From ancient Rome to the Cold War, history is filled with shocking military betrayals. Join us as we explore the most notorious cases of soldiers who betrayed their nations. These tales of espionage, deception, and treachery changed the course of history in ways that still impact our world today.
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00:00Gentlemen, this is not some cheap murder!
00:07It is an honorable thing.
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're diving deep into the most monumental betrayals in military history.
00:15Benedict Arnold is the American version of Judas Iscariot.
00:19Vidkun Kvisling In Scandinavia, the word Kvisling means someone
00:36who collaborates with an occupying force.
00:39It's no coincidence that it's the last name of Vidkun Kvisling, a Norwegian politician
00:44and military officer.
00:45Before the war's outbreak, he founded the Norwegian Fascist Party.
00:49It wasn't too popular, still only a minor party when the Nazis invaded.
00:53During the invasion, he tried to put himself in power via radio broadcast.
00:57It didn't work, but two years later, the Nazis finally gave Kvisling what he wanted.
01:02Following the war, his crimes landed him a death sentence by firing squad,
01:07ending his life in Oslo in 1945.
01:10Alfred Riddle
01:20The First World War didn't just start overnight.
01:24Tensions between empires were super high in the decades prior.
01:27It was like a pressure cooker desperate to explode, with the Austro-Hungarian Empire smack bang in the middle.
01:34This meant espionage was a big deal before the war, with Alfred Riddle becoming the most remembered spy of the era.
01:41He was Austria's head of counterintelligence, meaning he was responsible for hunting spies.
01:46Turned out, he was a Russian spy himself, and had been for eleven years.
01:51It all crashed in 1913 when his successor discovered his treachery.
01:55Some evidence suggests he was blackmailed over his sexuality, adding a tragic element to his betrayal.
02:01Wang Jingwei Sun Yat-sen was the revolutionary who founded modern China, taking down the Qing dynasty in 1911, then replacing it with a short-lived democracy.
02:12While he's remembered as a hero to many, his friend Wang Jingwei is not.
02:17So here's the thing.
02:18After Yat-sen died in 1925, Wang Jingwei lost the power struggle for rule over the Kuomintang Party.
02:24While he remained a member, he became increasingly displeased with their politics.
02:29This meant that when Japan invaded in 1937, he rallied to their cause, betraying his people and becoming leader of Japan's Chinese puppet state.
02:38If he lived to the war's conclusion, he would have probably been executed, but he died in 1944, leaving behind a legacy as a traitor who never saw justice.
02:47John A. Walker Jr.
02:54In 1955, Walker joined the US Navy, becoming a warrant officer by 1967.
03:00This role made him the head honcho of America's submarine communications.
03:04Unfortunately for him, he was struggling financially by this point.
03:08So what did he do?
03:09He walked into the Soviet embassy, sold them a classified document, and asked to become a spy.
03:15And the massive hemorrhaging of Navy secrets began.
03:18The Soviets accepted, and he sold them secrets for almost 20 years, until his drunk ex-wife called the FBI.
03:25She revealed his secrets, which resulted in him getting a life sentence.
03:29Walker died in prison in 2014, 77 years old, and only one year away from being eligible for parole.
03:36The damage he caused the United States is so great that experts on Soviet intelligence say if war had broken out in the 1970s, the Kremlin would have won.
03:46Wilhelm Canaris.
03:47After the war, Canaris became a mythical figure, the prototype of the good person in the shadow of a dictatorship.
03:55Born in the Kingdom of Prussia, Canaris saw Germany fall to Nazi rule in the 1930s.
04:00Initially, he was a strong supporter of the regime.
04:03This helped him secure a position as Abwehr chief, Germany's counterintelligence service.
04:08When he saw the brutal realities of the Poland invasion, he began to work against the Nazis.
04:13He relayed tons of information to the fascists' enemies, particularly the British.
04:18Because of him, Germany's military intelligence agency became a safe space for anti-Nazi conspirators.
04:24When Hitler eventually got wind of this, he was arrested in 1944.
04:28Only a few weeks before the war's conclusion, Canaris was executed.
04:32Apparently, before he died, he denied being a traitor, claiming to serve his country and his country alone.
04:38Hitler's henchmen and his adversary, saving some lives, yet guilty of the deaths of others.
04:44How could both be true?
04:47Wilhelm Canaris never found the answer.
04:50Oleg Penkovsky.
04:51The race for nuclear supremacy has fueled a world of conspiracy, deceit, and espionage.
04:58Almost everybody knows about the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when America and the Soviet Union clashed in the Caribbean.
05:05Fewer people know Oleg Penkovsky, one of the most notable Cold War spies in history.
05:10His actions arguably prevented World War III.
05:13In the 1960s, he was a Soviet intelligence officer, but was secretly working with both MI6 and the CIA.
05:20I have at my disposal very important materials on many subjects of importance to your government.
05:26Thanks to him, the US knew almost everything about Soviet nuclear missiles, allowing them to call the USSR's bluffs.
05:33He believed he was preventing a global catastrophe, and that's exactly what he was doing.
05:38How did the Soviets respond? Unfortunately, they caught him, gave him a show trial, and had him executed in 1962.
05:45Not the send-off such a hero deserved.
05:48He never knew it, but his information helped Kennedy avoid nuclear war.
05:52Meir Jaffer.
05:53Meir Jaffer.
05:54And then he opened floodgates for East India Company to conquer the rest of subcontinent.
06:00The East India Company was arguably the most evil corporation in human history.
06:05At their peak, they owned most of India, alongside an army larger than the British Empire's.
06:10And eventually ruled over 400 million people.
06:15Its trade was vital to Britain's commercial success, and its shares were the center point of London's financial market.
06:23One individual who helped them achieve such absurd wealth was Meir Jaffer.
06:27He was born in the Mughal Empire, but eventually became a Bengali military commander.
06:32In 1757, Jaffer betrayed Bengal's ruler, handing over the province after the Battle of Plasi.
06:38Bengal was one of India's wealthiest provinces, making it a huge blow to Indian sovereignty.
06:44Jaffer then ruled Bengal as a British puppet, getting kicked out briefly when they turned against him.
06:49India wouldn't be free from British rule until two centuries later.
06:53Benedict Arnold.
06:55Benedict Arnold is the American version of Judas Iscariot.
06:59Not everyone in America supported the Thirteen Colonies cause.
07:02Many were still loyal to the British crown, such as Benedict Arnold.
07:06He became Major General of the Continental Army, but in 1780 defected to the British.
07:11Arnold began colluding with the British in 1779, letting the British know through all kinds of ciphering codes
07:19about the dispositions and the strategic implications of the Continental Army.
07:24Arnold was trusted with defending West Point Fort in New York.
07:27Secretly, he was planning to surrender it to the King's men, but when this plot was exposed, he fled the fort entirely.
07:34The British made him a Brigadier General, and he went on to fight the army he used to defend.
07:39They never fully trusted him, but they let him move to London after the war, since he wasn't welcome in America.
07:44Loibu
07:54This guy was a beast of a man.
07:56He never lost a duel, and no other warlord dared challenge him to one.
07:59In the third century AD, China was fragmented into three rival kingdoms.
08:04In the tumultuous period preceding it, legendary warrior Loibu rose to prominence.
08:09In the Eastern Han Dynasty's dying days, Loibu was sworn to Dingyuan, a powerful warlord.
08:16As soon as rival Dongzua offered him riches, he quickly chopped his leaders off and swapped sides.
08:22Loibu became Dongzua's right-hand man, until someone asked him to betray him, so he did.
08:27Loibu?
08:28Betray me?
08:29No way, man.
08:30Never gonna happen.
08:31Never gonna happen.
08:32Ah, crap.
08:35Following this, he allied with even more warlords, like Yuan Shu and Lui Bei.
08:40After his disastrous defeat at the Battle of Xi'pi, Han leader Chao Chao had him hanged,
08:46ending his cycle of treachery.
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09:03Cassius and Brutus
09:18Julius Caesar was considered a traitor to the Roman Republic by his contemporaries.
09:23Now, we instead remember Cassius and Brutus as the ultimate traitors.
09:27The pair were Roman politicians and allies of Julius Caesar.
09:31That was until Caesar declared himself dictator for life, threatening the end of the Roman
09:36Republic.
09:37To save democracy, Brutus and Cassius organized his execution.
09:40What are you waiting for?
09:41Now!
09:42Now!
09:43Now!
09:44Now!
09:45Ah!
09:46Instead of reviving the Republic, it triggered a civil war, which directly led to Augustus founding
09:53the Roman Empire.
09:54Their attempt to preserve liberty ultimately accelerated authoritarianism.
09:58Two thousand years later, their legacy is still a complicated one.
10:02Do you know of any soldiers who were instead so loyal it cost them dearly?
10:07Let us know in the comments section!
10:08Give me the weapons and I will cripple the Soviet High Command with my own hands.
10:17Thank you, Bob.
10:18Now!
10:19Now!
10:20Now!
10:21Now!
10:22Now!
10:23Here you go!
10:24Now!
10:25Now everything was set up.
10:26Now!
10:27Now, install your movie and deposit to time.
10:28It has to be a piece of its core MO.
10:30Now!
10:31Go ahead!
10:32Now!
10:33Go ahead!
10:34Point of East Coast
10:35Here!
10:36Le�� Case!
10:37Here!
10:38The two elements pop someoneaw!
10:39Now!
10:40If you make a handful of diseases,
10:42c infernal cave!