Guerrilla

Guerrilla is a term invented in Spain to describe the tactics used to resist
the French regime instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte (one should however
remember, that the tactics themselves were known and used even centuries
earlier). The Spanish word means "little war". Guerrilla warfare operates
with small, mobile and flexible combat groups called cells, without a front
line. Primary contributors to theories of guerrilla war include Mao Zedong
and Che Guevara. Guerrilla warfare is one of the oldest forms of asymmetric warfare.

Guerrilla tactics are based on ambush and sabotage, and their ultimate
objective is usually to destabilize an authority through long, low-intensity
confrontation. It can be quite successful against an unpopular foreign
regime: a guerrilla army may increase the cost of maintaining an occupation
or a colonial presence above what the foreign power may wish to bear.

Examples of successful guerrilla warfare include conflicts in Indonesia,
Angola, Mozambique and Algeria. However, it has generally been unsuccessful
against native regimes, which have nowhere to retreat to. The rare examples
of successful guerrilla warfare against a native regime include Cuba and
China. More common are the unsuccessful examples which include Malaysia,
Bolivia, Argentina, and the Philippines.

Guerrillas in wars against foreign powers do not principally direct their
attacks at civilians, as they desire to obtain as much support as possible
from the population as part of their tactics. Civilians are primarily
attacked or assassinated as punishment for collaboration. Often such an
attack will be officially sanctioned by guerrilla command or tribunal. An
exception is in civil wars, where both guerrilla groups and organized armies
have been known to commit atrocities against the civilian population.

Guerrillas are often characterised as terrorists by their opponents.
Guerrillas are in particular danger of not being recognized as combatants
because they are outnumbered and may take off their uniforms to mingle with
the local population. Guerrillas are usually classified as unlawful enemy combatants.

Guerrillas usually control rural areas with lots of places to hide, such as
forests and mountains. Guerrillas rely on a friendly population to provide
supply and intelligence. Often the difference between a successful and
doomed guerrilla movement is the availability of outside logistics support
from foreign opponents of the local regime.

Maoist theory of people's war divides warfare into three phases. In the
first phase, the guerrillas gain the support of the population through
attacks on the machinery of government and the distribution of propaganda.
In the second phase, escalating attacks are made on the government's
military and vital institutions. In the third phase, conventional fighting
is used to seize cities, overthrow the government and take control of the
country.

Guerrillas in Europe

In centuries of history, many guerrilla movements appeared in Europe to
fight foreign occupation forces. During The Deluge in Poland most of
guerrilla tactics were applied. In the 19th century, peoples of the Balkans
used the tactics to fight the Ottoman empire. The Spanish used it to fight
Napoleon in the Peninsula War.

In World War II, several guerrilla movements operated in the countries
occupied by Nazi Germany. These included Yugoslav partisans, French
resistance or Maquis, Italian partisans, ELAS and royalist forces in Greece.

Currently, the Basque ETA and Corsican FLNC could be called guerrillas, but
the governments prefer to call them terrorists.

Guerrillas in Latin America

In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Latin America had a number of urban
guerrilla movements whose strategy was to destabilize democratic regimes and
provoke a counter-reaction by the military. The theory was that a harsh
military regime would oppress the middle classes who would then support the
guerrillas and create a popular uprising.

Unfortunately, while these movements did destabilize governments, such as
Argentina, Uruguay, Guatemala, and Peru to the point of military
intervention, the military generally then proceeded to wipe out the
guerrilla movements, often committing atrocities among both civilians and
the armed insurgents in the process.

Guerrillas and the Vietnam War

Within the United States, the Vietnam War is commonly thought of as a
guerrilla war. However this is a misleading simplification of a much more
complex situation which followed the pattern outlined by Maoist theory.

The Viet Cong or "VC" used guerrilla tactics in the early phases of the war.
However, by 1965 when American involvement escalated, the Viet Cong were in
the process of being supplanted by regular units of the North Vietnamese Army.

The NVA regiments organized along traditional military lines, were supplied
via the Ho Chi Minh trail rather than living off the land, and had access to
weapons such as tanks and artillery which are not normally used by guerrilla
forces.

Over time, more of the fighting was conducted by the North Vietnamese Army
and the character of the war become increasingly conventional. The final
offensive into South Vietnam in 1975 was a completely conventional military
operation with no elements of guerrilla warfare.

By the end of the Vietnam War, most of the Viet Cong had been killed in
action or were no longer combat-effective. One of the first acts of the new
North Vietnamese-dominated unified Vietnamese government was to hunt out
former Viet Cong and imprison them to consolidate the regime's hold on South Vietnam.