History DefeatMeansFriendship / RealLife

* UsefulNotes/BillClinton and George H. W. Bush became friends after the bulk of their political careers concluded, and spent most of the subsequent decade co-organizing charity events. Bush made it quite clear that he was going to vote for [[UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton Bill's wife]] in 2016 -- though his [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump own party's nominee]] also played a big role in that. Clinton, meanwhile, came to view Bush almost as a surrogate father figure and was devastated by his death in 2018.

* After Creator/{{Sega}} dropped out of the console market due to the failure of the [[UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast Dreamcast]], they began to publish the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' games on Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s consoles, with [[VideoGame/SonicColors several]] [[VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries of those]] [[VideoGame/SonicLostWorld games]] being exclusive to Nintendo platforms, and [[VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames occasionally]] [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros crossing over with]] its former rival, the ''Franchise/SuperMario'' games. It extends beyond that, with Creator/{{Atlus}}, now a subsidiary of Sega, publishing and developing ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' and ''[[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiV V]]'' exclusively for Nintendo platforms, a remake of ''VideoGame/PanzerDragoon'' being announced for the Platform/NintendoSwitch, and Nintendo more or less taking over publishing duties for the ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'' games starting from ''VideoGame/Bayonetta2'' onward.

* After Creator/{{Sega}} dropped out of the console market due to the failure of the [[UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast Dreamcast]], they began to publish the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' games on Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s consoles, with [[VideoGame/SonicColors several]] [[VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries of those]] [[VideoGame/SonicLostWorld games]] being exclusive to Nintendo platforms, and [[VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames occasionally]] [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros crossing over with]] its former rival, the ''Franchise/SuperMario'' games. It extends beyond that, with Creator/{{Atlus}}, now a subsidiary of Sega, publishing and developing ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' and ''[[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiV V]]'' exclusively for Nintendo platforms, a remake of ''VideoGame/PanzerDragoon'' being announced for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, and Nintendo more or less taking over publishing duties for the ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'' games starting from ''VideoGame/Bayonetta2'' onward.

* Ancient Rome cheerfully inducted defeated tribes and peoples into the larger Roman state. [[https://acoup.blog/2021/06/25/collections-the-queens-latin-or-who-were-the-romans-part-ii-citizens-and-allies/ One professor described their expansion method as "the Goku Model of Imperialism":]] we beat you so now we're friends, and friends send soldiers to help our campaign to, uh, make new friends, right?

* Mixed martial artists Frank Shamrock, Maurice Smith, and Wrestling/TsuyoshiKohsaka became the ThreeAmigos of MMA after Kohsaka defeated Smith and Shamrock defeated Kohsaka.

** Believe it or not, the US and Vietnam are fast approaching this today (although it's more like "Stalemate equals Friendship"). The Vietnamese, although obviously having mixed feelings about the [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar American intervention in their country]], very quickly entered the good graces of the US after the UsefulNotes/ColdWar.[[note]]The Vietnamese see the American intervention as only one chapter in their struggle for independence (ironically, much like the US views the UK), after fighting off Japan, then France, and nowadays against China.[[/note]] Currently, the US is Vietnam's largest trading partner (unless you count the whole EU as one unit, in which case the US is second), and the US and Vietnam cooperate on regional issues in Southeast Asia, including tacit US support for Vietnam's position in their numerous maritime border disputes with China. The US assiduously courted Vietnam in the 1990s, and that Vietnam has far less animosity with the US than with China -- which has invaded and occupied the country several times over the past...oh...[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Chinese_domination_of_Vietnam two]] ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Chinese_domination_of_Vietnam thousand]]'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Chinese_domination_of_Vietnam frickin']] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Chinese_domination_of_Vietnam years]],[[note]]and those are only the times the Chinese actively tried to take over the whole country and succeeded[[/note]] most recently in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War 1979]], and has been trying to mess with Hanoi's business quite blatantly for decades. Today, Vietnam is one of the most ''pro''-American countries in all Asia, with a whopping ''76%'' of Vietnamese having a [[https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/30/vietnamese-see-u-s-as-key-ally/ positive image]] of the US. (This amusingly for those not directly involved causes trouble with the Vietnamese-American community, who are overwhelmingly anticommunists from South Vietnam and not happy with the ''rapprochement'' and its symbols, like acceptance of the current official Vietnamese flag).

** Britain. After fighting UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution and the UsefulNotes/WarOf1812 with the USA, relations between the two have been quite peaceful. Even before the War of 1812, UsefulNotes/AlexanderHamilton was a big advocate of this as a way to develop America's commercial economy, though his preferred policies didn't go over that well in the climate of Anglophobia immediately following the Revolutionary War. This doesn't mean that tensions disappeared right away, however. There were still occasional squabbles throughout the middle of the 19th century, particularly disputes over the border with Canada. The major border issues were settled by 1850, and at the same time Anglo-American cooperation started to get going; the original Monroe Doctrine, articulated in 1823, served the purposes and had the tacit support of the British, which is a bit part of why it was taken somewhat seriously by the European powers. The growing trade relationship between the US and Britain--and between the US and Canada--also factored in, and by the 1880s the US and Britain were warily inching towards the alliance that would come to develop over the past century. America's aid helped in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, but it was America's involvement in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, providing much-needed support to British troops who had held off a full-scale German invasion longer than any other nation besides Russia, that sealed the two nations' alliance. Since the days of Churchill and FDR, the US and UK have become nigh-inseparable, and have by far the strongest diplomatic and military alliance of any two autonomous nations in the civilized world.

* Invoked and Enforced in the 2020 Democratic primaries. After defeating Sanders in the primaries and becoming the Democratic nominee, UsefulNotes/JoeBiden immediately formed Unity Task Forces with Sanders to unify the Democrats. In return for full cooperation from the Sanders campaign, Biden adopting several of Sanders' policies and hired his surrogates to draft his platform.

** Believe it or not, the US and Vietnam are fast approaching this today (although it's more like "Stalemate equals Friendship"). The Vietnamese, although obviously having mixed feelings about the [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar American intervention in their country]], very quickly entered the good graces of the US after the UsefulNotes/ColdWar.[[note]]The Vietnamese see the American intervention as only one chapter in their struggle for independence (ironically, much like the US views the UK), after fighting off Japan, then France, and nowadays against China.[[/note]] Currently, the US is Vietnam's largest trading partner (unless you count the whole EU as one unit, in which case the US is second), and the US and Vietnam cooperate on regional issues in Southeast Asia, including tacit US support for Vietnam's position in their numerous maritime border disputes with China. The US assiduously courted Vietnam in the 1990s, and that Vietnam has far less animosity with the US than with China -- which has invaded and occupied the country several times over the past...oh...[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Chinese_domination_of_Vietnam two]] ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Chinese_domination_of_Vietnam thousand]]'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Chinese_domination_of_Vietnam frickin']] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Chinese_domination_of_Vietnam years]],[[note]]and those are only the times the Chinese actively tried to take over the whole country and succeeded[[/note]] most recently in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War 1979]], and has been trying to mess with Hanoi's business quite blatantly for decades. Today, Vietnam is one of the most ''pro''-American countries in all Asia, with a whopping ''71%'' of Vietnamese having a positive image of the US. (This amusingly for those not directly involved causes trouble with the Vietnamese-American community, who are overwhelmingly anticommunists from South Vietnam and not happy with the ''rapprochement'' and its symbols, like acceptance of the current official Vietnamese flag).

** Played straight with white Northern and Southerners after the end of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, unlike some other places where a civil war leads to a CycleOfRevenge. Unfortunately, it was done at the expense of America's black population, who lost a lot of the initial gains (there were several black members of Congress during Reconstruction, and many black members of southern state governments; after that, it was effective disenfranchisement and Jim Crow suppression in the South, and a refusal to recognize black contributions to the Union cause during the Civil War) they had made post-war.

* Salah-al-Din, a Muslim warlord of Kurdish ancestry, became something of a [[WorthyOpponent "Noble Heathen"]] folk hero to Europeans following his conquest of Jerusalem, which inspired the Third Crusade. According to legend, Saladin made friends with Richard the Lionheart, although in real life they more or less fought each other to a standstill and never met in person. Most importantly was what Salah-al-Din (romanized as Saladin) ''didn't'' do: when he conquered Jerusalem, he ''[[PetTheDog didn't slaughter the Christians or Jews living there]]''. This is the absolute opposite of what European Crusaders had done when they first took Jerusalem - the Crusaders mercilessly slaughtered every Muslim and as many Jews as they could find. When Salah-al-Din took Jerusalem back, Europe was positive news of a massacre would follow, but it never did. Salah-al-Din simply took the city back and nothing more. Hence, the legend of the Noble Heathen. That was because Jerusalem was taken in 1099 by an all-out assault, while in 1187 Jerusalem surrendered instead of being taken by force. The Medieval custom was to spare the town's inhabitants if the town surrendered; if it was conquered by assault, the town was free to be ravaged for three days and three nights. That said, Saladin was also intentionally invoking the memory of the rise of Islam: almost exactly 550 years earlier, Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab had taken Jerusalem and entered the city quietly; this conquest had ended several decades where the city repeatedly changed hands between the UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire and Sassanid Persia, with the conquerors slaughtering hundreds if not thousands each time for security reasons.[[note]]The Zoroastrian Persians were noted for using Jews as agents, while since the Byzantines were Christian they distrusted Christians as possible spies for Constantinople, and contrariwise the Byzantines distrusted Jews not only as "Christ-killers" (as the Church insisted they were) but also as possible spies for Persia. Each time the Persians took Jerusalem, they killed Christians and brought in Jews; every time the Byzantines took it back, they killed Jews and brought in Christians.[[/note]]\\
There were most likely also [[{{Realpolitik}} pragmatic reasons]] involved. Most European countries had other conflicts to worry about and were perfectly happy to ignore the Middle East as long as there was no compelling motivation to have another war [[note]]Part of why the Pope at the time championed the Crusades was a way to stabilize Europe by sending warmongers and most knights away to the Middle East to be Islam's problem, and also to remove rival rulers so the Pope could gain more political powers[[/note]]. Massacres in Jerusalem or the destruction of Christian holy sites would have been such a reason, and the Church would have forced Europe to put aside their various petty conflicts and launch another crusade. Salah-al-Din was supposedly not stupid and realized what would happen if he played the part of the brutal conqueror.

* In one of the most epic boxing matches ever, George Foreman was defeated by UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli in 1974. The two became good friends afterward. Another boxing example is [[Film/TheFighter Micky Ward]] and Arturo Gatti, who had three memorable fights in the 2000s and became friends, with Ward even becoming Gatti's trainer until the Italian-born Canadian died in 2009.
* Creator/HowardStern often gained the praises or at least acceptance of many former radio and celebrity rivals once he established his ratings supremacy and celebrity credibility.

* UsefulNotes/BillClinton and UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush became friends after the bulk of their political careers concluded, and spent most of the subsequent decade co-organizing charity events. Bush made it quite clear that he was going to vote for [[UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton Bill's wife]] in 2016 -- though his [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump own party's nominee]] also played a big role in that. Clinton, meanwhile, came to view Bush almost as a surrogate father figure and was devastated by his death in 2018.
* The quarrel between UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt and UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft cost them the 1912 election which UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson won by a landslide; near the end of his life, Roosevelt eventually reconciled with Taft.
* In 1980, Bush and UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan were competing for the Republican nomination. When Reagan won, Bush agreed to be his running mate.

* One of the oldest ones in the book: When Persian King UsefulNotes/CyrusTheGreat conquered a country, he often let its king live, letting him become a royal advisor instead. This most famously happened to Croesos (the King of Lydia and the man who invented money, or rather his grandson), whose later loyalty to Cyrus is documented in several places.
* This is how early man tamed and bred dogs by establishing dominance as the "pack Alpha" while offering food and affection. Even nowadays dog owners need to make sure their dogs know that the dogs are ''their'' pets [[ThisIsMyHuman and not the other way around]].

* Sports example: professional golfer Jason Dufner lost to Keegan Bradley in a playoff at the 2011 PGA Championship after letting go of a late lead. After the playoff, the two became great friends and often played jokes on each other. Two years later, Dufner would have another late lead in the PGA Championship--this time, Bradley was on his way to the airport and hearing of Dufner's chances, asked to be driven back to the course to await his friend. He made it back in time for Dufner's victory and congratulated him on camera just off the 18th green as Dufner went to have his score verified.

* Essentially what UsefulNotes/{{Napoleon|Bonaparte}} tried to achieve, most notably with Russia and Austria. He and Alexander became great friends after their meeting at Tilsitt (until Napoleon demanded that Alexander enforce the Continental System in Russia, effectively crippling the country's economy), and he hoped that marrying Francis II's daughter Marie-Louise would create a close bond between the two former enemies. He failed in both cases.

* Mixed martial artists Frank Shamrock, Maurice Smith, and Wrestling/TsuyoshiKohsaka became the ThreeAmigos of MMA after Kohsaka defeated Smith and Shamrock defeated Kohsaka.

* UsefulNotes/HillaryClinton and UsefulNotes/BarackObama endured one of the bitterest primaries in modern politics, but four years of Clinton serving as Obama's Secretary of State forged a strong working relationship and, ultimately, deep friendship between the two of them. Obama essentially hand-picked her as his chosen successor for the Presidency with a ringing endorsement, calling her "the most qualified candidate in history" and making it clear that she has his complete trust and support. After Labor Day, when the general election kicked into high gear, he embarked on a campaign blitz on her behalf that is unmatched by a sitting President in modern history. [[http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/barack-obama-hillary-clinton-hug-photoshop-battle-thumb.jpg Just look at them now.]]
* Invoked and Enforced in the 2020 Democratic primaries. After defeating Sanders in the primaries and becoming the Democratic nominee, UsefulNotes/JoeBiden immediately formed Unity Task Forces with Sanders to unify the Democrats. In return for full cooperation from the Sanders campaign, Biden adopting several of Sanders' policies and hired his surrogates to draft his platform.

* In what is possibly the most extreme variation of this trope yet seen, Miriam Blasco of Spain defeated Nicola Fairbrother of Great Britain in the finals for women's judo at the [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames 1992 Barcelona Olympics]]. Not only would the two of them later become good friends, they eventually ''got married.''

* UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat had a habit of doing this throughout his campaign. Many of the kings and tribal leaders that he defeated in battle ended up joining his side and became his satraps. The most notable would be King Porus, who upon his defeat at the Battle of the Hydaspes, requested Alexander to "treat him as a king". Alexander was reportedly so impressed that no only did he restore Porus' kingdom, but he also gave dominion over the lands of the surrounding tribes that Alexander had defeated earlier. Porus then ended up becoming a loyal friend to Alexander and helped him with his campaign in India.
* Ray Gunter and Anthony Barber. In 1951 the two faced each other in the UK General Election for the seat of Doncaster. Having faced each other before in 1950, where Barber ran Gunter close, Gunter only winning by 878 votes, the two had a healthy respect for each other already, which was only cemented by the two running a vigorous but clean campaign against each other that lead to Barber winning by 384 votes. They also tussled for the seat in 1955, where Barber won by 1,660 votes. After Gunter returned to the Commons in 1959 for Southwark, the two could be seen chatting amiably on many occasions, and, in an emergency, Gunter even acted as Barber's pair when Barber couldn't attend a debate. Famously, Barber was occasionally treated by Gunter to meals in the legendarily left-ward leaning restaurant "The Gay Hussar", which was a rare occurrence indeed. Barber went on to be Chancellor of the Exchequer under UsefulNotes/EdwardHeath, of which Gunter remarked [[TemptingFate "Tony will do a damn fine job as long as he doesn't get any hare-brained ideas about boosting the economy".]]
* In the UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague, though New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees defeated Creator/PeytonManning and the Indianapolis Colts at UsefulNotes/SuperBowl XLIV, Brees and Manning have become close friends. It helps that Peyton's father, Archie Manning, was widely regarded as the Saints' greatest QB before Brees joined the team.
* After Creator/{{Sega}} dropped out of the console market due to the failure of the [[UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast Dreamcast]], they began to publish the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' games on Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s consoles, with [[VideoGame/SonicColors several]] [[VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries of those]] [[VideoGame/SonicLostWorld games]] being exclusive to Nintendo platforms, and [[VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames occasionally]] [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros crossing over with]] its former rival, the ''Franchise/SuperMario'' games. It extends beyond that, with Creator/{{Atlus}}, now a subsidiary of Sega, publishing and developing ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' and ''[[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiV V]]'' exclusively for Nintendo platforms, a remake of ''VideoGame/PanzerDragoon'' being announced for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, and Nintendo more or less taking over publishing duties for the ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'' games starting from ''VideoGame/Bayonetta2'' onward.
* Ancient Rome cheerfully inducted defeated tribes and peoples into the larger Roman state. [[https://acoup.blog/2021/06/25/collections-the-queens-latin-or-who-were-the-romans-part-ii-citizens-and-allies/ One professor described their expansion method as "the Goku Model of Imperialism":]] we beat you so now we're friends, and friends send soldiers to help our campaign to, uh, make new friends, right?

** The treatment the Axis Powers received from the western allies after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. After just seven years of punishing UsefulNotes/WestGermany by keeping the country poor and powerless (as per the 'Morgenthau Plan', which was publicly disavowed but partially enacted), the US extended their general western-European investment drive ('The Marshall Program') to them as well and even released high-ranking ex-Nazi officers from prison (including Erich von Manstein, who had been imprisoned for war crimes against POW and civilians but was released early) so they could found a new German military. The result? A German military that helped redress the BalanceOfPower in Europe against the UsefulNotes/WarsawPact, and more than 60 years of mutual prosperity and relative peace between the former Axis powers and their conquerors. And Japan, following its surrender and the subsequent drafting of its non-aggression constitution, quickly became an ally of the West after [[UsefulNotes/MaoZedong Chairman Mao]] seized power in mainland China and the outbreak of UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar. Today, Germany, Italy, and Japan are three of the biggest economic powerhouses in the world and the centers of two of the world's foremost currencies (euro and yen, respectively). This wasn't out of altruism, but more out of UsefulNotes/ColdWar strategy. The US [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks maintains a number of bases]] in both Europe and Asia to project power facing threats of domination from Russia and China. And at a more personal level, a number of friendships sprang up between surviving German fighter pilots and their one-time opponents; most famously, German ace Adolf Galland. The famously comfortable circumstances of Anglo-American [=POWs=] (who were neither used for slave labour nor exterminated) meant that some former [=POWs=] and camp guards also became friends. At a higher level, former Wehrmacht generals like Erich von Manstein cultivated friendships with people such as Captain Sir Basil Hart (who published Rommel's Diaries in English, a notable best-seller of the early '50s).[[note]]The friendships between senior or influential British and German officers predated UsefulNotes/{{W|orldWarII}}W2. There's a reason why the brilliant but maverick Liddell-Hart was refused more than nominal service in UsefulNotes/{{W|orldWarII}}W2 and remained a captain in 1945. Along with Major-General Fuller, the man who originated the Blitzkrieg military strategy later perfected by the Germans, he was considered too unreliable for service and a dangerous Nazi sympathiser. Their close pre-war contacts with senior Germans rang all the alarm bells. As did their association with [[Creator/AleisterCrowley ritual occultism]]. German general Heinz Guderian, the man who made the British-originated Blitzkrieg concept work in practice, dedicated ''his'' autobiography to ''my close friend, Basil Liddell-Hart''.[[/note]]

* Salah-al-Din, a Muslim warlord of Kurdish ancestry, became something of a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy "Noble Heathen"]] folk hero to Europeans following his conquest of Jerusalem, which inspired the Third Crusade. According to legend, Saladin made friends with Richard the Lionheart, although in real life they more or less fought each other to a standstill and never met in person. Most importantly was what Salah-al-Din (romanized as Saladin) ''didn't'' do: when he conquered Jerusalem, he ''didn't slaughter the Christians or Jews living there.'' This is the absolute opposite of what European Crusaders had done when they first took Jerusalem - the Crusaders mercilessly slaughtered every Muslim and as many Jews as they could find. When Salah-al-Din took Jerusalem back, Europe was positive news of a massacre would follow, but it never did. Salah-al-Din simply took the city back and nothing more. Hence, the legend of the Noble Heathen. That was because Jerusalem was taken in 1099 by an all-out assault, while in 1187 Jerusalem surrendered instead of being taken by force. The Medieval custom was to spare the town's inhabitants if the town surrendered; if it was conquered by assault, the town was free to be ravaged for three days and three nights. That said, Saladin was also intentionally invoking the memory of the rise of Islam: almost exactly 550 years earlier, Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab had taken Jerusalem and entered the city quietly; this conquest had ended several decades where the city repeatedly changed hands between the UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire and Sassanid Persia, with the conquerors slaughtering hundreds if not thousands each time for security reasons.[[note]]The Zoroastrian Persians were noted for using Jews as agents, while since the Byzantines were Christian they distrusted Christians as possible spies for Constantinople, and contrariwise the Byzantines distrusted Jews not only as "Christ-killers" (as the Church insisted they were) but also as possible spies for Persia. Each time the Persians took Jerusalem, they killed Christians and brought in Jews; every time the Byzantines took it back, they killed Jews and brought in Christians.[[/note]]\\
There were most likely also pragmatic reasons involved. Most European countries had other conflicts to worry about and were perfectly happy to ignore the Middle East as long as there was no compelling motivation to have another war. Massacres in Jerusalem or the destruction of Christian holy sites would have been such a reason, and the Church would have forced Europe to put aside their various petty conflicts and launch another crusade. Salah-al-Din was supposedly not stupid and realized what would happen if he played the part of the brutal conqueror.