Takeaways from "The Village"

This post is going to go off in a somewhat different direction than my usual posts. I've mentioned previously different counterinsurgent books that I have read in the past, all of them with usful tidbits of information, but have never really shared what I learned from the authors. I'm still in the middle of David Galula's "Pacification in Algeria" but Bing West's "The Village" has several highlights I will share along with my thoughts on those notes. Hopefully I will have learned something in case I ever find myself in a counterinsurgency situation again...or perhaps some future Army officer will stumble across this blog and learn a couple of things.

Here are my highlights from "The Village" which is the story of a group of Marines in Vietnam who were partnered with local security forces in a collection of villages:

"After explaining that the first order of business was turning the villa into a fort, Lam (one of the security force leaders) asked if the Marines could provide the necessary materials. Beebe (one of the Marines) replied...supplies requested by the company would take weeks and perhaps months before arriving. ...Lam said they could build their own defenses...called a meeting of the villagers...asked for volunteers to build the outpost. About forty villagers responded."

- You can't do everything yourself or else the locals population and security forces will become dependent on you and expect everything from you. Your forces may be able to do something better, but if they locals do it themselves they will take ownership of it and likely help in protecting it, whether it's an outpost or a bridge.

"The rifle-not the cannon or the jet-was to be the primary weapon of the Americans in Binh Nghia."

- Good counterinsurgency means getting on the ground and in amongst the population with small groups of soldiers. Conventional, modern weapons like artillery and tanks won't get the job done.

"Thanh believed that the accommodation between the Viet Cong and most of the villagers was based, not upon political ideology, but upon villagers' sense of self-preservation. The Viet Cong were stronger than the PFs (local government backed militia), and it was wiser to obey the stronger side."

- A vast majority of any population is unlikely to be strongly sided with the insurgent group in the area, but will aid them because if they don't the insurgents will punish them, most of the time through violence or by forcing the family out of the area. Find a way to protect the population from the insurgents and the population will turn to your side.

"For them (the Viet Cong) to deliberately kill a villager who refused porter or signaling service would expose their own families to retribution. The choice was up to the villagers, and much depended on how active and aggressive they judged the night patrols (those conducted by the PFs and Americans) to be."

- This may seem to contradict the previous statement but let me explain. The insurgency is made up of people who are part of the population. The insurgents know everyone in the village(s) or neighborhood and can therefore control the population unless another force is there to prevent that. As soon as the population feels safe enough, they will retaliate against insurgents overstepping their power. The tribal swing in the Anbar province of Iraq against Al Qaida in Iraq is a good example of this.

"Thanh was waiting (for the patrol), having heard the firing (from an ambush). Luong spoke to him, identifying one of the dead guerrillas by name. Thanh took out the book in which were recorded the name and affiliations of every adult in the village, with a special roster of those who had joined the Viet Cong. It contained about two hundred names. Thanh drew a neat line through one of them."

- Two crucial lessons here. The first is to have a proper census of the area you are operating in. Preferably the local police force or security force will have done this already; in Iraq the village sheikhs often had a list of residences, but normally outdated. If a census hasn't been done, conducting one should be made a priority, if feasible. The second lesson is to have security force leaders who are from the area and who know the locals.

When I'm done with "Pacification in Algeria" I'll likely do another one of these, maybe a couple more from the other books I've finished recently.