15. Contra the False Narrative of Being a Victim of Injustice, Eddie Slovik Had Concocted a Cynical Scheme to Manipulate the System
Contra the narrative that Private Eddie Slovik had been an innocent ground down by an unforgiving system, his desertion and confession were part of a cynical scheme. Slovik seems to have figured that confessing to desertion would get him sent to jail. As a former jailbird who had done multiple stints behind bars, jail held no terrors for him. As he saw it, staying safe, sound, dry, and well-fed in a military prison was preferable to risking life and limb, and dealing with the cold and mud and other hardships of front line combat.
To be sure, desertion could be punished with death. However, nobody during the war had been executed for that offense. Slovik’s logic seems to have run along the lines of letting the other suckers get shot up or maimed. By inviting the military to punish him, and embracing that punishment, he would achieve his goal of avoiding hazardous duty, and sit out the war in safety behind bars in a military prison. It was a foolproof way to game the system and manipulate it for his benefit. Or so Slovik thought.
