Andrew Cayley on War Crimes

Newly appointed international prosecutor in the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal nominates unconventional picks, such as Wilfred Owen's Collected Poems

Nuremberg

By Airey Neave

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Your first book is Nuremberg by Airey Neave.

This is a book that I was given by a friend of mine in the army when I was working at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. Airey Neave was a soldier and a lawyer – a bit like me, I guess. He served in the infantry during the Second World War and it is very sad that he was blown up by the INLA in the House of Commons car park in 1979. It is an interesting book because it gives his personal account of the events at Nuremberg. He was an army Major then, assigned to serve each of the principal defendants at the main trial with their indictments. He gives a pen picture of each of them and the men that they had become after their arrests and during the Nuremberg tribunal.

Given the similarities of your careers what did you take away from this book?

Well, there were two things. Rebecca West, the journalist who reviewed the book and wrote the foreword to it, describes being in Nuremberg and being at the trials. And she said that the trial was a kind of legalistic prayer. She meant that the war had been so utterly devastating for everyone in Europe, that this was a prayer for help. That made a profound impression on me, in the sense that part of my work is all about passionately believing in a better world.

The other thing that had a big impact on me is that, at the end of the book, Neave writes about it being a historic trial and the sincere efforts to bring compassion and decency to the conduct of war. He went on to write that he had no regrets and was among those who helped to expose the Nazis.

And, I think, after the Srebrenica trial I felt very strongly, exactly the same feeling, because the Serbs had denied that those things took place. They refused to admit that anybody had been killed. And we proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that over 8,000 people had been murdered in the space of ten days. After that nobody could deny these events had taken place, and that was important.

Five Days in London

By John Lukacs

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Your next book is all about the power of Churchill – Five Days in London: May 1940 by John Lukacs.

Yes. Actually, this book is in essence about the five days in May when Churchill had been Prime Minister just for a number of weeks. That was the time that a decision was being made as to whether or not the United Kingdom would come to some kind of arrangement with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany or whether the country would fight on. And John Lukacs explains the complex politics of the time. And, obviously, the central and critical role that Churchill played in ensuring that accommodation didn’t happen. Much of the book explains Churchill’s capacity to lead and to persuade people in a terrible situation that they should stay with him and not surrender. He told them to go on fighting Germany, until victory. I think Churchill comes out of this as a very impressive individual.

The Nazi war machine was responsible for many horrendous war crimes and for me Churchill represented the antithesis of this. He stands for something that was decent and one of the things that impresses me about him is just his sheer leadership qualities. Qualities like that have always inspired me when I am leading war criminal trials. It is tremendously pressured and you are often up against people who simply don’t believe you can actually do it. I have always been impressed with him because he believed it could be done in the face of overwhelming odds, and he succeeded.

Nelson

By Christopher Hibbert

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Another historical figure you’re impressed by is Nelson. Tell me about Christopher Hibbert’s Nelson: A Personal History.

I read this book about three or four years ago. Christopher Hibbert is an absolutely wonderful biographer, another professional soldier. I seem to read a lot of books written by professional soldiers.

How does this link to war crimes?

Well, I don’t think Nelson ever committed any war crimes! But, for me, this book is about the link with my army background. I have always been interested in and admired effective military leaders. Nelson was a very complicated character. He could be extremely vain and arrogant but also he was a tremendous individual and absolutely loved by his men. People today in the Royal Navy still talk about what’s called the ‘Nelson Touch’. This was the manner in which he inspired both the officers and men around him to perform extraordinary deeds. For a time that was extremely brutal in terms of the conduct of warfare, he really was a remarkable man.

And do they make people like him any more?

I think it’s difficult to be this kind of leader any more. But, certainly in my experience of British army officers who I became quite close to during my military career, I would say many of his qualities still inspire junior officers in all three services today.