Defeating Communist Insurgency

Studies in International Security #10

by Robert G.K. Thompson

First published in the mid-60s, this book is still the one by which all other counterinsurgency books are judged. Based on the author's successful experience in Malaya, and his subsequent advisory work for the Americans in Vietnam, his keys to victory and success have not changed with time:"It is a persistently methodical approach and steady pressure which will gradually wear the insurgent down. The government must not allow itself to be diverted either by countermoves on the part of the insurgent or by the critics on its own side who will be seeking a simpler and quicker solution. There are no shortcuts or gimmicks."

Genres: History, Military Fiction, War

171 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1966

About the author

Sir Robert Grainger Ker Thompson KBE CMG DSO MC was a British military officer, colonial civil servant and foreign military adviser. He was an R.A.F. officer during World War II, serving primarily in the China-Burma-India theatre; he served for a time as liaison officer with the legendary Chindits (officially known as the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade) formed and commanded by Brigadier Orde Wingate. After the war, Thompson returned to the Malayan Civil Service, which he had joined in 1938, becoming in 1946 the Assistant Commissioner of Labour in the state of Perak. After attending the Joint Services Staff College at Latimer, he was appointed in 1950 to the staff of the British Director of Operations (at that time the newly appointed Lieutenant-General Sir Harold Briggs, later replaced by General Sir Gerald Templer) holding the local military rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. After the Federation of Malaya became independent in 1959, Thompson served as Permanent Secretary for Defence under Defence Minister Tun Abdul Razak (Tun Razak later became the second Prime Minister of Malaysia, 1970-76). In 1960 he headed a survey team sent to the Republic of Viet Nam (South Vietnam) by Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman after a request from Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem for advisory assistance. President Diem was so impressed with Thompson's work that he asked the British government to send him as an advisor to the government of South Vietnam on a more permanent basis. In September 1961 British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan appointed Sir Robert G.K. Thompson to head the newly established British Advisory Mission to South Vietnam (BRIAM) as Chief Advisor. He later also served as an advisor to U.S. President Richard Nixon. Sir Robert G.K. Thompson is generally regarded as having been the world's leading expert on counterinsurgency, and he wrote several books and articles relating to the subject during his later life.

Reviews

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most interesting thing about this book is that it more-or-less narrowly specialises in the political (or "civic action") side of counterinsurgency. If I was going to recommend reading material to someone who was in the position of fighting an insurgency, my advice would be to first read David Galula's Counter-Insurgency Warfare: Theory & Practice (essentially the best entry-level guide to the subject) and then this book, before getting into the more military-oriented works such as Roger Trinquier's Modern Warfare: A French View of Counterinsurgency or Valeriano & Bohannon's Counterguerrilla Operations: The Philippine Experience...