In , he published his classic book on military tactics, Infantry Attacks , drawing on his experiences in that war. Among his British adversaries he had a reputation for chivalry, and his phrase "war without hate" has been uncritically used to describe the North African campaign. After the Nazis gained power in Germany, Rommel gradually accepted the new regime.
Historians have given different accounts of the specific period and his motivations. Because of Rommel's status as a national hero, Hitler wanted to eliminate him quietly instead of having him immediately executed, as many other plotters were.
Rommel was given a choice between suicide , in return for assurances that his reputation would remain intact and that his family would not be persecuted following his death, or facing a trial that would result in his disgrace and execution; he chose the former and took a cyanide pill. Rommel became a larger-than-life figure in both Allied and Nazi propaganda , and in postwar popular culture.
Numerous authors portray him as an apolitical, brilliant commander and a victim of Nazi Germany, although other authors have contested this assessment and called it the " Rommel myth ".
Rommel's reputation for conducting a clean war was used in the interest of the West German rearmament and reconciliation between the former enemies β the United Kingdom and the United States on one side and the new Federal Republic of Germany on the other. Several of Rommel's former subordinates, notably his chief of staff Hans Speidel , played key roles in German rearmament and integration into NATO in the postwar era.
