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Unconditional surrender is a surrender without conditions, except for those provided by international law. Normally a belligerent will only agree to surrender unconditionally if completely incapable of continuing hostilities. Announcing that only unconditional surrender is acceptable puts psychological pressure on a weaker adversary. It has also been criticized for forcing an opponent into a position where he has nothing to gain by negotiation or diplomacy, and might as well fight to the bitter end. The most notable uses of the term have been by the United States in the American Civil War and World War II.

In the era post World War II, the comparable example of unconditional surrender is that of the Pakistani army in East Pakistan at the hands of the Indian army and the Mukti Bahini during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 or the latter half of Bangladesh Liberation War. Here 93,000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered unconditionally to the Indian Allied Forces (Mitro Bahini) commander Lt Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora.

The most famous early use of the phrase occurred during the 1862 Battle of Fort Donelson in the American Civil War. Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army received a request for terms from the fort's commanding officer, Confederate Brigadier General Simon Bolivar Buckner. Grant's reply was that "no terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." When news of Grant's victory—one of the Union's first in the Civil War—was received in Washington, D.C., newspapers remarked (and President Abraham Lincoln endorsed) that Ulysses Simpson Grant's first two initials, "U.S.," stood for "Unconditional Surrender," which would later become his nickname.

However, subsequent surrenders to Grant were not unconditional. When Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in 1865, Grant agreed to allow the men under Lee's command to go home under parole and to keep sidearms and private horses. Generous terms were also offered to John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg and (by Grant's subordinate, William T. Sherman) to Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina.

The use of the term was revived during World War II at the Casablanca conference when American President Franklin D. Roosevelt offered it to the other Allies and the press as the objective of the war against the Axis Powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan. V-E Day (Victory in Europe). The term was also used at the end of World War II when Japan surrendered to the United States.

“Unconditional Surrender,” is also the name of a statue dedicated to the city of San Diego, Ca., which represents a famous photo taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt of a Sailor kissing a nurse in Time Square, New York City 1945. Edith Shain is the name of the nurse in the photo. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman David A. Brandenburg can be seen at http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=43227

• German Surrender Documents of WWII (US Historical Documents)

• Military rule
• Conditional surrender
• Suing for peace