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mburnamfink's review against another edition
5.0
I'll freely confess to being an armchair warrior, but this is one of the best books I've read on counter-insurgency: clear, detailed, exciting in parts, and with no jargon. Tinquier has unassailable experience, as the commander of a 20,000 strong Montagnard army in French Indochina, and then later some of the most effective French airborne forces in Algeria. True, France lost both those wars, but defeats are profound learning experiences.
Trinquier explains how insurgencies develop from a small political-military core into mass movements capable of bringing down governments, how they aim to outlast their conventional foes, and how they can be defeated. He argues that the guerrillas are the most expendable part of the organization, and that defeating them is irrelevant. The logistical core of the movement is the true target, and finding it requires building a complete civilian intelligence service, that links everybody to their house and social position (household, hamlet, village, district, etc), and then to a system that gathers human intelligence and funnels it to the military police. As a first step, Trinquier suggests locating and arresting the rebel tax collectors, since they must have contact with the population and are inevitably unpopular. Then, the enemy network can be tracked, located, and rolled up.
His attitude is brutally realistic. Fans of a 'clean wars' will be disturbed by his advocacy of torture ("The terrorist expects to be tortured in the same way the infantryman expects to be machine-gunned, or the aviator shot at by flak." to paraphrase), and the use of scorched earth tactics against insurgent base areas. On the other hand, he also puts protection of the population at the center of the strategy, and makes legitimate government a cornerstone of a successful campaign.
Absolutely vital for anybody interested in guerrilla warfare
Trinquier explains how insurgencies develop from a small political-military core into mass movements capable of bringing down governments, how they aim to outlast their conventional foes, and how they can be defeated. He argues that the guerrillas are the most expendable part of the organization, and that defeating them is irrelevant. The logistical core of the movement is the true target, and finding it requires building a complete civilian intelligence service, that links everybody to their house and social position (household, hamlet, village, district, etc), and then to a system that gathers human intelligence and funnels it to the military police. As a first step, Trinquier suggests locating and arresting the rebel tax collectors, since they must have contact with the population and are inevitably unpopular. Then, the enemy network can be tracked, located, and rolled up.
His attitude is brutally realistic. Fans of a 'clean wars' will be disturbed by his advocacy of torture ("The terrorist expects to be tortured in the same way the infantryman expects to be machine-gunned, or the aviator shot at by flak." to paraphrase), and the use of scorched earth tactics against insurgent base areas. On the other hand, he also puts protection of the population at the center of the strategy, and makes legitimate government a cornerstone of a successful campaign.
Absolutely vital for anybody interested in guerrilla warfare
sgtbigg's review
3.0
Trinquier learned about counterinsurgency in Algeria. He has some interesting ideas, but his ideas seem to take for granted that the enemy will do what he wants. Everything seems a little too neat. Good historical view of early counterinsurgency.
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