General Sir Michael Jackson was told that he would have to resign if he refused to obey an order by the American commander of Nato's forces during the Kosovo war to stop the Russians from seizing control of Pristina airport in June 1999.
The British general, who had led the Nato peacekeeping force into Kosovo, had been ordered by General Wesley Clark, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (Saceur), to block the runway to prevent Russian reinforcements from landing.
In his account of the dramatic confrontation with General Jackson, detailed in Waging Modern War, published in the United States this week, General Clark says: "I reiterated my instructions to Jackson, explaining carefully that if he didn't follow my directions he would have to resign his position."
General Clark's warning followed what was probably the sharpest clash between American and British military commanders since Eisenhower and Montgomery disputed strategy in the Second World War.
The Nato bombing campaign had ended, the Serbs had agreed to withdraw and General Jackson was gearing up his force in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to enter Kosovo on June 12. But 200 Russian troops based in Bosnia had entered Kosovo from the north and driven to Pristina airport -pre-empting the Nato deployment plan -and were awaiting reinforcements from Moscow. The Russians wanted to move troops rapidly into northern Kosovo at the end of Nato's bombing campaign to create a de facto partition of the province before General Jackson's force had arrived.
General Clark says that the Pentagon and Javier Solana, then Nato's Secretary-General, authorised him to use Apache helicopters to block the airport's runway to prevent Russian troop carriers from landing.
General Jackson refused, saying his mission was to return refugees to Kosovo and keep the peace, not risk a confrontation with Russia. The men met in General Jackson's headquarters in an old shoe factory in Macedonia.
General Jackson was "angry and upset", General Clark writes. It was a "rapid-fire exchange and became too personal".
"Sir, I'm not taking any more orders from Washington," General Jackson said.
"Mike, these aren't Washington's orders, they're coming from me," General Clark replied.
"By whose authority?"
"By my authority as Supreme Allied Commander Europe."
"You don't have that authority."
"I do have that authority. I have the Secretary-General behind me on this."
"Sir, I'm not starting World War Three for you..."
"Mike, I'm not asking you to start World War Three. I'm asking you to block the runways so that we don't have to face an issue that could produce a crisis."
END OF EXCERPT.