Yrjö Keinonen, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetYrjö Keinonen
General and Chief of Defence of Finland
Date of Birth: 
About Yrjö Keinonen
- Yrjö Ilmari Keinonen (August 31, 1912 in Ruskeala – October 29, 1977 in Nurmijärvi) was a Finnish General of the Infantry and Knight of the Mannerheim Cross.
- He was the Chief of Defence of the Finnish Defence Forces between 1965 and 1969.General Keinonen was the only Chief of Defence to be forced to resign in-term.
- When he was selected for the position, his formal qualifications were excellent, and he was unambiguously supported by President Kekkonen.
- A contemporary, Lieutenant Colonel Tiilikainen, devotes an entire chapter to the reasons why he resigned in his book about the Cold War in Finland.
- Officially, the explanation was neglect of duties, working only an estimated 90 days annually.
- However, there was widespread resentment against him, both in the forces and later revealed in other memoirs from other generals.
- This hints towards a more serious accusation, defeatism.
- Namely, Tiilikainen speculates that due to the YYA Treaty, Keinonen believed that a Soviet occupation was eventually inevitable.
- Thus, the remaining task of the Chief of Defence was to be some sort of a Finnish General Philippe Pétain, doing only damage control, and thus active defence planning was unnecessary.
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