New Counterinsurgency Manuals
I would like to share some observations with you on the counterinsurgency doctrine that is to be formally published. It appears to me that the focus of creating effective learning materials that are crisp, concise, bulleted, and easy to read must have changed in the 40 years since I was an Marine officer training and leading men in combat in Vietnam. I have read a draft of the "new doctrine entitled "Tentative Manual for Countering Irregular Threats: An Updated Approach to Counterinsurgency Operations", and frankly, it has the appearance of a 150-pages literature survey that is part of someone's Master's Thesis. The Marine Corps spent a year putting this togther and it is reassuring to know that they were able to draw on the expertise of knowledgeable warriors such as Lt. Col. Nagl who wrote "Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife" (a phrase from T.E. Lawrence's 1920 report on how to create an insurgent force). Having read more than 50 books on counterinsurgency, combined with my own experience, the authors would have done well extracting the critical elements from Capt. Davis Galula's 500 pages of notes, "Pacification in Algeria: 1956-1956" or his small but very well organized book "Counterinsurgency Warfare", adding the Marine Corps relevancy and examples, and formatting the materials into topics, lessons, and modules, with learning objectives and salient points.
I feel that H. John Poole, who has written some very good books that could serve as the basis for a more readable doctrine. Among his good ones are "Tactics of the Crescent Moon", "Militant Tricks", and "Phantom Soldier" could have made a significant contribution since his books are very readable, formatted for quick assimilation of the material, and illustrated to reinforce critical points. I guess it was felt that battalion commanders, the target audience of this publication, don't relate well to illustrations and graphics to help visualize the concepts. The authors would have done well to have used a good part of the book "The Army in Vietnam" by my good friend Andy Krepinevich, as the basis for negative examples to reinforce the positive concepts that they attempted to put forth in this work.
The other publication, "Small Unit Leader's Guide to Counterinsurgency" is less lofty and esoteric, and covers the topics a little better but I wonder about the reading level of the material if this is targeted to lieutenants and sergeants. One of the more useful pieces is the chapter "The Twenty-Eight Articles: Fundamentals of Company-Level Counterinsurgency" by David Kilcullen. Another good piece that would have provided more insight into the role of civil affairs in a counterinsurgency is the "handbook for Military Support of Pacification" publish by MACV in 1968. Other good references include "U S Army Special Warfare School MATA Handbook for Vietnam" January 1966, FM 31-73 "Advisor Handbook for Counterinsurgency" (a lot of information on engineering and construction), the "U S Army Special Warfare School Helpful Hints for Advisors (RVN)", the series of Marine Corps Bulletin 3480 "Professional Knowledge Gained from Operational Experience in the Republic of Vietnam".
Both publications need work and additional input from those of us who were advisors and CAP members in Vietnam, as well as other counterinsurgencies. to put a more practical and useable face on these tomes. The authors should reread the original Small Wars Manual (I have a copy and will be happy to lend it to the authors) for readability, format, layout, and practicality.
VNMC Advisor Manuals and After-Action Reports
As soon as I clear the project I am on, I will scan the manual and other advisor-related materials, put them into .PDF format, and, with your help, SWJED, post them to your site. While doing a bit of consulting and brainstorming during the fall of 2005 and spring of 2006 with the prior CO of SCETC, I shared the idea of creating similar manuals for the current Marine advisors. He liked the idea and was interested in moving it forward, but retired before we could make it happen. I have attempted to establish contact with the current CO and Deputy Director of SCETC but they have not returned my calls or e-mail. I still think it is a worthwile venture since the current MEF deployement plan has us in Iarq at least through 2010 and we definitely need to stand up the advisory effort and create MEF-wide CAP program to work in concert with advisors and MEF forces.
Open-ended question on status of advisor training
Gents,
Does anyone on the SWC have a handle on who far the Corps has come along in training its advisory teams (MiTT, AST, etc.)? documents I came across through the MCLL site left me discouraged that more overall time could be spent on the training, and particular areas (like familiarity with Iraqi) within the syllabus rated more attention.
Is a collection of events managed at the MEF level, or has advisor training been "reigned in" so to speak by any one organization (like SCETC) for quality control and oversight.
Also, are we leveraging off of the JFK Special Warfare Center and School, to fine tune our programs via resident or MTT training with our own instructors?
