Guerilla - The Writings That Inspires

The Writings that Inspires

Here are some of the writings from different authors regarding Guerilla Warfare. Though they are dead or thought to be dead, their messages still continues to inspire masses in countries that have political chaos and no firm leadership. These messages echoes through the heart of these people because they can relate with the hardship brought upon by political chaos.

Theories of Mao Zedong (Mao Tse Tung)

Mao Zedong, during the Chinese Civil War, summarized the People's liberation Army of the principles of revolutionary warfare in the following points for his troops: The enemy advances, we retreat. The enemy camps, we garble. The enemy tires, we attack. The enemy retreats, we pursue. A common slogan of the time went "Draw back your fist before you strike." Referred to the tactic of baiting the enemy, "drawing a fist," before "striking" the critical moment where they are overstretched and vulnerable. Mao made a distinction between Mobile warfare (yundong zhan) and guerilla warfare (youji zhan), but they are part of an integrated continuum aiming towards a final goal. Mao's successful work, In guerrilla warfare, is widely distributed and applied, successfully in Vietnam, under military leader and theorist vo Nguyen Giap. Giap's "People War" closely follows the Maoist three-stage approach.

T. E. Lawrence

Te Lawrence, best known as "Lawrence of Arabia," introduced a theory of guerrilla warfare tactics in an article he wrote for the Encyclopedia Britannica published 1938. In that article, he compares guerrilla fighters to a gas. The fighters disperse in the area of operations more or less randomly. They or their cells occupy a very small space in real places, such as gas molecules occupy a very very small space in a container. The fighters may coalesce in groups for tactical purposes, but their general state is dispersed. Such fighters can not be "rounded up." They will not be content. They are extremely difficult to "defeat" because they can not bring the war in significant numbers. The cost in soldiers and material to destroy a significant number of them becomes prohibitive, in all senses, that physically, economically and morally. Lawrence describes a non-native occupying force of enemies (like the Turks).

Abdul Haris Nasution

The expression of the Indonesian army founding doctrines is found in Abdul Haris Nasution's 1953 Fundamentals of guerilla warfare. The work is a mix of reproduced strategic directives from 1947-1948, Nasution of the theories of guerrilla warfare, his Reflections on the only previous time (post-Japanese occupation) and the likely crises to come, and outlines of his legal frameworks for military justice and "guerrilla government". The work contains similar principles to those espoused or practiced by other theorists and practitioners from Michael Collins in Ireland, Te Lawrence in the Middle East and Mao in China in the early twentieth Century, the contemporary Insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq. Nasution willingly shows his influences, frequently referring to some guerrilla activities as "Wingate" actions, quoting Lawrence and drawing lessons from the recent and further past to develop and illustrate his well consider these arguments.

Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna

"The guerrilla band is an armed nucleus, the fighting vanguard of the people. It draws its great force from the mass of the people themselves. The guerrilla band is not considered under army against which it fights simply because it is less fire power. guerilla war was used parts which are supported by most but containing many smaller number of weapons for use in defense against tyranny. "