ABSTRACT
History is replete with ordinary generals who nibbled on deceit and sent the troops into the cannon's mouth or against the longbow. Yet throughout history some extraordinary generals, and some even less exalted warriors, used deception to win out over superior force or to cut their own casualties. Since war is a matter of life and death for the victorious as well the advantages of guile to avoid defeat or crippling losses have held an attraction that stretches back through time and across most cultures. The good generals, and seldom have so many appeared simultaneously, employed all the classical ruses, depending upon surprise and deception, and devised novel techniques and tactics. No one know that in all human activity there are only a few basic categories of deception cheating and only one basic means to deploy the ruses of duplicity.
