Guerrilla warfare: a historical & critical study

483 Pages·2017·8.285 MB·English

by  Laqueur, Walter

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LONDON AND NEW YORK
Originally published in 1976 by Little, Brown and Company
Published 1998 by Transaction Publishers
Published 2017 by Routledge
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Copyright © 1998 by Taylor & Francis.
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Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 97-29417
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Laqueur, Walter, 1921-
Guerrilla warfare : a historical and critical study / Walter Laqueur, with
a new introduction by the author.
p. cm.
Originally published: Boston : Little, Brown, 1976.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7658-0406-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Guerrilla warfare—History. I. Title.
U240.L37 1997
355.02'18—dc21
97-29417
CIP
ISBN-13: 978-0-7658-0406-8 (pbk)
These problems (of guerrilla warfare) are of very long standing, yet
manifestly far from understood-especially in those countries
where everything that can be called "guerrilla warfare" has be-
come a new military fashion or craze.
- B, H. LIDDELL HART, Preface to the
second edition of Strategy, 1967

Contents
Introduction to the Transaction Edition IX
Preface XV
1 Partisans in History 3
2 Small Wars and Big Armies 50
3 The Origins of Guerrilla Doctrine 100
4 The Twentieth Century (I):
Between Two World Wars 152
5 The Twentieth Century (II):
Partisans against Hitler 202
6 The Twentieth Century (III):
China and Vietnam 239
7 National Liberation and Revolutionary War 278
8 Guerrilla Doctrine Today 326
9 A Summing Up 382
Notes 411
Chronology of Major Guerrilla Wars 441
Abbreviations 443
Bibliography 446
Index 451

Introduction to the
Transaction Edition
Every book has its history and Guerrilla Warfare is no exception.
Together with its sequel Terrorism and two companion volumes (The
Guerrilla Reader and The Terrorism Reader) it was part of a wider study
such as had not been attempted before-to give a critical interpreta-
tion of guerrilla and terrorism theory and practice throughout history.
It did not want to provide a general theory of political violence nor did
it give instructions on how to conduct guerrilla warfare or terrorist
operations. It was read in various countries and established itself as a
text. I hope it contributed to the clarification of certain issues not
widely understood at the time among the public at large. The book
certainly failed to bring about greater semantic clarity; there had been
a widespread tendency in the media and our public discourse to equate
great war with small war, guerrilla, terrorism, civil war, and banditry
(social and asocial), and this has not changed since this book first
appeared in 1976. On the contrary, unsuspecting readers consulting
major public libraries for guidance on the subject of guerrilla warfare
will find under this heading books on the theater, on business practices
(especially sales strategies), on education, and on many other fields of
human endeavor. The term guerrilla has become very popular; but in
the same measure as the application has multiplied, the meaning has
become even more diluted. In addition there has been the widespread
use of the unfortunate and misleading term "urban guerrilla" as a
euphemism for terrorism. Guerrilla has a positive connotation, by and
large, whereas terrorism has not, hence the misapplication.