The Short Victorious War

The Short Victorious War is the third Honor Harrington novel by David Weber. Its title comes from a quote by Vyacheslav von Plehve in reference to the Russo-Japanese War: "What this country needs is a short, victorious war to stem the tide of revolution." That quote is one of the novel's two epigraphs; the other is a quote from Robert Wilson Lynd: "The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions."

The People´s Republic of Haven finds itself teetering at the edge of economic disaster. Unable to maintain its massive welfare state in the face of inflation and deficit, the leaders of the People´s Republic decide to resort to war against Manticore. A short, victorious war, they believed, would give them control of the Manticore Wormhole Junction and allow them to reduce its huge military budget once the Manticorans were brought to their knees.

Meanwhile Honor returns to duty after injuries she sustained in The Honor of the Queen to command the brand-new battlecruiser HMS Nike, the pride of the Royal Manticoran Navy, with some of her old crew aboard and with her old Academy friend Michelle Henke as first officer. But the new ship has many technical problems which hamper her first operational deployment to the critical Manticoran base at Hancock Station.

The Havenites start the war Honor had been struggling to prevent in the previous books. Their plan is to launch sneak attacks on Manticoran Alliance members to goad the Alliance into a retaliatory strike, giving them the excuse they need to launch a full-scale attack against the Star Kingdom.

Honor joins Admiral Mark Sarnow's fleet alongside her old enemy, Pavel Young. With most of the Royal Manticoran Navy deployed elsewhere to prevent a Havenite attack, Honor and Admiral Sarnow find themselves forced to defend Hancock Station from a vastly superior Havenite armada. Pavel Young´s cowardice nearly costs Honor her victory, and the Manticorans are on the verge of defeat before a reinforcement fleet (and Honor´s tactical prowess) drives off the Havenite attack.

After the first disastrous battles of the war, three Havenite revolutionaries—Robert S. Pierre, Oscar Saint-Just, and Cordelia Ransom—lead the overthrow of their "Legislaturist" government and make it more tyrannical, forming a ¨Committee of Public Safety¨ to rule the People´s Republic. They begin a purge of senior military officers and political figures to cement their rule.

This novel is much less Honor-centered than the previous two, and the war is depicted from many perspectives. Template:Succession