1. Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife John Nagl

2. How Armies learn Conservative Organizations
Civilian control essential for reform
Requires something “really unpleasant” to recognize the need to reform

3. The Hard Lessons of Insurgency
Guerrilla – Small War
“The War of the Flea”
Clausewitz - “War is just a continuation of politics”
Jomini – “Destruction of the enemy’s forces which will decide the outcome of the war”

4. The Hard Lessons of Insurgency
Mao’s “People’s War”
Mao’s 3 Stages
Gain the support of the people
Guerrilla campaign
Defeat the Govt. forces in a conventional battle
“We are the fish and the People are the sea

5. The Hard Lessons of Insurgency
Direct Coin – Jominian
“A War is a war is a war”
Indirect Coin – Clauswitzian
“Separate the fish from the Sea”
WHAM
Where is the center of gravity?

6. Strategic Culture
Organizational Culture vs. National Strategic Culture
British Strategic Culture vs. American Strategic Culture

7. The British as a learning institution
The Malay Insurgency
The British as a learning institution

8. British Straits Settlements
49% Malay
39% Chinese
10% Tamil
Rubber Plantations
& Tin Mines

9. Origins
1930 Malay Communist Party organized proletariat in Rubber plantations & Tin Mines, mostly Chinese.
1936 Banishment Ordinance
1942 British defeated by Japanese on Malay Penninsula
42-45 MPAJA/Loi Tek/Ching Peng
MPAJA/Disbanded 1945 w/Weapons buy back
MCP/MPLA
45-48 Severe Labor strife
Calcutta Communist Youth Conference 1948
Sungai Siput Incident 1948: June British Plantation owners murdered

10. The British are coming! Sir Edward Ghent Declares Emergency
Civilian Casualties 1948 were 1500
“Jungle Bashing”
Gurney, Ghent & Briggs
Feb 50 Sir Harold Briggs/The Briggs Plan – “New Villages”
Oct 51 Sir Henry Gurney assassinated
British Coordinating Committee
Tactical Innovation - Colonel Walker’s “Ferret Force”
Templer’s Plan for political victory

11. The French in indochina
Trung Tran & Trung Nhi revolt agains the Chinese in 40AD
The French in Indochina – Michelen Rubber
1908 Uprising in Bien Din
1914 WWI
Ho Chi Minh (Bringer of Light) and the VNQED
1930 Nationalist Uprising at Yen Bay – Ho Chi Minh jailed
1940 Japanese Occupation
Nguyen Giap & the Vietminh
1945 Japanese Surrender/ Ho declares independence
1950 Coup de Main
1954 Dien Bien Phu & Geneva division at the 17th parrallel

12. The U.S. In Vietnam – The Advisory years
1954 MAAG 342 Advisors
MAAG/MACV Training the ARVN to repel invasion not protect the people
TRIM
Ngo Dinh Diem
S. Vietnamese officials assassinated
JFK and counter insurgency
Lt Col. Gregory in the South Delta, “Problem is 15% military and 85% political, it is not just killing VC
CIDG & Switchback, Green Berets
BRIAM
Gen Harkins MACV 1962

13. The U.S. In Vietnam - the Fighting years
“A Strong Temptation to hit someone”
MACV Gen William Westmoreland
“The VC are excellent at ambushes, but that’s kind of a coward’s way of fighting”
Strategic Debate
Defensive Enclave
Search and Destroy
LtCol. Moore & Ia Drang Valley
Marine MGEN Lew Walt in I Corps
Regional Civil Agency in each sector
CAP – Ed Palm
CORD
TET Offensive

14. The U.S. In Vietnam - the Fighting years (CAP)

15. David Kilcullen –Fundamentals of company level counterinsurgency
Prepare
Know your turf
Diagnose the Problem
Organize for Intelligence
Organize for Inter-Agency Operations
Travel Light, but guard CSS
Find a Political/Cutlural Adivsor
Focus on Squad leaders
Rank is nothing, talent is everything
Have a game plan

16. David Kilcullen –Fundamentals of company level counterinsurgency
The Golden Hour
Be There
Don’t act brashly
Prepare for the handover on Day 1
Build trusted local networks
Start Easy
Seek early victories
Practice deterrent patrolling
Be prepared for setbacks
Remember the global audience
Engage the women, beware of the children
Take stock regularly

17. David Kilcullen –Fundamentals of company level counterinsurgency
Groundhog Day
Exploit a Single simple narrative
Local forces should mirror the enemy, not U.S. forces
Practice armed civil affairs
Small is beautiful
Fight the enemy’s strategy, not his forces
Build your own solution, attack the enemy only when he gets in your way
Getting Short
Keep your extraction plan a secret
Whatever else you do, keep the initiative

18. David Galula: CounterInsurgency Warfare, Theory and Practice
Law #1 – The support of the population is as necessary for the counterinsurgent as for the insurgent
Law #2 – Support is gained through an active minority
Law #3 – Support from the population is conditional
Law #4 – Intensity of efforts and the vastness of means are essential

19. Dien bien phu/ khe sanh/ korengal Valley

20. Dien Bien Phu

21. Khe Sanh
77 Day Siege, later abandoned

22. kOrengal Valley
“Restrepo” – Sebastian Junger & Tim Heatherington