In rare critical moments in history, the professional officers of a national armed force may be faced with the ultimate decision of whether to continue to support the government to which they had originally given their allegiance. The Sixth Royal Military College Military History Symposium, held in Kingston, Ontario, in Marcgh 1979, addressed five such situations. George Stanley's opening essay, in this collection, discusses the general problem and sets the pattern for succeeding essays. These range from the British Army in the American Revolution (by Ira Gruber) through the French Royal Officers in the French Revolution (Samuel Scott), the Hapsburg Officer Corps during the reign of Francis-Joseph (Gunther Rothenberg), and the Canadian Expeditionary Force in World War I (Desmond Morton), to the German Officer Corps under Hitler in the Second World War (Peter Hoffmann).