Special Operations in US Strategy

325 Pages·1984·2.672 MB·English

by  Frank R. Barnett, Hugh B. Tovar, Richard H. Schultz (eds.)

SPECIAL OPERATIONS
IN US STRATEGY
Edited by
Frank R. Barnett B. Hugh Tovar Richard H. Shultz
National Defense Univerity Press
National Strategy Information Center, Inc.
NATIONAL STRATEGY INFORMATION CENTER, INC.
150 East 58th Street, New York, N.Y. 10155
[phone]
OFFICERS
FRANK R. BARNETT* REAR ADMIRAL WILLIAM C. MOTT. USN
President (Ret.)*
DOROTHY E. NICOLOSI* Vice President and General Counsel
Vice President and Treasurer HUGH F McGOWAN. JR.
PAUL E. FEFFER* Secretary
International Vice President OMER PACE
(President, Feffer & Simons, Inc.) Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer
DIRECTORS
KARL R. BENDETSEN JERALD C. NEWMAN
Chairman and Chief Executive. Retired President and Chief'Administrative Officer
■Champion International Corporation The Bowery Savings Bank
D. TENNANT BRYAN ROBERT H. PARSLEY
Chairman of the Board Butler, Binion, Rice, Cook and Knapp
Media General. Inc. FRANK SHAKESPEARE
PRESCOTT S. BUSH. JR. Vice Chairman
Senior Vice President and Director RKO General. Inc.
Johnson <5 Higgins CHARLES E. STEVINSON
RICHARD C. HAM President
Attorney at Law Denver West
MORRIS I. LEIBMAN JAMES L. WINOKUR
Sidley & Austin Chairman
JOHN NORTON MOORE Air Tool Parts and Service Company
Walter L. Brown Professor of Law and Director. MAJOR GENERAL RICHARD A. YUDKIN.
Center for Ocean Law and Policy. USAF (Ret.)
University of Virginia Senior Vice President. Retired
ADMIRAL THOMAS H. MOORER. USN (Ret.) Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation
ADVISORY COUNCIL
ISAAC L. AUERBACH LLOYD NOBLE
VICE ADMIRAL M. G. BAYNE. USN (Ret.) HARRY A. POTH. JR.
ALLYN R. BELL. JR. ADOLPH W. SCHMIDT
JOSEPH COORS FREDERICK SEITZ
HENRY H. FOWLER LAURENCE H. SILBERMAN
JOHN W HANES. JR. ARTHUR SPITZER
ADMIRAL MEANS JOHNSTON. USN (Ret.) JOHN A. SUTRO
R DANIEL McMICHAEL ALBERT L. WEEKS
REAR ADMIRAL DAVID L. MARTINEAU. DEE WORKMAN
USN (Ret.) EVELLEJ.YQUNGER
CHUCK MAU ADMIRAL ELMO R ZUMWALT. JR.. USN
VICE ADMIRAL J. P. MOORER. USN (Ret.) (Ret.)
DILLARD MUNFORD
WASHINGTON OFFICE
1730 Rhode Island Avenue. N.W.
Washington. D.C. 20036
[phone]
DR. ROY GODSON
Director
(Associate Professor of Government.
Georgetown University)
*Also Directors
SPECIAL OPERATIONS
IN US STRATEGY
SPECIAL OPERATIONS
IN US STRATEGY

Edited by Frank R. Barnett
B. Hugh Tovar
Richard H. Shultz

Published by National Defense University Press
in cooperation with
National Strategy Information Center Inc.
Copyright © 1984 by the National Strategy Information Center, Inc. Printed by per­
mission.

Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied in this volume are
solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National De­
fense University, the Department of Defense, or any other government agency or private
organization.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 84-601134.

Renee Loeffler prepared the index for this book under contract DAHC32-85-M-1 I05.

This book is for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, US Government Printing
Office, Washington, DC 20402. Facsimile copies may be purchased as follows: Registered
users should contact the Defense Technical Information Center, Cameron Station, Alex­
andria, Virginia 22314; t he general public should contact the National Technical Infor­
mation Service, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, Virginia 22161.

Firs! printing. December 1984.
Second printing. September 1985.
Third pri nting. October 1988.
CONTENTS

Foreword vii
Introduction 1
Keynote Address by The Honorable John 0. Marsh, Jr. 17
Chapter /:
Special Operations and the Threats to United States
Interests in the 1980s 27
Maurice Tugwell and David Charters
Discussion 44
Chapter 2:
Special Operations in the 1980s: American Moral, Legal, Political,
and Cultural Constraints 53
William V. O'Brien
Discussion 85
Chapter 3:
The Soviet Approach to Special Operations 95
John J. Dziak
Discussion 121
Chapter 4:
Military Capabilities and Special Operations in the 1980s 135
Roger M. Pezzel/e
Discussion 153
Chapter 5:
Intelligence Assets and Special Operations 167
B. Hugh Tovar
Discussion 191
Chapter 6:
Economic/Security Assistance and Special Operations 201
Douglas S. Blau/ arb
Discussion 222
Chapter 7:
Psychological Operations, Special Operations, and US
Strategy 229
Alfred H. Paddock
Discussion 252
Chapter 8:
Organizational Strategy and Low-Intensity Conflicts 261
Sam C. Sarkesian
Discussion 290
Participant List 301
Index 315
FOREWORD

In March 1983, the National Strategy Information
Center, the National Security Studies Program at
Georgetown Universi ty, and the Na tion al Defense
University jointly sponsored a two-day symposium on "The
Role of Special Operations in US Strategy for the 1980s."
This meeting attracted current and former practitioners in
the various functional areas of special operations and
brough t them together with other professionals from
government, academia, the media, and public policy
centers. The purpose was two-fold: first, to examine how
special opera tion s can com ple m ent a n eff ective
"conven tional" defense capa bility; and second, to
determine the means by which special operations could be
legitimized as a crucial element in national security policy.
Framed by a Keynote Address by the Honorable John 0.
Marsh, Jr., Secretary of the Arm y, this volume contains the
major pa pers presented at the symposium, along with the
discussions which followed each presentation. In this text,
the papers are introduced by Frank R. Barnett, B. Hugh
Tovar, and Richard H. Shultz, each of whom was
instrumental in arranging the symposium itself, as well as
editing the work at hand.
My predecessor, Lieutenant General John S. Pustay, US
Air Force, believed that public awareness of vital national
security concerns required active and cooperative
educational efforts by both the government and the private
sector. The Special Operations symposium was the result of
such cooperation, and I am pleased to pu blish these
proceedings.

Richard D. Lawrence
Lieutenant General, US Army
President, National Defense
University
INTRODUCTION

A serious illness can be difficult to detect because the initial
symptoms are confused with those of commonplace disease. Some
types of aggression likewise defy an early, accurate diagnosis.
These species of political-military virus or ideological infection re­
sist early detection and can lead to large scale war if they are not
identified and countered in their early stages. This book applies
these medical analogies to the Soviet role in promoting and as­
sisting "revolutionary" insurgencies wit h met hods for which, as
yet, the West has found no effective cure. (Some remedies, how­
ever, are proposed.)
Moscow is busy not only deploying missiles and tank armies,
or testing its four-ocean navy, for a possible major war. In the
last dozen years, while the United States has remained off balance
from the societal undertow of Vietnam, the USSR has dramati­
cally increased its "low-intensity" conflict skills, as well as in­
creasing its "conventional" war forces. The blatant Soviet
invasion of Afghanist an was atypical. Normally, Moscow's power
projtion is better camouflaged.