[Jim Oxley]

An old man will see events and the world quite differently compared to his youth. It's simply a reflection of his advancing age, maturity, distance from the events described. And to a large degree, as he is writing his legacy, just how he wants to be remembered.

Rall in his advancing years is a much more refined and humble human being than he was is his youth. Then he was quite probably a proud, arrogant, confident youth fighting for a just cause. He would have gloried in his victory's, enjoyed his peer's adulation, and partaken in the rewards offered him - as was the acceptable general behaviour of those tumultous times.

Now, with hindsight, he knows that the cause he fought for was shameful. He was duped and mislead as most of his generation. What were considered as great achievements then he perhaps now sees in a less favourable light. So naturally he will downplay his combat victories, spend more time reflecting on the men he knew and lost, the betrayal of the times. And detail at length his rebirth in the his post war career, which was both successful and uncontroversial.

All old men do it.