.