Defence Forces Review 2010

The Niemba Ambush: A ReappraisalConclusionMany events in Irish military history have lost their factual basis and descended intomythology. It is not enough to rethink the consensus of the Niemba ambush - one must rejectit outright. Assertions made in 1960 have never been scrutinised against primary evidence.Niemba demonstrates the caution which one must use when utilising secondary literature ormisinformed interviewees as factual evidence. The brave men who died at Niemba did notdo so because of incompetence, weaponry, vehicles, radios or indiscipline; they died becauseof the UN’s ‘no first use of force’ doctrine and extreme dispersal policy as a result of limitedmanpower. If one can charge anyone with incompetence over the event then one should lay itupon the academics, journalists, and military personnel who have either created or sustainedthe false consensus.23