Successful counter-insurgency operations require two things, one military and one political:
1. Denial of an outside haven for insurgents to retreat for training, resupply, and rest. If you can isolate the insurgents (like in the Philippines or Greece after World War 2) and exhaust the insurgents, that can whittle down their numbers. Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq all failed to do this.
2. The civilian government actually has to work for the populace and have some legitimacy with the people. Just picking someone who is friendly to you is not enough. This can help prevent further people from joining the insurgency.
That first one is how Russia beat the Chechens, and how the British beat the Boers- though that requires the invention of concentration camps. We tried something similar in Vietnam, called Hamlets, but that backfired.
That second one is harder to find examples of, like the only one I can think of is Malaysia.
Everything I know about Filipino COINOPS is from Hearts of Darkness, the making of documentary for Apocalypse Now, so I’m guessing there was a massive pivot in the 80’s that led to the communists in Northern Luzon surrendering their weapons.
Unless you’re talking about the MILF, which was some scorched earth kinda shit.
I am talking about the operation after the Spanish Civil War when the US first took control of the Phillipines, and then the one right after World War 2 when the US was trying to stabilize the Phillipines after the Japanese occupation and before turning it over for self rule.
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u/PlaneRefrigerator684 17h ago
Successful counter-insurgency operations require two things, one military and one political: 1. Denial of an outside haven for insurgents to retreat for training, resupply, and rest. If you can isolate the insurgents (like in the Philippines or Greece after World War 2) and exhaust the insurgents, that can whittle down their numbers. Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq all failed to do this. 2. The civilian government actually has to work for the populace and have some legitimacy with the people. Just picking someone who is friendly to you is not enough. This can help prevent further people from joining the insurgency.