Best Insurgent Leader
 

Who is the best insurgent leader in history? You can list a small group if you can't pick one. Why did you pick who you picked?

Oooh, a nice BIG stick today. I like it!

Good guys, bad guys or both?

Both.

You have a criterion or set of criteria in mind for "best"? Best looking? Most effective? Militarily the best or politically or both? Best at a theoretical or practical level?

Just to start the ball rolling I will throw out two figures, at least one of whom doesn't normally come to mind when you think of insurgents and both of whom are known more for conventional military acumen than guerrilla warfare skills (but an insurgency has stages and involves a whole spectrum of military means): Gen. George Washington and Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap.

First names that came to mind. And to start the ball rolling.

I knew someone would do this to me. You are giving the others great pleasure in making me suffer this way. LOL

Pick whatever criteria you want. I meant most skilled in insurgency, but go in whatever direction you want.

Giap should be on everyone's top 10 list, I think, although Ho Chi Minh might be a better candidate. Excellent start. I think of Washington more as a pure military leader than an insurgent, but I have not studied his life carefully.

Arthur Simons


Referring to operations in Laos (White Star), some of which were not insurgency, some of which were. The notable thing is how successful the operations were.

Ah but the devil's in the details. What is the basis for this distinction? Insurgent vs. "pure military leader"? Giap was certainly a purer military leader than Washington, who had been active politically before the war (Virginia House of Burgesses, 1759-74) and, obviously, after. If you meant to confine yourself to those engaging primarily in guerrilla warfare, then you have a definitional problem, since guerrilla warfare and insurgency are not synonymous (see the other thread).

And of course Giap's most prominent victory was a conventional siege.

And for that matter, while the tactics once battle was joined were conventional by 18th century standards, operationally Washington conducted a war of maneuver reminiscent of other guerrilla campaigns, avoiding battle when the enemy was too strong, fighting to outlast the enemy's will rather than merely defeat his forces.

Besides military and domestic political skills, Washington also mastered the diplomatic skills necessary for effective coalition warfare. The victory at Yorktown was the result of the effective relationships among Washington and his French allies Lafayette, Rochambeau and de Grasse (as a matter of fact, since Lafayette was the one who communicated the weakness of the British position in Virginia to Washington, and it was Admiral de Grasse's idea to go after Cornwallis, and it was de Grasse's squadron that defeated the Royal Navy and isolated Cornwallis, and half the troops at Yorktown were French, it can be argued that Yorktown was as much a French victory as an American one, if not more).

To keep the list, and the argument over who really qualifies as an insurgent leader, going, I will now add the Duke of Wellington, with specific reference to the Peninsular Campaigns (whence the term guerrilla entered the military lexicon).

I am going to throw out some names not normally associated with insurgencies. I think an argument could be made though.

Spartacus
Jesus
Mohammed

Any takers?

I don't know about the most successful, but Gandhi succeeded where more "traditional" guerrila campaigns didn't.

I'm running out the door, so I'll quote:

Lisa, This is why we are friends. I was thinking about him last night and that he should make the list. One of the things Ghandi said that is worth thinking about was "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

I wonder if that thought had any affect on Che.

Apparently not because the Quiet Professionals hunted him down and killed him.

The Team Sergeant


(And from what I understand Che went yelling kicking and screaming like the true coward he really was.)

LOL - and he looked a lot like Lindh before they cleaned him up.

COME ON! This is a good question that should be generating a lot of figh...debate!

I do not know anything about Che, but I have seen his face on t-shirts, usually worn by movie stars and rappers, why is a part of our society enamored by him?

NO HIJACKING!