History Literature / TheDogsOfWar

* InfractionDistraction: Shannon plants a ''Playboy'' magazine and a bottle of whiskey in his luggage for the customs official to 'confiscate' so he doesn't look too closely at anything else he is bringing in

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Played with throughout, as Shannon and the other mercenaries have their own personal codes and moral boundaries that often conflict with each other, and their employer's. [[AdaptationalHeroism More evident in the film]] where Shannon develops genuine disgust towards Kimba after visiting Zangaro on a reconnaissance mission.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Played with throughout, as Shannon and the other mercenaries have their own personal codes and moral boundaries that often conflict with each other, and their employer's. [[AdaptationalHeroism More evident in the film]] where Shannon develops genuine disgust towards Kimba's regime after visiting it on a reconnaissance mission.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Played with throughout, as Shannon and the other mercenaries have their own personal codes and moral boundaries. [[AdaptationalHeroism More evident in the film]] where Shannon develops genuine disgust towards Kimba's regime.

* HollywoodTactics: Justified; Shannon has only a tiny force under his command, so if he attacked the capital 'by the book' the defenders would rally and fend them off. Instead he does a night attack right into the palace, relying on surprise and overwhelming firepower to break their morale.

* HollywoodTactics: Justified; Shannon has only a tiny force under his command, so if he attacked the capital 'by the book' the defenders would rally and fend them off. Instead he does a night attack right into the palace, relying on surprise and overwhelming firepower to break the morale of the defenders.

* FriendlyFire: How [[spoiler: Dupree]] meets his end, not hearing an ally's warning he accidentally runs into a grenade's blast radius

* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: The mercenaries insist on taking one of their dead comrades with them on the last plane out of the country. [[spoiler:Gets a BookEnds call back when the mercenaries ride off into the sunrise after the raid with "Tiny" Marc's corpse.]]

* OfCorpseHesAlive: At the beginning, the mercenaries bring their dead comrade with them on the plane out. Someone complains about it and demands they throw him off. "Tiny" Marc puts a grenade in his hand and pulls the pin and claims he's alive.

* SparedByTheAdaptation:[[spoiler:Everybody in the mercenary team but "Tiny" Marc.]]

''The Dogs of War'' is a 1974 novel by Creator/FrederickForsyth. It follows [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Sir James Manson]], who discovers a large amount of valuable platinum in [[{{Bulungi}} Zangaro]], a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny, and endeavors to obtain it via a discreet coup d'état. For this end, he employs Cat Shannon, a mercenary, who is given a hundred days to gather his team and make the strike. The rest of the book follows Shannon as he gathers his old friends and prepares for it.

* BorderCrossing: Smuggling the Schmeissers over the French border.

* ShownTheirWork: The entire book.

* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: The mercenaries insist on taking one of their dead comrades with them on the last plane out of the country.

* CurbStompBattle: The mercenaries out a night attack on President Kimba's palace and barracks, relying not only on shelling the buildings with mortar bombs and bazooka rockets, but also [[LoudOfWar gas-operated foghorns]] to further disorient the defenders. Faced with a sudden and overwhelming attack in the middle of the night, Kimba's PraetorianGuard RunOrDie.

* ManipulativeBastard: Manson manipulates Shannon into "completing the mission" (after the recon is over and paid for) by appealing to his need for {{Revenge}} after the Zangaro police [[ColdBloodedTorture worked him over]]. Also see below about Shannon's ex-father-in-law.

* FullCircleRevolution: Dr. Okoye tells Shannon (while attending him after the ColdBloodedTorture of the Zangaro police) that this happened with Kimba-after he deposed the previous dictator, he just went into full-on AGodAmI mode.

* TakeAThirdOption: Zangaro is an impoverished nation controlled by an incompetent and AxCrazy dictator dependent on the Soviet Union. Sir James Manson intends to replace him with an almost identical dictator in order to turn the country into a BananaRepublic under the thumb of his corporation. [[spoiler:Shannon and his mercenaries carry out the coup, but instead of installing Manson's puppet, they create a provisional government run by a more honorable general that Shannon has worked with in the past, with Zangaro's overlooked (but numerous and industrious) immigrant labor force as its support base]].

* MutualKill: Kimba's KGB bodyguard and [[spoiler: Tiny Marc]]

* GrenadeLauncher / RevolversAreJustBetter: TheMovie had "XM-18's" (actually [[CoolGuns/RocketsMissilesAndGrenadeLaunchers Manville revolver launchers]]) used for the climatic attack.

* BrickJoke: Shannon's final debriefing with Manson (and his meeting with Gobi) has Shannon insisting that they arrive on time to Zangaro after the battle is over. When they arrive after the battle is over, Shannon yells at them about arriving late and introduces them to Dr. Okoye, who he had just handed over the presidency of Zangaro to (and saying again that they should ''not'' have arrived late).

--->'''Manson''': [After Shannon says that he had just given Zangaro to Dr. Okoye] This is preposterous! This whole country was bought and paid for!

* MoneyIsNotPower: Shannon machine guns Kananga even when he's offering him a massive amount of money to let him go and screws Manson over (thus not completing his contract to the letter) because he finds both men repulsive and refuses to be the latter's puppet.

* AdaptationDistillation: The movie removes much of the central theme of the connection between big business and war, as well as the entire Nigerian Civil War subplot.

* AdaptationDistillation: The movie removes much of the central theme of the connection between big business and war.

* ShoutOut: A musical version of the poem ''Epitaph oo an Army of Mercenaries'' is sung over the movie's end credits.

* IronicEcho: From TheMovie -- Shannon is given a local guide who apparently can't speak English. After leading him on a WildGooseChase he says, "In my jungle you'd be just another asshole!" After being beaten up by the secret police, Shannon is limping out of the airport when he encounters the 'guide' again, who hands him his passport while saying with a grin, "Can't leave Zangaroo without your passport, asshole." Shannon gets his payback during the final attack however, when this asshole has the misfortune to be in Kimba's palace.

* DecapitationPresentation: A rival mercenary puts out a contract on Shannon. One day Roux opens his mailbox and finds the hitman's head in there.

** Kimba also tries to pull this card (in rather severe, sweat-soaked desperation) during the coup. Shannon's response is to stone-facedly put a burst of 9mm ammo through his chest.

* InfractionDistraction: Shannon plants a ''Playboy'' magazine and a bottle of whiskey in his luggage for the customs official to 'confiscate' so he doesn't look too closely at anything else he is bringing in
* IntrepidReporter: Alan North, who first meets Shannon on Zangaro and then starts to tail him when he meets him again in Europe. Unfortunately, he thinks Shannon is a CIA agent planning a coup on Zangaro (instead of a soldier-for-hire to a CorruptCorporateExecutive). He gets killed by an assassin sent by said CorruptCorporateExecutive (which ''pisses off'' Shannon) for his trouble. Also an IncrediblyObviousTail.

* {{Jerkass}}: Manson and General Gobi.
-->'''[[SmugSnake General Gobi]]''': He [Kimba] [[AGodAmI wants to be God]]. ''I'' want to be ''rich''!

* LondonGangster: Locke, Simon's Bodyguard in Africa is mentioned to have been an enforcer for the Krays [[spoiler: He makes the mistake of thinking an East London Hard Man would be a match for a trained merc]]

* ObnoxiousInLaws: Minor version, but Shannon's father-in-law completely detests his guts and when he confronts Shannon's ex-wife about him wanting to meet her again and give her a trip to Florida, she says the line below. Their following discussion also implies that he forced her to divorce [[ManipulativeBastard by playing the]] [[EvilCripple "needful, crippled old man" card]].
---> '''Shannon's Wife''': ''I'' didn't divorced him! ''You'' did!

* ApatheticCitizens: In TheMovie the reporter gripes about how everyone watching his documentary on Zagaroo switched to the Miss Universe contest as soon as they saw there was nothing interesting on.

* ApatheticCitizens: In TheMovie the reporter gripes about how everyone watching his documentary on Zagaroo switched to the Miss Universe contest as soon as they saw there was nothing interesting on.

* AssassinOutclassin: Roux's Hitman proves ineffectual against Langarotti.

* BilingualBackfire: In the movie Shannon goes on a reconnaissance mission where he leaves his local guide behind in the jungle and lets slip that he has training in guerilla warfare, thinking that the man only knows the [[{{Bulungi}} Zangaron]] language. After Shannon is imprisoned and tortured by the authorities and kicked out of the country, it turns out that the guide is proficient in English when he reveals to Shannon that he's a supporter of the Kimba regime and the one who reported him.

* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: In TheMovie the mercenaries insist on taking one of their dead comrades with them on the last plane out of the country.

* PreMortemOneLiner:
--->'''Manson''': [After Shannon says that he had just given Zangaro to Dr. Okoye] This is preposterous! This whole country was bought and paid for!
--->'''Shannon''': Well, you are going to have to buy it all over again! (Blows Gobi away with a .45, leaves).

* ShoutOut: A musical version of the poem ''Epitaph oo an Army of Mercenaries'' is sung over the movie's end credits.

* WarForFunAndProfit: Most of the protagonists are mercenaries, and Sir Manson thinks it better to finance a coup than trying to negotiate with Kimba.
** To be fair, negotiating wasn't really an option given that Kimba was a Soviet puppet and therefore very unlikely to open up his country to a major Western corporation.