The majority of European critics of the traditional social order have taken it as self-evident that military officers, by the very nature of their profession, were bound to be conservative, that is to say, always inclined to throw their weight on the side of the established social order and the privileged classes. The idea that an army could become a chief engine of social revolution would seem to them absurd. This opinion was not—and is not—without foundations, yet it cannot claim absolute validity. In the Near East we saw recently social revolution carried out by army officers. In Ancient Rome traditional aristocracy was decimated and despoiled by the soldiers on more than one occasion. This poses the question of the factors which determine whether the influence of the army will be conservative or radical, or even subversive.