Counterinsurgency Warfare by John S. Pustay

Counterinsurgency Warfare by John S. Pustay is an attempt to come up with a policy for the West. This was published in the early 1960s before widespread involvement in Vietnam. Some of Pustay's analysis on tactics and strategy is quite interesting. He obviously agrees with the British school. The book is hamstrung by some bizarre concepts. Third World nationalism is apparently not valid real nationalism. This is just bizarre. His solution for American policymakers is to create a thoroughly convoluted bureaucracy [Well it was the 1960s]. He even lays out who will chair the committee at different times. I rather doubt the complex setup he suggested would work in practice. The author was in the Air Force so he does have some interesting things to say about aircraft usage during an insurgency.

Recommended as an interesting relic of counterinsurgency theory before Vietnam.

For more reviews take a look at My Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Partisan and Guerrilla Warfare bookshelf.