Mike Jackson (British Army officer): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:42, 1 February 2004

Revision as of 06:42, 1 February 2004

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During the 1970's served in [[Northern Ireland]] and was involved in the [[Bloody Sunday - Northern Ireland|Bloody Sunday]] massacre of Irish Catholics.

In the 1990's, he served in the [[NATO]] chain of command as a deputy to Supreme Allied Commander, Europe [[Wesley Clark]]. In this capacity, he is best known for refusing to block the runways of the Russian-occupied Pristina Airport, to isolate the Russian troops there. Had he complied with General Clark's order, there was a chance the British troops under his command could have come into armed conflict with the Russians; doing this without prior orders from Britain would have led to his dismissal for gross inubordiantioninsubordiantion. On the other hand, defying Clark would have meant disobeying a direct order from a superior NATO officer (Clark was a four-star general; Jackson, only a three-star.) Jackson ultimately chose the latter course of action, though the point became moot when the American government prevailed upon the Hungarians, Romanians, and Bulgarians to prevent the Russians from using their airspace to fly reinforcements in.