MARINES AND COUNTERINSURGENCY
IN VIETNAM
Neil Sheehan in his book, A Bright Shining Lie, shows the Marine predisposition for fighting an insurgency war when he says:
There was a school of pacification strategists within the upper ranks of the Marine Corps because of its institutional history. The decades of pre-World War II pacifying in Central America and the Caribbean, codified in the Corps' Small Wars Manual, were a strategic precedent which ruled that wars like Vietnam were wars of pacification. The Marines had adopted an approach that emphasized pacification over big unit battles...(15:632)
The Marine Corps defined pacification as '..the military, political, economic and social process of establishing or reestablishing local government responsive to and involving the participation of the people.' It provided security, destruction of the guerrilla infrastructure, popular involvement in government and self-sustainment.(20:195-196) Clearly, the Marine Corps understood the war it was fighting and the manner in which it needed to be prosecuted. Lt. Gen. Krulak readily admits that Sir Robert Thompson's concepts had a significant impact on his thinking and believed that every Marine needed to understand them.(6:180) In a 1965 letter to Secretary of Defense McNamara, he told of Thompson advising President Diem to conduct a counterinsurgency war in the Delta region, and Krulak goes on to advise McNamara that the U.S. must do the same to the guerrilla: '...root him out, and separate him from the people...clean the area up a bit at a time.'(8)
Krulak preached counterinsurgency to the highest levels of the U.S. Government. In a 1966 letter to McNamara, he told him that the Marines had 4 tasks in I Corps. The first task was to defend the air bases at Da Nang and Chu Lai. Second, Marines must attack communist main forces in order to take pressure off South Vietnam's army, protect populated areas and attrite Viet Cong men and material. The third was an almost text book description for counterinsurgency measures. He calls for the eradication of the political infrastructure and the isolation of the guerrillas from the people. This, he says, would prevent them from gaining supplies and recruits which were essential to the guerrillas and Main Force Viet Cong. The fourth task provided for pacification, creating a viable social climate and a local self-defense force where the Viet Cong had been eliminated.(9)
By 1966 the Marine Corps had a detailed plan for the conduct of the war in I Corps. It was divided into three main areas: counter the guerrillas by destroying them, conduct large unit operations to destroy both the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army main forces, and conduct pacification to rebuild South Vietnam. To specifically counter the guerrillas they would kill them and destroy their infrastructure by ambushes, patrolling, conducting COUNTY FAIR operations and collecting intelligence from civilians. Additionally, they would train local security forces for defense of the villages. The conduct of large unit operations were predicated on reconnaissance to locate main enemy units and then conduct search and destroy missions.
Pacification had five important programs. The first was to develop village security by training local forces, establishing a local intelligence net and providing information to the people. Next was the establishment of village government with Marine assistance in the conduct of a census, establishment of local officials, providing security to those officials and keeping close relations with them. Third was the improvement of the local economy by creating local markets, improving lines of communication and protecting crops during harvests. Improvement of public health was the fourth program; this was accomplished by direct medical treatment and training, feeding those in need and evacuating the seriously ill. Finally, improvement in public education through Marine efforts to provide support to students, teach English, assist in school construction and provide vocational training.(11)
