LOW-INTENSITY WARFARE: Counterinsurgency, Proinsurgency, and Antiterrorism in the Eighties

by Michael T. & Peter Kornbluh--Eds. Klare ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 15, 1987

A collection of essays that explore--and challenge the Administration's position on--the relatively new concept of ""low-intensity warfare."" Klare (defense correspondent for the Nation) teams up with Kornbluh (Nicaragua, p. 1500) to edit these pieces by Selig Harrison, Charles Maechling, Jr., Richard Barnet, Stephen Goose, Daniel Siegel, Walden Bellow, and Joy Hackel. The editors see the roots of America's low-intensity warfare strategy in President Kennedy's recognition that ""subversive insurgency is a major form of politico-military conflict equal in importance to conventional warfare."" After the Vietnam backlash and retrenchment against guerrilla warfare, the editors explain in their introduction, ""a small contingent of officers, analysts, and political operators inside the national security establishment, supported by a growing neoconservative movement, committed themselves to reviving the United States as the 'guardian at the gate' of a global hegemonic order."" The general binding theme of the essays presented here is best summed up by one of the editors' nemeses, Sam Sarkesian, whose pro-counterinsurgency stance they quote: "". . .low-intensity conflicts do not conform to democratic notions of strategy or tactics. . .survival is the ultimate morality."" Thus, whether it be in the essays devoted to Nicaragua, El Salvador, or Afghanistan, on display here is an emphasis on condemning US government secret operations--a condemnation summed up in Barnet's concluding essay, wherein he states that any sustained effort to mislead Congress poses a serious threat to the integrity of the Constitutional process. An intelligent exposition to the anti-low-intensity warfare position, but so one. sided as to appeal only to those already convinced.

Pub Date: Jan. 15, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1987

Categories: NONFICTION