The notion of 'conditional surrender' is alien to them, but they learn quickly that it's a lot more effective for keeping humans under control.

Once human insurrections start in areas that previously 'surrendered', they destroy entire townships as a corrective measure, thinking all those who would behave like this insane and dangerous. Once they surrender, they're instinctively obedient to the new herd, and they expect humans to behave the same.Likewise, being separated from a herd for a prolonged amount of time, or not getting busy with the females during mating season can drive them to a very real form of insanity. They instinctively surrender (by dropping their guns and going belly up) when outnumbered, surprised or separated from their herd.

The aliens and humans really don't quite understand each other's psychology, mainly because the aliens have much more of a herd dynamic.Shortly after this the Soviet leadership gets killed by a KGB coup. To eliminate the fithp landing site in Kansas, the President of the US had to ask the Soviet Premier to launch nuclear ICBMs at it, since the US arsenal alone would have been shot down by the alien defenses.The military force at the end is American in nature, but since the USA was the worst-hit country by the invasion, they had to rely on significant outside help to put together the Michael.It extrapolates that, in about 10 years, both power blocs will still be largely intact, and that a renewed interest in space exploration will have resulted in a network of laser sats orbiting the Earth, two Moon Bases (one Soviet, one American), and a large, ISS-like Soviet successor to Mir called the Kosmograd. Alternate History: The novel was written in 1985, when the Cold War between the USA and USSR was still very real.Their rather flawed plan is thoroughly deconstructed at various points throughout the novel, both by humans and by dissident fithp. Their Generation Ship, Thuktun Flishithy (' Message Bearer'), coming most likely from a planet around Alpha Centauri, runs on an advanced Bussard ramjet, and their intent is to conquer Earth and subjugate the human race. The invading Fithp are herd animals resembling baby elephants, with bifurcated trunks that end in 8 tentacles. The story is set in a slightly alternate 90's period. Set in a very hard universe, it almost serves as a Deconstruction and Reconstruction of the genre. Written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Footfall is an Alien Invasion novel with much more accurate science than usual.

Footfall by Larry Niven