NCJ Number
139273
Date Published
1991
Length
34 pages
Annotation
The military doctrines of counterinsurgency and unconventional warfare have played dominant roles in U.S. foreign policy since the beginning of the Kennedy administration. The concept of counterinsurgency legitimized State terrorism as a means to confront dissent and subversion.
Abstract
This author identifies the characteristic organizational forms of the counterinsurgency State: paramilitary irregulars, elite Special Forces-style units, and centralized intelligence agencies under military control. The public side of the move toward developing a counterinsurgency force was established in a series of presidential statements to Congress and the nation that defined a new, potent threat the U.S. security: wars of liberation, internal revolution, and guerrilla warfare in other countries. The trend that led to the link between American counterinsurgency doctrine and the resources and doctrine for offensive guerrilla warfare dates to the aftermath of World War II. The doctrine and programs were accorded the same level of secrecy surrounding the intelligence world. Despite controversy over U.S. foreign policies, the author notes that the definition of counterinsurgency as a special discipline remains fixed in American military doctrine. 78 notes