Jackson Campaign

The Jackson Campaign was the brainchild of career military strategist Joseph Jackson, a graduate of Gudersnipe School who made it his mission to win as many wars as possible without injuring a single person.

Opponents

The enemy in the Jackson Campaign was the Hatari Republic, a small and otherwise inconsequential dictatorship ran by a very insane leader, who spent most of his time in power starving the common peasant while building up a massive army. He then began simply butchering his own people when they tried to revolt, and finally prepared a military campaign against his neighbors.

The "War"

The Foundation intervened, sending troops to defend the borders and lock the Hatarins in, but that wasn't enough. Open conflict was inevitable, and the war was projected to take two years and cost tens of thousands of lives. Worse still, for each Foundation soldier lost, the strategists calculated roughly five Hatarin civilians would die. The end result was the complete destruction of the Hatari Republic, at an unacceptable cost. The decision was made to employ strategic weaponry, when the Hatarins' own neighbors intervened and demanded another solution. As the insane dictator was obviously not about to back down, higher command called its most unconventional man.

The Strategy

Jackson proposed a most unusual ploy: to pay the impoverished Hatarins to throw the war. Leaflets were air-dropped all over the country offering any solider who defected citizenship in the Gudersnipe Foundation, relocation, and the equivalent of one year's wages. There were many takers amongst the lower echelons of the soldier class, which consisted primarily of young, single men. However, those that did defect reported that the Foundation could find many more takers if they opened the program to soldiers' families.

Jackson took it a step further, opening the offer to anyone in the republic. Better still, it was based on a per-person count; meaning a family of five defecting would recieve the equivalent of five years' wages. At that, most of the lower-class abandoned the country all together. Farmers were the biggest takers, many of whom were hit the hardest by the regime's practices.

With the majority of the country now empty and the food supply in grave jeopardy, Jackson began a new round of leaflets, this time promising two years' wages and a plot of land to anyone willing to leave (though a great many of the farmers to defect earlier had also been given land to develop). An extra year's wages would go to anyone with useful intelligence.

By the end of the conflict, Jackson's program was offering five years' wages per defector, large plots of land, and various other perks to anyone willing to simply walk out of the country and never return. This effort produced the most takers, and within seven months of its inception, Jackson's plan had cleared out 90% of the country. The remainder consisted of die-hard loyalists and high-ranking military officers, as well as the wealthy and elite. The backbone of the country was broken; there were no more fighting men, and the Foundation's soldiers had only to walk in to seize control.

The end result was the same: the Hatari Replublic was completely obliterated. However, Jackson did it without firing a single shot or ending a single life. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the Hatarin ruling regime did execute some individuals trying to defect; but over all very few lives were lost.

Legacy

The Jackson Campaign became known as the Jackson Strategy; and though it was never again employed on a similar scale, that was viable made it a plausible means of "fighting" a country.