Despite their sympathy and approval of the Nazi regime, the military leadership was in the early years of the Third Reich determined to defend their position as a "state within the state" against all rivals. In January 1934, when the Army commander Kurt von Hammerstein resigned, Hitler's choice for Hammerstein's successor General Walter von Reichenau was vetoed by the Army officer corps with the support of President von Hindenburg under the grounds that Reichenau was too much a military radical, and so Werner von Fritsch was chosen as a compromise.[30]