{"history":[],"article":{"id":"ff74c6f3-6c33-4112-bb78-fcca83c48884","title":"Unconditional surrender","slug":"unconditional-surrender","content":":::summary\n:::\n\n# \nAn **unconditional [surrender](https://bliptext.com/articles/surrender-military)** is a [surrender](https://bliptext.com/articles/surrender-military) in which no guarantees, reassurances, or promises (i.e., conditions) are given to the [surrender](https://bliptext.com/articles/surrender-military)ing party.\nIt is often demanded with the threat of complete destruction, extermination or annihilation.\nAnnouncing that only unconditional surrender is acceptable puts [psychological pressure](https://bliptext.com/articles/psychological-warfare) on a weaker adversary, but it may also prolong [hostilities](https://bliptext.com/articles/belligerent).\nA party typically only demands unconditional surrender when it has a significant advantage over their adversaries, when victory is thought to be inevitable.\nIn modern times, unconditional surrenders most often include guarantees provided by [international law](https://bliptext.com/articles/international-law).\nIn some cases, surrender is truly accepted unconditionally; while in other cases terms are offered and accepted, but forces are declared to be subject to \"unconditional surrender\" for symbolic purposes.\nThis type of surrender may also be accepted by the surrendering party under the expectation of guarantees agreed to informally.\n\n# Examples\n\n## Banu Qurayza during Muhammad's era\nAfter the [Battle of the Trench](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-the-trench), in which the Muslims tactically overcame their opponents while suffering very few casualties, efforts to defeat the Muslims failed, and [Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam) became influential in the region.\nAs a consequence, the Muslim army besieged the neighbourhood of the [Banu Qurayza tribe](https://bliptext.com/articles/siege-of-the-banu-qurayza), leading to their unconditional surrender.Watt, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman, pp. 167–174. All the men, apart from a few who converted to [Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam), were executed, while the women and children were [enslaved](https://bliptext.com/articles/ma-malakat-aymanukum).Peterson, Muhammad: the prophet of God, pp. 125–127.Ramadan, In the Footsteps of the Prophet, pp. 140f.Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, vol. 1, p. 191.Brown, A New Introduction to Islam, p. 81.Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, pp. 229–233. The historicity of the incident has been questioned. For details and references see [discussion](https://bliptext.com/articles/banu-qurayza) in [main article](https://bliptext.com/articles/banu-qurayza).\n\n## Napoleon Bonaparte\nWhen [Napoleon Bonaparte](https://bliptext.com/articles/napoleon-bonaparte) escaped from his enforced exile on the island of [Elba](https://bliptext.com/articles/elba), one of the steps that the delegates of the European powers at the [Congress of Vienna](https://bliptext.com/articles/congress-of-vienna) took was to issue a statement on 13 March 1815 declaring [Napoleon Bonaparte](https://bliptext.com/articles/napoleon-bonaparte) to be an outlaw.\nThe text includes the following paragraphs:\nConsequently, as Napoleon was considered an [outlaw](https://bliptext.com/articles/outlaw) when he surrendered to [Captain Maitland](https://bliptext.com/articles/frederick-lewis-maitland-rear-admiral) of [HMS Bellerophon (1786)](https://bliptext.com/articles/hms-bellerophon-1786) at the end of the [Hundred Days](https://bliptext.com/articles/hundred-days), he was not protected by military law or international law as a head of state and so the British were under no legal obligation to either accept his surrender or to spare his life.\nHowever, they did so to prevent him from being a [martyr](https://bliptext.com/articles/martyr) and exiled him to the remote [South Atlantic](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-atlantic) island of [Saint Helena](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-helena).\n\n## American Civil War\nThe most famous early use of the phrase in the [American Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-civil-war) occurred during the 1862 [Battle of Fort Donelson](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-fort-donelson).\n[Brigadier General](https://bliptext.com/articles/brigadier-general-united-states) [Ulysses S. Grant](https://bliptext.com/articles/ulysses-s-grant) of the [Union Army](https://bliptext.com/articles/union-army) received a request for terms from [Confederate](https://bliptext.com/articles/confederate-army) [Brigadier General](https://bliptext.com/articles/brigadier-general-united-states) [Simon Bolivar Buckner Sr.](https://bliptext.com/articles/simon-bolivar-buckner-sr), the fort's commanding officer.\nGrant's reply was that \"no terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.\"\nWhen news of Grant's victory, one of the Union's first in the war, was received in [Washington, DC](https://bliptext.com/articles/washington-dc), newspapers remarked (and [President](https://bliptext.com/articles/president-of-the-united-states) [Abraham Lincoln](https://bliptext.com/articles/abraham-lincoln) endorsed) that Grant's first two initials, \"U.S.,\" stood for \"Unconditional Surrender,\" which would later become his nickname.\nHowever, subsequent surrenders to Grant were not unconditional.\nWhen [Robert E. Lee](https://bliptext.com/articles/robert-e-lee) surrendered his [Army of Northern Virginia](https://bliptext.com/articles/army-of-northern-virginia) at [Appomattox Court House](https://bliptext.com/articles/appomattox-court-house-national-historical-park) in 1865, Grant agreed to allow the men under Lee's command to go home under parole and to keep sidearms and private horses.\nGenerous terms were also offered to [John C. Pemberton](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-c-pemberton) at [Vicksburg](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-vicksburg) and, by Grant's subordinate, [William Tecumseh Sherman](https://bliptext.com/articles/william-tecumseh-sherman), to [Joseph E. Johnston](https://bliptext.com/articles/joseph-e-johnston) in [North Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/north-carolina).\nGrant was not the first officer in the Civil War to use the phrase.\nThe first instance came some days earlier, when Confederate Brigadier General [Lloyd Tilghman](https://bliptext.com/articles/lloyd-tilghman) asked for terms of surrender during the [Battle of Fort Henry](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-fort-henry).\nFlag Officer [Andrew H. Foote](https://bliptext.com/articles/andrew-h-foote) replied, \"no sir, your surrender will be unconditional.\"\nEven at Fort Donelson, earlier in the day, a Confederate messenger approached Brigadier General [Charles Ferguson Smith](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-ferguson-smith), Grant's subordinate, for terms of surrender, and Smith stated, \"I'll have no terms with Rebels with guns in their hands, my terms are unconditional and immediate surrender.\"\nThe messenger was passed along to Grant, but there is no evidence that either Foote or Smith influenced Grant's choice of words.\nIn 1863, [Ambrose Burnside](https://bliptext.com/articles/ambrose-burnside) forced an unconditional [surrender of the Cumberland Gap](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-the-cumberland-gap-1863) and 2,300 Confederate soldiers, and in 1864, Union General [Gordon Granger](https://bliptext.com/articles/gordon-granger) forced an unconditional surrender of [Fort Morgan](https://bliptext.com/articles/fort-morgan-alabama).\n\n## World War II\nThe use of the term was revived during [World War II](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-war-ii) at the [Casablanca conference](https://bliptext.com/articles/casablanca-conference) in January 1943 when American President [Franklin D. Roosevelt](https://bliptext.com/articles/franklin-d-roosevelt) stated it to the press as the objective of the war against the Axis Powers of [Germany](https://bliptext.com/articles/nazi-germany), [Italy](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-italy), and [Japan](https://bliptext.com/articles/empire-of-japan).\nWhen Roosevelt made the announcement at Casablanca, he referred to General Grant's use of the term during the American Civil War.\nThe term was also used in the [Potsdam Declaration](https://bliptext.com/articles/potsdam-declaration) issued to Japan on July 26, 1945.\nNear the end of the declaration, it said, \"We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces\" and warned that the alternative was \"prompt and utter destruction.\"\nIt has been claimed that it prolonged the war in Europe by its usefulness to [German domestic propaganda](https://bliptext.com/articles/themes-in-nazi-propaganda), which used it to encourage further resistance against the Allied armies, and by its suppressive effect on the [German resistance](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-resistance-to-nazism) movement since even after a coup against [Adolf Hitler](https://bliptext.com/articles/adolf-hitler):\nIt has also been argued that without the demand for unconditional surrender, [Central Europe](https://bliptext.com/articles/central-europe) might not have fallen behind the [Iron Curtain](https://bliptext.com/articles/iron-curtain).\n\"It was a policy that the [Soviet Union](https://bliptext.com/articles/soviet-union) accepted with alacrity, probably because a completely destroyed Germany would facilitate Russia's postwar expansion program.\"\nIt has also been claimed to have prolonged the war with Japan or to be a cause of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (see [debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki](https://bliptext.com/articles/debate-over-the-atomic-bombings-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki)).\nOne reason for the policy was that the [Allies](https://bliptext.com/articles/allies-of-world-war-i) wished to avoid a repetition of the [stab-in-the-back myth](https://bliptext.com/articles/stab-in-the-back-myth), which had arisen in Germany after [World War I](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-war-i) and attributed Germany's loss to betrayal by Jews, Bolsheviks, and Socialists, as well as the fact that the war ended before the [Allies](https://bliptext.com/articles/allies-of-world-war-i) had reached Germany.\nThe myth was used by the Nazis in their propaganda.\nAn unconditional surrender was felt to ensure that the Germans knew that they had lost the war themselves.\n# [The Japanese delegation, headed by Mamoru Shigemitsu, prepares to sign the instrument of surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, 2 September 1945. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Surrender///of///Japan///-///USS///Missouri.jpg]\n# [Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signing the definitive act of unconditional surrender for the German military in Berlin, 8 May 1945 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Field///Marshall///Keitel///signs///German///surrender///terms///in///Berlin///8///May///1945///-///Restoration.jpg]\n\n## Bangladesh War of Independence\nOn 16 December 1971, Lt. Gen [A. A. K. Niazi](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-a-k-niazi), [CO](https://bliptext.com/articles/commanding-officer) of Pakistan Armed Forces located in [East Pakistan](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-pakistan) (now [Bangladesh](https://bliptext.com/articles/bangladesh)) signed the [Instrument of Surrender](https://bliptext.com/articles/instrument-of-surrender-1971) handing over the command of his forces stationed in [East Pakistan](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-pakistan) to the Indian Army under [General Jagjit Singh Aurora](https://bliptext.com/articles/jagjit-singh-aurora).\nThis led to the surrender of 93,000 personnel including families of the Pakistan's East Command and cessation of hostilities between the Pakistani Armed Forces and the Indian Armed Forces along with the guerrilla forces, the [Mukti Bahini](https://bliptext.com/articles/mukti-bahini).\nThe signing of this unconditional surrender document gave [Geneva Convention](https://bliptext.com/articles/geneva-convention) guarantees for the safety of the surrendered soldiers and completed the [independence of Bangladesh](https://bliptext.com/articles/bangladesh-war-of-independence).\n# [Signing of Pakistani Instrument of Surrender by Lt.Gen. A. A. K. Niazi in the presence of Indian military officers | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/1971///Instrument///of///Surrender.jpg]\n\n## Afghanistan War\nOn [15 August 2021](https://bliptext.com/articles/fall-of-kabul-2021), the government of the [Islamic Republic of Afghanistan](https://bliptext.com/articles/islamic-republic-of-afghanistan) and the [Afghan National Security Forces](https://bliptext.com/articles/afghan-national-security-forces) unconditionally surrendered to the [Taliban](https://bliptext.com/articles/taliban).\nThe unconditional surrender brought an end to the [conflict](https://bliptext.com/articles/war-in-afghanistan-2001-2021) and allowed the Taliban to take over Afghanistan and establish their government in the country.\n\n# Surrender at discretion\nIn [siege warfare](https://bliptext.com/articles/siege-warfare), the demand for the garrison to surrender unconditionally to the besiegers is traditionally phrased as \"surrender at discretion.\"\nIf there are negotiations with mutually agreed conditions, the garrison is said to have \"surrendered on terms.\"\nOne example was at the [Siege of Stirling](https://bliptext.com/articles/siege-of-stirling-castle-1746), during the 1745 [Jacobite Rebellion](https://bliptext.com/articles/jacobite-rising-of-1745):\nSurrender at discretion was also used at the [Battle of the Alamo](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-the-alamo), when [Antonio López de Santa Anna](https://bliptext.com/articles/antonio-l-pez-de-santa-anna) asked [Jim Bowie](https://bliptext.com/articles/jim-bowie) and [William B. Travis](https://bliptext.com/articles/william-b-travis) for unconditional surrender.\nEven though Bowie wished to surrender unconditionally, Travis refused, fired a cannon at Santa Anna's army, and wrote in his final dispatches:\nThe phrase surrender at discretion is still used in treaties.\nFor example, the [Rome Statute](https://bliptext.com/articles/rome-statute), in force since July 1, 2002, specifies under \"Article 8 war crimes, Paragraph 2.b:\"\nThe wording in the Rome Statute is taken almost word for word from Article 23 of the 1907 [IV Hague Convention](https://bliptext.com/articles/hague-conventions-1907) The Laws and Customs of War on Land: \"...it is especially forbidden – ... To kill or wound an enemy who, having laid down his arms, or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion\", and it is part of the customary [laws of war](https://bliptext.com/articles/laws-of-war).","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-25T19:32:21.988Z","updated_at":"2025-01-25T19:32:21.988Z","search_vector":"'surrend':2 'uncondit':1","search_content":" \n \n\n# \nAn **unconditional [surrender](https://bliptext.com/articles/surrender-military)** is a [surrender](https://bliptext.com/articles/surrender-military) in which no guarantees, reassurances, or promises (i.e., conditions) are given to the [surrender](https://bliptext.com/articles/surrender-military)ing party.\nIt is often demanded with the threat of complete destruction, extermination or annihilation.\nAnnouncing that only unconditional surrender is acceptable puts [psychological pressure](https://bliptext.com/articles/psychological-warfare) on a weaker adversary, but it may also prolong [hostilities](https://bliptext.com/articles/belligerent).\nA party typically only demands unconditional surrender when it has a significant advantage over their adversaries, when victory is thought to be inevitable.\nIn modern times, unconditional surrenders most often include guarantees provided by [international law](https://bliptext.com/articles/international-law).\nIn some cases, surrender is truly accepted unconditionally; while in other cases terms are offered and accepted, but forces are declared to be subject to \"unconditional surrender\" for symbolic purposes.\nThis type of surrender may also be accepted by the surrendering party under the expectation of guarantees agreed to informally.\n\n# Examples\n\n## Banu Qurayza during Muhammad's era\nAfter the [Battle of the Trench](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-the-trench), in which the Muslims tactically overcame their opponents while suffering very few casualties, efforts to defeat the Muslims failed, and [Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam) became influential in the region.\nAs a consequence, the Muslim army besieged the neighbourhood of the [Banu Qurayza tribe](https://bliptext.com/articles/siege-of-the-banu-qurayza), leading to their unconditional surrender. Watt, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman, pp. 167–174. All the men, apart from a few who converted to [Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/islam), were executed, while the women and children were [enslaved](https://bliptext.com/articles/ma-malakat-aymanukum). Peterson, Muhammad: the prophet of God, pp. 125–127. Ramadan, In the Footsteps of the Prophet, pp. 140f. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, vol. 1, p. 191. Brown, A New Introduction to Islam, p. 81. Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, pp. 229–233. The historicity of the incident has been questioned. For details and references see [discussion](https://bliptext.com/articles/banu-qurayza) in [main article](https://bliptext.com/articles/banu-qurayza).\n\n## Napoleon Bonaparte\nWhen [Napoleon Bonaparte](https://bliptext.com/articles/napoleon-bonaparte) escaped from his enforced exile on the island of [Elba](https://bliptext.com/articles/elba), one of the steps that the delegates of the European powers at the [Congress of Vienna](https://bliptext.com/articles/congress-of-vienna) took was to issue a statement on 13 March 1815 declaring [Napoleon Bonaparte](https://bliptext.com/articles/napoleon-bonaparte) to be an outlaw.\nThe text includes the following paragraphs:\nConsequently, as Napoleon was considered an [outlaw](https://bliptext.com/articles/outlaw) when he surrendered to [Captain Maitland](https://bliptext.com/articles/frederick-lewis-maitland-rear-admiral) of [HMS Bellerophon (1786)](https://bliptext.com/articles/hms-bellerophon-1786) at the end of the [Hundred Days](https://bliptext.com/articles/hundred-days), he was not protected by military law or international law as a head of state and so the British were under no legal obligation to either accept his surrender or to spare his life.\nHowever, they did so to prevent him from being a [martyr](https://bliptext.com/articles/martyr) and exiled him to the remote [South Atlantic](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-atlantic) island of [Saint Helena](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-helena).\n\n## American Civil War\nThe most famous early use of the phrase in the [American Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-civil-war) occurred during the 1862 [Battle of Fort Donelson](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-fort-donelson).\n[Brigadier General](https://bliptext.com/articles/brigadier-general-united-states) [Ulysses S. Grant](https://bliptext.com/articles/ulysses-s-grant) of the [Union Army](https://bliptext.com/articles/union-army) received a request for terms from [Confederate](https://bliptext.com/articles/confederate-army) [Brigadier General](https://bliptext.com/articles/brigadier-general-united-states) [Simon Bolivar Buckner Sr.](https://bliptext.com/articles/simon-bolivar-buckner-sr), the fort's commanding officer.\nGrant's reply was that \"no terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.\"\nWhen news of Grant's victory, one of the Union's first in the war, was received in [Washington, DC](https://bliptext.com/articles/washington-dc), newspapers remarked (and [President](https://bliptext.com/articles/president-of-the-united-states) [Abraham Lincoln](https://bliptext.com/articles/abraham-lincoln) endorsed) that Grant's first two initials, \"U.S.,\" stood for \"Unconditional Surrender,\" which would later become his nickname.\nHowever, subsequent surrenders to Grant were not unconditional.\nWhen [Robert E. Lee](https://bliptext.com/articles/robert-e-lee) surrendered his [Army of Northern Virginia](https://bliptext.com/articles/army-of-northern-virginia) at [Appomattox Court House](https://bliptext.com/articles/appomattox-court-house-national-historical-park) in 1865, Grant agreed to allow the men under Lee's command to go home under parole and to keep sidearms and private horses.\nGenerous terms were also offered to [John C. Pemberton](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-c-pemberton) at [Vicksburg](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-vicksburg) and, by Grant's subordinate, [William Tecumseh Sherman](https://bliptext.com/articles/william-tecumseh-sherman), to [Joseph E. Johnston](https://bliptext.com/articles/joseph-e-johnston) in [North Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/north-carolina).\nGrant was not the first officer in the Civil War to use the phrase.\nThe first instance came some days earlier, when Confederate Brigadier General [Lloyd Tilghman](https://bliptext.com/articles/lloyd-tilghman) asked for terms of surrender during the [Battle of Fort Henry](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-fort-henry).\nFlag Officer [Andrew H. Foote](https://bliptext.com/articles/andrew-h-foote) replied, \"no sir, your surrender will be unconditional.\"\nEven at Fort Donelson, earlier in the day, a Confederate messenger approached Brigadier General [Charles Ferguson Smith](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-ferguson-smith), Grant's subordinate, for terms of surrender, and Smith stated, \"I'll have no terms with Rebels with guns in their hands, my terms are unconditional and immediate surrender.\"\nThe messenger was passed along to Grant, but there is no evidence that either Foote or Smith influenced Grant's choice of words.\nIn 1863, [Ambrose Burnside](https://bliptext.com/articles/ambrose-burnside) forced an unconditional [surrender of the Cumberland Gap](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-the-cumberland-gap-1863) and 2,300 Confederate soldiers, and in 1864, Union General [Gordon Granger](https://bliptext.com/articles/gordon-granger) forced an unconditional surrender of [Fort Morgan](https://bliptext.com/articles/fort-morgan-alabama).\n\n## World War II\nThe use of the term was revived during [World War II](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-war-ii) at the [Casablanca conference](https://bliptext.com/articles/casablanca-conference) in January 1943 when American President [Franklin D. Roosevelt](https://bliptext.com/articles/franklin-d-roosevelt) stated it to the press as the objective of the war against the Axis Powers of [Germany](https://bliptext.com/articles/nazi-germany), [Italy](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-italy), and [Japan](https://bliptext.com/articles/empire-of-japan).\nWhen Roosevelt made the announcement at Casablanca, he referred to General Grant's use of the term during the American Civil War.\nThe term was also used in the [Potsdam Declaration](https://bliptext.com/articles/potsdam-declaration) issued to Japan on July 26, 1945.\nNear the end of the declaration, it said, \"We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces\" and warned that the alternative was \"prompt and utter destruction.\"\nIt has been claimed that it prolonged the war in Europe by its usefulness to [German domestic propaganda](https://bliptext.com/articles/themes-in-nazi-propaganda), which used it to encourage further resistance against the Allied armies, and by its suppressive effect on the [German resistance](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-resistance-to-nazism) movement since even after a coup against [Adolf Hitler](https://bliptext.com/articles/adolf-hitler):\nIt has also been argued that without the demand for unconditional surrender, [Central Europe](https://bliptext.com/articles/central-europe) might not have fallen behind the [Iron Curtain](https://bliptext.com/articles/iron-curtain).\n\"It was a policy that the [Soviet Union](https://bliptext.com/articles/soviet-union) accepted with alacrity, probably because a completely destroyed Germany would facilitate Russia's postwar expansion program.\"\nIt has also been claimed to have prolonged the war with Japan or to be a cause of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (see [debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki](https://bliptext.com/articles/debate-over-the-atomic-bombings-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki)).\nOne reason for the policy was that the [Allies](https://bliptext.com/articles/allies-of-world-war-i) wished to avoid a repetition of the [stab-in-the-back myth](https://bliptext.com/articles/stab-in-the-back-myth), which had arisen in Germany after [World War I](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-war-i) and attributed Germany's loss to betrayal by Jews, Bolsheviks, and Socialists, as well as the fact that the war ended before the [Allies](https://bliptext.com/articles/allies-of-world-war-i) had reached Germany.\nThe myth was used by the Nazis in their propaganda.\nAn unconditional surrender was felt to ensure that the Germans knew that they had lost the war themselves.\n# [The Japanese delegation, headed by Mamoru Shigemitsu, prepares to sign the instrument of surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, 2 September 1945. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Surrender///of///Japan///-///USS///Missouri.jpg]\n# [Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signing the definitive act of unconditional surrender for the German military in Berlin, 8 May 1945 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Field///Marshall///Keitel///signs///German///surrender///terms///in///Berlin///8///May///1945///-///Restoration.jpg]\n\n## Bangladesh War of Independence\nOn 16 December 1971, Lt. Gen [A. A. K. Niazi](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-a-k-niazi), [CO](https://bliptext.com/articles/commanding-officer) of Pakistan Armed Forces located in [East Pakistan](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-pakistan) (now [Bangladesh](https://bliptext.com/articles/bangladesh)) signed the [Instrument of Surrender](https://bliptext.com/articles/instrument-of-surrender-1971) handing over the command of his forces stationed in [East Pakistan](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-pakistan) to the Indian Army under [General Jagjit Singh Aurora](https://bliptext.com/articles/jagjit-singh-aurora).\nThis led to the surrender of 93,000 personnel including families of the Pakistan's East Command and cessation of hostilities between the Pakistani Armed Forces and the Indian Armed Forces along with the guerrilla forces, the [Mukti Bahini](https://bliptext.com/articles/mukti-bahini).\nThe signing of this unconditional surrender document gave [Geneva Convention](https://bliptext.com/articles/geneva-convention) guarantees for the safety of the surrendered soldiers and completed the [independence of Bangladesh](https://bliptext.com/articles/bangladesh-war-of-independence).\n# [Signing of Pakistani Instrument of Surrender by Lt.Gen. A. A. K. Niazi in the presence of Indian military officers | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/1971///Instrument///of///Surrender.jpg]\n\n## Afghanistan War\nOn [15 August 2021](https://bliptext.com/articles/fall-of-kabul-2021), the government of the [Islamic Republic of Afghanistan](https://bliptext.com/articles/islamic-republic-of-afghanistan) and the [Afghan National Security Forces](https://bliptext.com/articles/afghan-national-security-forces) unconditionally surrendered to the [Taliban](https://bliptext.com/articles/taliban).\nThe unconditional surrender brought an end to the [conflict](https://bliptext.com/articles/war-in-afghanistan-2001-2021) and allowed the Taliban to take over Afghanistan and establish their government in the country.\n\n# Surrender at discretion\nIn [siege warfare](https://bliptext.com/articles/siege-warfare), the demand for the garrison to surrender unconditionally to the besiegers is traditionally phrased as \"surrender at discretion.\"\nIf there are negotiations with mutually agreed conditions, the garrison is said to have \"surrendered on terms.\"\nOne example was at the [Siege of Stirling](https://bliptext.com/articles/siege-of-stirling-castle-1746), during the 1745 [Jacobite Rebellion](https://bliptext.com/articles/jacobite-rising-of-1745):\nSurrender at discretion was also used at the [Battle of the Alamo](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-the-alamo), when [Antonio López de Santa Anna](https://bliptext.com/articles/antonio-l-pez-de-santa-anna) asked [Jim Bowie](https://bliptext.com/articles/jim-bowie) and [William B. Travis](https://bliptext.com/articles/william-b-travis) for unconditional surrender.\nEven though Bowie wished to surrender unconditionally, Travis refused, fired a cannon at Santa Anna's army, and wrote in his final dispatches:\nThe phrase surrender at discretion is still used in treaties.\nFor example, the [Rome Statute](https://bliptext.com/articles/rome-statute), in force since July 1, 2002, specifies under \"Article 8 war crimes, Paragraph 2.b:\"\nThe wording in the Rome Statute is taken almost word for word from Article 23 of the 1907 [IV Hague Convention](https://bliptext.com/articles/hague-conventions-1907) The Laws and Customs of War on Land: \"...it is especially forbidden – ... To kill or wound an enemy who, having laid down his arms, or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion\", and it is part of the customary [laws of war](https://bliptext.com/articles/laws-of-war).","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}

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