The Hinge Factor: How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History

From the wooden horse at Troy to the Gulf War, military history has been as much marked by chance and error as by gallantry and heroism. Despite impossible odds, invincible armies have gone down to bitter defeat as their weak opponents triumphed. In battle, much depends on which side commits the biggest blunder. Many conflicts have been decided by the caprice of weather, bad intelligence, heroism where it wasn't expected, or individual incompetence- in other words the unpredictable.