City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

Learning to eat soup with a knife, counterinsurgency lessons from Malaya and Vietnam, John A. Nagl ; with a new preface by the author ; foreword by Peter J. Schoomaker

eng

Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-243) and index

index present

non fiction

Learning to eat soup with a knife

John A. Nagl ; with a new preface by the author ; foreword by Peter J. Schoomaker

"Armies are often accused of preparing to fight the previous war. In Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife, Lieutenant Colonel John A. Nagl - a veteran of both Operation Desert Storm and the current conflict in Iraq - considers the now-crucial question of how armies adapt to changing circumstances during the course of conflicts for which they are initially unprepared. Comparing the development of counterinsurgency doctrine and practice in the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960 with what developed in the Vietnam War from 1950 to 1975, Nagl argues that organizational culture is key to the ability to learn from unanticipated conditions, a variable which explains why the British army successfully conducted counterinsurgency in Malaya but why the American army failed to do so in Vietnam."--BOOK JACKET

counterinsurgency lessons from Malaya and Vietnam

Foreword / Peter J. Schoomaker -- 1. How armies learn -- 2. The hard lesson of insurgency -- 3. The British and American armies : separated by a common language -- 4. British army counterinsurgency learning during the Malayan emergency, 1948-1951 -- 5. The empire strikes back : British army counterinsurgency in Malaya, 1952-1957 -- 6. The U.S. army in Vietnam : organizational culture and learning during the advisory years, 1950-1964 -- 7. The U.S. army in Vietnam : organizational culture and learning during the fighting years, 1965-1972 -- 8. Hard lessons : the British and American armies learn counterinsurgency -- 9. Organizational culture and learning institutions : learning to eat soup with a knife