Customer Reviews

America and Guerrilla Warfare

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The author explores 9 examples of Americans in Guerrila war; 2 as the insurgent, 3 as counterinsurgent and the remaining can be classed as Foreign Internal Defense, which, depending on your inclination is a sub set of Security and Stability Operations or Counterinsurgency. In the remaining 4 cases, FID is support by proxy and copious amounts of US Cash and material.

The book is ok but glosses over much. My suggestion? get a copy of Dr.David Kilcullen's "28 Articles Fundamentals of Company Level Counterinsurgency" This is free you can download it from either the CGCS or NDU Website. Now pick a conflict in history and use the 28 articles and formulate them into questions as you explore the conflict of your choice. You will gain a greater understanding of the complexities of COIN

Terry Tucker,US Army, SGM, Ret, PhD

CSTC-Afghanistan

Trainer and Doctrine Developer

Covers the American experience in guerrilla warfare where Americans have been the insurgents (such as in the revolution and war between the states), counter-insurgents (such as in the post Spanish-American war Phillipines), and as assiting insurgents (as in the Soviet-Afghan war). Each chapter provides a well-written and informative description of its subject conflict followed by an insightful analysis of successful and unsuccessful outcomes. The analysis is at a good depth for understanding the complexities of the question while still providing the tools you can use to draw your own conclusions. It is amazingly thorough for the number of pages given to the various conflicts, any one of which could fill volumes. Though it pre-dates the post-9/11 world, the lessons it has to offer in the realm of countering terrorism and insurgency are inumerable. A good introduction to the subject that you will want to keep referring back to again and again for answers to insurgency challenges.

Over the past 200 plus years, guerrilla conflicts have played a major role in American history. In the book, America and Guerrilla Warfare, Anthony James Joes examines and draws conclusions from nine cases of American involvement with guerrilla style warfare. The cases study American participation as the guerrillas, fighting the guerrillas, lending support too and against the guerrilla forces.

The book establishes lessons that can be learned from some of the guerrilla conflicts that America has been involved with. Joes formats these theories by examining the reasons leading up to, events during, social acceptance, and final results of the conflict. When these lessons are followed in a future conflict it leads to a successful campaign. On the other hand, when lessons are ignored guerrilla insurgencies become major problems.

The conflicts studied in the book are Americans themselves as the guerrillas (American Revolution and U.S. Civil War), Americans fighting guerrillas on foreign land (post-Spanish War Philippines, Nicaragua, and Vietnam), support of a foreign government without deployment of combat units (post-WWII Philippines, Greece, and El Salvador) and aiding a foreign guerrilla movement (Afghanistan). Each conflict has its separate chapter in which Joes comments on theories common throughout the book.

The chapters are all set up in the same basic format. He begins with a summary of the overall conflict and then narrows in on explaining the different groups and problems that lead to the wars. He then connects American involvement with the guerrillas and finishes each chapter with an explanation of theories based and interconnected between each conflict.

Unfortunately the section of American connection to the conflict in many chapters seems to be an after thought. For example Joes goes into much detail as to why and how the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, including page long discussions on the tactics of the Soviets, but he only brushes the surface of the U.S. and Afghan relationship. The chapter on Afghanistan (Chapter 9 Afghanistan: Cracking the Red Empire) is 38 pages long only 3 are used to describe the American involvement. This trend is displayed throughout the book: giving more attention to the British reaction to the Battle of Saratoga then the masterful guerilla techniques of Francois Marion and focusing on French-Vietnamese relationships for as long as he discussed the actual tactics of the Vietcong against the United States.

The book however does bring to light many insightful theories that are very useful in the discussion of guerrilla warfare. He uses the last chapter to sum up all his theories based on connections between all of the cases. The authors arguments are: understanding real victory "guerrilla war is not over merely because the guerrillas disappear", limit bloodshed, a peaceful road to change (i.e. Lincoln allowing most Southerners to go back to their lands), and display rectitude, that is "right conduct toward the civilian population."

The only connection that Joes makes specifically between America and guerrilla warfare is during the early 20th century the United States learned many successful techniques to deal with guerrillas through victories in the Philippines, Greece and Nicaragua, but misused these techniques when dealing with the Vietnamese.

Instead of specifically examining American policies and techniques of guerrilla conflict, Joes simply used American examples to explain his ideas about guerrilla warfare. If one is trying to understand America's role in guerrilla conflicts, actual techniques and polices, this in not the book, but if you are looking for differences between successful and unsuccessful guerrilla techniques Joes offers intuitive theories. For those looking for the latter, Joes has come out with another book, Resisting Rebellion: The History and Politics of Counterinsurgency, published 4 years later which, isn't hindered on trying to connect sound theories exclusively to American examples.

Although the book can be a slow read, the author's intent was to analyze the situations and discuss its implications in modern warfare theory. Anthony Joes is an expert on the military and international relations. Having met and spoken with Dr. Joes many times, I understand and appreciate the standpoint that he takes and why he has those viewpoints. If you are looking for a book detailing combat experiences and substantial action, try something else. I recommend this book if your interest lies in understanding what guerilla warfare really is and what it accomplishes. Anthony Joes has written several books on a variety of subjects. I recommend all of them to anyone interested in learning more about U.S. Military theory.

I read the first two chapters and then returned the book because it was so bad. While I expected a book examining guerilla warfare with analysis and comments on the guerrilla and counterinsurgency strategies, it was only a sophmoric recitation of events that involved guerillas at some point. For example, in Chapter 1 about partisans during the American Revolution, he spent less than 5 pages discussing the impact of the guerillas, who they were and how they operated. In Chapter two, he spends about 7 pages on Southern guerillas in the Civil War, and then launches into a 40 page tirade against the Southern military, Southern leaders, and the root cause of Southern secession. In a book that is supposed to discuss guerilla warfare, the author feels compelled to spend two pages making his case for what he believe caused the war. There are 1500+ page books on this war, where authoritative historians don't even attempt to divine the "root" cause. This is just the ramblings of somebody on various historic events; that they have anything to do with guerilla warfare is purely coincidental.