Suggestions for course readings

[Shek]

You may want to go into some of the emerging work about the Kansas-Missouri border troubles just before and during the US Civil War. This is an overlooked COIN area (and yes, I'd call it that for both the nature of the conflict and the heavy political overtones and population control issues that were central to many operations), plus it has the advantage of benefiting from a blend of military and social examination.

For this topic, a potential read could be from "Inside War: The Guerilla Conflict in Missouri During the American Civil War" by Michael Fellman.

[jcustis]

Decent Interval by former Saigon CIA analyst Frank Snepp. Not too heavy on the dynamics of COIN, but a lot of interesting points about the dangers of mis-reading the enemy's intentions, and the pitfalls of supporting a government in a classical insurgency.

If nothing else, it's a good primer on how not to evacuate from a country at the end game.

[Stan]

God Evening Marc !
Since nearly everyone has provided you with something, I may as well take a shot at some of the books that kept me from "crazy" while in the Sub Sahara.

Tom gave me the first (I didn't even have to pay for it ):
Certain Victory: The US Army in the Gulf War by General Robert H. Scales, Ft. Leavenworth, KS 1984

Certain Victory provides a window on the future as well as a chronicle of the past.

In the future, we must maintain the training and the readiness of every aspect of our nation's capability to meet a similar challenge whenever and wherever it may be thrust upon us.

In his book, General Scales refers to the "Unblinking Eye" - a greater part of my second "keep me from crazy" book, World War II, American at War, 1941-1945, Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen, 1991.

Scales quoted "Just as the Army must achieve and maintain a dominant overmatch in the direct firefight, it must also do so in intelligence, achieving a more complete understanding of the foe while rendering the enemy blind."
He was refering to the Allies success in breaking the Enigma code and Germany's veil of secrecy. Back then, a big deal !

Yep, its pretty old stuff. Somehow though, Scales figured out where we are today (he may have taken Anthro lessons ). Certain Victory is a whole lot smaller should time be a considering factor

Regards, Stan

[Tom Odom]

ehem...

Actually the General got many of those thoughts on intelligence dominence from yours truly as I was the intelligence researcher and ended up as coauthor with General Scales and LTC Terry Johnson.

best

Tom

[Stan]

(Ahem) Oooops !
Sorry 'bout that mate

I did enjoy it, and last year while on 24-hour watch calls, read it again.

Regards, Stan

[marct]

And now I find that it's available online! Excellent!
Marc

[Merv Benson]

Peter Harclerode's, Fighting Dirty also gives details of the attempts by the US and UK to infiltrate support people to help insurgents in Eastern Europe after the Soviets took over. Like our attempts in Vietnam, they were all captured and either killed or turned. Some were betrayed by a rather infamous spy ring in the UK, others were betrayed by moles that the Soviets had inserted into the Eastern European insurgents. It occurred to me while reading it that the Soviets may have had the most successful counter insurgency operation in history. It is something to think about for course material. The book is a bit tedious to read. You are constantly confronted with various people with difficult names who wind up dead a few paragraphs later in a series of failed operations.

[marct]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for all the great suggestions - I really appreciate it! Let me ask another question now.

The titles have covered a fairly broad range of wars and historical events. Does anyone have suggestions on how to organize the course in terms of first topic X, then Y", etc?

Marc

[Tom Odom]

(Ahem) Oooops !
Sorry 'bout that mate

I did enjoy it, and last year while on 24-hour watch calls, read it again.

Regards, Stan

I should be more clear in this as it came up on another thread today. In raising the idea of an "Unblinking Eye" as it related to future wars after DS, my fellow coauthor Terry Johnson and I lobbied against taking the whole "new way of war" thesis too far. First of all I fundamentally shudder when I hear of a "new way" as new is relative and ways are more likely to be means.

Anyone who says it is possible to know all about an enemy is selling snake oil and we were definitely not selling that in Certain Victory.

But I appreciate the kind comments on that book; it has stood up fairly well given its short fuse (10 months), its intent (put a box around the USAF), and its method (tight budget, tighter schedule, and extreme senior leader attention).

It seems funny that we led with a vignette about then CPT HR McMasters and 2nd ACRs Battle at 73 Easting. Another was about LTC Cody's Apache strike on the Iraqi Air Defenses and yet another covered LTC Abazaid's operations in Provide Comfort.

Best

Tom

[Mondor]

Way Without Guns: American civilians in Rural Vietnam. George K. Tanham et al. The book focus on the aid and reconstruction of the US in Vietnam. Written while the conflict was still on going. Very good read on insurgency and the tools, skills, and organization that will win or lose the war for you.

[kaur]

marct, as autodidact, i found Andre Beaufre's books very helpful. He put insurgency as indirect strategy method to overall context with other possible strategies. He did this in very generalized way. For students, who don't now the big picutre and general framework, the endless descriptions of opposite side's TTP's (that change accordning to learning abilities) and action environments (that are to some degree very unique in every conflict), is quite disturbing, they don't see the forest behind the trees (or how the saying goes).

Books are following.
"Introduction to Strategy."
"Strategy of Action."
"Strategy for Tomorrow"

For general COIN understanding Gordon McCormick's "Diamond" model is very ok.

[John T. Fishel]

Marc--
I will be teaching just such a course next fall at the U. of Oklahoma. I plan to use my own book (with Max Manwaring), UNCOMFORTABLE WARS REVISITED, U of Oklahoma Press, 2006. I would also recommend Paul Ausuresses, THE BATTLE OF THE CASBAH, by one of the models for the French Col in THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS. Also very useful are C.E. Calwell, SMALL WARS (first published 1896) and the USMC SMALL WARS MANUAL of 1940 (several reprints). Current US doctrine on COIN and Joint Pub 3-07 and the earlier FM 100-20 (1990) are also quite good. See also Kilcullen's article in the blog on this site.

Hope this is helpful.

John T. Fishel
Professor Emeritus NDU
Lecturer, SIAS, U of OK

[marct]

i John,

Marc--
I will be teaching just such a course next fall at the U. of Oklahoma. I plan to use my own book (with Max Manwaring), UNCOMFORTABLE WARS REVISITED, U of Oklahoma Press, 2006. I would also recommend Paul Ausuresses, THE BATTLE OF THE CASBAH, by one of the models for the French Col in THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS. Also very useful are C.E. Calwell, SMALL WARS (first published 1896) and the USMC SMALL WARS MANUAL of 1940 (several reprints). Current US doctrine on COIN and Joint Pub 3-07 and the earlier FM 100-20 (1990) are also quite good. See also Kilcullen's article in the blog on this site.

Hope this is helpful.

Definitely, thanks. I'd also be interested in seeing your course syllabus if you wouldn't mind sending it to me.

Marc

[mikeanders]

My contribution . . .

The Iraq War and the Sicilian Campaign (Part I)

By Brent T. Ranalli | Monday, January 22, 2007

Comparisons have inevitably emerged between current U.S. operations in Iraq and the Vietnam War. Yet, as Brent Ranalli explains, there are other parallels that can be drawn — even from ancient warfare. To make his point, the author draws ten major parallels between the U.S. war in Iraq and the Athenian campaign against Sicily in 415 B.C.
< http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=5914 >

[John T. Fishel]

It is always easy to find parallels if one is not overly concerned with details. A couple of major differences between iraq and Sicily: (1) Syracuse was a democracy - there was no ideological reason for the Athenian invasion. (2) There is no evidence that I have seen that the US went to war in Iraq over oil or bases - the imperialis argument, in this case doesn't hold. Finally, with all due respect to Paul Hughes who is a friend, nobody in his right mind would argue that the counterinsurgency and inter-factional warfare should be primarily an American show. The Petraeus strategy, as I understand it, is to strengthen Iraqi capabilities in the near term by putting US forces on the ground cheek by jowl with the Iraqis while exapnding the training program for the long term. (Obviously very oversimplified....)