1 phony war When two armies are officially at war yet simply stare at each other across the border. A typical example is the way Germany and the allies, Britain and France, faced off at the start of World War II with practically no land war. In the worst cases, countries actually forget they are at war with one another. There was even a long conflict called the Three Hundred and Thirty-Five Years’ War during which not a single shot was fired!
2 Ricardian formulation of comparative advantage Also known as the comparative cost theory. The basis of commerce theory. To put it in extremely simple terms, it says that everyone should make what they are good at and trade it.
3 Germans taken prisoner at the end of the war At the end of World War II, all the Germans headed west…because they didn’t know what would happen to them if they surrendered to the Soviet Army.
4 HUMINT standpoint In a nutshell, HUMINT is the gathering of intelligence from interpersonal conversations and the media. There was once an era during which Communism was particularly attractive, and there were Communists milling about all over the place. Recruitment was so easy! By the way, Carlo Zen is hoping to recruit people as “Communthusiasts.” Keep your wits about you!
5 The people are your stone walls According to Takeda Shingen, “The people are your castle, your stone walls, your moat. Protect them and they shall protect you.” No matter how solidly you build your castle, the ones holing up inside are people, in the end. If your defensive lines have no unity, that’s no good; therefore, it’s of utmost importance to win the hearts of your people. Incidentally, Stalin’s way was to exploit people as his castle, use a wall of them for protection, put them in other people’s way like a moat, trust only his sworn comrades, and destroy as an enemy anyone who might possibly have ill intentions.
6 Full-of-shit-guchi I’ll explain this! General Full-of-shit-guchi was one of the most fearsome generals in the entire world if you’re counting only one specific aspect! His real name was Renya Mutaguchi. His skill in single-handedly destroying the Japanese Army’s lines at Imphal made him feared as Brute-guchi even among the bravest of Japan’s generals. Incidentally, he appears to have been a member of the Imperial Japanese Army.
7 John Bull spirit A gentle, noble, undaunted spirit applicable to war or sports. But their food is questionable. If I had to explain it, I’d say it’s a daily practice of not putting strain on Logistics.
8 Revisionists The reaction against perfect, scientific Communism, which makes “changes” on the pretext of “revising errors.” Incidentally, it seems that science is the process of revising errors.
9 Doolittle’s Tokyo Raid Yankee ogres who bombed Tokyo with conventional bombers launched from an aircraft carrier. They’re probably the only ones who could pull off launching conventional planes from a carrier.
10 key terrain An important piece of land military geographers want to take at all costs. For example, Mount Tennōzan in the Battle of Yamazaki, the 203 Meter Hill in the Siege of Port Arthur. If those locations were taken, the battle was lost. But in history, there’s this weirdo, Napoleon, who used key terrain as bait to lure the enemy. He abandoned the Pratzen Heights and pounded the enemy when they strolled over there… Normally, it doesn’t work like that.
11 ideological education Let’s study the party’s political theory in order to establish correct socialism! Huh? We’re in the army so it has nothing to do with us?! Revolt! Such an enjoyable class. Apparently, soldiers felt this “indoor training” wasn’t so bad—because all they had to do was sit.
12 warmonger War crazy. Those Shimazu clan vibes.
13 nomenklatura The directory of Communist Party members. If you weren’t registered in it, you couldn’t use currency shops, and you couldn’t be promoted. But please believe me. The Communist Party created a classless, equal society!
14 Stalin The man of steel, Comrade Stalin. Leader of the Soviet Union. Probably took out more Soviet citizens and officers than anyone else.
15 Bismarck A Prussian-made diplomacy machine. His efficiency in creating Germany was sort of insane. To break it down into three steps: First was his ingenious diplomatic work at dragging Austria into the fight with Denmark and eliminating English interference. Then he smacked Austria in the fight over who would control the territory swiped from Denmark, while having France and Russia remain neutral. Then, in the end, he had Austria maintain sympathetic neutrality while he smacked France and promptly installed the German emperor in the French palace!
16 Fouché France’s prized weathercock. If you can believe it, this chief of the secret police participated in the revolution from beginning to end and not only survived but came out a winner! …Seriously, how did he live through it?
17 Formosa Air Battle An instance of mistakenly attributed military achievement. When Imperial Headquarters tabulated the reports from each unit, the total sunk or destroyed was “nineteen aircraft carriers, four battleships, seven merchant cruisers, and fifteen boats of uncertain type”—a major victory—except in reality they destroyed only two merchant cruisers. Honestly, anyone who knows the battlefield would have taken such results with a grain of salt, but it also just comes down to the fact that people believe what they want to.
18 someone in the lageri A lageri is a system of concentration and labor camps. By the way, the brilliant Soviets were against slave labor.
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