Special Operations, Insurgency & UW Reading List

[Airbornelawyer]

I'm trying to put various links I've pulled together in one place. This is not too well-organized at this point, but getting them in one place is a start. As a start, all of the links below are from official sources (CGSC's Combined Arms Research Library, the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute, National Defense University, U.S. Army Center of Military History, etc.). I will add more as I have time, and feel free to add your own.

General:

• Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in the 21st Century: Reconceputalizing Threat and Response
• Shadows of Things Past and Images of the Future: Lessons for the Insurgencies in Our Midst
• Insurgency: Modern Warfare Evolves into a Fourth Generation - PDF
• Modern Warfare: A French View of Counterinsurgency
• Sharp Corners: Urban Operations at Century's End
• Block by Block: The Challenges of Urban Operations

World War Two:

• U.S. Army Special Operations in World War II
• Jedburgh Team Operations in Support of the 12th Army Group, August 1944
• Merrill's Marauders: Combined Operations in Northern Burma in 1944
• Rangers: Selected Combat Operations in World War II

Other conflicts/contingencies:

• My Clan Against the World: U.S. and Coalition Forces in Somalia, 1972-1994 - PDF
• Invasion, Intervention, "Intervasion": A Concise History of the U.S. Army in Operation Uphold Democracy
• Not War, But Like War. The American Intervention in Lebanon
• Shaba II: The French and Belgian Intervention in Zaire in 1978
• Dragon Operations: Hostage Rescues in the Congo, 1964 - 1965
• Power Pack: U.S. Intervention in the Dominican Republic, 1965 - 1966
• The U.S. Intervention in Lebanon, 1958: A Commander’s Reminiscence
• Scenes From an Unfinished War: Low-Intensity Conflict-Korea, 1966-1969
• Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Afghanistan
• The Ute Campaign of 1879: A Study in the Use of the Military Instrument

[NousDefionsDoc]

Good gouge AL. Thanks

[Roguish Lawyer]

Thank you for starting this. Have you read any of this stuff? If so, what do you recommend? Also interested in the thoughts of others.

[Airbornelawyer]

Originally Posted by Roguish Lawyer

Thank you for starting this. Have you read any of this stuff? If so, what do you recommend? Also interested in the thoughts of others.

Most of these are straightforward general histories or case studies.

Col. Trinquier's book (Modern Warfare: A French View of Counterinsurgency) has been discussed in another thread. He purported to write a general study, but while not a prisoner of his particular experiences (the FFI, Indochina and Algeria), he was definitely influenced by them.

[lksteve]

i was going to read the article on Somalia, figured i might be able to provide a bit of perspective as i was the PSYOP detachment commander there from December 1992 into March 1993 (when i got pulled to go back to Saudi)...but alas and alack, i cannot get the PDF file to download...

i was able to access the article on the Ute campaign...that could be very interesting...i believe the Utes were the last major tribe to accept life on the reservation...they resisted until after WW1...'Posey's War' is recognized by many to be the last skirmish of the Indian wars, althought it was basically a bit of rustling gone awry...

i plan on reading as many of these as my LYB will allow...this weekend, i'll be dragged off to Big Pine, California so she can weave baskets with Indians...

i plan on hiking in Death Valley or something...maybe i can print one of these out and take it with me...

[Roguish Lawyer]

What the hell is going on here? Is Guy like an SF light bulb? Or maybe I am? LMAO

LKsteve:

There is free alcohol in LA if you can get here. And next week is a particularly good week, I think.

[Airbornelawyer]

Originally Posted by lksteve

i was going to read the article on Somalia, figured i might be able to provide a bit of perspective as i was the PSYOP detachment commander there from December 1992 into March 1993 (when i got pulled to go back to Saudi)...but alas and alack, i cannot get the PDF file to download...

Download difficulties are probably because it isn't an article. It is a 233-page case study. Here is the foreword:

"My Clan Against the World": US and Coalition Operations in Somalia, 1992-94 represents another in a series of military case studies published by the Combat Studies Institute (CSI) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The impetus for this project came from the commanding general, US Army Training and Doctrine Command, Fort Monroe, Virginia, who directed CSI to examine the American military’s experience with urban operations in Somalia, particularly in the capital city of Mogadishu. That original focus can be found in the following pages, but the authors address other, broader issues as well, to include planning for a multinational intervention; workable and unworkable command and control arrangements; the advantages and problems inherent in coalition operations; the need for cultural awareness in a clan-based society whose status as a nation-state is problematic; the continuous adjustments required by a dynamic, often unpredictable situation; the political dimension of military activities at the operational and tactical levels; and the ability to match military power and capabilities to the mission at hand.

This case study also cautions against the misuse and overuse of “lessons” learned from any given military undertaking. As with the lessons of Vietnam, one of which dictated that conventional units should not engage in unconventional warfare, the US experience in Somalia left many military analysts and policymakers convinced that the United States should eschew any undertaking that smacked of nation building. Yet, as this book is published, just ten years after the US exit from Somalia, American forces are engaged in several locations against an unconventional foe and are involved in nation building in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Perhaps the first lesson to be learned about extracting lessons is, in the words of a once-popular motion picture, “Never Say Never Again.”

Another principal aim of the authors was to provide an analytical narrative of each phase of the US military involvement in Somalia. For many Americans, the mention of that African country conjures up one memory, that of the fierce firefight between US troops and Somali militia on 3-4 October 1993. As this overview seeks to remind the reader, the United States had a military presence in Somalia from December 1992 to the end of March 1994. During that period, much was accomplished of a positive nature. Starving and mistreated Somalis were provided food and a modicum of security, while some progress was made toward peace in the country. That the broader goals of political reconciliation and stability ultimately were not achieved was in part a consequence of the intractability of the contending factions and the complexities of a country that defies Western definitions of “modern.” Yet, US involvement in countries that have much in common with Somalia is a current reality and a future likelihood. For the professional officer, then, as well as the American public at large, it would be instructive to revisit the US experience in Somalia.