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H. Thomas Hayden
was formerly the President and CEO of First
Communications Company (FCC), Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia, a joint venture between Raytheon and
a Saudi Company involved in Command, Control,
Communications, Computers and Intelligence
(C4I) Systems for the Ministry of Defense
and Aviation, Saudi Arabian National Guard
and Ministry of Interior. Before retiring
from the US Marine Corps, assignments included
Commanding Officer (CO), Headquarters and
Service Bn, 1st Force Service Support Group,
which deployed to the Gulf War, CO Brigade
Service Support Group – 9, which deployed
to Somalia and CO MAU Service Support Group
– 33, which deployed to The Philippines and
Korea. He was Branch Head, Headquarters Marine
Corps, Special Operations and Low Intensity
Conflict (SO/LIC), and Special Assistant to
the Assistant Secretary of Defense for SO/LIC
with assignments to Central America. He has
participated in combat operations or contingency
operations in the Republic of Vietnam, Central
America, Gulf War, Somalia, and Colombia.
Tom has a MBA, MA in International Relations,
and a PhD candidate in Business Management.
He is the author of two books and is currently
writing a third: SHADOW WAR: Special Operations
and Low Intensity Conflict; WARFIGHTING: Maneuver
Warfare in the US Marine Corps. He has
published over 40 articles and has been awarded
the Navy League’s Alfred Thayer Mahan award
for literary achievement.
Thomas
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December 5, 2003
[Have an opinion on this column? Sound off in the discussion
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Many articles, editorials, books, etc., are being written on "terrorism."
However, not much is being written on what is needed in Iraq
and Afghanistan
- stability operations, counter-guerrilla operations, and counter-insurgency.
Below is a list of classics and three of the masters on this subject:
1. Blaufarb, Douglas S. THE COUNTER-INSURGENCY ERA: US Doctrine
and Performance 1950 to the Present (1975). Free Press, New
York, 1977.
Blaufarb was a 20-year veteran of the CIA with assignments in Vietnam,
Laos, and Washington, DC. He retraces step-by-step the development
of the counter-insurgency doctrine, the performance of diplomatic
agencies in executing its provisions and their implementation -
or lack thereof.
2. Chaliand, Gerard. GUERRILLA STRATEGIES: A Historical Anthology
from the Long March to Afghanistan (USSR's Afghan). University
of California Press, Berkley, 1982.
Excellent collection of articles and thinking of noted revolutionaries,
insurgents, and counter-revolutionaries of that period. Superb collection
of materials.
3. Callwell, Col C.E. SMALL WARS: A Tactical Textbook for Imperial
Soldiers. Her Majesty's Stationary Office. 1896. Reprinted by
Greehill Books and Presidio Press, London and California, 1990.
Callwell states that he has incorporated the lessons he learned
from "…the 1898 Sudan offensive, guerrilla warfare in Cuba, the
Punjab and the Second Boer War. This "textbook" was unrivalled until
the publication of the SMALL WARS MANUAL (1940) by the US Marine
Corps.
4. Grivas. George. GUERRILLA WARFARE. Longmans, Athens, 1964.
General Grivas gives a firsthand account of the "Insurrectionary
Action in Cypress." His use of guerrilla warfare and calculated
use of international propaganda helped cause a British withdrawal
from Cypress. Very similar activities as to what is going on in
Iraq.
5. Guevara, Che. REMINISCENCES of a Cuban Revolutionary War.
Monthly Review Press, New York, 1968.
Reminiscences is both his story and a story of the Cuban
guerrilla campaign in their revolution. Great insight into "revolutionary
war." With Grivas a primary sources on guerrilla warfare.
6. Kitson, Frank. BUNCHES OF FIVE. Farber & Farber, London,
1977.
___________. LOW INTENSITY OPERATION: Subversion, Insurgency,
Peace-keeping. Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA, 1971.
Bunches of Five describes Kitson's experiences in Kenya,
Malaya, Oman, and Cyprus. A "bunch of five" is a clenched fist of
four fingers and a thumb. Kitson says that there is an "aura of
menace" about that expression because a fist is the basic ingredient
of violence. Low Intensity Operations is a comprehensive
treatment of British experience in "low intensity operations" -
what we would now call counterinsurgency or stability operations.
Both books great classics and a must read for today's practitioner
of the operational art of stability operations.
7. Lawrence, T.E. SEVEN PILLARS of WISDOM. Penguin Modern
Classics, New York and London, 1987.
This book was privately printed in 1926 and first published in
1933. Published again in 1935 and at least 25 times since 1933.
It can be difficult and boring reading because Lawrence goes into
great detail to describe the region, the topography of the Arabian
desert and the flower and fauna of that area. However, the pearls
of wisdom of the Arab mentality and their culture and the guerrilla
campaign in the Arabian desert during World
War I has many lessons to apply to Iraq
and other similar situations.
8. Laqueur, Walter (Ed). The Guerrilla
Reader. New York, 1977.
Walter Laqueur has also written Guerrilla: A History and Critical
Study; however, if I had to choose one of his books as a must
read, I would choose The Guerrilla Reader. The chapters cover
the various aspects of guerrilla warfare.
9. Marighella, Carlos. MANUAL of the URBAN GUERRILLA. Documentary
Publications, Chapel Hill, NC, 1985.
Reported to be the "terrorist classic" which tells how to make
killers out of ordinary men and women. The book's inside jacket
says: "It instructs them in tactics of assassination, kidnapping,
ambush and bank robbery." It was used as a bible of all urban guerrilla
and insurgent campaigns from the 1960s to the 1980s.
10. Paget, Julian. COUNTER-INSURGENCY CAMPAIGNING. Farber
and Farber, London, 1967.
This book is another study of the COIN campaigns in Malaya 1948-60,
Kenya 1952-56, and Cyprus 1954-58. I have chosen three authors who
write on Malaysia, Kenya and Cyprus, because each book offers a
different perspective and each are recognized classics in the field.
11. Shultz, Richard H., Jr; Uri Ra'anan, Robert l. Pfaltzgraff,
William J. Olsen, and Igor Lukes. GUERRILLA WARFAREW & COUNTER-INSURGENCY:
US-Soviet Policy in the Third World. Lexington Books, Lexington,
MA, 1989.
This is a book with 28 chapters by various authors with about half
good reading and the rest rubbish. This book offers case studies
in force structure, political and psychological warfare, C3 and
technology, and US and Soviet involvement in the Third World. Part
I, "US and Soviet Involvement…" is not worth reading. However, Parts
III thru V, are must readings.
12. SMALL WARS MANUAL. NAVMC 2890. Washington, DC, US Marine
Corps, (Reprint of 1940 Edition), 1987.
The classic used by the SOF and CIA to assist the "Northern Front"
in the initial victories over the Taliban in Afghanistan.
If you do not own a copy of a commercial reprint or the NAVMC 2890,
this is a must in the study of Stability Operations.
There are three authors who have been prolific writers and have
many books to their credit. Suffice to say read anything written
by these authors:
Bernard Fall
George Tanham
Sir Robert Thompson
Last but not least is one of my books, SHAWDOW WAR: Special Operations
and Low Intensity Conflict, LtCol H. T. Hayden, USMC, Pacific
Aero Press, 1992. This is a collection of essays by a number of
authors. Particularly of interest are Chapters, VIII, Intelligence
in Low Intensity Conflict, Chapter XIII, Peacekeeping as a Military
Mission, and Chapter XXIV, Counterinsurgency (COIN) in Vietnam.
The last chapter is a concise history of French (1946-54) and American
(1954-73) attempts at COIN in Vietnam.
In conclusion, I must mention Robert Asprey's two-volume, WAR
IN THE SHADOWS, published in 1975, in New York, by Doubleday.
Although a great reference, this book is too long and too difficult
to read to be a primer for Stability Operations.
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© 2003 H. Thomas Hayden. All opinions
expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily
reflect those of Military.com.
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