Originally Posted by
Shek
I'm curious if anyone can trace the roots of Galula's influence on American COIN doctrine.
I'm sure that having
Pacification in Algeria in the files at RAND provided some accessibility (and ease of distribution given that you can download the .pdf and email it), but the first copy of
Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice that I ever saw was an old copy on a friend's bookshelf which had been issued to his father for a class on revolutionary warfare at USMA back in either 1969 or 1970. Based on that, it seems that Galula had some currency back during the time of Vietnam as well for his book to have found its way into the USMA curriculum.
Back on page 2 of this same "Training and Education" forum, there is a thread titled COIN: A Symposium, April 16-20, 1962. This was a RAND-sponsored syposium that brought together the most experienced professional military minds in the field to discuss all aspects of COIN. This was at a time when serious, structured efforts were ongoing to develop modern US COIN doctrine.
Of course, Galula was one of the participants - and if you read the reprint you'll more than likely come away with the impression that he was one of the most influential of the participants. He certainly weighed in heavily in almost every area of discussion.
If you can find a copy of USMA Revolutionary Warfare Volume V-French Counterrevolutionary Struggles: Indochina and Algeria, dated Dec 68, you'll find that Galula is mentioned not a few times as well.
And here's a declassified TS memo from Amb. Henry Cabot Lodge to President Johnson dated 27 Mar 68 that provides an indication of the high-level influence of Galula's writing:
....I believe that urgent consideration be given to a shift away from "search and destroy" and the "war of attrition", in which a purely military victory appears to be, I believe, the unattainable goal, towards a strategy of using military power as a shield behind which South Vietnamese society would be organized as effectively as North Vietnamese society is organized. This last would be done by intensive and repeated scourings--that is a "comb-out" by repeated police-type methods, precinct by precinct, block by block, house by house and farm by farm, much as was done by General Massau in Algiers and which is set forth in David Galula's book "Counter Insurgency Warfare".....
Originally Posted by
Ken White
....That being said, it was not and is not the be all and end all on the topic, just one of many decent treatises on the subject.
Along those lines, here's a link to a COIN bibliography prepared by the CIA library for William Colby back in '64:
Bibliography: Insurgency and Counterinsurgency Since World War II
Aside from the cover sheets, index, etc. the 32 page pdf file has 27 pages of book listings, starting with general texts, then broken down by regions of the world.
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