Guerrilla Campaign Research Articles

Revolutions without guerrillas

While most scholars and policy analysts have long focused on guerrilla warfare as the predominant model of revolution, it has actually been revolutions without guerrillas that have toppled regimes throughout the world in the past decade. The 1989 popular uprisings in Eastern Europe that marked the end of more than 40 years of Communist rule were only the latest manifestation of a trend that had seen governments fall from Iran to the Philippines. Among the key differences between traditional insurgencies and the growing phenomenon of revolutions without guerrillas is the sudden and explosive nature of the latter. Whereas it may take an insurgency years, or even decades, to reach a point of ‘crisis’, thereby allowing sufficient time to design policy, supply weapons, or create strategies, in this new situation governments can be toppled in a matter of weeks and countries can become paralyzed overnight. Popular uprisings also tend to be less ideological and usually less violent than guerrilla campaigns. This ...

Rebellion in the Veins: Political Struggle in Bolivia, 1952-82

Bolivia is a country with a reputation, writes James Dunkerley. Not so long ago it was for Che Guevara, for whose death its citizens are on occasions held to be collectively responsible. More recently it has been for cocaine. But in general it is for political disorder. Rebellion in the Veinsdemonstrates that behind the succession of coups lies an exceptional and coherent record of political struggle. The country s location at the heart of Latin America has not, however, guaranteed it the attention it deserves. Dunkerley here redresses the balance in a masterly survey of Bolivian society since the early 1950s. The revolution of 1952 was, with the Cuban revolution, the most radical attempt in the western hemisphere since the Second World War to break the cycle of capitalist underdevelopment. It was channeled into a more familiar pattern of repression and dictatorship only after bitter struggles, and Dunkerley analyses the pressures that compromised it, providing lucid accounts of the country s economy, political history and class structure, as well as its relations with the United States. The succession of military dictatorships from 1964 to 1982 are described, but this period was by no means one of unrelieved quietude. There was an extraordinarily vital popular resistance, and the unusual sophistication of working-class politics forms a stirring narrative. The tragic death of Che, after a doomed rural guerrilla campaign in eastern Bolivia, had a profound effect on the country s politics. The fate of his imitators, and the eventual resurgence of more classical forms of mass struggle, has provided valuable lessons for what Dunkerley predicts will be a second Bolivian revolution. The story is carried through to the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1982, presided over by Hernan Siles Zuazo, who first came to power in the revolution thirty years earlier.

Sendero Luminoso and the Peasantry of Andahuaylas

Since 1980 the maoist party known as Sendero Luminoso, the “Shining Path,” has been waging a guerrilla campaign against the civilian government of Peru. To the surprise of most observers, this group not only has survived but has expanded its scope of operations, kept the military on the defensive, and attracted a small but significant national following.This limited success is puzzling because of the movement's small size, its lack of arms and its extreme radicalism, in a country with a diverse and substantial Left. Sendero Luminoso, calling itself the Communist Party of Peru, holds to an orthodox Maoist philosophy.

Insurgency, Terrorism and the Apartheid System in South Africa

This article discusses the development of guerrilla insurgency in South Africa and the government response centred around the concept of ‘total strategy’. After distinguishing analytically between the notions of ‘terrorism’ and ‘guerrilla warfare’, the insurgent campaign is seen to have a threefold impact in terms of loss of economic confidence, sapping of white morale and a mobilization of black political consciousness. The resulting response of ‘total strategy’ effectively represents an escalation of previous efforts to entrench a black middle class as a factor to enhance political stability, though political isolation of South Africa from close western support makes it problematical that the South African state can avoid a strategy of full-scale counter-terror to the increased insurgency threat.

Indian Unrest in the Peruvian Sierra in the Late Nineteenth Century

A watershed in Peru's development, and perhaps its most traumatic experience as an independent republic, was its humiliating defeat at the hands of Chile during the War of the Pacific (1879-1883). The impact of the war was profound. Virtually every aspect of Peruvian political, economic, and social life was affected. The army was defeated, the country invaded, and Lima occupied. By the peace treaty, Peru's nitrate-bearing southern provinces were handed over to Chile, depriving it of its most important source of income. The economy of the country was further undermined by the war-time destruction of many coastal sugar and cotton plantations. Economic collapse was accompanied by political chaos. Fighting continued after the end of the war as forces loyal to General Andrés A. Cáceres, who had carried out an effective guerrilla campaign against the Chileans in the sierra, now aimed their guns at the Chilean-imposed government of General Miguel Iglesias. In December 1885 they captured Lima, paving the way for Cáceres' election as president.

Indian Unrest in the Peruvian Sierra in the Late Nineteenth Century

A watershed in Peru's development, and perhaps its most traumatic experience as an independent republic, was its humiliating defeat at the hands of Chile during the War of the Pacific (1879-1883). The impact of the war was profound. Virtually every aspect of Peruvian political, economic, and social life was affected. The army was defeated, the country invaded, and Lima occupied. By the peace treaty, Peru's nitrate-bearing southern provinces were handed over to Chile, depriving it of its most important source of income. The economy of the country was further undermined by the war-time destruction of many coastal sugar and cotton plantations. Economic collapse was accompanied by political chaos. Fighting continued after the end of the war as forces loyal to General Andrés A. Cáceres, who had carried out an effective guerrilla campaign against the Chileans in the sierra, now aimed their guns at the Chilean-imposed government of General Miguel Iglesias. In December 1885 they captured Lima, paving the way for Cáceres' election as president.

The Cuban Rebel Army: A Numerical Survey

Few events in modern Latin American history have received as much attention from historians and social scientists as the Cuban Revolution. In scholarly books and articles they have described, discussed, and analyzed the manner in which the revolutionary government came to power in January 1959. These authorities agree that the guerrilla campaign waged by Fidel Castro contributed to the overthrow of the government of President Fulgencio Batista, but opinions differ as to the relative importance of rural insurgency, urban terrorism, and counter terrorism. Informed judgments supposedly are based on some knowledge of the extent of the guerrilla campaign in rural Cuba. An indicator of the extent of guerrilla activity is the number of persons involved in it. But there is wide disagreement as to the maximum numerical strength of the rebel army of the 26 of July Movement. Table I provides a composite sampling of estimates by Cuban sources and by non-Cuban scholars. Obviously, some writers must be mistaken about an essential fact of the Cuban Revolution. Based on factual error, their analyses are hardly reliable. In the case of a momentous event like the Cuban Revolution, wrong interpretations can work great mischief. After twenty years, the time has come to set the record straight. Among those who have estimated total Fidelista strength, the best informed would appear to be the rebel army's Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz. However, on different occasions Fidel gave widely divergent figures (Table I, Items 6 and 7). In judging the accuracy of each figure, the concurrent political and military situation must be taken into account. Prior to the fall of the Batista government, Fidel is known to have exaggerated the size of his forces for tactical reasons. In February 1957 he sought to deceive the New York Times' Herbert L.

Edna's last stand,orJoe Orton's dialectic of entertainment

'Lie on the couch with your hands behind your head and think of the closing chapters of your favourite work of fiction. The rest may be left to me'. Thus Dr. Prentice behind a camouflage of entertainment seeks to have sex with his patient. Thus Joe Orton behind a facade of fun seeks to screw us. The success of the manoeuvre is indicated by the number of years it has taken the critical establishment to spot what he has been doing. Of the dramatists of the sixties he is still one of the most popular: productions of his plays appear with steadily more frequency, two plays have become films, three plays were written for television. In terms of audiences he was/is in the big time. But the idea of popular drama has more exciting ramifications. The work for the stage went alongside a guerrilla campaign against the literate middle-class: he altered dust-jackets and illustrations of library books (in protest against the pulp people were served), he infiltrated letters pages to ape the public displays of moral horror, he enticed theatre audiences to participate in the destruction of the conventions of theatre. His drama is one that uses and analyses the institutions of society. Erpingham Camp, in the television play ofthat name, is a holiday camp. The institution which supplies entertainment is central to Orton's work, and we learn more about the idea of entertainment when we meet Erpingham. He is planning new sites for camps: 'Rows of Entertainment Centres down lovely, unspoiled bits of the coast, across deserted moorland and barren mountainside. The Earthly Paradise'. (Erpingham Camp, 49)1 His plans threaten National Trust bird sanctuaries, but 'Human beings need sanctuaries, Riley, as well as birds'. The end is clear: 'I shall be a millionaire by the 'seventies', (p. 49). Not only is entertainment an industry, but it transmits a system of values. Usually we think of entertainment as an alternative to a world of values and meanings. 1 Quotations taken from Methuen publications of the individual plays (1967-70), except for Entertaining Mr. Shane in New English Dramatists 8 (Penguin, 1965). Complete Plays used where indicated.

President johnson's war on poverty: The rhetoric of three “establishment” movements

Movement studies typically assume that movements are insurgent campaigns for change. This assumption is challenged through a counter‐example. Implications of this analysis for theory and criticism are considered.

The Revolutions of ‘Portuguese’ Africa

To try to summarise in a few pages the present situation in ‘Portuguese’ Africa is at best a difficult task. Briefly, the three ‘Overseas Provinces’ (since the Portuguese constitutional revision of 1951 they are no longer called ‘colonies’) are in rebellion against continued Portuguese rule. Or, rather, elements in these territories are in rebellion. Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau are the sites of increasingly violent conflict as African nationalists intensify their guerrilla campaigns against a hardening Portuguese military resistance.

The New Face of War: A Report on a Communist Guerrilla Campaign

The New Face of War: A Report on a Communist Guerrilla Campaign

Reviews of Books

Abstract Brassey's Annual: The Armed Forces Year Book 1965. Edited by Major-General J. L. Moulton (late Royal Marines), Brigadier C. N. Barclay, and Air Vice-Marshal W. M. Yool. (William Clowes & Sons, Ltd.) 84s. Schools for Strategy: Education and Research in National Security Affairs. By Gene M. Lyons and Louis Morton. (Pall Mall Press/Praeger.) 56s. The Theory and Practice of War: Essays presented to Captain B. H. Liddell Hart on his Seventieth Birthday. Edited by Michael Howard. (Cassell.) 50s. Deterrence and Strategy. By Andrè Beaufre. (Faber & Faber.) 30s. A Traveller's Guide to the Battlefields of Europe. Vol. I: Western Europe. Vol. II: Central and Eastern Europe. Edited by David Chandler. (Hugh Evelyn.) 30s. each. British Regular Cavalry 1644–1914. By Leonard Cooper. (Chapman & Hall.) 35s. Guns. By Dudley Pope. (Weidenfeld & Nicolson.) 126s A Bibliography of Regimental Histories of the British Army. Compiled by Arthur S. White. (The Society for Army Historical Research with The Army Museums Ogilby Trust.) £5 5s. Scots Guards Standard Settings of Pipe Music—5th Edition. (Paterson's Publications.) 40s. Cloth bound. 25s. Paper bound. Jane's Fighting Ships, 1965–66. Edited by Raymond S. V. Blackman. (Sampson Low, Marston & Co.) £8 8s. Maritime Strategy: A Study of British Defence Problems. By Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Gretton, K.C.B., D.S.O., O.B.E., D.S.C. (Cassell.) 36s. The Politics of Naval Supremacy: Studies in British Maritime Ascendancy. By Gerald S. Graham. (Cambridge University Press.) 30s. The Navy in Transition: A Social History, 1814–1864. By Michael Lewis. (Hodder & Stoughton.) 42s. Yesterday's Deterrent: Tirpitz and the Birth of the German Battle Fleet. By Jonathan Steinberg. (Macdonald.) 35s. The Story of Scapa Flow. By Geoffrey Cousins. (Frederick Muller.) 25s. The Physical Geography of the Oceans. By Charles H. Cotter. (Hollis & Carter.) 35s. The Royal Flying Corps: A History. By Geoffrey Norris. (Muller.) 30s. Battle for Britain: Sixteen Weeks that changed the Course of History. By Ronald W. Clark. (Harrap.) 18s. 6d. Pattle: Supreme Fighter in the Air. By E. C. R. Baker. (Kimber.) 42s. Campaign to Valley Forge: 1st July, 1777—19th December, 1777. By John F. Reed. (University of Pennsylvania Press. London: Oxford University Press.) 68s. Gibraltar Besieged, 1779–1783. By Jack Russell. (Heinemann.) 45s. The Battle of Bussaco: Masséna vs. Wellington. By Donald D. Horward. (Florida State University, Tallahassee.) England's Pride: The Story of the Gordon Relief Expedition. By Julian Symons. (Hamish Hamilton.) 30s. The Shadow of Vimy Ridge. By Major Kenneth Macksey, M.C. (Kimber.) 45s. The Gardeners of Salonika: The Macedonian Campaign 1915–1918. By Alan Palmer. (André Deutsch.) 42s. The Long Trail: What the British Soldier Sang and Said in 1914–1918. By John Brophy and Eric Partridge. (André Deutsch.) 35s. The Secret Battalion: One of the Most Astonishing Battles of the Second World War. By Michael J. Bird. (Muller.) 25s. Mulberry: The Return in Triumph. By Michael Harrison. (W. H. Allen.) 42s. Airborne to Suez. By Sandy Cavenagh. (Kimber.) 30s. The Slashers: A New Short History of the Gloucestershire Regiment, 1694–1965. (Privately published by Regimental Headquarters, Robinswood Barracks, Gloucester.) The Fire and the Rose. By Arthur Bryant. (Collins). 25s. A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House. By Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (André Deutsch.) 55s. In the Wake of the Great. By Lieut-General Sir Gordon Macready. (William Clowes & Sons.) 45s. African Tightrope: My Two Years as Nkrumah's Chief of Staff. By Major-General H. T. Alexander, C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O. (Pall Mall Press.) 25s. The Dominion Partnership in Imperial Defense, 1870–1914. By Donald C. Gordon. (Johns Hopkins Press. London: Oxford University Press.) 60s. Australia's Defence. By T. B. Millar. (Melbourne University Press. London: Cambridge University Press.) 20s. The New Face of War: A Report on a Communist Guerrilla Campaign. By Malcolm W. Browne. (Cassell.) 25s. Vietnam: No. 1 in the Read-In Series. (Eyre & Spottiswoode.) 5s. The Making of a Quagmire. By David Halberstam. (Bodley Head.) 30s.

The United States and Nicaragua

AS this manuscript is being typed news comes that Colonel Henry L. Stimson, as special representative of the President, has persuaded the Liberal revolutionists of Nicaragua to lay down their arms and cease their hopeless war upon the Conservative Diaz aided by the United States marines. The terms are reported to be general amnesty to all, some Liberal representation in the President's Cabinet, ten dollars to every man surrendering his rifle, and the guarantee of an election in 1928 supervised by the United States. The last provision may prove of some value to the conquered insurrectionists, although in the past supervised elections elsewhere have been more serviceable as a basis for action by the State Department than as a substitute for direct action acceptable to the defeated party. The newspapers report the Liberal leaders as asserting that Colonel Stimson announced that unless they ceased their turmoil their forces would be disarmed by the marines. Although this ultimatum has neither been confirmed nor denied by Washington, it is probably an exaggerated statement devised to save the faces of the Liberal generals, and Colonel Stimson is to be congratulated upon ending a cruel war in which casualties, in proportion to numbers engaged, were very high and which had degenerated into a guerrilla campaign conducted by roving bands. His task, difficult at best, was rendered almost hopeless because any solution he could suggest would necessarily involve the continuance in office of Diaz whom we had recognized as President. Moreover under the constitution, it was impossible to hold a new election before October, 1928. For these obstacles to peace Colonel Stimson was in no manner responsible. Recognition of Diaz, which has never been explained on any but tenuous legal grounds, seemed to arouse the Nicaraguan Liberals to an amazing degree of heat and for years to come our recent dealings with them will be used against us throughout all Latin-America.