Abstract
Any discussion of insurgency and counterinsurgency must begin with a definition of terms, for the language of irregular warfare has become as elusive as the guerrillas themselves. ‘Revolution’, ‘subversion’, ‘guerrilla warfare’, ‘partisan warfare’, and ‘insurgency’ are spoken of with little precision, as though they were synonymous. The confusion is compounded by the fact that the language of what Donald Robinson has called the ‘dirty wars’ has become emotionally charged.1
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Notes
Donald Robinson (ed.), The Dirty Wars: Guerrilla Actions and other Forms of Unconventional Warfare (New York: 1968).
Robert Asprey, War in the Shadows: The Guerrilla in History, 2 vols (New York: 1975).
Peter Dunn, ‘The American Army: The Vietnam War, 1965–1973’, in Ian Beckett and John Pimlott (eds), Armed Forces and Modern Counterinsurgency (New York: 1985), p. 80.
Michael Elliot-Bateman, The Fourth Dimension in Warfar, vol. 1, Intelligence, Subversion, Resistance (New York: 1970).
George Rude, Revolutionary Europe, 1783–1815 (New York: 1964), p. 74.
Brian Crozier, The Rebels: A Study of Post-War Insurrections (London: 1960), p. 158.
Thomas P. Thornton, ‘Terror as a Weapon of Political Agitation’, in Harry Eckstein (ed.), Internal War: Problems and Approaches (Westport, Conn.: 1964), p. 73.
Donald Barnett and Karari Njama, Mau Mau from Within: Autobiography and Analysis of Kenya’s Peasant Revolt (New York: 1966), p. 138.
David K. Shipler, Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land (New York: 1986), p. 84.
Robert Taber, The War of the Flea: A Study of Guerrilla Warfare Theory and Practice (New York: 1965), p. 27.
Charles Townshend, Britain’s Civil Wars: Counterinsurgency in the Twentieth Century (London: 1986), p. 17.
Lucien Pye, Guerrilla Communism in Malaya: Its Social and Political Meaning (Princeton: 1964; 1st ed., 1956), pp. 30–1.
Mao Tse-Tung, Selected Military Writings (Peking: 1966; 1st ed., 1963), pp. 244–8.
The figures are those given in Gregory Blaxland, The Regiments Depart: A History of the British Army, 1945–1970 (London: 1971), pp. 73–5.
They agree with those given by Anthony Short, The Communist Insurrection in Malaya, 1948–1960 (London: 1975), who rounds the figures off to 4908 000 and 1885 000 respectively, p. 254.
Edgar O’Ballance, Malaya: The Communist Insurgent War, 1948–60 (Hamden, Conn.: 1966), pp. 44, 111.
The above figures are those given in Robert W. Komer, The Malayan Emergency in Retrospect: Organization of the Successful Counterinsurgency Effort (Santa Monica, Cal.: Rand Corp., 1972), Memo. 90406, pp. 22–3, 38, 47; Komer puts the active insurgent guerrilla strength at 12000 in 1948 (ibid., p. 11). Separating active from passive supporters is so difficult that it is impossible to arrive at precise figures.
Tom Barry, Guerrilla Days in Ireland (New York: 1956), p. 31.
For a detailed discussion of all these matters, see Charles Townshend, The British Campaign in Ireland, 1919–1921: The Development of Political and Military Policies (London: 1975).
Among the best of the British studies are Gregory Blaxland’s The Regiments Depart: A History of the British Army, 1945–1970 (London: 1971);
Julian Paget’s Counter-Insurgency Campaigning (London: 1967);
and Frank Kitson’s Bunch of Five (London: 1977).
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© 1990 Thomas R. Mockaitis
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Mockaitis, T.R. (1990). Insurgency and Counter-insurgency. In: British Counterinsurgency, 1919–60. Studies in Military and Strategic History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-80813-7_1
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