U.S. Army Counterinsurgency and Contingency Operations ...

U.S. Army Counterinsurgency

and Contingency Operations Doctrine

1860?1941

Andrew J. Birtle

U.S. Army Counterinsurgency and

Contingency Operations Doctrine

1860?1941

by Andrew J. Birtle

CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY UNITED STATES ARMY

WASHINGTON, D.C., 2009

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Birtle, A. J. (Andrew James)

U. S. Army counterinsurgency and contingency

operations doctrine, 1860?1941 / by Andrew J. Birtle.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. United States. Army--Operations other than war--History.

2. Military doctrine--United States--History. I. Title.

UA25.B57 1998

355.3'4'0973--dc21

97?26216

CIP

First Printed1998--CMH Pub 70?66?1

Foreword

Throughout its history, the U.S. Army has conducted a wide variety of military operations in service to the nation. Over the past two centuries, America's soldiers have served the Republic as governors, constables, judges, diplomats, explorers, colonizers, educators, administrators, and engineers. These myriad missions have often been overlooked as soldiers and scholars alike focused their studies on major wars and on the strategic and tactical doctrines that governed them. Comparatively little attention has been paid to the underlying theories, concepts, and methods that American soldiers have employed in the conduct of their many less "conventional," yet exceedingly traditional, missions.

Over the years the Center of Military History has attempted to rectify this omission in military historiography. Center publications such as Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution; Military Government in the Ryukyu Islands, 1945?1950; The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944?1946; United States Army Unilateral and Coalition Operations in the 1965 Dominican Republic Intervention; the multivolume Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders; and The Demands of Humanity: Army Medical Disaster Relief have examined some of the many roles the U.S. Army has played off the conventional battlefield. U.S. Army Counterinsurgency and Contingency Operations Doctrine, 1860?1941, adds to this body of literature on the Army's experience in operations other than war. It is the first of a twovolume work examining how the Army has performed two of its most important unconventional missions: the suppression of insurgent or other irregular forces and the conduct of overseas constabulary and contingency operations. The second volume will carry the story of the evolution of Army doctrine for counterinsurgency and contingency operations up through the end of the Vietnam War.

Although the events discussed in this volume occurred long ago, many of the issues raised in it have enduring relevance for today's Army. People, places, and events may change, but the fundamental questions involved in suppressing insurrections, fighting irregulars, administering civilian populations, and conducting foreign interventions remain surprisingly constant. By studying how American soldiers dealt with these complex issues in the past, this book offers valuable

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insights to guide current and future soldiers when called upon to conduct similar operations.

Washington, D.C. 10 October 1997

JOHN W. MOUNTCASTLE Brigadier General, USA Chief of Military History

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The Author

Andrew J. Birtle received a B.A. degree in history from Saint Lawrence University in 1979 and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in military history from Ohio State University in 1981 and 1985, respectively. He worked for the U.S. Air Force as a historian for approximately three years before joining the U.S. Army Center of Military History in 1987. He is the author of a number of articles and monographs as well as a book on American military assistance to the Federal Republic of Germany. He is currently writing the second volume in his study of the development of U.S. Army counterinsurgency and contingency operations doctrine.

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Preface

It has long been accepted that the U.S. Army did not have an official, codified, written doctrine for the conduct of counterguerrilla, pacification, and nation-building activities prior to World War II. The absence of a formal, written doctrine, however, does not mean that American soldiers did not develop concepts and theories about such activities, some of which became enduring principles that guided Army operations for decades despite their meager mention in the manuals of the day. It is the contention of this book that there was a strong continuity in the manner in which the U.S. Army performed counterinsurgency and overseas constabulary missions in the century that preceded the outbreak of World War II and that some of the central principles governing the conduct of such operations were indeed incorporated into official Army doctrinal literature prior to America's entry into that conflict.

Intellectual history--the tracing of the evolution of thought and ideas over time--is a tricky business. Showing continuity and change in thought and action is difficult, but explaining how it came about is even tougher. Writers studying the evolution of military doctrine are usually aided in their endeavors by the existence of official manuals that codify the state of military thinking at a particular point in time. Unfortunately, such manuals are often silent on the less conventional aspects of the military art. Moreover, one must remember that a system of comprehensive doctrinal manuals in the modern sense did not exist in the nineteenth century and was still in its infancy during the early decades of the twentieth. Consequently, the student of military theory is forced to cast a wider net, studying not only manuals, but curricular materials, textbooks, war plans, and the less official publications of individual soldiers. Murkier still, but no less real, is the realm of personal experience, folkways, and institutional norms that can be acquired and passed down over time. Anthropologists maintain that oral tradition can be a powerful force governing the conduct of human cultures and institutions. The fact that such traditions are not written down denies neither their existence nor their significance. Students of military thought, therefore, must look at deeds as well as words, because by studying the actions of past soldiers, we may gain insight into the prin-

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