Capture, Detain and COIN: merged thread

[Mike in Hilo]

Phil: For post-release treatment so attractive as to be tailor-made for IO, and successful IO exploitation of this fact (granting of land titles to the former insurgents), you may wish to check out the EDCOR op in the Philippine Huk insurgency. MG Lansdale offers a couple of melodramatic (as was his wont) anecdotes in his book, In the Midst of Wars, but more useful details are likely available on the net. I'd be hardput to see direct Iraq applicability, but at the least it's a potential footnote for your project.

As you no doubt know from the literature, the undeniably (see the numbers!) successful Chieu Hoi project missed the boat on post-release follow up---Some ralliers were enlisted in the allied effort (scouts, propaganda team members, PRUs), but most of the 100K plus were left to sink or swim, sans monitoring, after release from the Chieu Hoi Centers.... In retrospect, the potential use of this manpower in, say, an expanded RD Cadre force composed of ralliers instead of urban draft dodgers, could have raised interesting possibilities...

(I mention this hypothetical alernative because I suspect this is the kind of thing you're looking for, if I've correctly understood your query. Such a return of the Hoi Chanh to their villages as an organized force didn't happen, though.)

Cheers,
Mike.