Defeating Guerrilla Warfare
Abstract
The United States military has had little success in countering guerrilla warfare as part of an insurgency since World War II. The U.S. approach has been to use conventional forces which rely on high technology and massive firepower against low tech enemies who refuse to stand and fight. This paper focuses on developing ways to defeat the basic strategy guerrillas employ as part of an insurgency, through the examination of classic guerrilla warfare literature. Overall insurgent strategies, tactics, and operational considerations are synthesized and from these, strategy, tactics and an operational plan is developed to specifically counter the aims of the insurgent. This examination then leads to some basic operational concepts of counter-guerrilla warfare. Guerrillas can best be defeated militarily using guerrilla warfare techniques. The major tools are psychological operations and effective use of intelligence assets. Defeating guerrillas will not eliminate an insurgency if the causes which gave rise to it are not addressed and corrected by the government in power. However, as these problems are being corrected, the guerrilla must still be defeated militarily.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 21, 1991
- Accession Number
- ADA240241
Entities
People
- Peter A. Dotto
Organizations
- Naval War College