Counterinsurgency Warfare by David Galula: 1964

(Rich Gibson summary 2018)

 

 

Targeted killings offer false hope (think drones) viii

Don’t rotate out ix
People defeat technology ix

Insurgencies start before violence--Clauswitz 1

First step in an insurgency--a cause--IDEAS---passion 5,15, 54, 72, 89

Masses move, leaders will appear--- 2

Insurgency--protracted long war 3

A revolution is a political war but COIN wants a short war 7

Rejected elites become leaders 14

Revo tactics pull toward opportunism 16

Under real tyranny, revos are hard 19

Battle is for control of the population 21 47   58

A drift in the revo causes desertions 21

Create a party--united front??? 31

Stage of legality--non-violence---then guerrilla warfare 32

No base equals banditism 33

Treat prisoners well 35

Common doctrine widely taught easily understood, see IDEAS above 36
MONEY IS THE SINEW OF WAR   40

A peacetime political “machine” equals patronage 47

Organize the left to move the center and neutralize the right 52

COIN must have a SINGLE director---61

China--red soldiers as propagandists---62

COIN--create at least a fiction of civilian rule   63

COIN--minimize fire 66

Possibly punish COIN troop misdeeds   77

Live with the people 78

No big bases   79

Impose control not as an enemy 81

Take a careful census 82

No ostentation   85

SPLIT the INSURGENCY   86

Do NOT Torture 87

Hold elections, not raids   89

Test leaders 89

Party---Democratic Centralism, screen applicants, build a secret wing for a long term fight. 92

Control communications and abilities to evacuate

Leaders often intellectuals and students 30

Welcome or kill the last insurgents 92

Amnesty 93 94

Build COIN from population up   95

Study the world-wide importance of the Chinese revolution 97