The subtitle provides a partial explanation of the term ""modern warfare,"" (Italicized consistently by the author) in its special usage here: ""A French View of Counterinsurgency"". It is undeclared war, waged by subversion, terrorism, and guerrilla maneuvres, which is scrutinized in this short, blunt, soldierly primer. One would hardly expect the French to hold forth as experts in this business, despite their considerable experience with it--or rather, because of it, since it has all been so unsuccessful--in Viet Nam and Algeria. Writing before the latter story had reached its conclusion, this author quite simply proposes a fight-fire-with-fire approach: police-state and scorched-earth measures, coupled with the use of paid informers, double agents, and one's own terrorist units ""that will permit us to strike directly, in their territory, without exposing ourselves to the international complications the employment of traditional arms would surely invoke"". All this, of course, in defense of one's sacred freedoms, and it is urged very soberly, with the scantest and most perfunctory of justifications for the ""temporary"" abridgement of those freedoms. All in all it is a fascinating and often frightening little tract, with not much to recommend it in a purely military way, perhaps, but with considerable political dynamite between the lines.