Rule of Law in Iraq & Afghanistan

[jmm99]

This is a total sidebar to the USIP article. I've kicked around in my head the idea of writing up "Civil Affairs for Knuckle-dragging Neanderthals" (among whom I place myself in answer to the question "Who am I ?" ).

The idea would be to look back at the origins and development of Civil Affairs in the context of its doctrine before the Kennedy Administration and Vietnam (when "COIN" became ...), as evidenced by:

1940 USMC Small Wars Manual.pdf
1940 FM 27-5 Military Government.pdf
1943 FM 27-5 (OpNav 50E-3) Military Government & Civil Affairs.pdf
1947 FM 27-5 (OPNAV P22-1115) Civil Affairs - Military Government (op '56).pdf
1954 FM 41-15 Civil Affairs Military Government Units.pdf
1957 FM 41-10 Civil Affairs - Military Government Operations.pdf * intended for use in conjunction with FM 27-5 and FM 41-15.
1958 FM 41-5 (OPNAV P 21-1 AFM 110-7 NAVMC 2500) Joint Manual for Civil Affairs - Military Government.pdf *This manual supersedes FM 27-5/OPNAV P 22-115,14 October 1947, including C 1, 19 June 1956.

and the close link between these doctrinal publications and the Laws of War publications:

1914 FM 27-10 Rules of Land Warfare.pdf
1934 FM 27-10 Rules of Land Warfare.pdf
1940 FM 27-10 Law of Land Warfare (up '44).pdf
1944 Ann Arbor JAG School, Law of Belligerent Occupation.pdf
1956 FM 27-10 Law of Land Warfare (up '76).pdf

Those "law books" owe their principal ancestry to the 1863 Lieber Code (G.O. 100), of course.

While these ancient Civil Affairs manuals are heavily law-based, they are not overly legalistic - and are short. The 1940 Military Government manual uses 23 pages to cover the substantive subject matter !! The 1940 Small Wars Manual is more verbose (about 100 pages, starting at Chapter XI).

Line officers then seem to have been much more law oriented than at present. Tony Waller (no law degree) was an adept courtroom examiner and arguer. A number of Marine generals (serving in WWII and after, some into the Vietnam Era) had law degrees - which did not contaminate their line officer service.

General Clifton B. Cates, 19th Commandant of the Marine Corps, was a 1916 University of Tennessee law school graduate. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1953.

General Earl E. Anderson was a lieutenant colonel when he graduated from George Washington University's school of law (as law review editor-in-chief) in 1952. For the next 12 years he mixed legal and aviation duties then, until his retirement in 1975, was an aviator and a senior staff officer.

Lieutenant General Walter W. Wensinger was a 1917 University of Michigan law school graduate before joining the Marine Corps and, other than duty in the Office of the Navy JAG for three years, was a career infantry officer.

General Merrill B. Twining, a 1932 graduate of George Washington University's law school, was a career infantry officer.

Lieutenant General George C. Axtell was a career aviator who graduated from George Washington University's law school as a major in 1952.

Lieutenant General Herbert L. Beckington, an artillery and infantry officer, graduated from Catholic University law school in 1953, as a major.

Major General Avery R. Kier was a 1927 graduate of Kansas City School of Law, but was a career aviator.

Brigadier General James Snedeker, an infantry officer, was a 1940 law school graduate who represented the Marine Corps and the naval service on numerous boards and committees relating to military law, and was the first Marine to hold the billet of Deputy Judge Advocate General of the Navy.

In an earlier era, General Holland M. Smith, who retired in 1946, was a graduate of the University of Alabama's law school, and practiced, briefly, before entering the Marine Corps.

From 1989 Solis, Marines and Military Law in Vietnam - Trial by Fire 01.pdf; and Holland Smith tells his own story, 1948 Holland Smith, Coral & Brass.pdf

On the other hand, that Neanderthal Manual would take a lot of time.

Regards

Mike