00:00Gentlemen, this is not some cheap murder!
00:07It is an honorable thing.
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're diving deep into the most monumental betrayals in military history.
00:15Benedict Arnold is the American version of Judas Iscariot.
00:19Vidkun Kvisling In Scandinavia, the word Kvisling means someone
00:36who collaborates with an occupying force.
00:39It's no coincidence that it's the last name of Vidkun Kvisling, a Norwegian politician
00:44and military officer.
00:45Before the war's outbreak, he founded the Norwegian Fascist Party.
00:49It wasn't too popular, still only a minor party when the Nazis invaded.
00:53During the invasion, he tried to put himself in power via radio broadcast.
00:57It didn't work, but two years later, the Nazis finally gave Kvisling what he wanted.
01:02Following the war, his crimes landed him a death sentence by firing squad,
01:07ending his life in Oslo in 1945.
01:10Alfred Riddle
01:20The First World War didn't just start overnight.
01:24Tensions between empires were super high in the decades prior.
01:27It was like a pressure cooker desperate to explode, with the Austro-Hungarian Empire smack bang in the middle.
01:34This meant espionage was a big deal before the war, with Alfred Riddle becoming the most remembered spy of the era.
01:41He was Austria's head of counterintelligence, meaning he was responsible for hunting spies.
01:46Turned out, he was a Russian spy himself, and had been for eleven years.
01:51It all crashed in 1913 when his successor discovered his treachery.
01:55Some evidence suggests he was blackmailed over his sexuality, adding a tragic element to his betrayal.
02:01Wang Jingwei Sun Yat-sen was the revolutionary who founded modern China, taking down the Qing dynasty in 1911, then replacing it with a short-lived democracy.
02:12While he's remembered as a hero to many, his friend Wang Jingwei is not.
02:17So here's the thing.
02:18After Yat-sen died in 1925, Wang Jingwei lost the power struggle for rule over the Kuomintang Party.
02:24While he remained a member, he became increasingly displeased with their politics.
02:29This meant that when Japan invaded in 1937, he rallied to their cause, betraying his people and becoming leader of Japan's Chinese puppet state.
02:38If he lived to the war's conclusion, he would have probably been executed, but he died in 1944, leaving behind a legacy as a traitor who never saw justice.
02:47John A. Walker Jr.
02:54In 1955, Walker joined the US Navy, becoming a warrant officer by 1967.
03:00This role made him the head honcho of America's submarine communications.
03:04Unfortunately for him, he was struggling financially by this point.
03:08So what did he do?
03:09He walked into the Soviet embassy, sold them a classified document, and asked to become a spy.
03:15And the massive hemorrhaging of Navy secrets began.
03:18The Soviets accepted, and he sold them secrets for almost 20 years, until his drunk ex-wife called the FBI.
03:25She revealed his secrets, which resulted in him getting a life sentence.
03:29Walker died in prison in 2014, 77 years old, and only one year away from being eligible for parole.
03:36The damage he caused the United States is so great that experts on Soviet intelligence say if war had broken out in the 1970s, the Kremlin would have won.
03:46Wilhelm Canaris.
03:47After the war, Canaris became a mythical figure, the prototype of the good person in the shadow of a dictatorship.
03:55Born in the Kingdom of Prussia, Canaris saw Germany fall to Nazi rule in the 1930s.
04:00Initially, he was a strong supporter of the regime.
04:03This helped him secure a position as Abwehr chief, Germany's counterintelligence service.
04:08When he saw the brutal realities of the Poland invasion, he began to work against the Nazis.
04:13He relayed tons of information to the fascists' enemies, particularly the British.
04:18Because of him, Germany's military intelligence agency became a safe space for anti-Nazi conspirators.
04:24When Hitler eventually got wind of this, he was arrested in 1944.
04:28Only a few weeks before the war's conclusion, Canaris was executed.
04:32Apparently, before he died, he denied being a traitor, claiming to serve his country and his country alone.
04:38Hitler's henchmen and his adversary, saving some lives, yet guilty of the deaths of others.
04:44How could both be true?
04:47Wilhelm Canaris never found the answer.
04:50Oleg Penkovsky.
04:51The race for nuclear supremacy has fueled a world of conspiracy, deceit, and espionage.
04:58Almost everybody knows about the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when America and the Soviet Union clashed in the Caribbean.
05:05Fewer people know Oleg Penkovsky, one of the most notable Cold War spies in history.
05:10His actions arguably prevented World War III.
05:13In the 1960s, he was a Soviet intelligence officer, but was secretly working with both MI6 and the CIA.
05:20I have at my disposal very important materials on many subjects of importance to your government.
05:26Thanks to him, the US knew almost everything about Soviet nuclear missiles, allowing them to call the USSR's bluffs.
05:33He believed he was preventing a global catastrophe, and that's exactly what he was doing.
05:38How did the Soviets respond? Unfortunately, they caught him, gave him a show trial, and had him executed in 1962.
05:45Not the send-off such a hero deserved.
05:48He never knew it, but his information helped Kennedy avoid nuclear war.
05:52Meir Jaffer.
05:53Meir Jaffer.
05:54And then he opened floodgates for East India Company to conquer the rest of subcontinent.
06:00The East India Company was arguably the most evil corporation in human history.
06:05At their peak, they owned most of India, alongside an army larger than the British Empire's.
06:10And eventually ruled over 400 million people.
06:15Its trade was vital to Britain's commercial success, and its shares were the center point of London's financial market.
06:23One individual who helped them achieve such absurd wealth was Meir Jaffer.
06:27He was born in the Mughal Empire, but eventually became a Bengali military commander.
06:32In 1757, Jaffer betrayed Bengal's ruler, handing over the province after the Battle of Plasi.
06:38Bengal was one of India's wealthiest provinces, making it a huge blow to Indian sovereignty.
06:44Jaffer then ruled Bengal as a British puppet, getting kicked out briefly when they turned against him.
06:49India wouldn't be free from British rule until two centuries later.
06:53Benedict Arnold.
06:55Benedict Arnold is the American version of Judas Iscariot.
06:59Not everyone in America supported the Thirteen Colonies cause.
07:02Many were still loyal to the British crown, such as Benedict Arnold.
07:06He became Major General of the Continental Army, but in 1780 defected to the British.
07:11Arnold began colluding with the British in 1779, letting the British know through all kinds of ciphering codes
07:19about the dispositions and the strategic implications of the Continental Army.
07:24Arnold was trusted with defending West Point Fort in New York.
07:27Secretly, he was planning to surrender it to the King's men, but when this plot was exposed, he fled the fort entirely.
07:34The British made him a Brigadier General, and he went on to fight the army he used to defend.
07:39They never fully trusted him, but they let him move to London after the war, since he wasn't welcome in America.
07:44Loibu
07:54This guy was a beast of a man.
07:56He never lost a duel, and no other warlord dared challenge him to one.
07:59In the third century AD, China was fragmented into three rival kingdoms.
08:04In the tumultuous period preceding it, legendary warrior Loibu rose to prominence.
08:09In the Eastern Han Dynasty's dying days, Loibu was sworn to Dingyuan, a powerful warlord.
08:16As soon as rival Dongzua offered him riches, he quickly chopped his leaders off and swapped sides.
08:22Loibu became Dongzua's right-hand man, until someone asked him to betray him, so he did.
08:27Loibu?
08:28Betray me?
08:29No way, man.
08:30Never gonna happen.
08:31Never gonna happen.
08:32Ah, crap.
08:35Following this, he allied with even more warlords, like Yuan Shu and Lui Bei.
08:40After his disastrous defeat at the Battle of Xi'pi, Han leader Chao Chao had him hanged,
08:46ending his cycle of treachery.
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09:03Cassius and Brutus
09:18Julius Caesar was considered a traitor to the Roman Republic by his contemporaries.
09:23Now, we instead remember Cassius and Brutus as the ultimate traitors.
09:27The pair were Roman politicians and allies of Julius Caesar.
09:31That was until Caesar declared himself dictator for life, threatening the end of the Roman
09:36Republic.
09:37To save democracy, Brutus and Cassius organized his execution.
09:40What are you waiting for?
09:41Now!
09:42Now!
09:43Now!
09:44Now!
09:45Ah!
09:46Instead of reviving the Republic, it triggered a civil war, which directly led to Augustus founding
09:53the Roman Empire.
09:54Their attempt to preserve liberty ultimately accelerated authoritarianism.
09:58Two thousand years later, their legacy is still a complicated one.
10:02Do you know of any soldiers who were instead so loyal it cost them dearly?
10:07Let us know in the comments section!
10:08Give me the weapons and I will cripple the Soviet High Command with my own hands.
10:17Thank you, Bob.
10:18Now!
10:19Now!
10:20Now!
10:21Now!
10:22Now!
10:23Here you go!
10:24Now!
10:25Now everything was set up.
10:26Now!
10:27Now, install your movie and deposit to time.
10:28It has to be a piece of its core MO.
10:30Now!
10:31Go ahead!
10:32Now!
10:33Go ahead!
10:34Point of East Coast
10:35Here!
10:36Le�� Case!
10:37Here!
10:38The two elements pop someoneaw!
10:39Now!
10:40If you make a handful of diseases,
10:42c infernal cave!
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