Indirectness of approach had been advocated by Liddel Hart and other scholars on military strategy looking at the high casualties in the first world war.
"In all fighting, the direct method mat be used for joining battles, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory".- Sun TzuThe Art of War Carl Von Clausewitz On War defined the attritionist model of sustained firepower to overwhelm in close combat battles, stressed on maneuvers in Guide to Tactics, whereby the enemy is left guessing the next move in the face of maneuvers. Clausewitz was the most influential military strategist of 18th and 19th century Europe.What is imminent in the Cold War situation of 1960s is a post world war two, realignment of forces and the externalities of the conflict, although limited to the specific country, always had an external element to it. In the context of South East Asia the Communists exerted that influence-both ideologically and materiarially.The anti-guerrilla operations be it leftist or otherwise is what strategy is used in defeating the guerrilla forces. The guerrillas used the tactics of fighting from within the population, a concept called “as fish is to water”, that is the relationship of the guerrillas to the population. The anti-guerrilla operations had to counter this. The British Army tried to employ WHAM-WInning Hearts and Minds in their Malays campaigns. The second question is self-preservation. The constraints of numbers and fire power is not endless in the initial phase of the conflict. But as the conflict develops the guerrilla ranks are swelled and it then can wage conventional war. The anti-guerrilla ecperts thus try to contain the movement in the incipient stage. The guerrillas depend on the element of surprise (initiative), flexibility (manuevre), and planning (strategy) in conducting operations. This must be factored by the counter-guerrilla forces. The guerrillas need a base area to operate. The base area has depth and cover and meets all the strategic requirements. That depth which the fuerrillas strive to establish needs to be cleared by the counter-guerrilla forces.The guerrilla armies are adept at mobile warfare and calibrate their strategic defensive and offensive according to the requirements of the battle. The guerrillas shift their warfare into the regular war, and there is a regular Command structure in all guerrilla operations. These six principles forms the crux of the guerrilla warfare. The counter-guerrilla forces had to take into account the immense flexibility and the maneuverability of these forces that adapts itself according to the changing course of the war. The term “guerrilla warfare” is loosely used to mean irregular warfare, projected as a Peoples’ War and conducted in. conjunction with organized forces over a period of time.Malaya operations 1950-1966
The year 1948, like its counterpart in the previous century, was deeply disturbed by the dark clouds of revolutionary this they hung mostly over the Far East. In China, Indo-China, Indonesia, Burma and that malign figures symbolizing cruelty and turbulence were emerging every-where to preach, convert and lead their many followers into acts of rebellion, sabotage and terrorism. In Malaya, where alone of those countries rebellion was eventually crushed, well over a thousand Communists (mostly Chinese), many of whom had once formed part of the British led Force 136, returned to the jungle under their leader Chin Peng, where they uncovered and quickly put into commission longhidden caches of weapons.Their technique, comparatively new in 1948, was soon to become all to familiar. The aborigines were terrified into submission; raids would take place on European rubber plantations, where fore men and managers were murdered, roads were ambushed, and ma chines destroyed; and then there would be a return to safety in the embosoming jungle. It was exceedingly difficult for orthodox in fan try battalions to catch up with them, for the terrorists (or bandits as they were officially called) were kept well informed, supplied and often financed by the secret support of noncombatant Chinese sym pathizers known as the Min Yuen. The Plan: The plan involved sending Malayan Scouts (SAS) into the territory of the Sakai inhabitants and to isolate them from the guerrillas.In due course these ideas were built into the ‘Briggs Plan’ by which General Sir Harold Briggs, the Director of the Operations, aimed to remove from their isolated and vulnerable shacks and establish them in fortified ‘kampongs’. This formed part of later, and most successful, draconian measures to deny food to the terrorists.This was the time (1948) when the British raised Malayan Scouts (DAS), it was the progenitor of 22 SAS, which received its official title in May1952. Recruiting for the new force was hard work, and before it was completed Calvert had traveled many thousands of miles, which included a visit to Rhodesia from where he selected volunteers to form what became C.Squadron. The A Squadron comprised local volunteers, some of whom were to prove unsatisfactory. There could be no method of selection: many were excellent materials and some had already served in SOE or force 136, but inevitably there were others whose regiments were delighted to see them go. Though unfortunate, at least it emphasized the need for careful selection in the future.B Squadron was made up of volunteers from 21 SAS (Artists) and reservists from other war time special forces, and they were a well discipline, close-knit body of men. Originally a composite Squadron, know as M Squadron, and commanded by Major A. Greville- Bell, it had been formed to go Korea, but while it was training at Aldershot news came of General Mac Arthur’s successful push to the Chinese border. Its presence in Korea, therefore, no longer seemed necessary, and so it was agreed that the Squadron should be sent to join the Malayan Scout, where it acquired its own designation. Before Calvert left Malaya in 1951 he had formed a fourth squadron, D, which had been locally recruited.Calvert’s training from the base camp at Johore Bahru, was most realistic- live ammunition was invariably used, and individual stalks were arranged with the men armed with air guns and protected(partially!) by fencing masks. As squadrons became ready (and naturally) A squadron being locally raised was the first) they went to the operational base at Ipoh from where small groups were dispatched into selected jungle areas known to be used by terrorists. There they lived for long periods (one patrol was operating for 103 days, but that was exceptional) laying ambushes and directing RAF strikes. Resupply was almost entirely by parachute from RAF Dakotas and Valettas; it was never easy, for the jungle presented a dense, opaque panorama from the air, and the sky above it was turbulent, thundery and treacherous. Calvert, with very limited resources at his disposal, was a pioneer of ‘hearts and minds’ among the aborigine whose maladies he attempted to treat in improvised clinics.Early operations by the Malayan Scouts had had some success against the bandits for only a handful of casualties. But the force had made a very bad impression on a number of influential people through the indiscipline and wild behaviour of a fair proportion of the local volunteers.Before Major J.M. Woodhouse returned to England in the summer of 1952 to organize the early training and selection courses out lined above, he had been involved in the first big operation that the Malayan Scouts had undertaken since their return to the jungle. By February 1952 the ‘Briggs Plan’ was beginning to have some effect and the bandits, no longer finding supplies of food from the villages so plentiful ,were being driven deeper into the jungle, where they made clearings in which to grow their own food. One such area was in the Belum Valley near the Thai border, where they were not only growing food but had control of two villages at either end of the valley. The Malay Scouts formed part of a combined operation with the Royal Marine Commandos, Gurkhas and Malayan Police to drive the enemy away from this food producing site.The valley was cleared, but the operation was only a partial success, for the extremely difficult- and at this noisy- approach to the target had given the Communist terrorist (CTs was another semi-official name) plenty of time to evacuate their camps-sites. Catching up with the enemy was one of the problems in Malaya; they had the ad vantage of terrain as well as the eyes and ears of the many Chinese squatters, or the more organized Min Yuen. The SAS task in this operation was for two squadrons to narch over a difficult-and at times noisy-approach to the target had given the Communist terrorists (CTs was another semi-offical name) plentry of time to evacuate their camps sites. Catching up with the enemy was one of the problems ears of the many Chinese squatters, or the more organized Min Yuen. The SAS task in this operation was for two squardrons to march over a difficult and steep mountain track into the valley, while a third squadron of fifty four men dropped into a very confined space. It set the pattern for the work 22 SAS were to do during much of their time in Malaya.On these patrols the marching men-especially when there was lo be no resupply-had to carry a great weight over slippery mountain racks and treacherous valley quagmires. Apart from personal weapons (submachine guns or shotguns, and until 1957 Brens), grenades, spare clothing, water bottle and field dressings, heavy wireless set, The torrid heat and thundery depressions brought out clouds of pestiferous insects: sankes and leeches were ever present and the occasional wild animal could prove dangerous if unduly provoked. At night “bashas’ (shelter) would be erected from branches and leaves, which if skillfully constructed could keep out much of the persistent rain. Such were the conditions a fighting patrol would have to endure ar ways be ready for instant action.There was great comradeship and the touchstone of that comradeship was unselfishness and the willingness to share risks: at it best such discipline was never lax, it was merely transferred from being one based on authority, and even fear, to that less easily-defined type which gives to a man a deep desire to obey.Good results could be expected against guerrillas by employing guerrilla tactics; tracking, hunting, ambushing and killing the enemy by accurate snap shooting.A notable feature of this, and many other operations in Malaya, and later in Berneo, was the skill shown by the patrols in tracking. At very beginning of the emergency a number of Dyaks from the Iban tribe in Sarawak had been brought to Malaya, and much use was made of their superb field craft. In return for being taught some rudimentary military principles the Sarawak Rangers, as they were called, imparted much of their tracking knowledge to SAS and other troops.By 1958the was in sight, but it had been a huge and costly business in which thousands of troops had been deployed, and thou sands of civilians and soldiers killed. Eventually, starved of provisions and outfought in the jungle, the bandits became fed up with ue hard, unrewarding life and surrendered in droves, or vast force co mitted, and indeed their contribution in number of kills- 108 in eight years- was well below that of many other units, particularly the Gurkhas.
Vietnam War:(1965-75)
8th March,1965: The Leathernecks of 9th Marine Expeditionary Force stormed Nam O Beach in Vietnam. The beach landing was Supposed o send a message o the Communist North Vietnamese and their Russian and Chinese allies that the US was not prepared to stand by and watch South Vietnam fall to the Communists.The Communists controlled areas of North Vietnam became known as Democratic Republic of Victnam with Ho Chih Minh as Head of State and General Giap as CnC. Meanwhile Diam a US puppet, according to the Communists refused election).So in 1960the govt. in Hanoi decided to unify the country by force. So in 1960 NLF was raised in South.1965 began with 23,000 US soldiers in Vietnam and ended with 1,84,000.On 17th April1965 as war-draft went on 15,000 students staged an anti-war rally in Washington.5th May 1965: The 173rd Air Bourne Brigade, the ‘Herd’ which was the US Army’s Rapid Action Unit in the Western Pacific, was flown from the Okinawa base to Bien Hoa, to provide temporary assistance to MACV-Military Assistance Command Vietnam. By June 1965,small contingents of North Vietnamese troops were fighting alongside Vietcong to test US strengths and test US tactics. Meanwhile US and South Vietnamese forces started aerial bombardments in North Vietnam.Jan 1966: Australian troops managed success in a full scale search and-destroy operations called Ops Crimp through the ‘Iron Triangle’ NW of Saigon. Searg Stuart Green saw a rap door and discovered a tunnel and bombed it. Some tunnel system ran 100 kms from the Cambodian border to Saigon itself. By 1966 Vietnam saw a big build up of3,85,000 men. In the highlands of Vietnam Cambodia and Vietnam Laos border US Green Barets worked with Khmer, Mnong, Montagnard and other tribes who were ethnically different from the VC and were porsecuted by the VC. By 1966 B52 bombers began to strike against the ‘Ho Chih Minh trail’.But ever the searing B52 strikes failed to dissuade the VC,who stepped up the infiltration by the Ho Chih Minh Trail from 10.000 in 1964 to 35,000 in 1965,90,000 in 1966 to 1,50,000 in 1967.Aids also poured in from China and Russia. After the success in the Iron Triangle 40 miles from Saigon, US forces in jan 1967 went to the village of Ben Suc to create free fire zones. This is a technique which clears every habitation, environment in the zone and thus enable to have a clear field of fire. This is followed by another free fire zone creation in Tay Nah Province, which remains the largest US operation till to date.China who was the staunchest VC ally had fallen out with Russia by 1963 and in 1967 is in the middle of a cultural revolution. The spat between China and Russia went to the extent of China accusing Russia of joining hands with the US and resorting to dirty tricks and compelling the VC to lay down arms. With conventional tricks failing to stop the VC’s infiltration US took recourse to s praying Agent Orange to strip the Ho Chih Minh Strip of forest cover.Dec 11 1967 :Campaign Rolling Thunder was auhorized by Preisdent Johnson. It was a relentless bombing campaign in North and the Trail. Cambodia and Laos is also no spared. In the middle of the bombing campaign North Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Du Trinh offered talks if bombing stopped. But the wily minister also left no impression to the US, thus putting it on a false lull that the US is really fighing an unwinnable war.Jan 21 1968 : 40,000 North Vietnam men converged on Khe Sanh, a US Marne Corps Bashe just south of the demilitarized zone. The US Commander Westmoreland believed that the North Vietnamese were planning to grab the northern most Province of South Vietnam, priorto the Peace negotiation—just as they had moved against the French at Dien Bien Phuto buttress their bargaining position at the Geneva Peace Conference in 1954. Tet Offensive in 1968 : Tet is the biggest festival in South Vietnam and the population is in celebration mode.US soldiers were availing leave and travelling to beach resorts in and around. Then Saigon exploded with a terrible attack throwing the whole security system out of gear. The US counter attack could harm the VC much less of what it had inflicted.
Nixon the US President bowing to the pressures at home and the spate of reverses and deafening status quo readied himself for a negotiated settlement to the Vietnam war in Paris in Jan 1973 with the last of US troops leaving the country by 1975.The Vietnam War brings us into the Westmoreland’s Strategy adopted in Vietnam:As a consequence of Ops on l15th Aug1965 in the villages around Van Tuong, around 80 miles down the coast of Da Nang, V Westmoreland’s Strategy of search and destroy won over the counter insurgency techniques used in Vietnam upto that time. The 15thAug 1965 Ops left 614 VC dead against 45 US casualty. Hearts and Minds concept in Counter-Insurgency Operations:In 1950 during Malaysian Insurgency General Sir John Harding CnC of Far East Land Forces of British Army called for a report from Brig Calvert, then on the staff at Hongkong. Calvert was an expert who wrote an report that there is a need for small parties of specially trained men to take to the jungle, to live there for long periods, to ‘win the hearts and minds’ of the Sakai inhabitants and to isolate them from the guerrillas. The idea came into operation as ‘Briggs Plan’ by which General Sir Harold Briggs, the Director of Operations, aimedto remove villagers from their isolated and vulnerable shakles and establish them in fortified ‘kampongs’.
Cambodia :
In 1975 Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia. People were packed off to live with old people” who were Khmer Rouge sympathizers. The new people” i.e. the non-sympathizers were made to work in rice-fields. For the next couple of years there was a complete news blackout and the people knew nothing of what had happened and who had come to power; it was part of Khmer Rouge’s mechanics of terror to deprive the population of knowledge. They first began to hear the words ‘Pol Pot’ in 1978 when the regime tried to create a personality cult around its leader in an attempt to stave off imminent collapse.A few months later in January 1979, the Vietnamese “broke’ Cambodia and the regime collapsed. The American Quaker, Eva Mysliwiec, arrived in Cambodia a year after the fall of the Pol Pot regime in 1980.The Cambodians who had taken over the government with the help of the Vietnamese were all one time members of the Communist Party of Cambodia; they had fled across the border when Pol Pot Chque launched its final, most blood thirstily purges of the party. They had moved into a few ministries, but there was still nothign like a real government in Phnom Penh. The country was like a shattered slate : before you could think of drawing lines on it you had to find the pieces and fit them together.Myanmar :
Burma became independent in 1948.lts brief parliamentary democracy came to an end in 1962 with the seizing of power in the same year by Gen Ne Win who ruled Burma for three decades till 1988 with his Burmmese way to socialism accommodating a single party system. His BSPP party’s rule was however bought down by a massive uprising to pave the way for Tatmadaw rule..After 1989 the Myanmarese junta has been ruling the country as SLORC and SPDC. Myanmar insurgency dates back from 1948.The 1974 Constitution made seven ethnic seven ethnic states, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Kaya(Karenni), Mon, Rakhin (Arakan) and Shan.But the ethnic insurgencies were not quelled. In 1976,the nine party NLF(National Democratic Front) was formed to fight Ne Win’s party alongwith BCP(Burmese Communist Party).BCP is the biggest insurgent group of that country formed in 1948.Since 1988 Burmese national life is characterized by three factors NLD, Tatmadaw and ethnic insurgency.China meanwhile is seeking access to the Bassien port in the Irrawady delta off the Bay of Bengal, which is not far from India’s Andamans. The Kachins are divided into KIO (Kachin Independence organization), KIA(Kachin Independence Army),and KSPP (Kachin State Progressive Party).Karen National Union formed in 1948 has now a fraction called Karen Democratic Buddhist Army(KDBA).The CPB has been divided to form PDF(Peace and Democratic Front).Similarly the Pao’s have UPNO(Union Pao National Organization) and PNO(Pao National Organization).Mon’s have Mon Independence Army(MIA) and NMSP(New Mon State Party) while the Shan State Army has been divided into North and South factions. which is important to observe in Myanmar is the continued fighting among the forces of ethnic groups divided into pro election, ceasefire and anti-ceasefire and the Tatmadaw’s reign over them. Khin Nyunt as Chief of Intelligence in Myanmar Army during 1990s was instrumental in many ceasedire agreements with rebel groups, and also keeping them in tight leash. It was, by the crafty Khin that made the rebel groups to face splinter groups as we as Myanmar Army operations.The first nationwide Ceasefire Agreement however came in 2015 during the premiershil of Thein Sein. The shortl lived government of Au g San Suu Kiyi who won the 2020 elections by a landslide margin was arrested on 1 February 2021 and Myanmae plunged into another military rule The insurgent groups realigned themselves for yet another round of armed revolt against the Junta.lbn Saud in the Hjaz:1925
In the 18th century, a certain Muslim named Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahab was preaching in the city of Medina. He held that all additions to Muslim culture since 950 AD were spurious. He denounced drinking alcohol ,card playing, veneration to saints, smoking and dancing as sinful.The people of Medina did not agree, and al Wahab was forced to flee to the Nejd, a scattered desert oasis in Central Arabia. In the Nejd, the Muslim reformer converted the head of the sheik of the powerful Sa’ud tribe. The rise of puritanical sects has been a recurrent phenomenon in the Muslim world. In the medieval Sahara there was the Tuareg Almoravids. One characteristics of these reform movements has been a desire to conquer “unbelievers” especially non Muslims. The Almoravids made war on the black Muslim empires of West Africa and the Moorish caliphate in Spain.(They made war on the Spanish Christians also, but that was almost incidental.)In Arabia, the Sa’ud tribe set out to conquer its neighbours in 1783.By 1811, they ruled all of Arabia except Yemen.The Sultan of Turkey claimed to be the ruler of Arabia, but the Wahabis, desert guerrillas, striking seemingly out of now here on camels and horses ,defeated all his expeditions. The sultan had to call his Vice roy in Egypt, Muhammad Ali, who had built a modern army. In 1818,Muhammad Ali drove the Wahabis from the holy cities of Hejaz, Mecca and Medina. The Bedouin guerrillas were far more mobile than the Egyptian regulars. By 1833 they controlled all of Arabia’s Persian Gulf coast. In 1884,the Rashid tribe, the Saudis’ ancient rival In Central Arabia, took Riyadh, and the Sa’udi emir and his family fled to Kuwait.In1901.the Saudi emir, Abd al Rahman ibn Faisal, was succeeded by his 21yr old son, Abdul Aziz.bin Abdul Rahmanibn Faiot al Sa’ud.lbn Sa’ud (as he is commonly known in the West) in1902 ,rounded up a few fellow tribesman and drove the Rashidis out Riyadh. By frequent raids with his Bedouin raiders against the other clans of the Nejd, ecspccially the ibn Rashid,he controlled most of Nejd. As war is looming large in Buropc, T’urkey the nominal sovereign of the Persian Gulf emirates, is drifting towards the German camp. The al Rashids were pro-Turkish and in this juncture there came to the al Sa’ud court, an English Arabist who helped the desert warriors to organize an army and procure weapons. The Englishman was more than just a student of Arab culture, he became a Muslim and married a slavel girl. His name was Harold St. John Philby, whose son were to out weight him for an altogether different reason, whom he nicknamed Kim.The British helped ibn Sa’ud finally conquer the Rashidis, but they gave more help to one of the desert emir’s rivals, Sherif Hussain ibn Ali,the ruler of Hejaz. Hussein was the father of T.E.Lawrence’s companion, Feisal. Hussain, with Lawrence’s encouragement dreamt of a vast Arab kingdom, strectching from the Indian Ocean to Anatolia, bounded on the west by Egypt and the Mediterranean and on the east by Persia. But Hussain who declared himself the “King oi Arabia” soon fell out with the British and finally with the Sykes-Pico agreement, Britain and France divided up the Arab portion of the Ottoman Empire. France would be paramount in Syria and Lebanon, Britain in Palestine and Mesapotamia.Hussain’s claim to be the monarch of the whole Arab peninsula did not please ibn Sa’ud. To the desert emir. Hussain was a westernized decadent, and it was outrageous that he controlled both the holy cite of Mecca and Medina, and conflict between the two was inevitable. Hussain, because of his cooperation with Lawrence, had m01% modern equipments, led by his son Abdullah clashed with the followers of ibn Sa’ud in 1925, but the result was decisive. The Hejaz army of Abdullah was destroyed. They were no match for the ill equipped but highly motivated forces of the desert wasrrior ibn Sa’ud.When Lawrence choose Feisal over Hussain and Abdullah to fill the void in the Arab heart for a prophet, he falls short of the tall and giant desert warrior ibn Sa’ud. In the war which Hussain fought, his supporters fought only for him, a small time leader, who decided he should be a great king. But ibn Sa’ud was fighting a much bigger battle, driven by more than a desire for power. He thought he was fighting for God himself. This in turn had fired the zeal of his followers.Ibn Sa’ud be came the ruler of the holy cities, although he continued to rule from his capital Riyadh. Sa’udi Arabia as he called his kingdom, became a purinitical state. The principals of Mohammad ibn Abd al Wahab ruled the land, Then oil was discovered beneath the surface of the Sa’udi Arabian desert. It became a financial power. The power and wealth passed on to the descendents of ibn Sa’ud after his death, an increasingly unpuritinical clan. But the puritan Wahabis did not disappear. They became more extreme. Mecca has always been prohibited to non Muslims. But the new puritans believed that the prohibition should apply to all of the “sacred land “of Arabia. One of Osamna bin Laden’s complaints was the presence of Western troops on that “sacred land’. Wahabi scholars opened up schools in all Muslim land. Extremists societies like Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt were influenced by Wahabism.The Taliban of Afghanistan are products of Muslim schools located in Pakistan but run by Wahabi scholars. Wahabism movement began in the eighteen century but it was not until Wahabis from the bleak heart of Arabia captured Mecca and Medina—— Muhammad’s birthplace and the city that first gave him support— that the ideas we Guerrilla now call “Islamist” began to sweep over the Muslim world.Guerrilla War in Middle East from 1936-1944:
There was a intelligence officer working for the 1st Div in Palestine. His name is Captain Wingate. He observedthat in 1936,Jews were buying lands and settling in Palestine. Arab landlords were selling the land, which means that the Arab tenant farmers were being displaced.Arabs were also attacking Jewish settlements. The Jews came from Russia and Central Europe and were stepped in European culture. They were mentioned in the Old Testament and they knew the use of technology.The British soldiers were posted in Palestine were hot effective. It allowed Arab terrorists to blow up pipelines and bridges and murdering Jewish farmers in kibbutzin. Because the army and Police couldn’t protect the Jews, they had organized a self defence force, Haganalh (from the Hebrew word for defence).Wingate proposed mixing Jewish settlers with British volunteers to form “Special Night Squads” who would guard strategic locations and root terrorists. Wavell his commander liked the idea. The Special Night Squads are a success. The Arab terrorists were put on the defensive and it taught the Haganah much about guerrilla warfare.Korean Imbroglio 1950:
The Landing inside Inch’onThe UN(comprising US and SK forces) were crowded into the Southern tip of Korea by the North Korean(NK) Army. Korea is a funnel shaped country, most of it long, narrow peninsula. The UN had al most total control of land and the sea. The solution to the UN problem seemed obvious—an amphibious landing behind the North Korean forces, and the Commander of all UN forces in Korea is Douglas MacArthu, wanted to make the landing. The place where the landing is proposed is Inch’on, which is the second largest port of Korea, andit was far behind the enemy lines. It was close to Seoul, the captured South Korean capital, and Seoul was a communication and transportation hub. The biggest problem with Inch’on is its tides. When the tides were low, it exposed mudflats extending upto six miles from the shore. No boats would cross the mudflats, whether wheeled or tracked vehicles, or even on foot, themudflats were a horrendous obstacle. MacArthur had an answer to the problem. He was named Eugene Clark. Clark was a 39 yr old naval lieutenant, a “mustang” who had enlisted as a seamen.Clark was an old hand of China, where he helped the Nation a lists forces against the Communists, and had operated all along the Chinese coasts. Clark hoped to get all details of NK forces and if possible recruit a small fifth column beind the NK lines to get son information. He was able to get arms, ammunition for such a force. Off the coast of Communist controlled SK Clark and two other Sk officers are transferred to a SK gunboat.The original plan for Clark is to Jand on Tokshok-do, the island closest o Inch’on. Clark achieved the objective and the 1000 NK soldiers and 100 policemen were silenced hours before the actual invasion took place. UN forces were in Seoul and NK army around Pusan collapsed.Algeria 1954-1962; FLN guerrillas
On May 8th 1945,all of Europe was ready to celebrate. The previous night the Nazis had surrendered and Europe was again at peace. Parades and celebrations were planned everywhere. This is true even in the town of Setif in the secion of Algeria known as Petite Kabilie. The Kabyles, as Kabilie is called in English, live in the mountain chain that runs diagonally not northern Algeria to Morocco. In Morocco ,the Mediterranean portion of this range is known as Rif, site of the Rif War of the 1920.Further south the range becomes the massive High Atlas mts. The population of these mountains is not Arab, but what the Arabs call Berbers—a word that the mountaineers do not like; it means “barbarians”.Whenever the Arab tribes swept over North Africa in the early Middle Ages, the Berbers stayed in the mountains and had as little to do with invaders as the possible. Over the years the Berbers adopted Islam, and many spoke Arabic, but the mountaineers kept their own language. In 1921 the Berbers in Spanish Morocco rose against Spain and almost drove the Spanish into the sea.The people in the Rif did not forget that their cousins in Morocco almost achieved freedom from European rule. The French had been ruling Algeria since 1830,andtheir rule is becoming increasingly irritating to the individualistic Berbers. The people of Setif area asked permission from the French authorities o hold a victory parade and lay a wreath at the monument aux morts to honour the Algerians who had died in the war just ended.The orders for victory parade was given with some amount of hesitation. When the paradeers displayed banners with motoes “Long Live Free and Independent Algeria,” though police tried to confiscate them. A fighting soon broke out. 103 Europeans were killed. In the French counter attack led by cruisers that left 1020 to 45000Muslims dead. Every new wave of Algerian Nationalists in the National Liberation Front traces his revolutionary determination back to May 1945.A Dumber of revolutionary groups organized—the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties (MTLD),the Special Organization(SO),and the Revolutionary Committee for Unity and Action(CRUA)which later on became the National Liberation front (FLN).On the night of Oct31st,1954,the FLN announced that it was going to restore a sovereign Algerian state. Berber commandos Tanned out from an oak forest in the Aures Mountains to strike simultaneous blows at French installations. The French reacted predictably: they arrested the usual suspects. But they were mostly members of MTLD, less violent nationalists than the members of the rival FLN—Were innocent. When they are released they joined the FLN. Jacques Soustelle, a Gaullist politician, came to Algeria as governor general. He began to agree to harsher treatment of Muslims, as attacks on Europeans continued. Among them measures the army suggested and Soustelle agreed were “collective responsibility” and “collective punishment”.These ideas came from the veterans of Indo. China, especially those who had been imprisoned after Dien Bien Phu. lf the rebels knocked down telephone lines, the army forced the residents of the area to replace them. The herding of villagers into concentration. camps, called camps de regroupment by the French resembled closely the concentration camps used by the British in Malaya in1950 and in South Africa, Spanish in Cuba and the Americans established in the Phillipines.Thus crammed together in unbroken wretchedness, this human flotsam lies tangled in an indescribable state. In 1957 in retaliation „Muslim rebels declared war on all French civilians, regardless of age or sex. Renewed violence by crowds in Constantine and its port Philippeville (now Skikda).The death toll saw 123 European and 1273 Muslims dead. Early in 1957,the French gullitoned two FLN members who had been convicted of murder. Ramdane Abane, a leading FLN chief, ordered Saadi Yacef, head of the FIN networks in Algiers, to take revenge. “Killany European between the ages of eighteen and fifty four. But no women, no children, no old people”. The battle of Algiers began. Yacef’s gunmen between June 21 and 24 1957 killed 49 Europeans at random.The gunmen struck again. This time ,the gunmen was Ali le Pointe, who became the hero of Gillo Pontecorvo’s classic film, The Battle of Algiers. He killed Amedee Froger, the mayor o Algiers.French governor general,Robert Lacoste, who had replaced Jacques Soutselle, took a drastic step. He put Gen Jacque Massu, commander of the 10th Para Div, in charge of maintaining der in Algiers. Massu was a veteran of Indo-China, and his division returned from the disastrous Suez campaign. Massu divided Algier into four sections, andmade each of his four regiments responsible for one. The 3rd Para Regiment, commanded by Col. Marcel Bigeard, a hero of Dien bien Phu go Casbah.Col. Yves Godard was Massu chief of staff, an intellectual who once commanded the 11t Shock Battalion, a kind of special ops outfit that reported directly to the Prime Minister and SDECE (Service de Documentation Exterieure et de Contre Espionnage).Both were aided by the brilliant and somewhat sinister Col. Roger Trinquicr,a pioneer paratrooper whose cloak and dagger background was even more extensive than Godard.The torture perpetrated by Massu soon saw the capturing of Yacef’s bombmaker and transporter. They wiped out the terrorist network in Algiers. The FLN leaders fled to Tunis. Conquering Algiers did no end the war. Guerrillas in the mountains were getting more competent. They had divided the country into
six command areas or “wilayas” each of which had a distinctive character. Wilaya ,which included the city of Algiers, had a rather loose command structure and worked hard to keep the pressure in its area. Its troops repeatedly ambushed and routed French units. They also induced many Algerian natives in French units to defect. Inside France the anti-war movement was already turning the government of the Fourth Republic into a chaos. De Gaulle was appointed Prime Minister on May 28 1958.He followed a policy of appeasement. Algeria became independent on July 3rd 1962.Brief spells of government of Ahmed Ben Bella and Houari Boumedienne paved the way for Islamists. They called themselves FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) and were often called Afghans as most of them participated in the Afghan War. FIS was replaced by GIA (Armed Islamic Group).Killings became even more common place,as no one know who was killing and why.
The Afghan-Soviet War 1979-1989:
In the Christmas of 1979 Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Mutinies broke out in the Afghan army, leaders of Mujahideens like Hekmatyar, Massoud again took up arms against the Communists. The Americans were getting ready to give the Soviets a bit of their own medicine in Afghanistan. The Saudis was also eager to help the holy warriors. Zia-ul-Haq ,the Pakistan President actively supported the Americans. Being an enthusiastic Islamists he assisted in setting up of madrassas all along the Afghan border.Most of the teachers at these schools are either Sa’udi Arabian Wahabis or men strongly influenced by Wahabism. Hekmatyar Zia’s favourite, was a fanatical Islamic fundamentalist. Meanwhile .the Mujahideens were conducting guerrilla warfare and Afghan soldiers were deserting. There was concern in the western world that by the invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet Union is aimed at Middle East oil. At this Jimmy Carter the US President announced the creation of Rapid Deployment Force and committed the US to defend Sa’udi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. The Sa’udis and the US started building elaborate bases in Arabia. These bases proved very useful in the Gulf War and aroused the anger of Osama Bin Laden. In no place the Afghan resistance grew more troublesome than in Panjshir valley. The valley was the fiefdom of the a mujahideen warlord of Tajik descent, rather than Pasthun. Massoud was able to held his own although he got no aid from Pakistan.The Russians sent the Spetsnaz who were almost as good as the Mujaideens in the mountains of the Panjshir valley. By 1985, the war had been going on for six years and had cost the Soviet Union billions of billions,and the new Soviet Premier was getting tired of it. The guerrillas had some successes. In one case, they captured an intact Mi-24D and shipped the craft to US. In September 1987 Soviets decided to call it quits.The Najibullah regime did not fall immediately after the Soviets left. Najibullah grew weaker after the Soviets left. Armies of Ziabacked Hekmatyar and that of Masooud the leader of the Panjshirvalley, which lay quite close to Kabul made steady approach to Kabul. Osama bin Laden,once a discipline of Hekmatyar ,was now a leader of the Arab volunteers, which had become a third factor in the civil war. He tried to mediate between the Tajik and Pashtun leaders. Masoouds troops drove out Hekmatyars from Kabul and the war raged on. Then a brand new force appeared .They called themselves Taliban. Taliban troops defeated Masooud’s troops, while the other chiefs bribed by Osama looked on. Taliban imprisoned Najibullah and executed him.
Then 9/11 happened and the NATO forces are still scouring Afghanistan from 2001. At a recent meeting of NATO nations in Lisbon in Nov 2010, the timetable for troops withdrawal is slated for 2014. The old adage, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend’ is no always true. As the Afghan war eliminated Soviet Union, but it gave a tremendous boost to Islamic terrorism all over the world——in Algeria, Britain, Chechnya, Indonesia, the Philippines, Spain and the United States.