THE WAR OF THE FLEA

Taber reviews 20th century guerrilla warfare and its general success when popularly supported. Since guerrillas wage a war of harassment and can seldom be contained, it is merely falling into their trap to use large bodies of troops against them. No laggard, Taber studies guerrilla patterns in Cuba, China, Algeria, Indochina, Ireland, Israel, Cyprus, the Philippines, Malaya, Greece and other places. His information seems sifted from newspapers and libraries, but his deductions--in hortatory italics--are firmly hallooed. He says, apropos of our build-up in Vietnam: ""The flea can endure: his war is fought in space and time, and each passing day raises...the will of the people to resist...The record stands: No colonial war has yet been, lost by a colonial people, once entered into."" Guerrilla wars fall under different terms befitting each case, such as terrorism, rebellion, and even ""troubles,"" but the object is always political control. Many wars are successful with only a handful of bullets and a good press. When it is considered that this type of war will be the main device of the Soviet for years to come, this report comes as a preliminary survey.