Mars Learning
This page intentionally left blank
Mars Learning The Marine Corps Development of Small Wars Doctrine, 1915-1940
Keith B. Bickel
l ' '
A Member of the Perseus Rook Croup
All rights reserved, Printed in the United Stater;of America, No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, incltiding photocopy, recording, or any infarmation storage and retrieval system, withnut permission in writkg from the publisher, Ccyyright Q 2001 by Westview P r ~ sA, Member of the Perseus Books Grotlp P~tbIishedin 2002 in tlw United Stater; of America by Wwtview Press, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301-2877, and in tl-re United Kingdom by West-view Press, "L Hid's Copse b a d , Cttrnnor HitX, Oxford OX2 9JJ Find us on the World Wide Web at wm.westviewpress.com Library of Ccmgress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bickel, Keitlrt B. Mars Iearr-ring : the Marine Corps development of srnalI wars doctr"ine, 19151940 / Keith F. Bickef, p, cm, EBN Q-8133-9775-8(pbk.) I, United Staks. Marine Corps-History-20th century. 2. Cc>unter-instlrgency United States. 4, Peacekeeping force~caribbean operations. 3. Peacekeeping forc Region. S, Low-intensity conflicts (Mititay sciC7ie1-r~). 5. Haiti-History-Amerian occupation, 1915-193, 7, Dc?minicanReptlblican-Histor y-American ocmpa tion, 1916-1%3. 8, Nicara~a-HbtoryVRevotutic~n, 1926-1929, 1. Title.
The paper ttsed in this publication meets the requirements of the Amex-icanNational Standard far Pemanence of Paper for Prir-rtedLibrary Materials 239-48-1984.
To my mother who gnve me the gift of reading. A ~ f iCarnaron i qtlielz, por su ejemplo, me mostraba el gozo de escvibiu.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
1
Terms of Art
hformal Versus Formal Doctrine, 4 W ~ aShapes t Doctrine? 7 Focushg on. the Process as @posed to the Product, 15 A Process for hformal Versus Formal Doctrine Making, 17 Haiti, the Clomirtican Republic, and Nicaragua: Mlhy These Cmes? 18 Methad m d Orgmization, 19 2
Historical and Institutional Context far Small Wars Learning 27
Historical Context: Service in the Army's Small Wars, 28 Historical Context: Informal and Formal Doctrirze for the Army, 42 Instifutional Context: Development of the Marine Corps Schools, 50 hstitutianal Context: Marlne Doctrine pre-Haiti, 57 3
Intervention in Haiti and Lessons Learned
Conduct of the Small Warn; 69 iJessons from the Haitian Expcrienee, 911 4
Intervention in the Dominican Republic and Lessons Learned
Conduct of the Small War, 102 Lessons from the Dominican Experience, 128
Contelzts
5
Xntemention in Nicaragua and Lessons Learned Conduct of the Small War, 155 Lessons from the Nicaraguan Experience, 178 Small W a s Training Belclre the SrmIL Warn MA.IZZSLII, 186
6
From Nicaragua to the Sfaall Wars Manual .A Clash of Visions Sparks Debate in the Corps, 205 A Period cJf Fervent Writing Begins, 209
Small Wars Trainhg Pauses, 211 9
Concluding Thaughts Did Stimuli External to the I~lstitution Shnpe the Final Pmduct? 235 Did Stimuli hternal to the Institution 511ape the Final Froduct? 237 Did hdividuals Shape the Final Product? 239 Some Confirmhg Observations horn the Literabre on Corporate Leanling, 244 Implications for 7'r,day, 247
155
List of Tables, Figures, and Maps
2.1
%all wars measurcls discussed in the Army's professional journals, 1898-1915
3.1 Comparison of prior dockine and measures used in Haiti 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2
Comparison of prior doctrine and measures used in the Dominican Republic Small wars measures discussed in the Corps's professimlal journals, 1918---1926 Cornparison of prior docrrine and measures used in Nicaragua Small wars measures discussed in the Corps's professional journals, 1927-1941
Figzr res 1.1 Pe~entageof officers in small wars, 1915-1935
2.1 2.2
Grow& of the officer corps, 1915--1940 Evolution of the Marirze Corps Schools, 1891-1934
3.1
Number of Marines deployed to Haiti, 19151922
4.1
Republic, Number oE Marines deployed to the Domi~~ican 19161924
5.1 5.2
Number oE Marines deployed to Nicaragua, 1922-1933 Cornparison of Harrington's and tl'tley's viekvs on small wars
Lkf of Tables, Figures, n ~ lLlnps d
X
5.3 Average percel~tageof COC cu,rriculum devoted to small wars, 1930-1940 5.4 Average percentage of F K curriculum devoted to small wars and landhg operations, 1932-1937 6.1
Hours of small wars instruction in the Marine Corps Schools, 1E2-1941
Maps 3.2
Haiti Division sf Haiti into districts
4.1
The Dominican :Republic
4.2
First attacks and district delheations in the Dominican Republic Illustration of cordon operations in the Dominican Republic
3.1
4.3
5.1 Nicaragua 5.2 Sandino's m4or areas of operatims 5.3 Illustration of different gasrison concepts
190 191
Preface Private Willie Graymon is relnelnbered by history perhaps in a way he would rather not be. On Octoher 4,1898, be fired the opening shots of an American colonial war for the Philippine Islands. More important, his shots marked the b e g h j n g of a four-decade U.S. commitment to waging what were then referred to as "mall wars" h the Pacific and Caribbem, with the Phiipl>ine Insurrectim (989%196)2), h e r i c m miii&so suppressed rebel "armi,esr' in the southern (Moro) 13hilippines (1903-IN&), Cuba (19Q6--1909),Haiti (1935-19341, the Uminnicm Republic (3916-19241, anci Nicaragua (1927-1933). Wl~ereasMarine Corps forces participated to a lesser extall: in the Phifjppines and Cuba, by World War I the smal wars mission belonged entirely to the Corps. Haiti, the Dominicm Republic, and Nicaragua were the Marines' alone to win or lose. Miin t h y did, and in the process some officers began to think &out g and institutionalizing lessons h r n those campaips for futurt. generations of Masine offirers. A doctrjne for m a l l wars began to take shape. Durin.g the period from &out 1910 to the early 1920s, much of the doctrine development procew was informal, propagated through brigade memoranda and, the professionat Eteratare. In the %%OS, however, the Corps moved towards fnrmalizing small wars dockine and by 3935, institutimalized it in training and production of the capstone Marttral cif-S~nall Wars Opcmtions, The doctrinal process thcn abated somewhat, although the Corps commandant convened, a small board in 1939 to revise the manuai. In 1940 the Rcrarine Corps formaLIy published if as the renamed Si~ralEWars Manual, just when it became the most irrelevant because of the onset of World War 112, Over forty-five years later, in 1986, when the United States was still cmcemed with Cold War proxy confrontations in Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Afghanistan, the Corps resurrected the Slnall ktiars Manzizl m d reprinted it in its entimty, without edits, as "an aid to education and tsajning jn the historical appmaCh of Marine Corps units cmductlng operations in Isw-intensity conflicts."l It was consjdered ""oneof the best books on mftitary operations im peacekeephg and counterinsurgencyoperations published before World War 11,""and as such, comanding offi-
xii
Preface
cers were responsible for maLng the book available to Marhes engaged in those types of operatims,%at is still true today. The Snznll Wars Manual was one of those used to hstruct soldiers headed for Somalia and Bosnia.3 It is still used within the curriculum of The Basic School, at which every lieutenant in the Corps is trained." Upon refiction, the history of single hegemonic states-fur example, Rome, Spain, France, and England-suggests that the policing of lesser powers becomes a preoccupation during relativek stable or peaceful periods. In the wake of the Cold War the tlnited States has alreaeiy eng a g d in Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti, and Bosnia. 'Thus, with republicat-ion of the SrrralI Wars Manzknl, the Corps might be prescient in returning to a doctrine with applic"hi1ity to a future of messy internal wars. However, in so doing, the Corps of today is borrowi.ng doctrine that is over sjxty years old. That sixty-year-old doctrine on small wars was one of the first formal doctrines ever created by che Marine Corps*"No serious study of this historic first, however, has been published in the academic literature. This gap leaves the opportunity to ask why the doctrine Inoked the way it did. That is kvhat thit; book does, focusing on several conconnit.& yuestions: (1)What we= the small. wars lessons that Marine officers thought they learned f m Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Nicaragua? (2) Was there an informal process, k addition to the formal process, by which small wars lessons were conveyed to Corps officers? and (3) How were lessons institutionalized and distilled into formal doctrine? Answering these ques.lions has been a long hut fun process, nlong the way I have incurred debts of gratitude that f wish to begh repaying here, First and formost, I want to thank Eliot Cohen, not just for all the support and $ d a n c e he gave me durjng the entire process bttt more important (to me), lfor the intellectualmilieu that he built around me during my stutSies. We start& together in the Strategic Stuciies program at Johns H a p h s , he as adviser and I as student. Over the past yeam the program he has created, the peers he has brought into the program, m d the esprit de corps he has engmdered art: a credit to his talents, to the instiwtion, and to those who fhancidy support:his work. I also kvant to thank my dissertation committee-hdrew Bacevich, Michael Mandefiaum, Bmce Parrott, and I'homas McNaugher-for ~ a d i n gthis monograph and for their thoughtful. insights, which helped to make it better. I owe deep thanks to Mike Vickers for aU the hours he spent bouncing ideas and sources back and forth with me when he easily could have focused on his own work. He helped me phpokt the literature on corparate lemjng and gave me insights throughout the process that helped clarify my own thinking. I am also inddted to Phebe Novakowic, now
Preface
*..
XZEZ
with the Office of the Deputy Scrctary of Defe~~se, and Dave Morrison, iormerly at the m i t e House Office of Management and Budget, for giving me extended leave to filtish the core historical chapkrs and enjoy the first w e k s of my daughter's life. My old kiend Raffi Gregorian was there at the beghning when I east about for a topic, and his suggestions helped me form the basis fcrr &is book. Brim ,fon Hoffmm, h d r e w Bktle, David Brooks, Col" Robert Lee, and Gary Anderson all provided helpful guidance or perspective. Andrew Marshal.l, Andrew :K Tom Welch, Jm van Tol, IJatnek Curry, fim EitzShonds, and emer alf provided mother milieu for my intelleetuat growth and conl-inually prodded m to finish this study of the past so I codd focus m e again on the fubre. 1 would also like to f i m k my editors at We&iec\l, particularly Leo Wieg~nm,Dabrid, Perv;in, m d Dabrid McBrid,e for their interme enthusiasm, m d aggressiveness in bring4ng this manuscript to puhlication, They have been a fun bunch to work with. My studies m d this book could not have been cmpleted wi.lhout the generous assistance of the Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Sbdies (SAIS), the Lynde and Harry Bradtey Eoundation, the C)lin Foundat-im, and the Marine Corps Foundation. N u e r - . ous research staff helped me find sources I sometimes did not befieve existed. Arny Canton of the Personal Papers Sction, Bob Aquilina, Annette h e r m a n , t e r n Kaljot, and Danny Crawford of the Historical Reference Section, Bemis Frank of the Oral History Cdlectim, and the library staff of the Mazine Corps Historical Center were d wonderfutfy helpfd. So, too, was Kerry Strong and her staff at the Marine Corps Archives in Quantico, Virginia. Mitch Yockelson md. the staff of the National Archiwes helped me find related Army and Marine Corps material. The library and aschives stag at the A m y W r College in Caslislc, Pennsylvmia, allowed me access to old Army manuals beyond what I had a right to expect. 1thank atl the archivists for their trust in allowing me unktterc3d access to some of &eis most fragile and unca.t.aiogedmteriala I would also like to thank Linda Carlson, Kate Picard, and the rest of the SAIS tibrary staff for their help in tracking down sources throughout my research efforts" By custm, spouses and fmil:y tend to be thanked last, But they truly are never last. They provide the emotional (md often editorial) support without kvhich neither books nor theis authors kvndd be complete. My own wife, Suzan, helped me research sources, edited key parts of my work, and, mom irnpmtmt, bore. my pmious daughter, Jordana, nurturing her alS those weekends I spent inthe library, them tend'lng to me when 1was horn, 1thhk the most iappropriate thanks 1c d d ever offer them is not in words but in the time 1now spend nufturing them.
Preface
Notes 2 . U.S. Marine Corps, *Wemorandumfram the Deputy Chief of S"EE far Plans, Policies and Operations," in Sfnntl Wars Marzunl (Quanticcl, VA: Marine Corps Schools, 1940; reprint, Washington DC: Department of the Navy, 1986), foreword. 2. Ibid. 3. Col. Gary Anderson, instructor, Marine Corps College, Quantico, VA, interview by author, August 1994. 4. Col. Robed tee, Commanding Officer, U.S. Marine Corps Basic School, intexlriew with author, January 1997. 5, The other was the simuftane~uscreation of amphibictus warfare doctrine,
Terms of Art
What are small wars, and what is doctrine? The term small roars was used by British and, later, American military thinkers to liistinguish warfare against guerrilla forces and tribal a r ~ ~ i from e s the major conventional style of was that characterized warfare on the European continent. The Marine Corps Srlzall Wars M12az~aZpubliskd in 1940 recognized that the phrase was "often a vague name for any one of a great variety of mjlitary operations. "1 Consequently, the Manual's writers opted for a broad definition: Operatians undertaken under executke authority, wherein military farce is eambined with diplomatic pressure in the internal or external affairs af another state whose go>vernmentis unstable, inadequate, or unsatisfactory- far the p~servationof life and such interests as are determined by the foreign palicy of our nation.'
In modern usage the term has undergone mmerous transformations, including cnz~nZ.criszrzcy, low-itzte~sitymzfEicf,hser reghlzal mnti~~gazcies, and now small-scall c a n l i n g Tbe first of these terms-carrl.rteril.zsurgerzcy-best encapsdates what the Marines accomplished alongside the Arrny in the Pacific and then done in the CaribZlean: tbey carrit.d out po:[itical and miiitary operdions to defeat a bmd or bands of armed dtizens trying to overthrow the established authori-ty of a country by means of guerrilla warfare. This narrower genre of small wars is the focus in this and book, but X also occasionally make use of the terms coa~rtrrirzsz.rrg~tcy wa$arc to rcinforce the difference betwecm peacekeeping and atztitq~~rrrilla sirnple htcrvention missions. By comparison to small wars, ""dctnine" is a more slippery cmcept to define. The colzlmf of doctrhe may be fairly easy to recognize. Fin.ding a consistent definition or understanding cJf +e cofzcept Of doctrine, however, is not so easy. Definitions varied widely during the entirc?twentiell.i
century m d markedly so among the military writers of the period u ~ ~ d e r study here, Cmplicating the picture, not aXI authors are really talking about etoctrine when they thfnk they are. Some art^ really focused m strategy, not rnilitary doctrine per seeGeneraily, though, most writers offering a diffcrcnt definition of doctrine generally would recognize another witer" discussion as one on doctrine..This suggests that the cmcept ol doctrine is wider than most of the definitictns that have been offered to date. The term doctrine itself entered the U.S. military lexicon sometime just before a f 912 editorial board piece i,n the Army's 11If:a31ty Jozir~takdefined it as ""no more than a mems to some national conception of war."Vrom where it came exactly is unhown. The author of the first semhal American study of doctrine, C o m m o d o ~h d e y W* Knox, believed that doctrhe was a nineteenth-century Europem intellectual construct designed to help commanding officers teach or train their subordirrates so that they would think like their commander or at least understand his intent in war.4 Mllhether other officers believed the same is m h o w n ; those who wrote generally etid not bother to inform the reader of the term's origin, o ~ ~ofl y.the aulhor 'S own conception of the term The Marine Corps first addressed the issue of docrtrine in the lead issues of the new Marir.te COT Guzettr. (1916) h e n a debate was joined cmceming how the Corps kvould use its forces in the future-. m essence, what its primary mission should be. The precipitatixzg article, written by future commandmt Maj. J o h Russell, argued that m understanding of doctrine was critical to the Corps's luture."n Che process, he foreshadowed the developmnt of two different concepts of doctrine that still exist today hssefl first quoted a co on contemporary understanding of doctrine as "the application of the Art of Warfbnd argued that this concept of doctrine made it synonymus with a colIertion of principles.6 He argued that it was a a w e d interpretation of doctrine. Principles to him were h-rdamental trutS?sabout Hghti,ng war. 'They we= derived from the study of military history. Doctrine, by cmtrast, meant adapting principles "to the circumstances and character not only of the military organizatim but of the nation it rcpresents,'hand then ilpplyitzg them,? Russell even went so far as to criticize publidy the Army's Fkld Semicc RecquInt i r t ~ sfor cclnfLusiw the issues of principles, doctrine, and regulaticms such that gemeratims of officers wme being incorrectly trained to face future warfare. This led. to Russell" own cmcqtion of doctrine as "a teachislg that provides for a k u t u a i understanding' among the ccmlmissioned [officers]" m d that gives unity to Chc thot~ghtsand acti,ons of those officers.K Precisely because it was a teachixlg, and thus interpretive, doctrine could be wrong whereas princigles never were. Because of this interpretive &merit to doctrine, RusseU ~ ~one a ofs the first Corps ofiicers to call openly
for the creation of staffs to develop doctrjne rathcr &an leaving it i,n Ihc ad hoc state of privatization that characterized prcvious doctrine fomulation to date within the Corps."' The response to Rusself's essay from his peers was swift and contentious. Many viewed doctrine differently. Most feit the Corps either did have a doctri~~e or did not need its own, Since the term doctrine had only entered the American military lexico~~ within the previous decade (or less), it is not surp"sing that some of Russell" detractors criticized his use of the term itself, One commentator tried to avoid the contentious nature of rhe debate by prcferrhg old terms, despite the fact that no older terms adequately described what the debaters were arguing over." Anotkr commclmtatcrr contended doctrine was simply an expression coined just to fill a vocabulary void but then proceeded to offer a definition similar to Russell's, saying that doctrine was "a particular set of opinions held as a guide to action by all members of a cornmand . . . , in cases not deteminabie by fixed military principles, so that the will of the suprem comrnander must, in every part of his command, be promptly executed in the same manner as if he were hirnself prltsent and acting.""llCapt. Earl Ellis, later famous for his mphibious doctrine efforts, also weighed in with a paraIXet defhition provided by President oi the Naval War Cnlege iadm. =-right: ""A doctrine . . . may be defined as a general policy outlined by s ~ ~ p e r i authority. or and communicated to subordinates as a guide which enables them to predict the probable wishes of their superior fn cases vvhere a definite statement of these wishes is not a~ailable.~'Iz The Army" contemporary discussions mirrored those of Russell and his critics. n e r e was a conthual search for a useful defhition, discussion of the distinction between doctrine and principles, and complaints about the way field manuals oi the day confused, the two and thus confused officer training. For example, one cJf the first attempts to create a more pragmatic definjtion fnr the Arm,y rcls~dtedin not me, but three, definitions, Doctrine was first defhed as a ""cnclusion about how best to utilize military and economfc sources in wmffThen it became "a theory of using a nation" force under particular conditions.'Yinally it was "all that is authoritatively taught in the military establishment for the purpose of governing the conduct of war and training.'"l" Each of these definitions share?d a c m o n thread: They refersed to the way hokvledge was to be ayf?lied to the art of war, Little more was ad.dcd to the conceptual understanding of doctrint. in the i m e d i a t e pre-World War If period. Sinct. then, although definitional usage has sharpened over time, one trend has not abated. Virtuafly every American writer on doctrine who does not quote the U.S. Asrgy Dictiolzary of Rvms offers different fsomtimes multiple) dcfjnitions of the term.1"
Perhaps the best way to undwstand m d e m conceptions of doctrine is h t:he li@t of Paul Heibert"~portrayal of an intellectual debate in the
1970s between Gen. Mrllliam E, DePuy and Lt. Gen. J c : , h Cushmm,lV11-t Herbert's documented viey Gen..DePuy did not trust the bitiative of his subordinates (based.on his expesjences &ring World War 11) and felt that clear instructions about what to do we^ afways necessary. 'l'his attihtde supposedly spilled over into hiz; vjecv of doctrine: It was a set of rules or techniques+ssential.fy hstmctions-necessary for success on the modern battlefield and to be fnllowed as closely as possibk. Acceding tc:,Herberf, Lt. Gen. Cuslhman, by contrast, trusted his subordinates morc3 and gave them intellectual. leeway for initiative. Concomitantly he felt doctrine was more oE a guide h t ""alowed for the infinite variety of conditions and situations characteristic of human affairs."% It therefore required ""judgment in appfication," 'These two contrasting views of doctrine mark the pdar ends of a spectrum of definitions and understanding~of doclsine. nlmost every other de8nitim one fhds, from both the period, of this study and aft-er, fits somwkere along that spectrum.17 Not surprisingly, many civilian writers, and several military ones, have stradded the dehitionnl fence bp embracing doctrinc as both a guide and a template of tecbnirfuesto be applied on the battlefield.. Service manuals-notahly some eciitions of the Army's dictionary of terms-l~we taken the same appr0ach.m m e can sce in the S~nallGZlurs Murzliurl itself sections providing authoritative techniques that maders could deviate from only at their own peril a d other sections providing guidmce brat calling for individual initiative in applicatio~~. This study ernbraces both views of doctrine-as rules and as guidance-because both have been influential over time in the development m d revision of doctrixle m d because neither is w r o ~ ~Neither g. is wrong in the sense that &pending upon the amount of control they wish to exercise over their subordinates, commanding generals hawe the right to decide how much their subordinates should ""sick to the textf' or use their own hitiative,
Informal Versus Formal Doctrine The issue of which ""text" to stick to highlights a distinction this study will m& ~ g a r d i n gthe dclctrinal product-a dislinctim between fnrmal and informal doctrine reflecting "fomal and informal processes and struch;lres for the . . . sharing . . . of knowledge and skills" "generally evident i,n all or.t;anizations but particularly so for the Carps during the period under consideration in this book,lWoctrine is most often associated with the training manuals published for school and field use.. Manuals arc the most visible manifestation of doctrine and, by their revision, of
doctrinal crihange. Training circulars and pamphlets are a slightly less visible manifestation of doctrine. AIl of these together-manuals, training circulars, and pamphkts-are part of what this study will refer to as fornzd doctrirre. Any study o f military doctrine, hokvever, is incomplete without an understanding of how ideas may be trmsmitted among the officer corps and improved upon before tbey become instihttionallg,recognized or sanctioned. Probably the most common method of idea exchange is writkg articles for the professional journals, such as the I~qantryfitlr~~al, the Marine Corps Gazette, and the N~27alf~tsfifufe Praeeedi~tgs.Far less common, but apparmt in the cases that follow are fieid ordms analyzing the overalf situation and proffering theories of what works and what does not. Finally officers write tcr each other and socidize in other ways that can facilitate the spread of ideas, bat those ways are, at least for the period and institution considered here, lost to recorded history Consequmtly, professiclnal articles, field orders, and personal letters will f o m the basis of what is referred to here as itilfunnlrl dtlcfrkc. The key distinction to remember between Iformal and hformal doctrine is that the former embodies institutionalized a d institutionally sanctioned products that give authoritative imprirnat-urto doctrine and that are disseminated officially wiChin the sewice or branch whereas the latter embodies personal ideas that others may choose to use and follow but that do not have instituli.ctnal blessing and thus are not officially disseminn.t.ed. Making the distinction betwem both types of docrtrine can be us&l in two ways. First, folding i~~furmal doctrine into the owerail allalysis of doctrine formatim helps explain the lag that- may arise between prosecuting relatively new ways of war and developing doctrirze for passing on the lessons of those new w y s . Seccmd, it contributes to an understandjng of the r o e individuals play in the development of doctrinc, particularlp f o m d doctrine, Readers will notice in the historical chapters that fnllcrw a lag between when operations are cmducted and when new training courses are created and institutionally sanctioned lessons are disseminated. Most obvious, there was a lag between all the campaigns =viewed in this book and the de\delopmmt of the Small Waus Ma~zualitself. The precise reason or reasons for the lags can only be guessed, but there are two general categories of possi:bilities. One has to do with institutional stmcture and the other with institutional visim, It takes longer for an institution to distill and dissernhate lessons than it takes for an individual to do so, As will become evident h Chapter 6, the productim oE both mphibious and small wars doctrine took almost a year fmm beginning to end, and both processes requircd knowledge able indkiduals freed from field operations to help draft the manuals. The puhlication or dissemhatlon of hformai doctrine can help fill the gap during such lags and at-times m y be drive11 by the fact that there are
such lags, Alternatively of course, the dissetnination of kfomtal doctrine may increase the lag period as senior members of the institutional.hiwarr their time to chy decide that a formal doctrine may not be needed c ~ take see that it gets do~newell. This is where institutional vision plays a role. The senior leadership may decide there is no need for change-ither because exist* doctrine already serves the new need or because the institution may soon embark on an alternative c o u r s e s o it is content to let informal doctrhe fill the intekctuai void. Such seems to have been the case for the :Marine Corps durkg a sigtnil-icant portio~nof the period mder study he=. As the following chapters discuss at length, the Marir\es through the 1920s borrowed Army small wars doctri~~e, so the i~tformaldoctrine may have been seen as a sufficient addition ta that A r l ~ ydodrine ta account for Marine experiences, Meanwhile, the senior Marine leadership s e e m d mow i n t e ~ s t e din undertaking missims more closely related to national s ~ ~ r v i vin a l the post-World War 1 period and then again in the 1930s. Thus the failure to develop formal doctrine early on-but to allow the flourishifig of infomal doctrine-may reflect a lack of strategic concern on the part of Corps leaders despite Che operational problems presetnted by each of the three cases discussed in this book-Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Nicarqua. Ch-te possibly sees this ~ f l e c t e dim the '%"bushf" war trainjlng schools established in each c o t ~ ~ ~and t r ythe concursclmt failure to establish such training schools in the United States. Une problem with this appmach, however, is that by failing to provide for a rczlativefy comprehensive doctrine-which the inormal doctrine most certainly was not-Marke officers wound up "reinventing the wheel'-in each of the three hswgencies thry encountered. The notion of infarxnal doctrinc also contributes to an understanding of the role that individuais and their ideas play in doctrine mal
ature (cited throughout this chapter) has t e ~ ~ d etodanalyze the dodrinal
prod~ict,and not the doch-inal pmcess that rendercd the product, when really they are inextricabIy linked. If we consider that doctrine formation cmsists of institution& learning and that learning is reprtlsetnted both in a product (something learned) and in the process that yields the product, without underthen it is difficult to understmd what caused the doctri~~e standjng how it came into being." %coznd, linking product and process adds complcxily to the understanding of d o c t b . The premium placed upon finding a single causal explanaticm (or sometimes two) for a given phenomenon can mask a more complex interaction of causes that usually mderlies the genesis and transmission of recorded ideas, such as those that doctrine embodies. Third, to "o fair, the historical record on the process behind doctrinal development is often il~complete." Archival material key to m d e r s t a n h g the relationship between proponents, authors, and ideas often simply does not exist mymore. Researchers fail to f h d archival, materials on, and thus the l;inb between, individuals and their ideas, organimtions, and the environment in which both operate. 22 This in turn creates a level-of-aggregation problem L\rhercrhy scholars posit that learni,ng takes place at h i g k r and higher levels of an institution when that simply m y not be the ease.23 One sees this problem, for example, in the few writers w h do acknowledge indit.idual contributions to doctrine making: they ascribe key roles to the gez~eralsunder whom, a doctrine was promulgated rather than digging under the surface to see if there were. mre junior officers from whose minds or pens the dodrine's tenets emerged.
What Shapes Doctrine? Prhcipally one of three approaches is taken to explajn the origin of doctrinal content. The first argues that the urtderpinnings of doctrine are stimuli external to the institution: the balance of power between nations, advances in technology, battlefield terrain or geography, budget constraints, and so m. 'Theorlttically M;hen one or a number of these change, so too will doc&jne,N'early every scholar of doctrine posi.ts that external stimdi of s o m sort underpin doctrinal change, The second approach, alcin to Gaham Atison's bureaucratic organizational model, argues that stimuli inside the inslitution hest explain the formulatiost of doctrine.24 Undrrr this approach, doctrhe changes when organizational purpose, interests, internal stntcture, or personnel chmge. The third, and hemtofore least inn,uential,, approach explains doclrjnal farm,ul&iozn in t e r m of Ihe individuals who control, the development process itself or who are civilian inter1opc.n; (generally pditicat leaders). It should be noted clearly that very few h c b i n d scholars adhere strictly to a single explanat-ion..As
will become evident from the discussion, several establish cmditions in their analysis that dZow them, for example, to point to external and intercircurnstmces, nal stimuli, depend@ u ~ c m
The Role 4 Exter~zafStin-lnIi in Shaping Doctrim The extend stimufi aMecting doctrine that- are most cjted in Che litemture are technology geography resources, and even the structure of states in the international system, with the majority of scholars suggesting that more than one mderlies change. The tec-tchnolotity adherents posit a simple relationship: Military doctrine changes as technofogy changes. :For some writers this is eitber a matter of faith or simply more. ohvious to them than their audience because they state the relationhip as fact without providing concrete exmples to prove the point." Other writers are mow specific: Major doctrinal change emanates from conventimai or nuclear technology 26 For example, Active Defense, and later Air Land Battle, had their genesis in the development of coolbined-arms warfare, made manifest by technology such as antitank weapcms and air-to-air missiles working alongside tanks and mechanized infantry,'7 Similarly, the Prussians develuped, their artillery doctrine based upon technological etries vis-8-vis the French.B Finally the development of nuclear weapolls led to changes not only in strdegic doctr.ine-that is, the turn to deterrencebut also led to changes in conventional doctrines, most visibly that associated with the Army"s Pentomic Dkision.2" Those who posit geography is a determhant of doctrine argue that military organizations seek to mitigate bntflefield threats identified with a certain type of geography (e.g., mechanized warfare. on the plains of the Cold War Centrd Front versus guarilla hvarfare in the jungles of Vietnam). The geography oi future war is identified by m mlysjs of the national security policies of a state (i.e., who it views as the likely threat), In this view, the choice of tec-tchnology is a result of doctrine not the principal input into it. Tkus doctrine is deemed to cbange with national securiy policy changes: "White the dcxltrine has been affwted by technological advances [e.g., nuclear weapons] . . . the selection of Zfie types of technology [around which doctrine w u l d be crafted] has depended on the initial decision-which was usually made outside the Army-of where a future battle might be fought.'Todrine ultimately ""depended upon the selection of the possible future battlefield and the conditions under which a battle rrtight be fought."'3"' n o s e who posit that resottrce levels (almost always budgetary levels) prirzciQaUy drive doctrinal change still only argue that they do so indi~ c t l ynnot , cfirectly Resomes affect and usually constrairt, some intermediary (e.g*,force structure or prclcztrement) that in turn affects the final
cmtent of doctrine."' How this works precisely is never quite spelled out, and the argument is difficult to counter, if d y because it says so little, The aqu"ent does, however, form a bridge between those who argue that stimuli external to an institution drive doctrinal content and those who argue that stimuli internal to the institution drive it, Those who argue that the strucbre of states in the ir-ttematicmai system drives docrrine make two asguments. Orte is that thc structure of the international system itself-the distribution of capabilities or power ammg a set of states-determfnes which cltoctrines art? adopted." Specifically, states seeking to revj,se the current b a h c e will adopt offensive doctrines whereas states embracing the status quo will adopt deknsive ones, with Germany aciduced as p r o d of the fomer and Britain and France as prod of Ihe lame" m e second strain argues that Che mu1,tiplieity of nations in the world engenders ali sorts of threats across the spectrum of connict, causirrg nations to develop different doctrines to balarsce against those threats.34 Supposedly, nuclear and counterjnszlrf~erncyductrines in particular derive from this &rent-spectrum pmblern, as natinns have been foxed away from "ccmventicmal wars of classical doctri~?e.'"3' Part of the problem with this approach is Ihat the proponents of it usually mistake doctrine for strategy They really m a n that the internatimlal system will determine a state" sirutegy. The doctrine, or how the mflitary is expecled to carry out that strategy, is left uundefjncd.
Those who posit that stimuli internal to a military institution drive the formulation cJf doctrine generally downplay the fmportance of exkmal stimuli in the formc.ttion of doctrine: "Although international variables am very innportant, it is domestic jnstituticms which are primary for understandix~gwhy general demands of the intcmational sptem are translated into a particular military doctriule.'""6lrditutions become primary because they "induce actors to pay special attention to particullar goals. They also offer a range of strategies for achieving these aims. These goals and strategies affect the way domestic actors interpret internatianiaf circumstances."~~ W t h k this appmach the arguments for determining doctrinal cmtent inferest m d organizafa11 into two overarchhg categories: organiztltk~~nl tional sfnrckrrre. The organj.zational interest adherents posit that institutions arc. fundmentally political entities in which actors make, change, or adherc. to doctrines based upon how well that doctrine helps an organization earn resources, wage a certain mission, or simply influence other organizations around it. Who the actors are matters less than the fact that the organizatio~~ overall benc.fit.s fmm their actions. The or.t;anizationd
structuralists posit that the structure of the hstitnxtio~~ (Le., h the case of military hierarchies, who controls the nature of, or movement within, that hierarchy) determines what doctrhe the instiktion will create or follow, Fhally, one n w school o( thought, not easily ca.t.egorizedwiChin Ihe above approaches, posits that doctrine is a product of institutional cull tures and of historical experiences, upon which arc. built traditions that will cause doctrine (regarding the same techolngy or form of warfare) to be different k m one military organization to another. U ~ ~ d the e r organization& interest apprcrach, t h e key desires-influence, missio~~, m d resources-form the focus in the literattrre on doctrine iormation. Of t h three, the hRuencc argument is clearly the most overarching, for one would want influence to c o r n a n d resources or dict;lte what mission one's orgmization will accept. But the question ""lfluence for what'?"' is not always answered so clearly In m e work for example, the answer is sometimes for Esourcles and other times for multiple other reasons: soldiers . . . become . . . a self-ec>nseiouscommunity tzrt-rose views of combat, doctrine, equipment, and the needs of the services are culored by their identification with tanks, and by their sense of competitim with every other community tzrithin an army, almost always for inauence, but also for funds, prestige, career opportunities, and the simple satisfaction of "winning."38
A fear of being left out of the core mission is the thesis of the second organizational interest approach-the mission argument. In this line of thought, ixrstit.utions develop doctrhes that prwid.e justification for assuming certaill missions, even to the extent of sacrgichg needed capabilities. .hkey example cited as supportin$ evidence is the Army's fr-tilzrrtilto adopt counterinsurgency measures to fight in Vietnm. hstead., the Army focused on competing with thr Air Force and Navy for the right to fight the Soviets on the Celltrizl Front: "Since the Army was struggling against the Navy and Air Force to be part of the 'big war' that defined the most impmtant strategy-naticmal defense-it &opted the tactics appropriate for the type of war in Vietnm becarnse its eyes were always on the bigger pj.cture."'"" The third organizational interest approach, the resource arglxment, posits that military thinkers develop doctrine as a way of controlling resources or redirectin.g resource allocation: "We should anticipate, then, that each military organization will innovate only if the speeific changes wil) benefit them im their struggle with the other service branches over their share of the miljtary budget."'"%Again, an exmplc here is the Army" failure to adopt counterinsurgency hVietnam: Innovation in counterinsurgency did not cater to the short-term budgetary
interests of the services. Another example is Gen. DePuy'S dde~relopment
of Active Defense as a means for (depending on who is arguing) either dtrfeneiing the Army's budget or increasing Rsourtles for the armored branch of the A r l ~ ywhile diminishing the resources de~rotedto the inh t r y and artillery.41 Note that the resource argument here is different in a key way from the =source argulnernt discussed in the secgm h o v e on external stirnulj. Namely, =source levels above were considered a determinmt of doctrinal content. Here, doctrine is mmipu1"te"lo cmtrol resource levels. In the construd of strict social science, proponerds of the argumcnt that external stimuli underpin doctrinal formulation = g a d resources as the indepmtfent variable and doctrine the liependent one. The organizational hterest approach posits exactly the opposite. NaturalXy one can envision a circdar argument emerging betwem the two schooIs, Similar to the organjzaticrnal interest apyroa", the organizational structure approach in the doctrinal literature treats military orgarrizations as polities in which members exercise influence over mother. However, structuralists are iIlclined to refine the argummt to rt?flect the fact that militaries are strict hierarchies. The ability to inRztelnce is dictated by access to power, which ma)i hdicate service leadership, school or trahing leadership, or those who controt the promotion syskm. The prirnary proponent of Phe structwalist approach couchcs Che importance of external realities in terms of the organization" promotional stmcturc: "Peaceovation may be explainable in terms of how well military communities eval~~ate the future character of war, and how they effect change in the senior officer corps."U Even where there is military gmius, access to the service leaders is rc.quirt.d in order to translate ideas into institutional actiorr.43 .A related view focuses u p m the requirement for organizatimlal consensus within a service that doctrhai change is =quired. Although external pressures may set the stage fnr doctrinal change, this school of thought emphasizes the development of the "milit.avFscyclical instikrtional learning process in respmding to thcrse ct,nditions."JJ By focusing on the roles of institutional rnernory in learning and m the fact that "institutional m e m r y is what old members of an organization know and what new members must learn through a process of sociatization," this view implies an organizatimal structural.ist argument, though Merent from fiosen". T h i s is confirmed by the achowledgment that "the organi.zatic,n%social structure and shifts in pditicat power among members withh an organization determhe whose individual learniing matters"An individual may not have the power, position, or influence in tbe organization to ensure that his individual learning resutts in changes to an organization" institutional rnernorytM";f Though this particular approach
best rnelds extenlal and ims.t.tutional factors to explain why doctrine chaizges, it does not explah why the doctrine actually looks the way it does. :Nor does it attempt to explaifi how much consensus is needed, m among k l r h o r n , for doctrine to changeeJ:b Finally the notion of ""culture" and. "kadition" is at the heart of the last organizational approach to explainjl~gdoctrinal ovation and change. This approach argues that although external factors play a role in doctrhe making, the culture or tradition of an institution makes it susceptirapidly and, by implication, ble to incorporating certain types of doctri~~e not others. By "cmlture" is meant a "set of basic assumptions and values that shape shared understmdings, and the forms or practices whereby these meanings artl exp~ssed,affirmed, and communicated to the members of an organization.'""7y "tradition" is meant "a set of values, attitudes, teachings and techni.ques passed duwn from one gmeratim to the nertC."" K e notion here is that the real world may imphge on mibary ideation but that the organization's interprebtianal "vision fiters" determine what part of the environment is acted upon: "Whik the peculiarities of geography and stratregic position played [A mle . . . the greatest inRuezzce on how an army received quick-fiiring artaery was internal-the result of the hterplay between new ideas and pre-existing doctrine."dg Tl~enotion of culwal drivers of dcrctrim is comparatively better derel loped in the political science literature on strategy and military pawer than it is on doctrine.?%fndeed, itiis new to the literature on doctrine per se and as such does not yet addrttss the basic frustrations raised by Johnston concerning where preferences come from, how are they ranked, and the level of vagueness about culture" relationship to cbojcc, that is, about what cuiture does in a behavioral sense.%One cannot help but notice, however, that contemporary arg~~znezlts about culture and tradition carry strong underlying currents of individuaf role and choice in propac ethe core of the cultural gating the tenets of culture, particularly s i ~ ~at argulnents, organizations are still supposedly influenced by external considerations.'2 The Role of Ifzditlideanls in Slzirpi~gDoctrine
Scholars of doctrine formation generdy place comparatively tittle emphasis upon the role ol incfividuals in the post-Wrld War II pesiod.53 hstead, some writers make the mistake of mthropomorphizixlg states or organizations as though they were ~sponsiblefor inkrpreting their enviz mn,ment,54 When was the last time a state or an ~ " " i z a t i o ~interp~ted somth-ing? They do not-indivjbuals do.. That fact has given rise in the literature to a form of copitive comp"rZmenta1izatimProponents arguing o r the primacy of stimuli external or j17temd to the bureaucracy are
increasingly making oblique references to important roles individuals can play.TU811 of these d e s tend, though, to fall within one of four categmies associated with what one could call a ""greatman""school: civilian intervener, military leader (near or at the top of his service Inierarchy), military maverick, m d military genius, The civilian Fntervener has received the most discussion in the relatively recent literature, mostly because Posen" work is one of the s e ~ ~ h a l mechanism of civilim intervention supposedy works on doctrine,'"e works this way: Civilians intervene in d i t a r y organizations during peacetime because they fear the c u r r e ~military ~t doctrixle does not meet the needs of national strategy" The military, in other words, is on a course for hture disaster or defeat. Civilian leaders avert that fate by setting the plilical parameters withh which the military est;xblishme& has to operate, and. this political environment provides the philosophical backdrop that allows or inhibib doctrinal innwation. A classic example cited is Hitler's planned aggressicm against his neighborhg countries while faced with the constraint of a possible two-front wm58 The opposite of aggression, fear, also motivated other leaders to intervene in their military doctrines as ~ 1 1 . ~ 9 "Military maverick" is the label given to offjeerswho do not have the rank wit;hin their service to effect chmge directly but who seek nonetheven at t-he expense of their careers. The classic exarnplc is . Billy Mitchell, a strong proponent of air power who put his beliefs about its efficacy to fie test in 3921 (admittedly within parameters likely to highlight success over failure) by having anchored ships bombed from the air. A key notion about why mavericks lead doctrinal change is starkty simplistic: "Due to their parochial inte~sts,a group of 9rviees cannot create militmy doctrine on their own,"m Xnstead, the details of doctrirre formation and operational innovation are left to mavericks within militirry organizations, presumably because they either see the wed for change morc clearly or because they are apolitical creatures out of step with their service leadership. The opposite of tbe maverick would be fie rnilitary leader who does have the rank, and therebre power, to effect doctrinal cihange. The argument here is that althou* the power of an idea may be determined by fie character of the man who holds it, fie outcome af the bureaucratic struggle around that idea hhges on who is doing the struggling.61 M o ever is doing the struggling must have the power to do it successfu)ly and fierefore must be a leader. Doctrinal change is thus associated cornpletely wi& top-down djrectim and will be based upon the prekrclnces and preconceptions-like Stalin and. his ""permanently operati tors,'Ton 5eekt m d panzer warfare, m d DePuy and Active Ue whoever is doing the leading." Fmom time to time thcre will be majors
and captains who physically write the doctrinel but they are generally treated in the literature as mere scribes.63 The final role accorded to individuals in the literature is that af the "military genitas*'"is is the individual to whom credit is give11 for the intellectual genesis of a certairr doctrine. Capt. Ear1 Ellis, the progmitor of amphibious warfare, is a classic example of such an individual.64 British air chief Marshal Hugh Trenchard might be co~~sidered mo&er.b5 With the ad.vent of nuclear weapons, the notiovl of the doctrinal gcrnius has been expmded to include civilians such as Bemard Brodie, Mbert Whlstetter, H e r m n K h n , and Coln Gray' who, d u ~ i n gthe Cofd Wr, provided the irrtekctual genesis for nuckllar doctrines. The four categories of "great men" aside, throughout the literaturt. on modern doctrine making, no attention is give11 to the comparatively ordinary individual who by dint of expertise is granted the authority to creak doctrine.& 'This indhidual is cctrtaillty not a civifian. He is not a maverick borrowing doctrine from others or bucking political, authority in the institution. One might be tempted to call him a genius, but that need not be the case. (fndeed, one often finds the term genizds associated with individuals who create doctrine based upon a prospective vision of warfase, not a retrospective a d y s i s of actual experience as is the case in this study.) Finab, the individual is not necessarity a Leader or in the top ranks of"his service. Instead, one might tbnk of him as a promoter of change: one who is a recognized au&ority on a particdar form. of ~tarfarcoand who therefore is given the apportufiity to create or change doctrine. If one were to label this type of i.ndividual, one might call him the ""expert," 'The expert may still be subject to the whims of superiors who can accept or reject his doctrinal promulgations, and so in that sense may be beholden to the military leadcr role &cussed above, Or the expert may sway the opinion of enough of his peers to make his arguments take on an importace the leadership simply cannot ignore. In a way, tthis appmch compases with the cdtural arguments: Both focus to a cltegree on change within organizatims that does not originate with the leadership. 'The cultural. argument, by focusing upon notions of shared assumptions, decision d e s , and values tries to establish the constraints on change ksm b&w and even withill the rnilitary leaderdip. The argument for the individzaal's mle here is differcnt in that it focuses on opportunity rather than constraint in doctrine making. In this it is consisknt with a r g u m t s in the c q o r a t e lea g literabre that focus on ""chan?pictnsof learning" at mrrltiple levels of an organizdion to exptain instances of organizational learning." This approach is not meant to be the antithesis of, say, the organizaticmal stmcturalist and the "great man" arguments (since learning can occur at multipite levels), but it cer-
tahly cmtrasts with those in a way that s~~ggests that alternative forces can influence the formulation of doctrinal products. It should not be surprising that the change in the cases here cclmes from the lower and midgrade officers. As Figure 1.1shows, roughly onethird of Marine ofiicers were deployed in each of the three s m l l wars between 1915 and 1933, usually distributed evenly acmss the ranks. As t-he follokving chapters will illustrate, thc nature of garrisoning in-country meant that the preponderant amount of field work fell on the captains and lieutenants. They werl, at the front lines of the fight and of t-he learning curve, wljch shows in the ranks crl rhose who prodwed the hformal, and later Lformal, doctrhe. Lewitt and March assert that tbc.conserva~onof experience is importmt to the success of learnhg: "Unless I.he implicatiws of expaience can be transfened from those who experienced it to those who did, not, the lessms of history are likety to be lost through turnover of persomel."@That s e m s a commonsellse position, and one that did not escape some of the same oEicers who wen. h positictns of tead-ring authorilty later. 'They imparted their howledge and experkace to a growing officer corps (that hipled in slze betwee11 1915 and 1920), as the discussion ifi Chapter 5 hightights.
Focusing on.the Process as Opposed to the Product Thinking about the process, as opposed to product, of doctrine making seems to be a post-World War :IIphenomenon. Morltower, little of the discussion on process focuses on the prewar period, despite the fact that there is literature on the doctrizlal product that focuses on th prewar and intrawar periocls. By far the m;ljority of the literature sfmply provides brief snapshots of how the process is organizccf at various times within the irtstitution or criticizes a particular institution" ((e.g.. the Armfs) prwess as it stands at that point in t h e . As one might expect, the Iiterature on process is dominat-ed altnost exclusively by military writers (who have a closer proximity to th process) writing for a peer audience via, the professional military joumds. m i n h g on dlxtrh~alprncess ill the United Staks tmds to falf wi&hz three categories: (1) historical discussion of the indkiduai process that dominated efoctrine development before Wortd W a E, (2) historical discussion of the cornmince process that. postdates the period of:individual &minance, which evolved durhg the latter nineteenth century, and generally lasted until Mi'orld War 11, and (3) contempctrq disctrssim of institutional bt~rea~cratic processes that foltowed the committee appmach (e.g., which offices participate what is the trail of information through the organization, etc.). This last category prtrdominates over the other two in t-he doctrinal litecah.lre. Intercslingly, there is xninhaX discnnssion of the interactio~l
FIGURE: 1.1 Pefcent-ageof Officms in S m l t Wars, f 915-2935
sou~cr-: Navy Deparhnent, Register of the Cornlnissioned and Warrant Oficcrs of tile Uilited States Nar,y and Man'nc Colps (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, various years, 1915-1940)
between the official processes and ideas espoused in foreign doctrine; yet it is clear from reading the military journals throughout the twentieth century that officers read from foreign sources, and the journals themselves often trmdated or LE arized foreign thinking on a myriad of topics. The discussions of individual and committee processes tend to be descriptive of the nineteenth century, when the formulation of doctrinealmost aU of it taetieai doctrine like Emory Upton's f~$anirry7i3cfics-was a privatized affair. Generally, these historical discussions of process are divorced from the actual doctrines developed. A key exception is Herbert's work analyzing the formation of Active Defense and Air-Land Battle in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Herbert demonstrates how the doctrinal product of Active Defense is best understood within the context of DePuy's running the formal process himself.6We also describes the bureaucratic approach insome detail.70 Discussion of newer bureaucratic processes also tends to be descriptive and divorced from particular doctrinal products created. The basic doctrine-producing process is recognizable from presentation to presentation, but responsibility within a given service clearly shifts from office to office through time. For example, within the Army during the twentieth century, doctrinal responsibility has fallen to the General Staff, the
brmch schools, the A r l ~ yWar College, the Command and General Staff Cdlege (as opposed to the General Staff itself), the Concept Development Center, and the Training a d Doctrine Command (TRADOC), to name just a few? The Marine corps has shown a bit more stability in this regard., generally keeping doctrine development associated with the Marine Corps S c h o o l s n i e r s i t , although respmsibility has shifted to various offices, like Concepts, Doctrine and Studies Activity ((I:mA).72 Constant reorganization of doctrine control, has generated criticism that generally shows a more ad hoc doctrine-mahg process at work than one might expect in an organization with well-defhled hierarchies and responsibilities." Sometimes doctrine seems a by-product of instruction, even when an ordered process
[email protected] times, turmoil is m a s k d by the ordered facade of delineated responsibilities within a bureaucracy7Vor instance, not enough personnel may be ass i p e d to accomplish the work-load ina timely fashiar\, or they may be inexperienced jn dclctrinal matters.%This in turn causes a lack of timelhess that renders the final product obsolete. Alternativelqi, time delays may cause multiple people to be assigned the sarne project because their tours of duty rotate them through the doctrine office too wickly. This can lead to further delays as new personnel get up to speed on the project dumped in their lap. Worse, it can lead to frequent changes in the evolution of the doctrinal produd as new personnel,irnpose their own views (a "my way" ssyndrome).m Finally the pmess might work as it is supgosed to but is deeply fliiwed. For example, the process may be too cumbcrsome, causing the same time delay problems j ~ ~discussed. st Ch the more mundane side, multiple peer and superior reviews may cause conRicting points of view to be concealed rather tban expmed: "Efforts to gain cornplete agreeme~~t or prescribe a single solution usually lead to vague ge13eralitjes that c m be accepted by all parties."yg All these criticisms underscore MIhy this study emphasizes that the product and process of doctrine maki.ng are best understood together, not separately. The process may look neat, but it is not necessarily so. This makes tracing doctrinai development alZ the mom difficult, but that difficulty should not cause the et-fort to be swept aside. In tracing the process, one can sometimes hd-even within the context of environmental and organizational ccmstraints-individd who have exercised their ability to influence the contelzt of the product. A Process for Irrfoma2 Versus Formal Doctrine Making
Military officers writing about the hctrirzal process focus almost exclusively on the formal, i~~stitutionalized mechanisms of the doctrinal process. None of them discusses an informal part of the process in which they unwittingly take part: use of the military journals to spread new
ideas among their peers, As the followhg chapters will de~nonstrate, however, focusing on the institutionalized doctrirral processes done can cause one to miss part of the evolution of doctrine, particularly for the period examined i,n this study, wherc. the doctrind process, &though bu~aucratized,was not as elaborate or as long as it seems today The infomal doctrine process ultimately involves the dissemination of new ideas to the officer corps, 'The m c h a n i s m of disse~ninationare twofold. The most obvious is through personal contact. Officers can s p r e d their ideas durhg thcir interartions, verbal or written, with Other officers. tlnfortunat-ely, no real records exist to show an oral process at work during the period studid here.;""On the written side, these is only sparse discussion of doctrine matters overall, but it demonstrates well the informal process at work, The second mee:hanism of infctrrnal doctrine trmsmission is the writing of monographs on doctrinal topics. Generally one associates this mechanism with published articles, almost a l w v in the military journals. Far the period mdes review though, mother form of monograph that is irmportant is the student paper. Writing to fdfill classroom requirements, officers sometimes took the initiative to solve battlefield problems in unique ways or to codify ad hoc processes that they saw worked well in the field. These papers wese ofkn collected into files that rczmained open for other ogicers (mostly sbdmt-officers) to peruse. Occasio~~atSy thcy we= even published by the military journals. Collecting student papers for others to read can blur the distinction between informal and formal prclcesses. One could argue that at that point the institutio~~ is sanctiming the information embodied in Chose papers for others to learn. The same can be said of when a particular service uses a rnilitary journd to espouse a point of view to its off-icercmps or to provide lessons on a pmticular topic in lieu of f o r d doctrine." ActualJy, both of these situatims can be importmt parts of the infomal processaimost an evoluticlnary step between the informal and formal product that evenbally emerges. To distinguish them from the morc3 common articles or less common written exchmges that did not have any institutional hnprimatur, they are referred to herein as "officially sanctioned informal doctrine." Note that they are still considered informal, to distinguish them from the formal pmccss initiated by the institution to create an officiat etoctrine that is taught in the schods and published in manual form for all officers to use.
Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua: Why These Cases? In the space of less than two decades (4915-1932) the Marines fought three smnll wars that formed the practical basis for the doctrille that
emerged durhg and at the end of that two-decade period, Moreover, that doctrine represents learnhg that was instilled in the Carps and disseminated from junior officers informally through articles and monqraphs and formally thsougb official. Marine Corps Headquarters processesThat doctrine did not result from the imposition or sponsorship of elre senior service leaders as, say, UePuy"s Active Defense did, although organizational structuralists rightly will, be able to p i n t to at least one active participant near the top of the Marine leadership, and ultimately Corps commander's passive acyufescence, in the promulgation of the find product. Simultaneously, the period under study here shows the instit.utionalization of bureaucratic prwesses for making dwtrine. Yet the impetudor creating the Sttlall Wars Mknrlal ws guided by a few key indjviduals below the. senior leadership, The draftirrg of both editions of the Small ivfu~zziralwas accompfi"ed by officers whose etiperience gave them the credii3iilitly"to accomplish the task and whosc ideas can be traced through informal doctrine to detcrmhe their role in shaping the final doctrine. In this the cases that follow, taken together, pmvide uncommcm archival evidence to discern the role of individuals in the doctrhe m a b g process. :Not often in the literature on war (particdarly small. wars) and organizations can m e trace what an organization thought it learned frorn its okvn expe"ence"Ehc. way the followjng chapters do, Indwd, the opposite usually applies. One set of the work done on small wars tends to be straight histary, written as much to capturt- history readers as to analyze s o m particu,lar facets of a particular struggle." lsecond set of"the s~nall wars literature anaIyzes or stakes out a pofitkaX position for or against U.S. intervention policy without focusing per se upon lessons learned.82 A third set approaches s~nallwars from the guerrillas' perspetive, trying to understmd this type of war in light of political theory, such as Maoist rewolutionary theory.8" fourth set of small wars titeraturt, examines what d i t a r y inslitutions, American or foreign, may have to learn fram their own and others' experiences.%I say ""nna)imbecause, in the absence of studying the doctritle process, learning is inferrcsd from malyzing successive actions. In rare instances, bits and pieces of informal doctrjne may infom that ml;sis, but a systematic study of doctrine is absent.8" Method and Qqanization
In ~ a l i t y inferring learning from action and subsequent rmctions has its place hercz as well-but. with the unfolding doctrinai process included so that one can measure how well action and idea dovetail or deviate. h that vein, I have undertaken essentiaily a longitudinal study of an organization in the midst of leming how to fight a particular form of war-
.fare The m t e r i d lends itself best to a historical approach: I use a rough chronologiral organization both to let the rcladcr decide on the relationship between action a d words and because the cases themselves fctllow each other in time (wi& some overlap between Haiti and the Dominican Republic). 'The chapters that foilow are not simply a history of the Marine small wars carrtpaig~~s per seeHowever, because no one has analyzed the Haitian and Nicaragum campaigs adequately m d because I have some difference of interptation with the sole c m p a i p history on the Dominican Republic, this book chronicles the Marine effctrts in each country. Without recourse to literary citations, this was the only way I c o d d demonstrate the basis for the doctrinal thoughts that follow. It was also the best way to show the links, where they existed, between campaigns, the ideas that followed, and the subsequent responses during the next campafgn. In the process, the links between ideas and ineiividuals become clearer as well. Since a central thesis of this study is that the Marhes developed their small wars doctrine based upon learning f r w liirect experience, Chapter 2 lays out some institutional background to show where early Marine doctrine c a m from. (the Army" small wars experience) and to show how the Marines developed their own institutional structures for creating their own doctrhe later. Chapter 2 ends with the htellectual overlaythe hformal and formal doctrhal tenets-relevant to the Marineskentering Hafti in 1915. Chapter 3 opens with an analysls of tbe Haitian campaigns to see how they unfolded, drawi.ng out where they did and did not adhere to any z"eZevmt doctri;ne, and closes with a discussion of the ideas anci training that emerged during and after the Haitian expcrlrience. Chapter 4 follows the same format for the Damhican. Republic, showkg the evident (and nut so evident) impxt of the Haitian experience on the Dominican intervention. Chapter 5 does the same for Nicaragua, Slnce Nicaragm is the last of the Marine mal w s before m r l d War 11, Chapter 6 focuses exclusively upon the period after Nicaragua: the renaissance of Marine intellectual thought on doctrine leading to the pmduction of the Small Wurs Manual in 1935 and again i,n 19.10. Chapter 7 afkrs some concluding thoughts and, in the process, highlights how a completely diff'eent set of literature on corporate learning provides observations that confirm the approach taken in this study. Notes 1. United States Marine Corps, Srnnfl W ~ r Manual s (Quantico, VA: Marine Corps %hoots, 1940; reprint, Manhattan, K% Sunflower Univ. Press, 19871, p. 1-2. This editicjn is the t~ersionused for the remainder of the study
2. Ibid., p. l -l. 3, Editorial, I~Zfnntjyjournal, vol. 9, no, 2 (Sept.-Oct. 1912), p. 257. The editors apparently believed the General Staff had a tendency to borrow doctrine from other nations. They assailed such borrowing because of diffewnt "national rharacteristics," "habits of thought," and ""hstorical development" k w e e n nations. They alw attacked the General Staff fctr producing nc, histories of Army exploits, for not having studied the Army" own history, and, finally, for not having a historical office to perform such studies. 4. Comdr. Budley W. b o x , ""The Role of Doctrine in Naval Warfare," '.S. Ma.r?nlI ~ z ~ f C C t d f Proceedings, t? VOX. "2, no. 2 (Mar.-Apr. 1915), p. 327. 5, hiraj, John 1-1, Russetl, "A Plea for a Mission," m r i t z e Corps Cazetde; vol. I, no. 2 (June 1(316), p. 115. See also the responses to RusseXlls article published in the same issue as well as further cmtributions to the debate in Nlnri~zeCorps Gazeftep vol. 1, no. 3 (Sept. 1916) and vol. 2, no. 4 (Dec. 1916). 6. Russell, "Plea for a Mission," p. 115; n/Jnrin~Corps Gazette, vol. 1, no. 3 (Sept. 1915) and vol. 2, no. 4 (Dec. 1916). '7. Russell, "Plea for a Mission," p. 115; Marir-zc Corps CazeCfe,vol. 1, no. 3 (Sept. 1915) and vol. 2, no. 4 (Dec. 1916). 8. Russell, "Plea for a Mission," p. 115; Marir-zc Corps CazeCfe,vol. 1, no. 3 (Sept. 4946) and vol. I, no. 4 (Dec. 1916). 9. The doctrine Esrrmulation prc>cessRussefl referred to will be discussed at the begiming of Chapter 2. 10, Maj. T, H. Low, *'Biscussim on a Plea for a Missian and Dactrinerf' lLlnri~ze Corps Gazetfe, vol. 1, no. 3 (Sept. 1916), p. 334. 21, Lt. Col. John "I" Myers, 'Discussion on a Plea for a Missian and Doctrine,'' M~rz'zzeCOTS Casedfe,vol. 1, no. 2 (June 1916), p. 196. 22. Capt. Earl Ellis, "Discussion on a Plea for a Mission and Doctrine," Mrvlnri~ze Co~psCazefte, VC$. 1, no. 2 (June 191G), g. 197. 13. Lt. Cot, P-ijalmar Ericksan, ""P>rctrinesand Principles of War," Infalilt9 lour~ a lvol. , 22, no. 1 (Jan. 15224), pp, 47-49. 14, Cf. Brig. Gen. Dale Q. Smith, US Militra~yhet-rinc: A S t ~ i d ya~zdAppraisal (Boston: Little, Brown, 1955), p. 8; Paul R, Viotti, ""ftraduction: Military Doctrinep'" in Compnradi.ere Defe~zscP"oIZIC;Y,ed, Frank B. P-iclrton Ill, Anthany C. Ragersort, and Edwad L. Warner IIl (Baltimore: J o h s Hopkins Univ. Press, 1974), p- 2 90; Barry R. Pc>sen, 5rhc Sources oJ^Milz'fayDocFri~c(Xthaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 198111, p. '7; Maj. W y n e M, Halep ""A Critique of the Uoctrine-l'raining Fit," MIllilita~yReview, vol. 65, no. 6 (June 1985), pp, 32-33; Kevin P. Shehan, "fieparing for an Imaginary War? Examining Peacetime, Functions and Changes crf Army Doctrine" (l3h.D. dissertation, Halvard Univ., 19881, p. 1; Stephen E Rssen, Wilzning the Riaf War: lnlzovntiolz alzd the ModetanMiliday (Ithaca: Cornell Linillz Press' 19911, p. 7, 15. Gen. DePuy was head of the Ammy" Training and Doctrine Command (TMDQC) in the 1970s and the principal intellectual force behind the production of the 1976 edition of FM10Q-5: Bperafbns, which introduced the doctrine called ""Active Deknse." Lt. Gen. John Gushman was the commandant of Combined Arms Command whom BePuy froze out of the doctrinal process because of their intellectual differences cwer both the cmtent and the process of creating the 1976 FMIUO-5.
16. Paul Hehert, "Toward the Best Available Thought: The Writing of Field Manual 100-5, 'Operatiom%by the Uni"EeQs a t e s Army, 19m-76" (P1-i.D. diswrtation, Ohio State Univ., 19851, pp, 122-123. Herbert. d i s c u s ~ In s more detail the intellechal differences between DeFuy and CuAman in chapter 5 of his diswrtatic~n. 17. For sources more in line with De13uy%view of doctrine as "innstructions,'" see Ericksan, "Dc~ctri~les and Principles,"". 49; Maj. E, 5. Johnstom, "Eield Seivice Regulations of the Future," MMI'lita~y Reviewt vol. 16, no. 61 (June 1936), p. 10; Col. FT. W. Ffolden, ""7-he Mission of the AAF klnoot of Applied Tactics," Militafy Reviei-u,vol. 24, no. 7 (Oct. 19&), n.p.; Maj. Gen. I. B, Holley, ""The Doctrinal Process: Some Suggested Steps," Mililally Review, VOX.. 59, no. 4 (Apr. 1"39), p. 4; Huba Wass de Czega, "The Military Refclrm Debate," paper presented at the 20th USMA Senior Conference f0Tc>warda New American Apprc3ach to Warfaretr), West Point, NI',1982, pp, 47-48. For saurces more in line with Cushman" view see Mnox, ""Te Role of Doctrine," p 883; Russell, ""Pea far a Mission," p 1115; Maj. J C I Greenwood, ~ "Tl-ioraghts an Dc>ctrine,"Wari-kril.le Corps Gazette, vol. 4 7 no. 11 (Nov. 1963), pp. 40-43; Timothy X Lupfer, Tfze Dynnnrr'es of Doctrine: The Cl~fzges ir-z Ccrnzan Taeficaf Ilaelrir-zcDuring WurM Wm I, Il,eavenwc)rth Papers, no. 4 (Fort Leavenworth, KK U.S. Army Command and Gmeral Staff College;?, 1981), p. vii; Gen. Gc3rdon R. Strllivan, "Ddrine: A Guide to the Future," Military Review, vol. 7 2 , no. 2 (Feb. 1992), p, 4. Hereafter, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College is cited as USACGSC. 18. Cf. Diclionary of- U.S. Arfny Terms, "Army Regulations 320-5, Change #l" (Washington, BC: Department of the Army, 1%3), p. 146, 19, Edwin C. Nevis, Anthorty J, DiBella, and Janet M. Could, ""Understanding Organizations as Learning Systems," 9~1rrnlzMannge~rzentReview, vol. 36, no, 2 (Winter 13951, p. 75, 20. Chris Argyris and Banald Schiin, Organizalz'onnlLer;lr~ingX:I Theo~y~ Metltod, and Prnelice (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 19961, p. 3. 21. A classic example af this results frc~mthe Army" '"ten-year rule" tzrhereby up to the middle of the Wentlieth century; material over ten years old was dispc~sedof because it tzras thought to be outdated and therefore useless. A different example is prwided by the Corps itself, which in its zeal to give students unfettered access tc~ideas, maintained an open-shelf, library-like system that altawed papers and manuals to disappear over the decades. 22. Thus Stephen Rosen's caution about, and Alastair Johnston" acknowledgment of, the practical difficulties of determining what people think or thou@~tin the absence of a solid paper trail of their ideas. Stephen F" Rosen, "Military Effectiveness: Why Society Matters," Intenzatio~zatSec~rrify,vol. 19, na. 4 (Spring 19f)5), g. 14; Alastajr 1. Jclhston, "Thinking About Strategic Culture," hternnfional Securily, vol. 19, no. 4 (Spring 1%5), pp. 32-64 23. Argyris and ScihGn, Qrganiza timznl Lear~i~zg II, p. 190. 24. Graham T, Allison, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cubn~Missile Crisis (Bostm: Little, Brown, 1971), chaps. 3,s. 25. Col. Victor W Hobson Jr. and Col. OIiver G. Kinney ""Keeping Pace with the Future: Development of Doctrine at the US Army Command and General Staff CoXIege," Military Review, vol. 37, no. 8 (Nov. 1957), p. 10; Sullivan, "Doctrinc;,"". 4.
26. Smith, US Mitl'fn~yDoctrine, chap. 5. 27. Herbert, "Best Available Thought," pp. 140-420; Sheehan, "Imaginary War?" ppgp. 357,359. 28. Bruce Cudmrmdsson, On Artilleq (Westport, CT: Praegel; 19931, chap. 4. 29. Arnold L. Horelick, ""Perspectives on the Study of Comparative Military Doctrine," in Cumpnrative Defense Policy, ed. Frank B. P-icyrton 111, Anthany C. Rogerson, and Edward L. VVarner IXI (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1974). 30. Maj. Robert Doughty The Etlolutl'on c?f UsS.Anrzy Tactical DBocfrine, 2946-76, Leavenworth Papers, no. 1 (Fort Leavenworth, KS: USACGSC, 1979), p. 47. 34. Maj. Terrence P! Murray ""Etablishing Force Structure and Doctrine,," m r i n e Cstps Gazefte, VOX. 67, no. 9 (Sept. 19831, pp. 6041; Sullivan, "Dwtrine,'' p. 7; SheeI-tan, "Imaginary War?" p. 3355; Eclward BlankenLEagen, "Organizational Learning in the Development of Doctrine in the U.S. Army, 2976-1986: A Historically Based Study" (PhD. ditisedation, George Wmhington Univ., 19941, pp.92-95, 32. Posen, 5otirces of MI'lifa~yDoctrine, pp. 22&-231. 33. Ibid., pp. 47-50,228-236; Barry R. Ps>sen,review of Milir5trry Itzno-r?afionir-z kll~ Interwar Period: ed, WiIliarnson Murray and Allan Millett, Stmtegic Reviezu (Winter 1997, pp. f;;?--C;IC;. 34. E%arelick,"Perspectives," p. 494. 35.Ibid. 36. Debarah D, Avant, "The Institutional Sources of Military Doctrine: The United States in Vietnam and Britain in the Bmr War and Malaya" [Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. oaf Calift~mia-San Diego, 1994), p. I . 37. Ibid., p. 4. 38. Maj. Paul FT. FTerbert, Deciding W z n f Has E.0 Be Done: General William E. DePuy alzd trite 2976 Edition I?f' FM 200-5, i,perr;rticlns, Leavenworth Papers, no. 16 (Fort Leavenworth, KS: USAGGX, 19881, p. 101. Tbc Army a~zd 39, Avant, ""lnstutitional Sources," p 26; Andrew Krepine~ich~ Vieinant (Baltimore: Johns Flclrpkins Univ. Press, 1986), pp. 7,21'7,2@3. 40. Avant, "Institutional Sosxrces,;,"~. 209. 41. Herbert, ""Bst Available Thought," pp. 183, 240; and n. 236, n. 238; SheeI-tan, ""Iaginary War?" p abstract. 42. Rosen, Winlzi~zgtrlte Next War, p. 52. 43. Bid., p. 66. Indeed, Rosen has stated that an entirely new generation of officers may have to come to power in their particular branch or service befitre difficuft innovations are implemented. Stephen P. Rosen, Net Assessment Summer Study Sc3ssion discussion, Aug. 1994. 44. Richard Duncan Downie, Le~rnl'zzgfrom Cun,flicC: Tlze US. Mililfnzy in Vietnam, EE Salvador, and f.l?ieDrz~gWar (Wesport, C??:Praeger, 1998), p. 5. 45. Ibid., pp. 25,35,36,272,279,237, 46. Ibid., pp, 23-25, 47- Elizabeth Mier, *'Culture and Military Doctrine: France Between the Wars,'" Tnfernational Security, vol. 19, no. 4 (Spring 1995), p. '70. For a similar definition of culture, see Johnston, ""7linking About Strategic Cuf ture," p.45. 48. Bruce Gudmundsson, "Maneuver Warfare: The German Tradition," in inte Mntzeziver Wafare Debntl~,ed. Richard Hooker (Novato, CA: Presidict, 49942, p. 2.
Tenrzs of Art Since traditions are considered a bedrc~ckof culture, changing traditions results in changing culture as tzreJ1. Far the purposes of this book, the two concepts are used similarly enough that they may be treated as the same. 49. Gudmrmdsson, On Artillerpp p, 1. Examples given to suppart the cultural approach come from several different cases of the French and German armies. See Kieq ""Culture and Military Doctrine," pp, 65-66, an8 Gudmrmdssan, On Artillery, pp. 2,4, for ovemiews of the aampXc3fi. 50. Rosen, Winning the Next War. Barry R. Pcfsen, Kier, and others seem to confuse strategy with doctrine, which is easy to do at that XeveX because what little strategic doctrine exists (e.g., the SingXe Integrated Operations Plan and asso>ciated documents) is often rmavailable to the academic commrmity. 51. Johnston, "Thinking About Strategic Culture," p. 444. 52, Ker, "Cufture and Military Doctrine," p. 81. 53. This contrasts markedly with studies of doctrine formation before the rise of bureaucracies, that is, befow the turn of the twentieth century This study focuses on the unique period during the rise and strengthenkg of the Marine Corps bum reaucnlcy and touches on the Army during the same period In its history 54. Cf. Posen, Sources $Militnty Doctrirze, p. 39: ""States and military organizations are responsible for interpreting new mititar)~technology and responding to geographic constraints and opportunities." 55. Note that the proponents of the primacy of internal stimuli rarefy, if ever, consider individuals as one of the internal stimuli tcr take into account. Instead, arguments about structure, resources, and so on predominate in the literature on doctrine making. with doctrine, 56. However, as pointed out earlier, Posen confuses stratef;~" 57. Posen, Sources of Military DoeCrir-213;pp,53-54, 58. Ibid., p. 75. 59, Ibid., pp. 75-78. 60. Ibid., p. 159, 61. Herbert, ''Best Available Thought," p. 9. 62. Benjamen S. Lambeth, "The %)urces of Soviet Military Doctrine," in Comp~rntiueDefe~sclPolicy, ed. Frank B, f-lorton 111, Anthony C, Ragerson, and Edward L. W r n e r III (Baltimore: Johns P-iopkins Univ. Press, 1974), p- 211; Sheehan, "Imaginary Mlar?" pp. 3 4 6 3 7 ; Lupfer, 'The Dynamics of Doctrine, p. 21; Hehert; Tames S. Gorum, Tlzc Roots r;?fBfitzkuieg:Han zlon Se&t alzd German Mz'll'fa~yReforurl (Lawrence: Univ. 13ressof Kansas, 1992). 63. Hehert, Decidirzg Whal I-Im to Bc Dane, p. 87. 64. Rc~sen,pp. 6647, pp. 132-135. 65. Smith, US Milita~yIdoctri~ze~ 66. "Modern" refers to the period from the prc~fessionalizatiort of the Army and Marine Corps to the presrznt, when individuals like Upton, Waper, and Smith no longer published their own tzrritings for purchase by the military servicm, 67. Cf. Argyris and &hiin, Op.snl.ziztztionnlLenr~ingII, p. 17; Nevis, Biklla, and Goulcl, ""Understanding Brganizations," p. 77; Daniel H. Kim, "The Link BeWeen Individual and Organizational Learning," Sloan 2Llnlzngement Review, vol. 35, no. 1 (Fall 1993), p. 43.
68. Bahara Levitt and James G. March, ""Organizational learning," Annzltal Reviezo of Sucl;sEogy, vol. 44 (1988), p. 328. 69. Hehert, ""Best Available Thc>ught." 70. Ibid., pp. 12&134. 71. Sheehan, "Imaginary VVar?" p-56. 72. Lt. Col. J, C. Bryan Jr., "Concepts, Drtdrine and Studies: A Cohaive Frrrce for R&D," 'rine Corp Gnzef te, vol. 62, no. 3 (Mar. 1978), p-24, 73. Greenwood, '*Thoughts on Doctrine," p 44. 74. Hobsrrm and Kinney, ""Keeping Face with the Future," p 10; Maj. Gm. tione1 C. McGarr, "The Power of Thought: New Horizons," Military Rez~iew,vol. 39, no. 6 (Sept. 1959), p. 8. 75. Greenwood, "Thoughts on Doctrine"; Lt. Col. Jack Burkett, "Dynamic Management of US Army L)octrine,"Wiitl'taryReview, vol. 71, no. 2 (Feb. 1991), p. 82. 76. Ibid. 77. Ibid., p. 82. 78. Greenwood, "Thoughts on Doctrine," p 44. 79, The Marine Corps Oral History Project has volumes of transcribed oral records from Marines. Unfc~rtunately,none of the fifty-odd histories of personnel w h ~ served ) in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, a r Nicaragua discuss doctrinemaking at all. 80. Cf. U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, Division af Qperatians and Training, ""Combat Reports of Operationti in Nicarapa," Mal-ine COTSGazette, vol. 13, no. 4 (Dec. 1928), pp. 241-247. 81. John M. Gates, Sclzoolbooks alzd Krngs: Tke Utzited States Army ifi the Philippines' 1598-1902 (Westport, 6-T:Greenwood Press, 19'73); Col. R. Ernest Dupuy and Maj. Gen. William H. Baumer, The Little Wars of the &lited States (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1968); Gordon McCormick, Slznrp Lfrcssed Men: Peru's Tupac Arnat-zt Revt~tutiorzayMovesnctz t (Santa Monica, CA: U N E) National Defense Research Institute, 1993); Daniet P. Bolger, Scenesfiom an U~$nislt~dWar: Lozo-Infensify Cotzflict in Korea, 196669, Leavenkvrtrth Papers, no. 19 (Fort Leavenwodh, KS: USACCSC, 1991); Ian Beckett, The Roots of Counter-i?zstlqency:Arnzifi and Guerrilla Wafnrc, 1900-2945 (London: Blandford Press, 11988); Brian M, Linn, The U.S. Arnzy and Cozdnterinsztrgency in trlte PF1ilipyirte War, 1899-1 902 (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North CaroXina Press, 1989); Gienn Anthony May, Bntfl'efiv Bafangas: A Pjtilippi~zo Provinw nf War (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1991); AXfan R. MiUett, The Politics cf Interz~enflion: The Milifary Qcc~dpnf;ion I?J:Cuba, 1906-1 909 (Colurnbus: Ohio State Univ. Presa 19(;8). 82. Lester D. Langley, The Bnrznna Wars: U.S. Tnteuvenliorz in flse Cnribbenn, 1898-1934 (Lexington: t'niv, af Kentucky Press, 11985); Michael X KLare and Peter Kornbluh, eds., Low lzz tensr'ty Warfnl"t7: C~unteri~zsurge~cy, Proinsgirge~zcy,and A~ti-terrorismi~ the EigI.1lil.s (New York: Pantheon Books, 1988); Benjamin C. Schwarz, American C o u n t e r i r z s t Boctri~ze:'The Frtlstrafr'ons of Refinrz and flte Rlusions of Nation Building (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1991); Ernest Evans, Warn Witr'la~ifSpEendur: Ttze U.S. Military and Low-tezrel Conflict (New York: Greenwood Press, 1987).
83. Mao Tse Tung, On Czt~rrillaWafnue, trans. Brig. Gen. Samuel Griffith (New York: Praeger, 1964); Gerard Chaliand, Gzrcn-illa Strategies: An Historiclift Anlfialogy from the Long MnrcIz to Afglznrzis;.tarz(Eterketey: Univ. of Califc3mia Press, 1982). 84. D, MichaeI Stzafer, Deadly Paradig?ns: Thc Failtire of U.S. Co~~?Gerir?sz~rge~~cy Policy (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2988); Jufian Paget, Cotrnter-ilzsurgegcy Operaf-ians: Te7iceht.liqucs of-Guerrilla Warfare (New York: VValkes, 4963; Sir Robert Thompson, Defeatiu~gComnzunist Irtsurgency: The Lessons of Malaya and Vietnnnz (NewYork: Praeger, 3466); John S. Puslay, Counferinszrrgeney W~rfare(New York: Free Press, 1965); Kenneth Ailard, Somalia Opemtians: Lessons Learned (Mshington, DC: National Defense Unjv. Press, 1995); T. N. Greene, ed., The Guerrilla and How to Fight Him: Sefecfionsfi.f~mthe Mlarine Corps Gazefie (New York: Praeger, 1962); lan F.W. Beckett and Jol-in FirnXcttt, eds., Armed Forces and (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985); Bruee Hoffman, jenCou~?l.er-insurgerzcy nifer Taw, and David Arnold, Lessons for Contemporary Cozinterinsuqencr'es: Ttze Rhodesiarz Expcrieace (Santa Mcmica, CA: RAND Arroyo Center, 4994); Bruee f-loffman and Jennifer Taw, Defense Policy aud LOW-I~~te~zsity Conflict: The Dcvelayntent of Britain's "Smnfl Wars" Ductrilze During the 1950's. (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Arroyo Center, 1991); Stephen Hosmer, The. Army S Role in Counterilzsurgeszcy nrzd Tnsurgelzcy (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Arroyo Center; 1990); Frank Kitsan, Low Tntc~~~Z'ty Opcratiuns: Sz.rbzyersiotz, Inszdrge~tcya ~ n Peacckeepirzg l (London: Faber and Faber, 1971); Thornas R. Mockaitis, Britislz Cuzlnter-i~surgeney, 1939-2960 (London: Macmillan, 1990). 85. Avant" work is one of the few aceiptions that prove the general rule-
Historical and Institutional Context for Small Wars Learning
Clausewitz wrote that there are three ways armies could learn about warism. The mnst obvious and best was experitnce.1 Battlefield experience was best, but peacetime manewers could serve as a potentially useful substitute shce from them officers m d soldiers could ]bear11 to recogi~ize and cope with some of the natural friction of the real batdefictfd,%e second way was to shlefy f o w i p experience, generally by attraceing foreign officers to advise one's own commanders"3The third was to study historical exampleone's own and that of oth.ers-h order to explain m idea, show the application of an idea, liemonstrate the possibffity of an idea, m d fhally to deduce a doctrhe.4 The Marhe Corps during the period &er discussion here gained over a decade's wor& of direct experience fighting its own smail wars, As the f ~ 1 f , ~ k vehapters hg show Ihe Marines learned predominanCry from their own experimccf;,Clausewitz's favored, method of learning. 13y way of contrast, rninkal lea g occurrcld from f o ~ i sour~es: p Certizinly the Corps did not invite foreign officess to observe their operations in the field. There was a small body of furcign literature, rmostly British, with which some Marhe officers were f a ~ l i a rTo . the extent trace irmfluences from that literature can be discerned, it occurs in the pradttctiom of the Snrall Wars Mat2z~alnear 1935 and, as such, is relegated. to the proper discussion in the sixth chapter. M a t this chapkr hightights is that the Makclls did have access to learning from t.listorical example-direclly from the Army's experknees in U?e Philippines and Cuba and,indirt.ctly from the mhhalist doctrine that emerged h r n those experiences, It also highlights the fact that the Corps began bt~ildhgits own edracatiod systein shortly after the Army did, so that it could learn h m its own experiences, The first section of this chapter, then, encapsulates the salient lessons .from the Armvs t h e experie~~ces against the F%pi.ao, Moro, and Craban
28
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
insurgents. 'The second section. shows the minimalist doctrine that the Arrny produred from its own experience, The third section discusses the evolution of the Mark~eCorps Schods and, as such, forms the institutional backdrop for the smdl wars tsajning and dockine formation that took place in the late 1920s and early 1930s that is discussed in the later chaptas Finally, the last section of this chapter sets the stage for showing changes h Marine thought over the period by highlighthg Carps doctrhe pre-Haiti, The importance of the first two sections of this chapter bec m e s m m apparent here, and in the beginning of Chapter 3, ar; the Army's doctrhe is borrowed by both the Navy and Marine Corps..
Historical Context: Semice in the Army's Small Wss All told, the Army undertook three major antjguerrilla expeditimary effnrts between the Spanish-American War and m r l d War I. The first t ~ o k place on the northern islmds of the Philipphe archipelago between Febmary 1898 and. JuXy 1902. Here, the U.S. Army, with some help from the Marine Corps, fout;ht mugbly three distinct campaigns against Filipino forces following a nine-month stalemate in and arou~ldt%rc capital city of Manila. The stalemate is important because during it the Arny invented civil pacification m e a s w s that formed the basis for the Army's counterinsufgency efforts throughout the rest of the cmpa,ign. htlowing the stalemate, the Army dispersed th Phirippine forces surrmnding Manila. In retaliation, and facing a ccrnwentionaily superior force, the Filipino Army waged guerriua warfare province by province for the ensuing three years until the last major jlmsurgent leader capiblated. Once the northern Philippine I s l d s were pacified, the Army turned its at-tention in late 1,902 toward, stxb~mgatingthe snuthcm islands- These were home to a culturally distinct group of people known as Moros. Here the Army"s effmts quickly turned into a desultory, prolmged campaign of punishing Moro gzserrilfas who did not recognize Americm suzerahty over their half of th Philipphe archipelago, Four years later, the is1mds settled down to relatiwe calm. Althoul;lz there wodd be randomly sporadic Rare-ups through the late 1910s, by 1906 the Army corld claim essentially another counterinsurgenry success. Imediately thereafter, the A r v was tl-twt into its final pacification elCnrt halfway around the world from the fiilippines, in Cuba, Bcginning inOctober 1906, the Army and.the Marines invaded that island and braced for a prolonged war with veterans of the Cuban insurrection movement. War did not break out, though, Instead, the Army and Marine Corps pacified the island. through peaceful measures, During the prwess, the Army implemented a nurnber of civil and military measures i t had learned from the 13hil$pine and Moro insurgencies that con-
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
29
tributed in na small way ta keeping the potelztially explosive cmflict in hand, Over the course of ail three of the Army's ercpeditions, the lessons it learned in the field were hardy incorporated into formal doclsine. Instead, Army doctrine emphasized training for modern wars against Gmat Power opponents. Wilhin the Army" sschool structure created during this period, the course of study foc~~sed on molding young officers into professionds capahle of fightirrg large-scale conventional warfare. It certainly did not distil1 and pass along the lessons of the small wars then under way.
Nrrtrrw and P~ogressilff~ oftfir. Philippine fnsurrr?ct.iou Followhg Admiral Dcwey" swrprising defeat of the Spanish Navy in Manila Harbor, American forces occupied Manila tcr take ~ceivershipof ent from the Spanish. 8nce calm was established, U.S. forces found. themselves facing a solid, entrenched encirclement of Manila's outskirts by soldiers of the Filipino Army led by E d i o kuinaldo. These fighters had taken up a r m d o oust the Spmish, m d they were expectkg to be crowned the liberators of a newly independent state by departing American forces. The campaig~zta disperse the Filipino Army was fought in a cmvezztional manner. Both sides gave battle organized at th regimental and.divisional levels. 'f'heinsurgents attacked, and were attacked, in large numbers through the early fall. S o m 4,,(1(1C1Filipinos clefended the bridge at Bacoor horn Gen. Lawton. Another 3,000 attacked Gen. MacArthur at San Fernando. In acidition to the relatively high number of troops engaged in battle, war on the min isldnd of Luzm cmsisted of attackjng and defending entrenchments and field fortifications that surrounded cities and trrwns. nroughout the battle reports, both official and personal, one finds repea.t.ed reference to entrenchments, to the point that iighting from trenches became known as the "Filipino's characteristic style of warfare."s By the late Fall af 1899, the Filipino Army per se no longer existed. The Army leadership followed up with an amnesty offer for all insusgents who turned themselves in. Withi11 several months it became clear the arnnesty was a fajlure as guarilla, warfare began to break out Chrotrgholrt the islands. The Army" initial msponse to the shift to guerrilla warfare largely emphasized taking cities to hold the centers of populace and government,"ndeed, most camrmanders did no more than that, Operationally, the &my assunled a very kfensive posturt;, It is easy to see why. The guerrillas fought only when they out-numbered U.S. troops, The physi-
30
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
c d terrai,n ofen made it too difficult for the Army to keep large forces operating together. Meanwhile?some generals, like. Brig. Gen. Samuel h u n g , felt they could send no fewer than forty to fifty men m patrol because smaller scouting parties were often ambushed, massacred, and mutilated. Finally, all Army movements seemed to be h o w n to the insurgents because they had a strcrnger intelligence service than the Americans did. The guerrilla" stronger intelligence service partly resulted from how Aguinaldcr organized his guerrilla arn-ty after it was dispersed. Principally, he decentralized commmd and contrd of his forces so that: t-hey almost always operated. onXy locaf.ly. The ¢ralized. nature of Aguinaldo" organization memt that guerrillas fought knowing their okvn territory 'This gave the insurgents the advantage of bowing the local populace; they coufd get aid (supplies or intelligenre) from the villages when necessary The disadvantage to decentraikation, c ~ n ethat ultimately worked in fa~rorof the Amty was that warfare b e m e h o s t exdusively a series of local engagements. The difficulties of cmmunicatiltn meant that the different gmups and bands could not coordinate a coherent cmpaign, and thus there was no smstained offensive canability Tactica1ly, to compensate for poor aim and bad. ammunition, the guerrillas developed several different methods of waging battle. Some units simplq. fired into Army and town garrisons at night \N.hen it was harder to chase after them, Others foutght by day, buildjng and hiding behind trenches, earthworks, and other quasi-permanent fortifications duritheir attacks. Generally, these obstacles were easily overrun, The war consequently degenerated into one of ambushes on small patrols and supply lines, rapid attacks on posts, and interdiction of tclepaph cornmunications. Added to the direct danger of attack wcre n u e m u s traps laid for unwary patrols, such as pits with stakes in the bottom or trip lines attached to bow-and-arrow springs.7 In the midst of an intractable pmblem, the Army in March 1,900 offered another amnesty In a triumph of hope over political, mality the amnesty was kept open until nearly the end of the year. Even by then it was clear to the most compassionate field. commanders that: the benevolent policies undertaken by the Army seemed to have failed, Kindness was being mistakn for weakness, and benwotence was not repaid with popular support. In Dcccmher 1900, the commanding general in the Philippines, Maj. Gen. Arthur MacArthur, put the A m y on the military offenshe, suhorclinating civil measures to military ones. Success came within months of the new campaign. Aguinalda was captured. d i v e in March 1901. By April, tactical e~~gagements wem down rougl~ly--third from the previMay most guerrilla leaders had surrendered. 'The war ous Dece~~ber.V~y
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
31
was not over, but it was claser. Another year of steady campaig~~hg was reytlired to track down and kill the few holdout guerrilla leaders,
Natzcre and Progression of the M o m f~szlrgency War in the northern Philippine Islmds minimally affected life in thc. snuthcm islands of the archipelago, of which the island of Mindanao is the largest, Like its sister islands to the south, i"tm popdated by an ethnically distinct group of Islamic people collectively known as Morcrs.9 The Mams had a proud, cemturies-long history of slavifig off sub~ugation by various outsiders. Even the Spanish, present in the Philippine archipelago for some three centuries, had failed to assert dominion ower these people. The US. Army succeeded hvlnere ail others had .failed. A1thougfn the southern islands wese lightly gasrisoned by the Army in M a y 1900, the Moros wew left alone until the end of the Phibpine Insurrection in 1902. Then, the A r i ~ yabrogated its owl1 peace treaty-the Bates Agreement of 1900-with the Moro leaders and.began occupying the maitl islands of the archipelago. In response, the Moros launched an inszxrgmcy that lasted roughly four years-fmm 191)2 to 1906.cvilhsporadic uprisings thereafter. The nahre of this insurgmcy was different in key respects to that of the northern islands. Offensively, the Moro insurgents were far more brave than their Filipino Army cmterparts, attacking camps and garrisons with a viciausnes hi.tl~ertounseen by the Army of the PMippines. As one officer described the ai-i;acks: A barbed wire fence and chain af lanterm encircled the camp. Nightly attempts were made by the Moros to rush the outpo~st.Our bullets failed to stop the charge af these hysterical fanatics. At close quarters, their razorsharp knives were d e a d l y 4 v e n after the tribesmen tzrer-e riddled with lead. One n a t i v e h i s feet shot off-crawled on his hands and knees several yards before collapsing from loss of blood, In must instances, the enemy attack cauIcl not be checked until the Moros became entangled in the barbed wire fencing.10
Another difference was that the Moros usually fuught with bolos-long, sharp h i v e s that could eviscerate or behead a man-rather than with rifles, of which they had very few, Finally, t h y almost never used trenches, instead talting adwantage of natural terrain f e a t m s a d the dense vegetation. The most insidims terrain featurc was cogon, a form of high grass that lined the sides af most trails. So thick was it that virtual walls formed on each side of the trails, impairing vision significantly. Its razor-harp,
32
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
blade-like leaf could slice an hcautious person badly Moros, however, could crawl throu* the cogm almost undetected until. too late, and they took advantage of this fact to ambush patrols. Bolomen wodd h e both sides of a trail. As a patrol marched by, riflemen wodd open fire from s o m point ahead of the file, When the marchers3eployed toward. their hmt, the bdomen would strike h m both flanks. Hand-to-hanci fightimg ensued because the trails were usually too narrow to use rifles, Compounding the problem, bayonet fencing was little match against the expertise of a close-in, boto-wieldhg Moro. I'he first nurnber of patrols thus attacked sufiered devastathg losses, and their attackers escaped. Defensively, the Moros had.almost no capacity to engage in prolonged guerrilla warfare. Although they could always play the part of innocent local if caught, they rarely plamed beyond the next engagemnt. Their subsistence-level economy also meant they never could gather enough supplies to campaign. Consequently, they could not take to the field for m exte~zdedperiod. 'They always had to return to their homes simply to survhe, Thus, the Moms almost always retreated to and attempted to protect their large fortlike dwellings, called cutfus. Although often ingeniously engineered, they wcre built of materials that codd not withstand Army artillery Also, the Moros could not endure prolonged sieges of these cuffosgiven their subsistence economy. Conseyuently the Army often rebliat-ed by orgmizing expeditions to destroy nearby caffos,If an officer h e w where to find the cnttos, he usually h e w the enemy" line oi retreat, which gave him a decieSed adwntage against the Moros. At no time did Army ofiicers fail. to overrun a caifo they aBacked.1" This process continued throughout 1904 and 1905 as all but one particularly recalcitrant More leader submitted to U.S. authority It ended by early 1906 with two evezzts. First, in October 1905 a company of troops h u n d the last insurgent leader and ambushed his blddcn beadquarters, k i l h g him im the prwess. Second, in March 1906 the Army assaulted a Moro community that had isolated itself at the top of a volcano called Bud Dajo, By the end of three days, hnienty-three Americans were killed while an estimated 1,2110 Moros (including w m e n and chifdwn) were killed in return. Thereafter, Mindanao, Jdo, and the Cake I:,,anaoregion returned to rclative peacefuhess.12 mrough 1907 and 1908 all of the few r m a i ~ ~ i smalfer ng posts werl, abaneioned. Army expeditions became limited to shows of force and mking major arrests nniy.13
Around. the same time the Army was tsacl
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
33
for American ecmomic hterests but for its strategic position astride shipping lanes to the newly completed Panama Canal. In September 1906, the Theoclore Roosevelt administration exercised the U.S. right under the Pfatt Amendment to htervene in Cuba,lVor the next three years, until 1909, the Army (and to a lesser extent the Marine Corps) pacified the island nation, In the process, officers used civil and military measures that mare closely mirrored the lessons of the northern Fhilippisles.. Unlike the two p ~ v i o l l cases s presented above, the Army h Cuba initially intervmed between two opposing factions mther than fachg an enemy of its own. StilI, hrmy leaders felt at lea& one of the opposing factions would turn m it and wage a llasty little war against the hterveners. Fortunateiy for the Army, the insurgent army that formed never really unified. It operated as alizost two separate armies: one led by Pinar del Rio in the western part of Cuha, the other led by Faustino (Pino) Guerra in the eastern part. Recruits came from hrgely unemployed mal workers for w h m field operations was an opportunity to have some fun and eat meat.1' In the field, the insurgents malntaisled the political and military initiative by threatening foreign property and demonstrating the central government" hability to stop them. Once Roosevelt authorized the hterventian, some 5,400 men were sent to Cuha under leadership that had served in thr Philippines. Most of the officers in staff and command positions also had served in the Philippines or the previous Cuban admirzistratiosl. First afiktore, though, were the Marines, led by Col. Littletcm W.1: Waler (who had led a brutal paci.ficati.on of the F"hi.lippine island of Sarnar; d-iseussion below). The ed across the countvside to galrrison toms, villages, and potentially strategic byways. Surprisingly, h a t little hostility they encountered c m e from the disgruntled militia (of the Nationdist government), not from the i~stlrreclos(of tbe Federal Reprrbljcan firction). After the Marines, and then the Army, ggarrisoned the strategic points artlund the island, they then initiated exte~~sive patrollhg througho~~t the coulztryside to intimidate the rural popuhce into not supporting the rebels or causing other diEEiculties-lvatroitingwas also undertaken to map in detail the entise island for intelfigence purposes. Proba:hZy the single most impmtmt step the Army took was to avoid any mftitav action. Secretary of War Wlliam Hawarcl Taft, iike the Army leaderfip, felt that activc mcaswes by the Army would have e a d y dispersed the 50,000 or so rebefs (as had been done in the Philippines),l? I-lowever, the h y would have had a more difficult time suppressing the dispersed bands, Taft decided instead to leave the rebel forces as intact as possible so any tmce and compromise could be enforced by its leadership. He succeeded in large measure because boflz sides wanted h e r i c a n htemelztion. This meant that while the Army had prepnred to
34
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
engage in another bluody antiguerrilla effort, instead it bccme sintply an Army of populace pacification.
Civil Meastires Used to Cazlnter the Phitippine Itzszargents The fnitial U.S. strategy fnr taking control of the Philippine Islands was one that has been referred to as, using McKiniefs own words, ""benevolent assimilation," "Prixlcipally, this involved. institutirrg a hust of reforms that counterint;urgency practitioners of the 1960s wollld have recopized as ""civic action.""" h order to cont-rol the populace better, the Army tried to normalize life in the capital as quickly as possible, The Army mopened the schools and secularized the education,lUIt enacted sanitation measures to clean up the city after the h e s i c a n siege and opened medical hcilities to prevent the spread of diseases. Ti, stimulate the economy, the Army dec1arc.d Mmila a free-trade port, opening trade to the ships of all nations. It also ellgaged in numerous civic repair projects to relnvigorate public works (such as roads and local marketplaces) so that internal trade c d d begin again. Whell guerrilla warfare set in, the &my initidly did not expelld m c h energy tryhg to defeat the insurgents militarily Rather, it continued the prwess begm in Manila, bringing civil government to the differmt muxlicipalities and provinces, developing police forces, building roads, opening schools and hospitals, and building or rebuilding markets to encourage trade and develop the local economies. There were strtlng prxtical reasons frtr doing so, Schods, for example, w e often a means for keeping otherwise unoccupied children off the stmets and a means for spreacfing English as the spoken hnguage. Medicai stations were an abs d u k necessity for protecting the field soldiers"Apart from the dmgerous field operations, the cl-imate engendered malaria and other tropical diseases that iJrained Army strength in the prowinces. Given the epidemiological nature of some of the djseases, it made as much sense if not more to provide medicaI care to the natkes and teach them healthy hiabits so that ilhesses wodd not be spread to the trcrcrps. Finally, the Army enacted and continued thnlughout the cmpaigns a road-building progrm to increase rrrilitary and economic mobjljty while psovidirtg paid employment to the mrat poor, the recruit base for the insurgmt bands." hdeed, mad-building was the clne civil masure that continued unabated when the Army went m the offensive agahst the insurgents after the secesty hDecember 1900, A. key, new measure introduced during the Army" osffensives was martid law-the suspension of civil judicial rights, Officers were given sumrnary court powers and were allowed to rwoke local due-process
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
35
rights and even to suspend the right to trial. Travel restrictions and martial curfews were used to better track the movements of various individuals within the popdace. En some places all males had to have a rclgjstration certificate; no male over ej;tyhteem would be allowed out ol town without a pass; and the comings and. goings of all people had to be recorded by the town presiderzfe within twenv-four hours of their travel. In practire, the Army targeted the social elites becausc? of their economic ability to contribute to the guerrilla cause and because they wielded controi over the peasant masses recruited by the insurgents. Commanders struck at the eliteskeeonamie and social power by imprisoning them ol. exiling them to Manila, and forfeiting their property to others." En the end they coopwated, more for poiiticaf than personal hardship reasons, but it didn't really matter why.22 Even with such cooperation, military measures were still required to finish off the guerrillas for good.
Civil M e a s u ~ sUsed fo Coutzfer the Morn Insur
36
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
Civil Measzrres Used to Coznzfev the C u h n Ik~szhrgen1"S The Army in Cuba fnitiated a rmge of civil measures with severaf key difife~rzcesfrom the Philippine experience. Although Che Army djd not intervene as much in the educational and medjlcal systems in Cu:ba as it had in the Philippines, it did ensure that the schocrls remained open and perhaps helped rural peasants get access to medical care on an ad hoc basis. h t the Army placed mu& greater store in public works projects than it had in the Philipphes. For example, it focused on the imprtwement of harbor facilit.ies, w&er m d secver systems, and the construction of publjc buil.dings, and it engaged extensively h road-building. Zt did so for both rnilitary and ecclnornic reasom, just its it had in the PhiXippinrs.2-~y the time the hrmy hvit:hdrc.w in 19(39, sonne I00 miles of new roads had been constructed from scratctn and h u n d ~ d more s improved. One m e a s m the Army did not ulldertake was martial law. Secretary Taft's emphasis upon civilian control of the Army's paciification effort meant that the Army had to use the civilian court system to try insurgents. In the end, because the Army was never tested with a Ml-fledged guerrila war, American wstraint in civil affairs did not have any negative impacts, By the same token, we do not know what the Army's full pcrtcntial in this area could have been. ivfilifrr~jMeaszrres tised f n Caunter the Plzz'lipine Insurgents
The military measures that the Army undertoak in the Philippines fell into the categories of garrisoning, scout and constabulary formation, intelligmce activities, patmllhtg, and night and search-and-destroy activities. Garrisons hecme a centerpiece of the cmgaigns against Agukaldo's pemilf.as, Several reasons account for this. Most important, town and vitfage garrisons gave some protectim to those vvho w o d d help the American cause (e,g., by giving intelligence) or who at least were not: openly hostiXe to it." A k oonc ttroops occupied a town or village, the natiwes usually rekmed from their mountajn hikaways to =engage in c o r n a c e and rehstitute a normal village life, Garrisoning troops gave the Army steady access to social contacts who could prove valuable h persuading the people to accept American dominion. The social relations a commandil~gofficer formed helped him discern, from an intelligcnce point of viewl who were good sousces of information and who were not. Garrisoning also gave the troops opportunity, through patrols, to become familiar with the surrounding topography. All too often, though, the number of troops available was insuiiicient to protect the garrison and campaip effectkely irr the surrounding countryside. This personnel shortage is whn.t.drczve many cmmanders to endorse and im-
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
37
plement the hiring and training of local militias, commonly called ""scouts" or "constabularies." The first official unit created was the famous Macabebe Scouts, organized under the c o r n a n d of Lt. M.A, Watson of Che 4th Cavalry. 'This troop comprised members of the Maca:bebe ethnic group who were openly hostile to the Tagalog-dominant insufgent mwernent. They wert. excellent scouts: goad shots, brave, and good at handling canoes, they knew the stream neworks and the topography within givm arcas well; and they werl, better marchers than many of the volunteer and regdar Army troops..Most important, as natives they spoke the local languages and dialects, were well acquainted with the local customs, and thus we= better able to =cure information a d detect spies and enemy scouts than could Army persomet. The Macabebesbuccess did nut go unnoticed by s m e in the Army leadership. When then-jrcretary of War Elihu Root informed MacArtbur in late 1900 that some 28,000 Volunteers would be called back home, even reluctant commanders were forced to consider raising local auxiliary units to stanch the manpower drain.28 'I'hereafter, scout units were organized and arlxed on a much larger basis than had previously been thought prudent or necessafy In January 1901, some 1,400 scouts performed auxiliary service with the Army. Six months later there were 5,400, and the number was increasing. Clften they went unpaid but were allowed to turn h the rifles they had captured for a thirty-peso reward.2"" As scout units became an accepted part oE the counkrk~surgencyeffort, the Army began experime~~thg (sometimes reluctantly) with creating other native unj.ts to protect th villages and to augment manpower. Takfng adwantage of this trend, the civilian Philippifie Co 190f. Composccf of mally estabiiished the Philippine Constabday in J ~ d y 150-man units, the role of constabulari.~lay between that of mobile police a d scouts. Like the scouts, they became quite adept at t r a c b g down crixninals and, occasionally, ins~~rgents. Their chief contribution came from the htelligmce they provided. (3n intelligence, the most impo"t"nt defect in the Army's overall efanalysis, fort was continued decentralization of intelljgence collectio~~, and distribution. Maps of insurgent camps drawn by one w i t were usual:ty not forwarded to tbe succeeding unit tirking command. Often, the commander of one province or town rarely knew who had been positively identified as a guerrilla by officers of the next province or town. Mmy guerrilla ofEicers escaped capture because of this lack of shared hokvledge. W t h MacArthur" change in strategy came intelligence reforms as well. In December 19W, he reorganized the Dclparment of Secret Service into the Divisim of Military Wormation to centrally collect and dissemi-
38
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
nate intelligence throughout the Philippines." a c e this centralized intelligence syskm was in place, however, pressure for expanding collection increased as welt. 'That meant more patmlling. Refnre the second amnesty, few pat-rols had operated in the bush. For those patrols that dld go out, there was no consistency in size or style of patrolling. Some werl, small, roving patrds of up to twenty-five men that would seek to maintain constant contact with the enemy." The majority of patrols, though, were company- and regiment-sized scoutilrg columns (100-3,001) troops) that searched only where the insurgents were last reported to be or searched the neighbortnoods that surrounded various municipalities. Few cornrmandfitrs thought to set up their own ambush patrols.32 With Ihe ekange in strategy came a concomitmt change in patmllIng tactics. They were better coordinated and became a centerpiece of antigucrrilla operations rather than an adjunct to them. Combat patrding and settkg ambushes by small units becaxne the norm. Constantly harassing guerrilla forces in the field, these small patrols coordinated. in large or simply chase the insurgents. a h e r times they area sweeps to cap* wouM surround a vijilage, guard the &ails and roads, and then search all houses for suspected guerrillas or sympathizers, To mitigate guerrilla intelligence eMorts, patrols began mcrving only at night m d off the main paths. Somtimes they would start out horn tokvn at sml-rset down one trail, only to double back in the dark m d set off down mother, hdeed, the most effective use of patrols occurred when they operated at night and when they conducted search-and-destroy raids hthe com~tryside. As the Army attempted to drive the insurgents to the ground, searchand-destroy tactics became an integrat part of this effort. Actively seeking and destroying the guerri:lla foxes and their supplics in the countryside, rather than in the villages, became the slna yua non of success, Most commanders chose to f ~ u on s the number of rifles captured and gucrrillas killed or wounded as their measures of effectiveness."" Others, in cmtrast, focused on larger measures of success, particularly focusing on food provisions. In January 1902, fnr example, m e scouting party destroyed (innjneteen days) 308 cattle, fifty-seven carabao, and 250 tons of palay, and that was minor damage in l g h t of the actions of other patrds.3 h one distrkt alone, the A m y cmfiscated some 20f)O(t-50,1100 tons of rice during the year." At times, the raids codd be extraordinarily fierce: One patrol, unable to capture an elusive guerrilla leader in three 800 outposts and stmhouses, and weeks, destroyed nineteen ""tw~~s,',"" tcms of rice and hemp whilie killing 151) guerriilas, capt~ring100, and iorchg 900 mom to surrender.36 Just how bmtal this military offensive became can be seen in the attempt to paciiFy Sarnar after the Ralmgiga Massacre of Sptember 1901.
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
39
Gen. Jacob H. (Hell-RaisingJake) SmiCh, ordered to pacify Samixr, did so viciously, The military application of Smith"s strateg is exermplilied by the actions of a Marke Corps battalion under the commmd of Maj. Littletm W.1;. Waller, to whom. Smith ordered: "X want no prisoners. I wish you to burn and kill; the more you burn and lcill the better it will please me."" 74. Littleton did not disappoint Smith. :ill one three-day period h mid-N'ovexx7bet; Mialler's patrols burned 255 houses, Elled 39 ilzsur~ctos, captured another eighteen, and destroyed an incalcul&le a m m t of rice l and hemp." At the town of Basey, Waller conducted a d m d ~ e a tcourt, persnnnlly ordering the s u m m y executions of eleven of his own guides. For this action, he and Smith were court-martialed and also hvestigated by Congress. tnterestingly, the military court found Lliallrr's actions warranted by the immediate circumstances and acquitted hisn. S-mi,th, bp contrast, was liormally admonished m d forced to retire. Before his court-martial, Smith had already lifted some of his restrictions on noncon^rbatants while simultaneously enacthg one of the mast unique (and. cmtroversial) measures used in small wars-recmcentration. Snlith ordered ali rural people to move into newly created village neigkiborhoods m d to bring all their property into the new jurisdictions. This reconcentration policy was modeled on Brig. Gm. John Bell" offensive in Batangas. To bring Batangas back under control, BcfZ had recmcentrated outlyhg villages m d neighborhoads into the provhcial towns. Within the concentration znnes, schools and medical care were provided, aithough some number of the resettled died of malnutriticln ant( sickness." To boost: t-he food supply, acquiescent vi,llagers WE permitted to harvest known guerr2la crups for their own private benefit. Once Bell secured the resettlexnent areas, he conducted a fierce campaip in the countryside with vcry destructive effects. Small patrols, night nnarches, search-and-destroy operations, and rainy-season campaigning effectively attrited the guerrilla forces. Within six months of beginning the campaign, Bell had effectively wiped out guerrilla resistance in the last province. Left with no staff or personal aides, the best known guarilla leader s u r ~ n d e r e da h e in Agril 1902. With that, the Philippine War came to a cfose, Tfne official end of hostilities was declarcd on July 4, 1902. Forty-four yeass later, in 1946, AguhaIdo saw his Philippines become an independent nation.
Milifrrcj Nleaszrres tised to Counter the Mom hsuvgents Many of the military measures undertaken to defeat the Mora insurgcrncy rcsembf.ed those developed during the last antiguerrilla carnpaigsl of the *lippine War. Garrisons, intelligence collection and dissemination, patrolling, m d search-and-destroy missio~~s all bore the impri12t of
$0
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
the previous war. In important respects, though, war against the Maro insurgents did nut mimic war agaixlst the Filipino insurgmts. Scouts we= not as wideb used in the south, t l ~ o q h auxiliaries to some extmt were.40 %arch-and-destroy missions focused on different targets in the south. The nature of patrolling was often different from that in the nor2h. Garrisms p1ayc.d an important part of occupyhg Mindanao and, to a lesser degree, the other islands. OrighaXly, they were sprcad over difkrent portions of the island. However, shortlt; after the Mom i n s q e n t d e came active, most of the Army's garrisons and posts were reconcentrated in four key areas,.Smaller posts and statiorns around the rclmokr regions of Mhdmao and on other islands were handed over to auxiliary Iforces* I'he ones the Army retained were rdatively large: battalion or ~ g i m e n t size. This differed greatly from the squad and campany sized posts of the northern cmpaigns. This fact had an impact on how ccrmmanders prosecuted the insurgency The mnpower required to guard these larger pods, such as Camp Marahui, meant patrols could not be sent out often. Indeed., smaIl detachments were sent out only once a week, in stark contrast to the frequency of patrolting durilng the offensive in the north." l i s meant that the Arrny remained operationally on the d&nsive throughout much of the insurgency b t h e r than using offensive, small combat patrols to turr-? or flush out the Maro insurgernts, Che Army prrzdnminantly waited in the c m p s until an actual attack, or word of an hpending one, xcurred. I'hen, whole companies and batta%ilmswere sent out to mete ppuishment on the preswed attackers." Typicall~;100-300 soldiers plus an equal number of porters went on such expeditions, Officers waited for the offending parties to return to their cltwcllings and then stormed their claffrts and djsarmed the remajning populace. After such wtributhe attacks, the Moro raids usually ceased fur a period.@ The nabre of search-and-destroy operations msdting from these expeditions differed frm those of the Filipino insurgelncy The emphasis of such operations was punitive, not psclemptive or preventathe, Patrols or s on seaxh-and-destroy missions were not seekir^lgfoodstuffs and supplies hidden ixl mountain or jwngle storehouses in order to starve out the insurgents. Rather, they focused on finding hidden ~'lkttosand other strongholds to which maraudin$ parties had retreated. Army expeditions, large as they we=, would sweep over l q e skvaths of mtfos and hrts in one operation, What they sought to destroy was the leadership and stubbornness of recalcitrmt dattl?s, symbolized more. by &straying their caf tcls than their sources of supply. In the area of intejligence, the Army took advantage of lessons learned in the p ~ v i o u scampaigns to p ~ v e n intelligence t failures. However, despite the abunctant similarities in the use of intellgence as-
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
41
sets, there was one key difference between insurgencies, Because the Army centralized so much of its manpower within fewer, larger garrisms, the key method of centralizing intelligence collection and dfstribution to overcome commmd clispersion di,d not play as important a role agajnst the Moro insurgents, In the end, the most effective measure of success was "decapitatingf' the dlirtfo leadership of villages. Given the quasi-trihial cdhare of tbe MOros, and the power dattus bad w e r their own people, this measure made as much smse as targeting the Filipino elitcs had in the northern campaigns, M e n , fos example, the ~calcitrantMoro leader Datto Ali undertook a prolonged campaip in 1903 against the American occupiers, the Army targeted him perscmally, It took two years for the Army to catch up with him. When, in C>ctober1905, he was fom~dand lkiilled, the Moro insurgency was essentially finished. n m u g h 1907 and 1908, all of the few ~maiz~in smaller g posts werl, abaneioned. Army expeditions became hited to shows of force and mking major arrests dy.&
Military M u s t r ~ Used s fo Ccrtlntcr the Cuban Ilzszlrgents Even thougtn the Army did not actualfy engage in combat, i t s preparation fnr that evtllhtality led it to undertakez a number of military measures it had learned in the Philippines, north and south. From garrisoning and patrolling to intelligcmce functions, the Army rapidly displayed a certain prowess that came from experience. How it would have fared had fighting achaal:ly broken out will rcrnain unknowablc, but the xtions it took probab%ystaved off that potentialib-. The 2,OW n/larines wbo waded ashorc. in September 1906 i set out to garrison towns and help the Army occupy railways, bases of supply. and skategic points, As in the northern Philippines, all major towns and villages were. garriscmed. Garrisons were also formed to cantrol the transpo&t"aionsystem, mostly near rail nets and coastal towns. Special attention was focused upon the most rebellious provinces, which were garrisoned with cavalry units throughout the fnterventim, nlr garrisons were expeckd to patrol their own districts. Each garrison cmmander was ordered to have a c o l u m operating in the countryside, on the move at all times. This was to show the native populace that lawlessness would not be tolerated and also that they were always pratected." Mmt of these patl-ols were either columns of mounted infantry that operated in the open plailrs of the interior or small foot patrols like the ones used in the northern Philippines. A b s e ~cmflict, ~t the Army undertook no search-md-destroy operations and no night operations either. Wetkter it would have done so, a d what measures of success it would have used, one can only speculate.
42
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
h the area of military htelligetnce, one sees the effects of the Fhilipphe experience on the Army*At the outset of occupation, Gen. Bell ordered nurnerous intelligence-gathering missions. He focused on creating individual dossiers containing m e s , descript.ions, and addresses of all, known and suspected insurgents, and then the types and numbers of arms they mi@t have. 'These wert? centralized in Havana at the newly created Military htelligence Division (MID). MID also had oversight responsibilities for the mapping of Cuba," h a n i s m patroIs did the actual mapping W e on ~ccmnaissancem d then forwarded tbr map sketchrs to Havana. By the time the etngheers m d other patrols had completed covering every nook and cranny of the island, U,S, trooys knew the hills as well or better than etid the insurgents. Unlike the Philippines, the Army made no attempt to form scout units. Had hostilities brclken out it might have dune so, but there are no indications that it definitely wodd have. But Army officers did use the Rural Guasd, the official Cuban militia, as a f o m of constabulary. The Army seems to have isrcreased their training and viabihty to carry out t k i r policing function. In case of rebeflion they were supposed to be g i v m patm11irrg xnissions to help the Army subdtae the populace." In the fjnal analysis, there is no teiling h w the Army would have perfnrmed in the event of hostitities. Hwever, with all major parts of the island garrisoned, military intelligence flowing to colnmanders who needed it, patrols ready to assume the offensive, and the :Rural Guard predisposed to operate against the Cuban fnsurgents, the Army might well have broken the hsurrection in less time than it took to subdue the Filipino insurrectos, Instead, after three years of occupation, it began withdrawing peacefully f m Cuba on January 1, 19159. "f"hert?after,the Army engaged inno m a l l wars until after World War 11.
Historical Context: Informal and Formal Boct-rirte far the A m y Despite four years of experirnentatim and final success in the northern PMippines, the k m y created no forml trainhg or doctrines for transmitting what small wars lessons it had learned to future generations of officus. 'f'hesame was true after the Moro insurgency. Only several years after the end of the Clxhan Pacification did the Army formally presetnt small wars doctrhe to its officers, and then only h mhimal fashion. The corporate memory that existed among Army officers after the Philippine Insl,lrrcctian was by and large allowed to fade away wi& time. flow was the corporate memory built in the first place? Principallfi;it was the result of personal experiences. Officers fought d a y by day,seeillg the war as it unfolded and adapting incrementally os radically depemd-
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
43
h g upon the carnmmdhg ofillcer. Brim Linn cmcludes this was a blessing: 'The key to the Amy's success was its lack of adherence to rigid doctrines or theories and the vvillirrgness of its officctrs to experiment with novel pacification schemes."38 Blessing or not, the rea:lity was that officess experimented because often they were left to their own devices out in the pwinces. 'I'he lack of roads and reliable communications isolated garrisons from each other and the Army leadership. Each of the commanders generally passed on their knowledge in the fnrm of h a t we now call after-acticm reports (AARs). Hwever, these reports were passed verlicdly up the chain of command and then fjled. They were rarely sharcd directly with peer officers. Thus, officers had. to learn of successful technipes in other ways. For example, commanding generals like MacArthur might write explicit hstructions for their own subordbates (but not those under another" command) based on what had been passed up the chain of command. b o w l e d g e thus traveled .from the top docvn. This may explain why the cornmmdhg gelrerals of the Cuban Pacification implemented key measures so quickXy upon intervention. Officers might acquire knowledge of successful techniques through social. and professional, contact-S-a sideways movement of knowledge. Unfortunately, the kinds and volume of records (Xetters, diaries, e t ~by ~ )subordinate officers that would conclusively show this have not been cdected by archives. Finalfy, officers codd read accounts of the Army" actions in the Philjppines and elsewhere through a slowly growing body cJf literature in the professional journals and in official reports cmmissioned by the Army leadership. fndeed, until 11911, these were the only widely available venue of lessons learned and doctrine available to the officer corps.
If: &ere was no forlnaX attempt to train officers in counterinsurge~~cy, of what there were at least a few attcsnpts to pass on an understallwas occurring in the Philippines to officers back in the States. 'rhe use of both civil and military measures was discussed in Che professional journals, although, as Table 21 shows, to a limited extent. The discussion of measures often took a backseat to a discussion of the fighting envirmmemt (Filipino or M m tactics, terrain features, etc.), vvRich usua,lly grabbed the readershattention better. Moreover, the number of small wars articles reprt-sented a tiny portion of the overall literature dealhg with professional mititary concerns.@ Indeed, of over 850 professional journal articfes during the period 389G1915, only twtmty-nine (3 percent) dealt with srnail wars problems. Of those, most simply discussed in anecdotd fashion the natlarc3 of the
44
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
TABLE 2.1 Small Wars Measures Discussed in the Army" Professional Journals, 1898--1%25 # Articles W / &).iscussion Measures Discussed Civil Measures Medical / Sanitation Martial t a w Military Measures Carriwns Scouts / Constabulary TnteXligence Procedures Columar: 13unitivePatrolling Srnatl Unit Combat Patrolling Night Operations Search and Destrc3y 8ps Recmecmtraticm
Philipphe and, to a much lesser extent, the Maro insurger~cies..Within those twenty-nine articles, there was mivlimal discussion of civil measures. As one might expect, even within the anecdotal histories mftitary measures received some discussion. As is evident horn the precedjng, only four articles dealt with civil Despik the fact that measures, two on education and two m martial h. externsive medical and potitical measures were used throughout the first and last intervention, only one argument for using medical measures emerged in the professional literature." The same holds true for the educational and civil construction (indzrding road-buifding) measures that were utilized only to a slightly lesser extent. C)ne might have anticipated s o w treatment of martial law against the Mortw, but it never occurred, C)n the military side, garrisnnhg was discussed only in relation to the northern Philippine occupationf and then only one article significantly c a p t m d the sipificrant features of this r ~ a s u r e . ~ Wdiscussion ~o of garrisoning against the Msros ar in Cuba occurred. The utility of scouts and constabulary fnrces received considerabfe coverage consistat with their use in ail three of the Army's efforts." Two prize-winnhg essays in the Jorrmal of the Military Service I~stifutimliofthe UniCcd S1.utcs detailed accurately why scout units we= high.ly effective." On the importance of proper fntelligence procedures, there was minhnai discussim, mostty in relalinm to Cuba."Wespite the e~nphasisaccorded smail-unit combat-patrolling measures during the nurthern Philippine campaigs, most of the articles anecdotatly discussed the use of large columnar patrols, much like those used to disperse the Filipino Army and ta destroy the Maro cat-
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
45
tos. m l y three articles analyzed to s o m extent the utility of smalf patrols (each based respectively m the Filipino, Mom, md.Cuban campaigns).% Tl-rroughout the articles on patrolling, there was but one brief, mhelpful description. of search-and-destroy operation.s.s"ere was also no more than a passing reference to night operations, despite their impcntance particularly in the first two sets of campaigns." Yet the far less used practice of reconcentration was accorded serious attention by three different autlnors, including one writing on Cuba, where it was not: applied.'K Prcrbably the mod important official effctrt to analyze the Philippine experience was undertaken FR 1906 by Capt. J.RM, Taylor, who wmle a book-length manuscript chronicling a history of the fiifippine insurmction.sVaylor was detailed away from his normal duties to write the history, and the manuscript made it to the galley-proof stage with his martjinalia included. Hwever, Secretary of War Taft, who had personally approved Taylor's work orders, let the effort languish for Chree years. Finally, in 1909, the project was terminated for reasons that remain unclear, although bound copies of the galley proofs wercl. disseminated to some of the official military libraries. Un the civil side, Taylor focused only upon political and judicial measures, without due regard for the Army's educational and meciicaf efforts. C)n the political side, he credited MaeArthur's creation of the RIi_pirroFederal Party as a highly successful endeavor to help end the war. Ch the judicial side, Taylor discussed mostly the treatment of prisoners, addressing climtty the impfcmentation or benefits of martid law. On the miZitv side, Taylor devoted extensive attention to most of the measures discussed above-garrisoning1 patmliing, search-and-destroy operatio~~s, the formation of scouts, and pop"iation reconcentration. Taylor wrote approvingly of MarArthur" efforts to garrism m d protect the inhabitants of willages. Althwgh Taylor indicated that native help ~ @ have fititigated trhe threat to small, garrisons, he did rrot devote much &mtion to U?e issue oi formhg scout mits. On patrojfing, Taylm's history really only touched upon the subject when discusshg incidents of intellig e ~ ~ failttres ce refatkg to villago mpport for t-he guerrillas and rc3laling to guerrilla tactics on Samar, Stilf, Taylor did devote same effort to analyzhg the search-and-desbcry tactics of patmls, mting, for example, the importance of long-range search-and-destray operations targeting the foodhouses and camps of the insurgents, The final military measure 'IBylor inchded in his history is Bell's recmcent-rationpolicy Taylor opined that Bell had Little choice but to instihte zones of protectio~~ so lhose who did not want to give up their food (usually the poorer masses) would not have to.60 W~ik Taylor 's history was never published, the Military fntelligence Division in Manila commissioned a report covering antiguarilla, wariare
t
46
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
on Samar durhg 19061906 that was published with the General Stafffs sanction as a long artide in th relatively new f~finztryjour~ml." "tended to inform new dicers arriv* on Smar, the report gave them a fiavor of gucrrila war at its nastiest-.rhroughout alf of the writing on this period, this one piece is sipificant for the amount of accurate detail it cmtain.ed regardhg p a t d tactics and the intelligence infrastwcbre required in order to operate effectively against guerrilla fighters, and it is sig~nificant y sanction, for being one of a few with oifi.cial h
'Tozuard Forvlal Doctrine: The Amzy's New Edncntio~aESystem C)fficttrsand soldiers sent to the Philippines during 189SlW9 were not trained to fight h the mmner necessary to overcome the hsurgent tactics. One Observer accurately commented, "The metl-rods of deploying laid down in the drill regutations were not aIv\iays fotrnd appIfcable here.w Officers and soldicrs alike had to be trained in small wars operations h the field. This fact did not cbange thrwghout the three interventions. :lf anything, the Army as m institution was heading the other dirrction, toward modern war &fined as a war with a first-rate power, "'as exesnplified in the recent Russo-f ay anese W m In 3902 S e c ~ t a r yof War Elihu Root implemented a new educatimal system that called for one- and three-year courses at all the garrison schools and created a new War Colllege and the General Staff and Service College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The first-year curriculm at the hhntry m d Cavalry School focused on military engj.neering, foreip hguages, militarqi law, and leadership of combined a m s units up to the division level.@Later it was amended to iz~cludeAdmz'zzistrafio~zand the Strratl Anns Firirz,y IZega(Llfi~ns.b"e second year curriculum at the LeavenworZh Stafi"College focused on preparing o&cers for General Staff duties, logistics, and the operationd control of units up to tbr corps level.66 Military art was taught throughout by map exercises, terrah probXems, and war games*h none of the curricula materials available for the Leavw o r t h schools and Army War College were guerrilla w a s wed as e ~ arnpfcs in any of these probiems. 'The same is true of the promotion e x m questions designed by the Generd Staff." There was no notion of t-ting for pacification or guerrilla warfare.. At the pinnncle of the officer education system stood the Army War College. If officer trainbg up until the Was College focused on the theoreticat, then the practical application of that leamiq, as seen through the War College course syllabi and pmjecb completed for thc General Staff, should. have minored the content of the prior schoolskcurricula. If true, then a l m s t nothing in the way of counteritlsqency warfare seems to have been tarnght. The Clzrmzic.lc ofthe Anrry War College contains a year-.
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
47
by-year expositio~zon the courses, including attelzdees and cmme~ztary, none of which topically covered counterinsurgency in its various known guises-smdl wars, minor tactics, bush warfare, or pacification.68 War College syU.abi and war phzs prodwed by Ihe students (for official General Staff use) confirm this observation, hdeed, one is stmck by how much the syllabi empkasized waging war agair~sta Great Power .from the beginning of Cuba (1906) through to World W r I, The war plans throughout this period (famously known fnr their use of colos classification) focused on Jagan (Orange), Germany (Black), Great Britain (Red), and Mexico (Green)," m e sole reference to guerrilla warfare within the curricula is a paragraph on how the Army would, have to fight a Japanese invasion of the Philippine Istanc3s.m Curricular map problems, map maneuvers, and tactical. rides canfirm the thrust of the syllabi.71 These pedagogical devices and Civil War-based staE rides demonstrated a marked focus upon large c m e n tional battle.72 For example, in one problem set students had to plan how to retake Cuba from insurgents," The question format m k e s clear that officr;rswere to focus their answers on thc logistics of loading hips, embarking, knding the invasion force in Cuba, and reta:king miljor cities.. Even thougtn the tT.5. Army would be facing an hsurgent a r q the prclhlem clearZy assumed the fnsurgents worald fight like a convmtionaf army, with use of trenches and other accouterments of linear warfare. To combat the insurgmts, the Army would operate a division-sized force, just as it would against any other land power. Nowhere in the problem set was m y mswer ever expected (or warranted) from the strxde~ztscmcerning how to fight once the Army landed. The same conventional thrust is confirmed in the solution sets to the war plan problem sets.. In the "Military Monograph on. Cuba," the answer to the problem of fightirrg against insurgents was simply: "The primary object of the hvading forces is the capme and occupation of the city of Havana. After this is accomplished, the prhcipal seaport cities are to be occupied, also other cities of importance, and.a mObile force kept h the field in all the pmvinces at the same time, until armed resistance ceases m d the insurgent bmds are run to eart-h."74 m e "Military Monograph on the Dominican Republic" contained the same answer despite the fact that here it was c m s i d e ~ dprobable "that irreguiar warfare will be resorted to almost immediately.'"75 The same was true in the "Military Monograph on Costa Rica" and the 'Military Notes on N i r a r a g d x despite the beliczf by both General Staff writers that the "name of (Costa Nca] lends itseif tn guerrilla warfarerhand that Ihe Pllicaraguan military had a long history of employing guerrilla warfare and should be expeckd to resort to it atgaiz~were the Unfted States to intervene there.7""It is perhaps a furt-her sign of Ihe Generd StaM's &Merest inpreparjng for
48
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
such evezztualities that these monographs were the last problelxs given on Caribbem hterventions until after Mlorld War I.
F'oir~r~al Doefrine: Lessons Learned and Their Dr'ssemi~mf.l;an I'he principal imtructional manuals that officers and soldiers would have had entering the Philippines did not contain small wars instruction of any practical sort, All of them-the 1892 irrctops in Gnnzpaign: RquEntions for the Ar~nyof the United Slates, Wagner's 1896 and 1899 editions of The Semice of Seczaify and I~-Zfomzation, and the 1898 Ilfanfry Drik! Kegulatilmswere written prinripally for waging conventioslal warfare. For example, VVaper"s Service of Security discussed recannaissmce, the usc of cavalry screelzs, and large column operations, among other subjects.7Yhe 1898 Field Service Regulations discussed how to deploy and use tactical-level troflt7mn the attack and defense using Civil War-style fomaticms.79 A significant part ol these mnuals was devoted more to learning and pract i c a parade-ground drills and performing logistics functions than actual fighting. Despite the manuals' focus o~zco~zventionaloperations and drill, there were scattered bits of material that could have heXped the Army prosecute antiguerrih warfare. For example, garritioni~~g a d using local guides for scouting and intelligence were discussed briefly Wagner did touch lightly upon the issue of small combat patrols, suggesting they codd be used to seize other patrols instead of si~nply for recomaissance.BR The fact that these measures had to be reinvented hthe field suggests the advice went eeded or unseen amid the sea of conventional instruction in the mmuals. A total of six different doctrinal manuals were written or updated throughout the period 1888-1915, yet only two eventually contajned more than a cursory treatment of random military measures used in three campaigns. At that, they were published three and five years, respectively, after the end of Cuba., Dufing that period, the paucity of doctrinal change is quite stark given the rapidity Wjfh \zrhich new editions were pubhshed, The 1902 I~zfa~.rts?l, Drill Regzllations was mostly a simple resprirrt of the prior (1.898)editiiol.81 This was the pmmier tactical manual used for trah% soldiers, yet it had not changed inthe four jntervcning years; there was no rnentim of guerrilla warfare, The 1904 edigon remained little more than a discourse about practice drills on how to parade, march, lieplo?i,and fight in different formations. Meanwhile, its 1905 companion volume, Formal Notes, was no more than a =interpretation md. repetition of the 1904 volume." I'he other premier manual, Troops in Campaign, also remahed unchanged between the 1892 and 19003editians.83
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
49
Wagner's manuals, used extensively in the Army' similarly underwent few changes during this period. His fourth edition of 0qyaizizatiut-r nrzd 'Ibciifs, pubtished in 3901, contained no relevmt changes to account for m a l l wars." m e s m e is true for his 1906 edition of Qrgalolzatio~~ and Taeiics," These manuals rcmained historical sketches of h f a n t v focusing almost exclusiwely upon large conventbnal wars. 1"Jagner was apparel~tlyunconcerned with integrating the tactical lessons of counterinsurgency into the manualls used to teach new officers the ways of war. His other manuals provide e\iidtmce of this as well. The B03 edicontained n new material on tion of T!ze Service of Securily arld f ~ f ~ r m a f & guides, but even then only to discuss how they should be protected from retaliation.86 m e new doctrhal, manual was created during the period by the Gene r d Stalf. The Field Service Regulations, first published in 1905, was htosely based on ?mops in C a ~ ~ y a i pItl .was the first doctrinaf product of Elihu Root's new A r l ~ yeducational syste~sand was designed principally to teach officers to command. divisions in wartime.w Uxriquely, the 3905 Field Ser-oicls Regulalirms was the first manual to discuss insurrections and rebellions to pie all,^ even if onIy i,n broad gemrdities. Faced With a war of iTts~rrection,one of the commandefs two prima7 concerns was the proteetim of loyal citizms and placing the b d e n of war on disloyal citizenry. Toward that end, officers would be granted bmad powcrs and allowed to "expel, transfer, imprison, or fine revolted citizens.""" The "It is vicother primary concern was the militay d&at of the i~~s~krrectos~ tory in the fjeld that ends the strik and settles the future retations between the contending parties."'"Y How oificers were to accomplished &at goal, however, was left unspecified, just as it was in all the other manuas. No mention was made of gmrisoning to protect the citizenry. The advice on intelligence was merely stated as an obvjous g a d with no sugge* tion as how to achieve that goal: "When the enerny has adcrpted guerrilla wartarc, the search for infnrmatim acquires spedal importance. An efficient secret service under keen officers should be organized without delay..'"Wnder the scrction on patrols, officers wert? adVised to awoid cornbat: and not pursue host.ile forces. 'This advjce directly contradicted the Army" successful patrolling measures on Luzon and to a lesser extent Samar. Even at the height of the Cuban campaig~ns,the 1908 edition of the F k M Service Regtllntz'uns remined basicalfy unchanged from the 1905 edition save for the advice on patrols." No longer were patrols strictly for rclconnaissance; they could be specially f o m d to colnbat other m a i l units." The change did not last Img. The 1910 edition, foll.wing Cuba, removed its few references to guerrilla warfare,gWoreover, even the genedjzccf dcfjnition of insurgencies was deleted.
50
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
Where the Field Sewice I<egtrlaliorzs left off, the 1911 I~$~rztryDrifl IZegrcIatiolzs and the 1914 Clnualry Drill Xqzslntions picked up. Xn a mltipage section entitled "Minor TVVarfare," m a l l wars were for the first time institutionalty recognized as a type of war distinct from the conventional style of comhat normally waged,gUlthough a comparison of the doctrine to the c m p a i p s (parCicularly the norl.lhern Phi3jppines campaips) reveals it to be imperfect, as a first effort it should not be unduly criticized. n e r e was a good. discussion of tnsurgmt tactics m d the first dkcussion of tactical respan""" The responses focused principally upon small unit combat patrolling and night operations." Several omissions should be noted, however, There was no discussion of civic measures or even an achowledgment of their role incountering guerritlati; no discussion of"garrisoning; no disclnssion of the special intelajgence el_lorts required against insurgents; and, finafiy, no discussion of search-and-destroy measures. The 191.4 Cumluy Sewice R q a l a l k ~ s in , cmtrasl to prjor editions, also included a section on Mhor Nrfare, but it differed hmmy rcspects from the discussion in the h f a l . ~Drill t ~ X ~ h f i m z s . ~Not h rnh was the Cuvaly Seruire Regzrlalions discussion longer and more detailed, it included a number of measures not contained iP1 the J l f a ~ z t yDriE Regulafiilns, Far example, garrisoning was prominently discussed, as were search-and-destroy tactics. Th.e use of"aggressive patrolling on exte~ndedduty in the countryside was also covered. Such tseatrnent of many of the military measures used since the Philippines mark this 1914 editicm as the highwater point in codifying formal counterinsurgency doctrine. Thereafter, all discussion of guerdla warfare was removed from subsequent editims of Of ~ ( I U T S ~small , ~ a r were s no longer the the (:IZvalySewice Regultltio~~. province of Ihe Army The very next year t-he Marine Corps began the first of three jnterventims that wwld lead. it over the next hYenty years to produce its crvvn manual on ccmducting small wars operations.
Irrstitutisrtal Cantexit-: Development of the Marine Corps Schools For over their first century in service, Marhes undertook missions for which no formal trafning was prowided. New recruits and officers learned on the job undcr the tutelage of veterans (not that rnuch training would have been needed). In their earliest days, Marines "were basjcalfy soldlers detafled for sea service whose primmy duties were to fight hoard but not sail their sh@s."W In reality, they spent most of their time enforcing ship regulations, preventing desertion and theft, and sewing as the capt"i"lquards." They ""were aboard ship to pmtect the ship's officers and the vessel from the crcw, many of whom were or rnight be
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
51
drunkards, malcontents, thieves, arsonists, thugs, and mutineers."gg Marines were essentialb police at sea, Between the American Revolution and the Civil W r , Marines undertook whatever mission they codd find d e p e n h g upon the needs of the nation or institutional pressures. Sometimes they focused on forming landing parties for overseas missions or for providing guarcis for Navy yards.'" Qther times they prepared for extended land service with the Arrny and, indeed, participated in the 1830s Seminole Wars and the Mexican War of 1848, W e n cooperation between the Army and Corps broke d o w i ~shortly after the Mexican War, the primary Marine mission changed to that of going ashore to protect Ameriran lives and property in various Lath American nations. The Corps's mission changed yet agaill with the Civil Wtr; durinlq hvhich Marincs replaced shjp" gmners due to a shortage of sailors who ordinarily performed such work,l"l There is s o w question as to how extensively they partook in amphibious raids asErore,l02 They did, however, return to their policing roots, such as wheiz they suppressed the New York draft riots in 1863, stopped Cuban filibusters marching on New York City (1869), put down electicm riots in Pfiladelphia (18?70), m d broke up il,lega:i djstillerjcs in Brooklyn on numerous occasions between 186"lnd 1871, The advent m d spread of modern steel battleships in the late nineteenth (~ei~tury permanently eliminated some of the older Marine missions. These ships, with their larger caliber guns, mquircd a technical proficiency from their crew that h tunn rczquired extensive naval trainhg that tended to weed out characters inclined ta mutiny. Because of the new professional.ism Marines were no longer needed to guard the captain, alld because of torpedoes they were no longer needed to repel boarders or attack elnemy sailors. =ring this period, the Corps b e m e vuherable to an inRuential cadre of Navy officers who, begisrning in the 1 8 9 0 tried ~ ~ to throw the Corps oft^ ships altogethe~losIn the end, the 1901) Navy Gcneral Board under Adnn. Gcorge Dewey forinalfy tasked the Corps with defendjng bases in the Caribbean and possibly o f f the Chinese mainland as well-what became h o w n as the Advmced Base mission.104 This maiintained the historical tie between Marhe m d sailor, despite the best efforts of some Navy ofkers to sever it. In Espmse to the rising naval professictnalism, the growing complexity of modern naval operations such as base dcfense, and the t h e & of being eliminated from the Navy, the Corps in 1891 opened its own Marine School of ilpplication in Washington. It was designed to provide instruction for newly commissioned officess who were incre;asingly being required to learn the art of war over policixzg. In the t w decades follcrwirrg the first class of the shoal of h p l i c a tion, the Carps begm organizing expeditionary battalions to take and
52
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
hold overseas bases for the battle fleet. For a period it was also give11 a coastal artillery mission that almost caused it to be merged into the Army, specifically as a Corps of Marine Artilleryil"JW e n the pmposed merger looked like it wot~ldfail, President Tfieodore Roosevelt (no fan of the Corps) went to the other extreme of trying to isolate the h/farincrs as much as possible from the Army and from Nawy shigs with ExecUf;iw Order 969 (in 1908) Xisthg the m a h duties of the Marhe Corps in order of priority:l"b I. Garrison navy yards and stations inside and outside of the United States; 2, Provide mobile defense for naval bases and stations outside the United States; 3, Man static naval base defenses outside the United States; 4, Garrison the Panama Cmal; and 5. Pmvide expeditionary duty overseas in times of peace. Despite all attempts to make them yard guards, the Marines focused on other missions, particularly the advance base mission. In 1910 the Corps founded the Advmce Base School in New London, Cmnectkut, and c ~ a t e dthe first Acfvanced Rase Force in 1913. The foifowing year the 1st and 2nd Marine Regiments conducted the first Advanced Base exercises ever on the small islmd of Culebra, off Puerto Rico. That same yeas, Marines assaulted and took the Mexican port of k r a Cruz by sea, proving thcir a(3iliV to conduct such missions and consequently their importance to the Navy. political develDespite the Marines' Advanced Base focus, unfoldi~~g opments in the Caribbean during this period sltokvly forced the Corps tow d smal war operations as its primary mission. The stage for this shift away fl.c)m Advanced Base operations ironically was set by President Roosevelt. before the Corps even began experirns~tjngwith them, Cmcerned about asserting the Nonroe Doctrine in the Caribbean, Roosevelt issued his awn official corollary in 1904 in Mxhich he [expanded] the traditianal American defmsive posture into an assumption af U.S. respc~nsibilityfor the international gocd behavior-both pc~liticaland financial-~f Latin American nations. He declared in effect that if nations within the American defensive zone in the Western Hemisphere failed to meet their legal obligations, the United States would see that they did m, by direct military intervention if necessaryin7
Wth this carollary, Koosevelt effectively p ~ v e n t e dEuropean c ~ d i t o r s .from intervezzhg in Caribbean affairs bp assurning an American right to
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
53
guarmtee European financial interests in those countries, The U~zited States would itself intervene in other natims to set their finances striright, usually by t a k i q ower anci acting as the rczceiver of Customs funds. From ~ S and olfner creditors would be paid off while the those ~ L I I ~European nation's finances we= set straight. The first country for which the cmllary was applied was the Dominican Republic in 1904. That intervention, and similar olzes that followed, were peaceful and successful, so that the Carps r m I y had to occupy the filtancially troubled nations and even then did not bave to fight. H w ever, beginning in 1,915 the nature of h e r i c a n intervention changed when President Woodrow Wilson offered armed forces to the Domhican a t for its protecticm, Although the offer was politely declined, in one stroke "the policy [of h e r i e a n guarantees] had Chus been extended, from financial sulpemi&ion to the necessary control to assure the maintenance of peace."log The pmblem was whether such actions could be construed as initiating war. One interpretation, widely believed at the tirne, stated "if you land m e secticsn of the Army that is war." Yet "you can l a d a Sailor or a Marine a d it is not considered war."jo9 Thus, t0 prevent war, the Corps assumed full responsibi1i.l-yas the land arm of the Navy for protectjng instaIled governments in the Caribbean. Haiti, the Dominican RegubEc, and Nicaragua wcrdd pmve to be tbe test cases of the its ability to accomplish Chat mission. While the tension between the Advanced Base and intervention missions &bed and flowed, the hlfarines we^ sloLvly expanding their training sygem, In 1915, the Corps established the Field Artillery khoal because this task was felt impmtmt for Advanced Base work as well as for expeditimary duty. 'fl-te Corps also sent: officen; to the various Army schook-swh as the Army Machine Gun School-to receive kaining. Not all training was military in naturc, Zlowever, The Marine Officers' School in 1917 taught roaei-buitding as wetl.110 P~surrtabiythis reflected Marhe experiences in Haiti as well as kstfiutional anticipation that the State Department might reqrrire the Corps to engage in similar activity in the future.. Despite the haeasing Marine Corps emphasis upon training, howevcr, the Commandant occasionally closed some of the schools fos a year or more to send troops off to expeditionary duv.111 Most important, during this period the Marines developed tbrir own prdessional journal-Marine Goys Guzcrtte-as a mechanism, for promoting the interchange of ideas among offjcers, Previously, officers had d y been able to read (and hardy write for) the Navy's Proceedings, which cmtained no articles about small wars until five yeass after the landkg in Haiti. Marhe ofiicers may have d s o read the Arcmy" l~zfantryMagazine, which contained only a few relevant artides (on the Philippines) during the immediate pre-World War E period, Now they had their own
54
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
prdessional journal. hdeed, the very first issue, in 1916, started a deba.t.e over fuhnre missions that would not end even after one of the principal authors, Maj. John Russell, became Commandant two decades later. In the meantime, MariJles would be sent to fight a type of war far hvhich they had never planned+mtinental war in Europe. In the postmr period the Corps continued advancing officer education and took a nascenl interest in produchg its own forma) doctrine. The intellectual pursuit of rrrilitary knowledge and training was elevated by new Corpwschools, just as the A r q had done twenty p a r s prior with the establishment of the Army War College and the Schools of the Line at Fort Leavmwor.th, New l a n d i ~ gF o m Malzz~aleditions were written to reflect the experiences of World W r I. From the perspcetive of 1920, one might not have seen the renaissance in fomal Marine doctrhe coming. Nevertheless, oficer tralnjng for the Marine Corps can be said to have entered the modem age after World War I. NaturallyI Chat seminal conflict dominated contempctrary Masine thhking abuut war. The Commmdmt" report of 1939, for example, contained only three paragraphs on Haiti and the Dominican Republic despite the heightened mtiguercilla: effort under way in bath countries.m The remaining dozen or so pages were devoted to Marine experiences ican Expeditionary Force (AEF) in France. The war's himy Marine Corps schools was predictable: "Due to the recentness of the Vllorfd War, the new curricuIum, understandably, emphasized infantry in land operations, and was strwgly influenced by the teachings and methods of the Army-"ll" Moreover, the war had brought about a sixfold increase in the size oi the officer corps since the beginnirrg of the Dominican intervention. Even though that number was whittled duwn after the war, as Figure 2.1 shows, the Marines now had a new authorized level of approximately 3,000 officers, still a threefold expansion over a period of three years (19261919). Most of these officers needed professional trainhg beyond the hasty trahin.g they received in the AEF camps in France, Thus, the mdant J o h Lejeconsoldation and expansion of the schools by Co une was a naturd reaction to institutional growing pains (see Figure 22)Similarly, the offiicers assigned to teach at tlte xhools we= more likely to have served in the AEI;, rather than pull officers out of the hcrt Dominican campaigns. Thus, again, it W= natural that World War I tfiillking wodd dominate the curriculram in the earliest p a r s of the new schools. Nonetheless, as it became clearer in the aftermath of the war that the Marhes would never have the requisite resotlrces to prosecute war on a continental scatc-resources the Army had and could. apply to that mission-the Marines began to face the prtlbIem of what mission they would undertake in the postwar period. This uncertainty; plus the newness of
FIGURE 2.1 Grow-th of the Officer Corps, 1915-1 940. Navy Department, Register of t k Commissiunlrd nlzd Warrnlzt Officers of the Ulzited States Nnzy n ~ Mal.z'ne d Cotps (Wshington, BC: Government 13rintingOffice, various years, lli315-1940)
SC3URCE:
establishing a modern, rigorous, proft.ssiona1 education syskm, k d the Marines over the next two decades to hedge in their trairzhg and doctrhe. As a more contemporary author put it: "It must first of alf be real.ized that no system of school can possible cover alil the possible c m t i n gencies of war, and therefo~,it is of-great importance to make all tactical trainjng as dastic and adaptable as possible,"ll" The reorganizafion of formal :Marhe officer training began in 1919 on Parris Island wheln the Hrst class of twentp-nine ofiicers was enrolled for twenty-two weeks of dassroom schooling, as opposed to the more prac"cicum-orientedtraining that had heetofare existed.ljV:ll course syllabj from several years later are m y guide, this first class was preoccupied primarily with general tactics that would serve midlevel officers in most any type of war. fn January 1921), the Marine Corps Schools were moved from Parris Islmd and Philadelqhia and formally reconslituted at Quan-
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg 31891: Schc3ol of Application
1408: Marine Officers School 1917: Officer Training School 1919: Officer infantry School 1Et:Maine G r p s 5chooi J Basic Course Zf Comyany QfficersT~ourse
2 FF'ield OfficersTourse
% 1934: Marine Corps Schmls J Basic School Zf Junior Officers' School
2 Senior Officers3chool FIGURE 2.2 Evolution of the Marine Corps Schools, 1891-1934. Maj. C.H. Mel-calf, ""A History of the Education of Marine Officers," Marim Ct~rpsGazette, vof. 20, no. 2 (May 1936); Robe& B&s Heinl Jr., Soldiers of t ! ~ Sm: The Unit& SC~tes:Srii"l~Corps, 1775-2962, 2nd ed. (Baltimore: Nautical and Aviation Pub. Co. of America, 1991j, p. 254
SC3URCE:
tico. Fisst estabbshed was the Field Clffkers' khool. It focused on trai.ning offjcers& w e the rank of cagtajn (i.e., majors thrnugh colunels), The following year, 1921, the Company 0fficers"hool was establilihed to train majors, captains, and exceptional lieutenants in company-level officership. &out two dozen officers were sent ually to each of these schools fnr approximately twenty houfs of instmction per week for fiirty-five weeks. Even .crhough the schools were renamed h 1934, their basic structure remained the same for the two decades yrecedhg Wbrld. War II. For at least the first decade af the new schools%existcmce, "the curricul~xmmirrored that of the Army's staff sehaol at Fort ZJeavenworthm d the studies centered. arwnd Army doctris\e, Army orgmizatim, and Army pmhlems."flWarine officers did not have to attend these schools, though, to receive A r m y hdoctrination. They could elect instead to anend any one of a nunnber of Army schools: the Xnfantry School at Fort B m i n g ; the %hod of the Line of the A m y Generd Staff Clollege; the A m y Artillery %hoots; the Chemical Warfare khool; the Signal Corps khool; and the Judge Advocate Generals School.117 Similarly reflecting their naval tradition, officers could also attend the Naval War Coilege and the new Naval Aviation School. Finallyi,the Basic Officers' %hod was established in 1922
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
57
to give recruited officers their first tralinhg in the Corps*'That s m e year, a correspondenceschool for field officers was established under the aegis of the Marhe Corps Institute based upcm coursework from the International Correspctnde~~ce Scbools of Scranton, X"ennsyJvania.""e field garrison schools were also set up under the aegis oi this school. For the next ten years, mtil the establishment sf the Fleet Marhe Force in 1933, t-he C o v s walked a middle line, teachhg Army and Navy methods of warfare. This is evident in the Corps" training exercises of the tirne, I'he Corps undertook s o w of its earliest amphibious warfare exercises when it held Advanced Base training with the Navy at Guantanamo, Cuba, and at Culclbra in 1922."Weanwhile, that same year a large battle exercise was conducted at Gettysburg under the c a m a n d of now Brig. Gen. Smedley Butler (Medal of Honor whner in Haiti). Among other things, the Marines reenacted Pickett" charge. h lectures and.presentations at GettMurg, i?narine officers ft,eused m lessons learned from the battles of the Americm Revoltrt-ion and Civil War. In 1925, the Corps conducted mother Advanced Base exercise on Oahu, Hawaii, The vaciliatrion between Arlny and Navy teachings wcruid conti11u.e until, as the following chapters show, the Mwimes began developing their own missim-trahing regimen and, dtirnately doctrjne. t"nti.1 that time, though, the Cctrpumtinued to struggle with an uncertainty over mission, whifh in turn was a product of the vagaries of Wilsonian foreign policy OTI the one hrmd., tlne Corps had been sent to fight in a conthental war, but the growth of isolationism made the prospects of a similar war appear r e ~ ~ o tCln e . the other hand, the Corps waged two simultaneous small wars m d continued to occupy those countries, all the while intervening in other Caribbean nations. So what was their prirnaq missitm? Was is to wage continmtal-style war? Was it to suppress insurrectionary tendencies and show the flag by force in Lath American debtor nations? Or was it to become an Aclvanced Base force that seized and proteckd ports and fueling st&ions for the Navy? As the schools were being established in the first years of the 1 9 2 0 ~the ~ Corps as an institution did not have clear allswers to these qwstrions. Ncrt until a joint h r m y - N a v y board determined roles and missions in 1927 would they- Meanwhile, practical reasons kept the Corps feaning toward Army teaching. For example, large-scale (i.e., S h a r p s b u ~and Gettysburg) exexises were undertake~~ because the Corps could not hold joint exercises wif-;hthe fleet; the Navy" sshlps were all committed dsewherc around the globe. Institutional Context: Marine Racrtrine pre-Haiti
As one w o d d assume, if not expect, Marint. Corps doctrke followed the same path as its training regimen, vacillating between Navy and Army
58
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
procedures. For its first c e ~ ~ t uof r yexistence, most of the Marine dwtrine for duty aboard ship was borrowed from the Navy whife that for shore duty was borrowed from the I"irmy+Up through the first decade of the 1 8 0 0 ~the ~ Marines trained with the same manuals used by the Arl~y, particularly Friedrich von Stcuben's Regulafiol.zsfor the Order 6"Discipli~ze of the Troqs of fhe Usliked Statc.s,"O From then until the Semhole Wars ol the 1P120s and 1830s, "the drill and tactics tau$ht to Marines weso those prcscrihed by Winfield Scott's Itfantry Tactics,"lZ That lasted until the immediate pwt-Civil War pwiod when the Corps Cumlnanciant worked with Emory U'pton on his I~qantryTUctics (1867) and szlbseyuently ad.opted the manual (in 1876) fnr Marine rase.1" As one historian of the period noted: There seems to have been little effort made to digest the lessons in military tactics learned during the Civil War and to teach them to the personnel of the Corps. Being a marine or soldier in those days war; a practical kind. of profession, learned only by experience and by personal contact with older men. Practically the only bomks available on tactics and strategy until near the close of the period were Ec>reignpublications. Upton" sand Wagner's works on tactics and relatczct subjects then became the standard. Not many marine officers, however; took the study of their prc~fessionseriously.~~
The Corps did not dcvelop its own travling manual until 1885: It was entitled the Marisle Covs ivfulzual,'21 It borrowed from both Army and Navy manuals to give Marine training a combhed flavor of skirmishhg, riflery, bayonet, ceremonies, sea artillery, swimming, boating, signds, and broaeiswod."~In 1.905, the Navy produced its own manuaj for expeditionary duty, l a f ~ d i ~ zForce , y u ~ Small ~ d Anw Irzsfructiolzs, Urn."'" It borrowed heavily from the Army" 1904 Infclntry Drill Recq~~latiuns, :It also borrowed discussions on elements of scouting Eram the British Aids fo Scozrti~~g."~ The Navy revised this mmual twice, including once in 15312 to accord with chmges in provisions of the A m y " 11311 Itfantry Drill Reg~d~lticms.1"NW the :Navy manual contairred the Army's secticm m minor warfare i,n its entirev. This blatant use of Army doctrhe m y have been typical of the Corps, but it was strange comjng from the Navy. PerI - r a p d e Navy boards writing and ~wisingthe m m u d felt out of their area of expertise djscussing operations ashore and so turned to the mast likely source of experience. Meanwhile, to supplement the Navy manual, the Corps used other standard Army textbooks for tactics and field engineering, in.clrading Wagner's two volumes on Tactics and fhc Seczlrify @hfovrvrili.z'o~+~z~ When the Army in 1918 produced the small Stzrdies iv1 MZirZm Tactics, the Corps may have b o r r m d this monotgraph for their muse in duty ashore.130
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
551
In the process of borrokving doctrine for expeditionary duty the Corps borrowed what little doctrine the Army had. written for operating in small wars, which focused predomfnately on patrol tactics. I'hus, as the Marhes went- into Haiti they were oMicialiy exposed only to the Army's limited view of small wars generated prirrcipally frm their Philippine experimces. Briefly recapitdated, this meant that the Marines would face ill-orga,nized forces endcavoring "to win by stealth or by force of superior numbers, empfoyjng ambuscades, sudden daz;hes or rushes, and hand-to-hand fighting."=j In response, the Marines shcruld operate in s~nalluniks, up to the con?pany level. Because they generally would have insufficient inteliigence, they would. have to march and camp ready to deploy their firepower at a mommtfs notice, On the march, tlanking patrols would probably be impossible, and adLrance g a d s were not advisable. As trails would be narrow#the column of twos or files would be a convenient formation. If rushed from the Rank, such a colu able to face and fire t w a r d either Rmk. Fi,ndy, night operations wcre highly advisable: ""lrmgular troops ramly provide proper camp protection, m d they may frequently be surprised m d sevewly punished by a properly co~tductednight march and attack.'"3z Missing from th .Army%ddoctrine, and thus Marhe doctrine as well, w a several measures that the &my undertooii in its campafgns and that the Marines Corps would undertake as well in each of its t h e small wars, There was m disc~ssimof garrisoning. There was no discussion of what types of tactics would counter the ""c-merrty'sown methods." There was no discussion of the special htelXigence efforts required against insurgents. There was no discussion of forming native constabulary forces. Finally there was no discussion of search-and-destry ogeratims or measures for determining t%le success of the sntall war effort. During the course of the HaiGan campaigs, the Marhes would have to discover on their own the utility of these measures, but to their credit they would do so with sttccess. In the process, hdividual Marhes would learn from their experiences and begin trmsmitting t h i r knowledge to fellow officers &rough informal and formal mechanisms, evenbally contributing to a body of lessons learned about s~nallwars. The final cmlmination of the transmission process, thou*, would take twenty years from the first landing in Haiti. Notes l . Carf von Clausewitz, On War, @d.and trans. Michael Hctward and 13eter Paret (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1984), p. 122. Thjs thought is present throughout books 1 and 2 (van CXawewitz used the term ""buok" "for what are actually parts of a single volume).
Historical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg 2. ibid., p. 1 2 , 3, Ibid., p. 122. 4. Clausewitz, On War, book 2, chap. 6. 5, Cf. Repor2 of the Lieutenant General Commanding the Army, Annual Report I?( the War Department-, 3900, vol. 2, pt. 4 (Washington, BC: Government Printing Office, 4900); Lt, Caf. James Parkel; "%me Random Notes on the Fighting in the Philippines,'"jclumnl of the MiEiCaq Scrzrice institution c?f the Utzited Stnfes, vol. 27 fl"dc>v.19QQ), p. 324. Ffe~after,editions of the Annual Report c$ the War Dep~rCnzenC are cited as ARWD, along with the relevant year (which r q r e x n t s both the year to which the report pertains and the publication date), volume number, and part number. 6. Gienn Anthony May, Bntflefor Batartgas: A Phlli;~pi~?e Provi~?cenC War (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1991), p. 33. Cited fram Gen. Gec3rge Morgan to AG, 4 Biv-, 8 AC, 7 Feb. 1900, RC: 94; Col. Geurge Anderson to AG, Wheaton" Brig., 9 Feb. 4900, RG 94; and Gen. T11eodore Schwan to Henry C. Corbin, 16 Feb. 4900, Con. 1, HCC. '7. Brian M. Idinn, The U.S. Army and Cozlnterlnsurgcszcy izz the Pbzilippine War, 2899-2902 (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolha Press, 19891, p. 203, 8. John M. Gates, Scltoolboaks n~zdKrags: Tbw Unifed Stales Arvrzy i~zthe Pj~ilippines~ 1898-1902 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1973), p. 230. 9. Moro is Spanish for '* Muc>r." 10. A. E, Feuer#Cornkt Diary: Episodesfvorn the P.lisEury of Ctrc 22nd Regimep~t, 2866-2905 (New York: Raeger, 1491), p, 167, 14. Repo&sof the Division and Department Commandera ARWCZ, 2903-1909, 2 2. Reports of the Divisic)~and Department Commanders, ARWD, 2 9137, vol. 1, pt. 3, p. 249. 2 3. Rqorts of the Bivisian and Department Commanders, ARWD, 29138, vol. 2, pt. 3 p. 215. 14. The Platt amendment of 4901, ratified by the U.S. Senate simultaneously with the new Cuban constitution, arrc>gatedto the United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs. Tfze Xblilitnty Qccupatio~of Cuba, 25. Allan R, Milltrz-tt,The Politics ofI1zterz7enfh~: 1906-3909 (Colurnbus: Ohio State Univ, Press, 1968), p. 60. 26, Ibid., p. 1251'7. Repc~dof the Secreta ry of War, ARWD, 1906, vol. 1, pt. 1, p. 458. 2 8, There were several reasons, explicit and implicit, for assuming the strategy, A key reascyn was a mismatch beween means and ends. There were not enough trwps on hand to enforce a military solutic~nfor achieving domirrion. Even if the appropriate number of troops were available in Manila, they could rarely travel in time to where they were needed most. Most districts were isolated frclm Manila, as well as from each c~ther,due to dense vegetation, bad roads, and other terrain features generally unsuitable to rapid overland travel, Thew tzrel-e, however, enough troops to implement governmental and municipal reforms to better the lives of Manila" residents. The administratlion"~polity was that by ma king an example of Manila, the capital city, Filipino natives would see their interests coincide with American interests. In turn, it was thought, the other townships and villages would spc~ntane~usly accept American dominic~n,and oppasitic~nwould cease.
Another reasotn f o x adopting the strategy of benevolence lay in the civilizing mission that political progressives in the United States assumed tvas their duty otverseas: " m e army's work to promote pubtic healtl-t, judicial rehrm, tax equalization, honest government and public education often mirrored work done in these same areas by progressive reformers in America" Fates, 1973, p. 67). McKinley himself stressed the civilizing mission in his letter of instructions to Gen. Wesley Merritt, commander of U,S, forces in the Philippines, Local customs, laws, and government rc3utines were to be respected within reason. American troops were to protect the people and ensure that private property was respected, Interestingly, such benevolent political oversight would become evident again later in State Department orders to the Marine commanders in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. A third explanation for adopting the sbategy of benevolent assimilation is the enviromental conditions under which U.S. troops verated in the PhiXipphes. Pryor sanitation and the climate both contributed to sc~aringdisease rates in populated areas. Debris and trash were strewn all about Manila, creating a significant public health hazard, particularly given the large population of the city. Indeed, smallpox broke out among Spanish prisoners of war in the months after American occupation. The threat of fudl-ter; large-scale epidemics led to the enactment of municipal sanitation measures. 19. Previously, the edzlcatimal curriculum had been dctrninated by the religious teachings of the Spanish Catholic priests rather than the teaching of discrete subjects such as math, reading, and history 20. Report of the Secretary of War, ARWL), 1900, vol. 1, pt. I, p, 12; Gates, Scfzoolbooksatid Krags, pp. 1353,212. 21. Reports of 1,ieutenant General Commanding the Army and Department Commanders, ARWD' 11902, vol. 2, pt. 9, p. 192, 22. Gates, Schoolbooks nlzd Krags, p. 275. 23. Repasts of Lieutenant General Commanding the Army and Department Commanders, ARWT;? 1902, vol. 1, pt. 9, p. 526. 24. Repc~rtsof the Divisictn and Department Commanders, RRWB, 19(39, vol. I, pt. 3, p. 225. 25. Gen. Bliss described one commander's method for dealing with Morn prisoners. Whenever one of the guards or officers became suspiciow, he would fire one shot in the air. Instantly; at1 prisoners would hit the ground, holding their arms out at right angles from their bodies. Anyone left standing was wually shot immediately. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this method, the commander pulled out his pistd without warning and fired it, startling even Bliss. Every single prisoner dropped immediately including a few who, knee deep in a stream, simply dropped into the water facedown and held their breath until pulled out by a guard. Diary from 1905, Tasker H. Bliss Papers, Army VVar College, Military e~ Barracks, Carlisle, PA, History I ~ t i t u t Carlisle 26. Millcstit, hlitics qf Xtz terzlrtntioitn, p. 1332. 27. Repctd of Gen. MacArthur, AXWD, 1900, vol. 1, pt. 4, p. 415. 28. Gates, Schoolbooks n ~ Krags, d p. 21 2, 29. One brave mjssion probably did more to heighten the visibifity of the scouts than any other-the captuw of Aguinaldcl in March 4901, In that month,
62
Hktosical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
Gen. Funston set out with a company of Macabde Scouts to capture Aguinaldo when his hideout was discover-ed through captured documents. To disguise his effort; Funston and the other American officers passed themselves off as prisoners being taken to Aguinaldo by a guerrilla band. Despite extreme starvation and personal privation, the ruse was a success, Funston pulled off his coup with two scout officers, personally capturing Aguinaldo. 30. Gates, Schoolbooks ntzd Krags, p. 208. 31. Repc~l"cof Gen. MacArthur, AX WD, 19C10f vol. 1, pt. 4, p. 345. 32- Cf. dispatch of Col. Gardner, ARWD, 1900, volt. 1, pt. 4, p. 394. 33. Gen. Otis himself began emphasizing this measure in his action reports of 489&4899, Given that Army intelligence believed the Filipino insurgents had nc, more than 25,886 rifles as of October 1899 and that few could be impctrted from abroad (despite the many attempts to do so), this measure was used as a model indicator of how well the Army was or was not succeeding in its pacification mission. Report of the Secretary of War, ARWD? 1899, vcll, 4, pt. 4, pp. 63-73; Report of the Lieutmant General Commanding the Army, ARWD! 290OSvol. 1, pt. 4, p. 211. 34. May, Battlefar Bata~g-ns,p. 256, 35. Idinn,U.S. Anny and Gnuntcrins~~rgency, p. 5'7. 36. Ibid., p, 117'. 37. Gates, Sdzoolbaoks nlzd Krags, p. 254; cited in 57th Gong., 2d sess., 1903, Senate Dc>cument213, pp. 2-3. 38. Dispatch by Maj. Walleu; 22 Nov. 1901, Report of Brig. Gen. James Wade, Commander, Department of the Southern Philippines, Reports of Lieutenant General Commanding the Army and Department Commanders, ARWD, 1902, vol. 1, pt. 9. 39. Linn, U.S. Army and C c s u n t e r i n s u r g p. 27. 40. k o u t s were either separate or part of established military unlb and thus under militmry authority. By contrast, auxiliaries had police-like functions and thus came under political cmtrol. 41, Feuer, Cvfnbnt Dlirqf p, 468. 42. These colums, though large, still had to guard against the Moro Ranking tactic. To do m, officers scjmetimes broke their patrols into two or three sections separated by roughly one hundred yards. Thus only one or two sections of the column were Iikety to be attacked, altr.twing other sections to outflank the Moros. Officers also quickly developed another innovative technique. Men would count off as odd- and even-numbered. When Moro riflemen opened fire, the point guard tzrould counterattack to the front, The remairzing men would pivot to the left a r right, depending on whether they were odd C J even ~ in the count offt and face both Rank. In this way, all men h$their backs covered by two fellc~wsoldiers in the fighting that ensued. If they were lucky, some of the men might have sawed-off shotguns, which w e l ~ considered the best weapom for close-in jungle and trail fighting. Since the m n also needed machetes and bolos of their own for various trail activities, they quickly learned to fight with these as weft. Repc~l"cs of the Division and Department Commanders, ARWD, 3904, vol. 1, pt. 3, g. 279. 43. Dispatch of Capt. f. J. Pershing, Reports of the Division and Department Commanders, ARWCZ, 1303, vol. 1, pt. 3, p. 324.
Historical a ~ X~zstitutional d ContextJar Legrning
63
44. Annual Reports of the Division and Department Commanders, ARWD, 19M, vol. 4, pt. 3, p. 215.
45. Millett, Pt~ll'ticsof Inlerve~ztio~z~ pp. 125-226. 46. Repc~rtof the Scretary of War, AXWD, 1907, u d . 1, pt, 4, p. 172, 47- Milletl, Politics oflnterve~ztion,p. 226. 48. Linn, U.S. Army alzd Cour?ken'nsurgency,p. 169, 49. T h e e professional journals provided military reading h r officers of the day: the Journal cf the Military Service lnstituf ion of the Unifed States, the ju~irnnlof the U.S. Itfantq Association (later the ItGn~tryfoz-lrrzal),and the fozkmal of the US, Cavnlty Associal2tiun (later the Gazpaly journal). They were published quarterly; generally with a half dozen main a&icles each, or twenty-four annually, Between the three journals, then, ower seventy main articles on military affairs were published each year* 50. Lt. Col. Robert L. Bullard, "Military Pacifieatian," "urnal c?f the MiEifa~yService Insfitutiorz offhe LInil-lrdStatesf vol. 46 (Jan.-Feb. 1910), pp. 1-24. 51. Capt. W. L. Siberl; "Military Occupation of Northern Luzon," "fournal of tlte Militnfy Service hzslitution #the Unifed Slrates7vol. 30 (Jan.-Mar:19021, pp. 404408. 52. Capt. J, N. Munro, "The Philippine Native Scouts," 1 1 q ~ n fjozdrvral, q vol. 2, no. 1 (July 1905), pp. 178-190; Maj. Witfiarn H. Johnston, jf"E@yment of Philippine %out5 in War," "~ourr-mlof the Militnrp Service Institztiiorz of the United Stakes, vol. 38 @an.-Mar=1906), pp. 67-77'. 53. Capt. Charles D. modes, "The Utilizatim of Native Troops in Our Foreign Possessionti," "jclumnl of the Military Service Instr'tutiorz I?( trlte Uftited States, volt. 30 (Jan. 1902), pp. 1-21; Col. lames W. Powetl, "The Utilization of Natirie Troops in Our F o r e i p Possessions,'"u~rrrzail of the Mililtz~yService I~rzstitutiouof tlze Utzited Sl~tes,VOX.30 (Jan. 1902), pp. 23-41. 54. Lt. Col. Robest L. Bullard, "The Army in Cuba," Joumnl of tlte Milr'laty Service Insliizllion oftlze Ut~l'tedStates, 1701. rill Wuly-NOV.19071, pp. 152-1 57. k Militay Servicc 55. Lt. Louis McLane Hamilton, "bungle Tactics," )t?urr-znlof E Tnstiflrfion cf the Unild Stales, vol. 37 Uune-Nov. 19051, pp, 23-28; Maj. Augustus P. BLocksam, "A Retmspect and Prospect of Mrar,""our~lnl offhe Militay Service Instittition of the United States, vol. 35 (June-Nov. 1904), pp. 21S226; BulXard, ""The Army in Cuba,""p. 152-157. 56. Capt. Peter E Eaub, "The Island of Samar and the Capture of Lukban,'" jozrrnnl of !he Military Service Institution of flte United Slates, vol. 33 (June-No% 1903), pp. 369-381. 57. Maj. C. J. Crane, " m e Fighting Tactics of Filipinc)~,"Jozrmnl of flip Military Sef-zliceInsfitzrtEorz oflfze United S r n t e ~vol. ~ 31 Uune-Nov: 1902), p. 497; Lt. Edwin A. Hickman, 'Ternarks on the Last Days of the Insurrection in Southern Luzc>nfP' jourrlal tf Cfze U.S. I n f a ~ t yAssuciatiorz, vol. 14, no, 50 (Oct. 1903), pp. 300,306. 58, Hickman, ""Lst Bays of the Insurrection'" Maj. Hu& D. Wise, "Notes on Field Srvice in Samar," Tn$ztzlq jounznl, ucd. 4, na. 1(July 14Q7),pp. 3-55; Bullard, "Military I>acificatian.*' 59, Capt. John R.M. Taylor, The Philippizze Inszcrrecfion Ag~z'zzsi:Clip Unifed Slntes, vol. 2, May 19, 4898 to ftdly 4, 3902 (TNashington, DC: War Depadment, Bureau of Insular Affairs, 1906). 60. Ibid., p. 27-HS.
64
Hktorical and Institzi timzal Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
61. Wise, "Notes on Field Sewice," ppgp. 3-55. 62. Parker, "Some Random Notests,"p. 330, 63. Repc~rtof the Secretary of War, ARWQ 1908, vtd. 1, pt. 1, p. 35'7. Tn fact, refer-ences to the Russct-Japanese war as exemplar of the modern tvay of cornbat litter the numerous repor2s of the chief of staff and athers for many years after the Cuban campaigns. 64. Timotfiy M. Nenningeu; "The Army Enters the 20th Century, 19041927,'" in Ag~insEAll El-~emit>s: Inlerprelntions cfMilirc6ary Histo~yfionzCof~p~ial Ti~rzesto Ilte Present, ed. Kenneth J. Hagan and Wiliiam 13. Roberts ( N e w York: Greenwoad Press, 19861, p. 228. 65. Journalsf Reparts and Related Papers of the 3rd Division, 1W3-1910, vol. 9, memorandum regc~rtno. 31, Record Group 165, National Archives, Washington, DC, Hereafter, Record Croup 465 is cited as R(; 165. 66, Nenninger, "Army Enters the 20th Century," p. 229, 67. Journals, Reparts and Related Papers of the 3rd Division, 1W3-1910, vol. 7, memorandum report no. 258, RC; 165. 68. Army War College Instructional Records, 1912-1940, RG 165. 69. Ibid. '70. Arvrly War College Probknz #2 2, U~zitedSfales-jnpnn: Considerafions 14pon 170ssible biostilities zuitfr Japarz, 1Q June 1907; p, 56, Army War College, Military History Institute, curricular archives, 1906-1912, Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, FA. Hereaftex; the Military History Imtitute is cited as MHI. 71. Outliue of Course of Instruction: Anrzy War College Course 1?( 2909-1 910, p. 6, MP.11, curricular archives, 1906-1942. 72. Army War College course 191S1924, vol. 2, Problems and Exercises, 13G 165. The General Stai'f;in their fascination with the Prussian institution on which they modeled themselves, even took to calling their map maneuvers '* Kriegspiel." 73,R m y War College Course in Military Rrf, 1909-2920: Oversms Probt~msI--& MH1, curricular archives, 19UCi-1912. 74, Military Monograph opt Cziba, Army War College Course in Milifnry Art, 1909-1910: Green and Blzie ProbEerrz (No. 3), p, 46, MHf, curricular archives, 490&1912. 75. Milz'fn?yILlonogmph on the Dolrziniccan Republic, A r ~ r ~War y College Cozrrse in Military Ark, 1909-3910: Greefz and Blue Problent (NO.31, p. 86, MHl, curricular archives, 1906-1 912, 5%. Military Munogmplz on Cmta Rica, Arnzy War College Course izz M i l i f n y Art, 1909-1910: G ~ e r zand Blue Prc~blcm(No. 3), NlExfI, curricular archives, 490&4912; Mil1'1.n~Notes on Nicramgtia, Arnzy War College Course ir-z Mr'lr'tn~y Art, 1909-2910: Green and Blue Problem (No. 31, MH1, curricular archives, 19061912. 77. Militaty Notes on Nicaragua, p. 21, 78. Arthttr L. W a ~ e l ;The Setvice of S~ctlrityand Information (Kansas City MO: Hudson-Emberfy), 5th ed. (1896), 9th ed, (1899. '79. Maj. Williarn F;.. Spurgin, Irzfanf~yDrill Regztlnfions, Exfended O r h r , 1898 (Kantias Cily; MO: Hudson Kimberly 18911). 80. Wagner; Seczrrify and Infovmafiozf, 5th ed. (1896), p. 144.
81. hqanfry Drill Regulations, Extended Qrdel; 1902 (Kansas City, MO: Hudson Kimberly, 11902). Z ~ ~ ~Regztl~tions,1904 (Kansas C i t MO: ~ Hudson Kimberty, 1904); 82. T T T ~ Q P Drill Capt.. M. B. Stewad and Capt. R. C. Davisf Motes ~alzdSziggcstit~rzsorz the New Znf n ~ t r yDrill Regzilnifions (Kansas City, M O : Franklin Hudmn, 1905). 83. Boop"in Cnmpraigtz: Xegul~fiottsfor the Army of the Utzited Strafes, 1903 (Kantias City, MO: Hudson Kirnberliy, 1903). 84. ArtX-rur L. Wagner; Qrganimii;ltisnand Tactics, 4th ed-.(Kansas C i t MO: ~ Hudson-Kimberliy, 1901). 85. Wagner; Organization and Tactics, '7th ed-.(1906). 86- Wagner; Sec14rity and I~zformnt iurz, 44th ed. (1903). 87. [U.S. Anuyl Field Service Regtilatio~~s, 1905 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 11905). 88. Ibid., p. 217, 89. Ibid. 90. Ibid., p. 39. 91. [U.S. A r t ~ y Field l Servke Reguhf ions, 1905, zoiflt Antendmcnts to 1908 (Mrashington, DC: G w e m m n t Printing Office, 1908). 92. Proposed Field Semi;cc Regtilafions, Art-icles TI and 111: Tke Service of kfor~natl.on and Orders, 1908 (Fort Leavenwo&h, E: Army Service Schwls, 1908), p. 4. 93. [U.S. Arnzyl Field Service Regtil~tions,1910 (Washington, DC: Go?vernment Printing Office, 44910), pp. 4'1,495, 94. X~~fiznt~y Drill Regzllatious, 3922, witilt War Department Clzauges (New York: ecjnAppleton, 1917). Appendix 3 of this edition of the I n f ~ n t qDrill Rcgu~~ztiotts tains an outline of the 1910 editian. 95. Ibid. 96, Caz~allySeruie Regulntimzs, 2924 (Experinrentall (TNashington, DC: Govern.ment Printing Office, 1914). 97, Allan R, Mitlett, Semper Fidctis: The kll'story of ftw United Stakes Maritze Corps (New Ycfrk: Free Press, 1991), p. 6. 98, Clyde H, Metcaff#A i-Jisf.0~ offtic United Stakes m~larilzeCorps (New York: C. P. Putnam" s n s , 1939), chaps 2-3, 99. Millel-t,Semper Fidetis, p. 33; Metcall, A kll'storp, p. 26. 2 00. Metcalf, A Histo~y~ pp. 2 4,233, 101. Bid ., p. 84. 202. 130bert Bebs Heinl Jr., Soldiers of the Sea: Tke United States lLlnri~zeCorps, 1;77$-1962,2nd ed. (Baltimore: Nautical and Aviation Pub. Co. of America, 1991), p. 73; Metealf, A Hisfofy,p. 192, 103. Heinl, Soldiers of Elze Scn, pp. 101-106; Jack Shulimso)~,Tke Marir-ze Carp' Searchfor n Miss1;71z, 1880-1898 (Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 1993), pp. 94-95. 2 04, Shufimsrrm, Senrcfzfar n Mission, pp. 11,200-201, 105, Ibid., p. 206; Heinl, sol die^ of fhc Sera, pp. 427,4454. 206. Miflett, Scnzper Pidell's, p. 2 39; ""Report on Marine Corps Duplication of Effort Between Army and Navyf'' 17 Dec. 1932, g. 3, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA.
66
Hktorical and Institzi timznl Cc~fztext for Learrzi~zg
10'7. Capt. Stephen M. Fuller and Graham A. Cosmas, Marines in k l l ~Dor7tit~icnn Rep~lblic,191&1924 (Wshington, DC: U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, History and Museums Division, 1974), p. 5. 108, Lt. Col, C. H. Metcalf, "The Marine Corps and the Changing Caribbean Policy," M a r i ~ eCor~jsGnzefte,vol. 21, no. 3 (Aug. 19372, p. 28, 109. Maj. Edwin N. McCtellan, "American Marines in Nicaragua," Mnrirre vol. 6, no, 2 (June 1921), p. 51. C c ~ fGazette, ~s 110.Gen. ]E&sterDessez, p. 12, Oral History- Golf ection, Marine Corps Historical Centeu; Washington, DC. 111.. Repc~E"cof the Major General Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, Annzlnl Reports of the Nnvy Depgrfmert t, 2 92 6 (Washington, DC: Govei-nment Printing Office, 1917).flereafttex;the Repc~rtof the Major General Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps from other editions of the Anntrnl Reporfs of lfze Mazy Deparfmertt is cited as ARND, along with the year to which the edition of Annttnl Reporfs pertains (the edition for a given year is published in the fc3llowing year). 212. ARNB, 2919. 113. Lt. Antltony A. Frances, "History- of the Marine Corps &hooXsfnMS, Dec. 1945, p- 27, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA. 144. ibid, 115.. Ibid. 146. ""A History of the Field Officers"Sch~ol,"Senior School Syllabi, ghedules, Synopsis, Regulations, Courses 1939-1 970, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Develr>pmentCommand, Quantico, !A. 2 17. Heinl, Soldiers of the Sea, p. 255. 118. ARNI), 1923, p. 965. 219, "fat amphibious training, however, looked less like the GixadalcanaX campaign and more like the simpler, unoppoxd landing exercises that EIIis and Harrington tzrrote about in the Mnritze Corps Glrzetfe. 120. Het'nl, Soldiers fl~eSea, p. 27. 121. Ibid., p. 65. 2 22, Millett, Selrziyer Fidelis, p. 111. 123. Metcalf, A Hisfofy,p. 245, 2 24. f-leinl, Soldiers of the f ea, p. 108, 125. Ibid., pp. 108-109. 226, Tke hndirzg-Force and Sruzall Arlrzs X~zstructiotzs,2905 (Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute, 1905). 127. ibid., p. 94. The section on scouting was copied from that tzrritten by Maj. Gen. Baden Pc)well, fc3'crtunderof the Boy kouts, based on his experiences fighting the 4900-1 902 Boyer War in South Af rica, 128, The knditzg-Force and Sruzall Arms X~zstructiotzs,2912 (Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute, 11i342). 2 2 9 , Frances, "Marine Corps Schools," pp. 21. 130. Sfzldies in Minor TacCE'm, 1925 (Fort Leavenworth, K5: Army Service Schooiis Press, 1918). Unfortunately, although there are a few rare references to this document in Marine writings, it has disappeared from the Marine Corps
Historical a ~ X~zstz'tutional d ContextJar Legrning
67
Archives (box 12, Historical Amphibious File 263). The Army's archive at Fort Leavenworth. does not have a copy e i t l ~ e ~ 131 . T~?fanf ry Drill Regultkfions, 1931, zoz'lfh War fle~~7larfmt7flf 611~ngcs(New Yc3rk: Appleton, 1917), pp. 135-136. 132, k i d .
MAP 3.1 Haiti
Intervention in Haiti and Lessons Learned Conduct of the Small War Tn July 1915, an angry mob dragged Haitian President V, Guillaume Sam from hfs hiding place in the French legation in Port-au-Prhce and dismembered him-a fate not uncommon h r Haitim leaders" In the ensuing absence of g o v e m e n t authority, US, Marines under the command of Col. Littleton Waller landed on July 28 to protect Americm interests.1 W o days later, an angry mob &tacked U.S. Navy seamen on shore, killixrg two. The next day, the French Navy landed a guard. to reestablish security at its legation. Based on the premise of 'f"heodore Raoseveltfs to ktercorollary discussed in Chapter 2, the Marhe Corps was assig~~ed vene to help reestablish internal order and run elections. Reestablishing order prcrved more problematic than initially presumed. Wthin weeks the Mashes fotlind themselves embroiled in a slnall war agaillst bands of insurgents-the Cacos-who were supporting the political aspirations of Dr. Rosalvo Robo. Cacos were, in the eyes of the Nliarjnes, "sddiers [who] fought. i,n the hope of the pillage and loot which ~ s u l t e dfrom revolutions, As a general rule, they were on, the side of the 'outs,' and the men helped m e p s i d e n t to power often were fnstrume~~tal in driving him out a few m011ths later.'" "rice violent overthrow was the norm of Haitian political successorshlp, pxlesidential, aspirants in Haiti-in this case Bobo-habitual)y went to Caco chiefs to solicit armed m d political support in exchmge for fi~zancialpayments of varying kinds. Thus, well before the Masine intervention, Cacos had been a powerful, if chaotic, force in Hai"cian pofitics. As a result, it took the Marines over a year, until Late 19l1.6, to sttppress the rebellkg Caco bands. Two years later, however, two new Caco leaders emerged to rc-.ignite the rebellion. From 4918 to 1920, the Marhes undertook a second campaign to suppress the insusgemts, succeeding slOWfr until they killed
70
Intervention in Haiti
the Caco leaden; and dispersed their bands. mercafter, the Mari,nes were able to witihdraw into Port-au-Pri_nceand continue controfiing Haiti from the capital until their deparbre fifteen ycars later in 19%. The initial Marine laslding in 130rt-au-Prince comprhed sorne 330 Marines who required two days to complete their 1anding.Un additional five companies were sent as i m d i a t e reinforcements from G m tan-, Cuba. Seven morc companies followed in mid-August, and two weeks later an artilleq battalion of three companies was sent as well, Within a month, roughly 2,000 soldiers comprising the 1st and 2 n d Marines had bem transported to Maiti and placed under Col. Waller's c m m n d as the 1St Provisional Brigade." At first, the Marines concentrated on occupying and controlling Haiti's ports. This was donc Largely to eontrd f o ~ i g naccess to Haiti, particularly after the French guard landed. The Americans wmted no further foreip lmdings for fear some Eurapem power (the French in this case) might try to reestablish a permanent presence in Haiti, 'The Americans were worried that ""some such foreign power [mi&t] take advantage of an opportunity when we were othercvise engaged, to annex [Haiti], thereby establshing a base, wf-tence lightning blows might be directed against the Panama Canal, uur Gulf and South Atlantic ports, Puerto :Rico and Cuba."" The Woodrow WF1san admfnistration moved yuicl;ly to formalize its right to intervene in Haitian affairs when on August 24 it signed a treaty with the Haitian governmnt giving it iinancial and some political pmtectorate powers over L?fl of Haiti. From the pctrts, M a k e s moved to occupy the larger cities to maintain law and order. They initially met little resistance from the local populace. I-lowever, over the ensufng weeks Caco bands began instigating revolts outsidt. the nnajor cities, causjng the Marines to occupy towns where trouble occurred. Additionally, the two primary avenues oi food supply to Port-au-Prince became threatcmed by the emboldened Cacos, and platoons of Marines werc forced to spread out kom the Haitian capital in order to ensure the smooth supgly of food. into the city To deal with the rising tide of violmce, the Corps declamd an amnesty in August 11915 asld deelided to try to dj,sarm the Cacos. Waller also signed a convention with the primary Caco chicftajns promisixlg iinancial rewards in return fnr ceasing hatile activity a d giving up their w n and their followers' guns. Each Caco soldier surrel-tdering his arms would be paid in the native Haitian currency, five gourds, while the chiefs would be given twenv-five.6 All of the money was paid in a lump s~trnto the eh,iefs, wfio were to distribuk the money among their subchieftains and regular followers. Initidly, only 512 arms were collectd. The reward was then raised to ten gourds for soldiers and 100 for the chiefs,'?Still the m e s t y enjoy4 only modest success. 'The s m for Caco
Intervention irz Haiti
71
soldiers was raised yet agah to fifteen gourds, which had a negligible impact because it signaled to the Cacos that they might be able to hold out for even higher prices.8 &ring Octc.,ber and November, only 1,258 more arms were turned in."e Cacos were not disarming. Meanwhile, the Marines had already disbmded the ragtag governmnt amy.
Natzcre and Progression of the Inszcrgcrzcy I-lwing launched violt-mt rebellions from the mountainous and jungle interior of Hajti long before the twentieth century the Cacos were fairly adept at initiating and.engaging in guerrilla warfare even though they never were as organized or as well armed as their Filipino, Dominican, or Nicaragmn counterparts. Wben rninor Caco chiefs were not paid off by their higher chiefs during the 1915 amnesty several formed splinter groups that began attacking Marine patmls and outposts." C~acobands and sysnpat:hizers in the towns of Cap Walicn and Gonaives became openly hostile and rebellious to the p ~ j nof t deliberately interdicting supplies to tbose towns. 'I'he Mazines thus decided to disarm by force the l q e s t Cacos bands based in t-he province of Grand Riviere. Disaming the Cacos proved a tough task. First and foremost, the Cacos generally had better intelligence and,atfiough primitive, better cornmunicatinn networks than did the Ammican forces. By bowing Ml)nen and where Marine forces were expected to be, t h y could avoid or engage those forces as desired. Additionally, the Caclrs had .the advantage of knowing their home terrain well enough to establish hidden ambushes and to disappear durirrg an engagement. Like the insurgents on Samar ten years before, they also used conch shells and ""voodoo'~rurnsto communicate collected intelligence.11 As a result, the Cacos at first maiintained the initiative in the field and through ambushes held th initial,advantages of surprise while operating on the tactical offensive. In addition to superior information, the Cacos also unclerstood how to fight better-equipped forces in the jungle. First of all, they generally shot at the Rcrarines from long range. They fired upcm the small patrols constantly, but snrnetimes they would attack the town garrisons as wefl. Small attacl
72
Intervention in Haiti
discovered, the Cacos would fight from ddensive trenches they had dug nearby. In several ways, the Caco version oE guerrilla war mirmrtrd tactics used by both Moms and Filipinos during the Army's first two slnall wars. L,ike the Moros, the Cacos often attacked md then retreated back to their forts ralcher than back tcr their villages to f e i p friendliness (the noted Filipino tactic). But Cacos never made use of shock tactics, that is, fightkg close in, as the Maras did,Rather, t h y h g h t like the Filiphos-from a distance and with an avenue oE mtreat fixed well beforehmd. e)ne key difference between the Cacos m d both the Filiphno m d Moros insurgelnts was that the Cacos demonstrated m ability to learn new tactical security measrtres. So, b r example, when the Cacm suffered a surprise attack and defeat at one o.f their forts, Boucan Cars&,they qrxickly learned to establish outposts m d security pohts to avoid a rclpeat sup-prise.lWespite these new security p~cauf;ions,however, the Marines continued tcr focus cm destroying t-he Caco forts, much Like the Arm,y had focused on dcsiroyjng the Moro cattos m Mindanao. The attacks were successful, but not enough to prevent thc.Cacos from operating in the field until late 1016. Thereafter, relaIive c& prevaired fnr two years until an erstwhile Caco subchieftain named Charlemagne Perau1t escaped from prisoner duty in January 1918. Wth his prison guard-whom Charlemagne talked into escapkg kvjith h - h e fled to the Mls and took up arms against Ihe Americans. tn the process he formed his own "government," recruited a ragtag, incohesive 5,000-man "armyff' and induced another 15,000 parttimers to aid his hsufgency Most of these part-timers, along with their wives at the markets, acted as intelligence officers, Within a relatively short period Charlemagne's intelligence network became rc.lativt.ly efficimt and effective, passing accufate informatim about Marine etndeavars back to him, By the end of 3918, Caco attaeks against tJle Marirres had increased considerably forcing the Marincs back to the field again to wage their second campaign against the Cacos. Up until this time, however, C h a r l e m a ~ e had confined his guerrilla war geographically to the norlchem part: of the country. By 1919, however, his forces were circulating clown &rough the central anct southern provinces, forcing the Marines to give chase. 'Thissecmd campaign to crush Charlemape" Cacos was probably lche mast brutal phase of the Haitian hsurgency-'Wnlike the first campaign, Charlemagne" Cacos actively sought to engage Marine patrols. Routinely they fell upon unsuspecting patrols a d tried to kill them in vicious ways. However, the Cacos sorely underestimated the tactical capabilities of the Marines. Rxely did the latter succurnb to the ambushes; indeed they demonstrated time and agairt that they could absorb the first Mow and then go on the tacticat offensive and drive o f the Cacos. 'This
Intervention irz Haiti
73
was because the Marhes had better firhg disciplirze and certainly better training to give battle. Interestingly, the nature of the terrairn b h i c h hamanci prevented patr& from chasing the Cacos) prwented p e ~ targeting d severc bloodshed for both sides at any m e time. In the vast majority of instances only one to three solidiers were killed and a few others wounded (combined for both sides).'Wonetheless, -there was constmt fighting throughout tlne republic. To counter Marine successes, Cbarjcmagne began avoiding the Marine patrds and outposts and instead inflicted terror diectly upon the urban popdatiom. In October 1919, he launched a direct attack on Fort-auPrince. Charlemagne attempted this bold coup de main in large part because he had false intelligence that the ikfarines and constabulary Gendarmerie w r e only we&ly guarding the city. ln rcality, the latter had been tipped off by a douhle-agent Caco leader. Reinforced Marine m d Gendarmerie uni-ts drove off the attack while inflicting large losses on the Caco insurgents. Memwhi1e, a bold undercover operatio~~ launched by Sgt. Herman Flanneken targeted Charlemape himself du.ring his attack on the capital, In a daring nightthe endeavor reminiscent of Funstm's capture of Aguinaldo, Mmmeken and his fellow Marines blackened their faces and, led by native constabulary unjts, passed through Charlemagne's guards and surprised hirn in his camp. Hameken kiIIed Charlemaglne as the latter tricd to flee, bringing to an end one Caco threat. l6 FIowever, anotlner had sprung up. While Charlemagne had been fighting in the nor&ern parts of Haiti, another Caco leader named Benoit Ratra.iiilXe had developed his own Caco following in central and southern Haiti. When news of Charlemagne's death was ofkially spread (along wiah a crucifixion-like photo) by the Miarines, Ratraville assumed leadership of the entirc Caco i n s u r gcrncy Like Charlemagne, he too tried (inJmuary 1920) to launch a mas-. sive attack on Port-au-Prince. Agair7 tipped off befmhand, Marines rushed to ai-i;acksome 300 Caco rebels that had hfiltrated the heart of the capital. With;in hours the Marines drove off the Cacos, killkg sixty-six in the process.17 W ~ i l ethis debacle (as it became known locally) weakened Batraville, it:did not f;inish him off. Thus, the Marhes were brced to hunt him down in the hills of central Haiti, It took until April 1920 belore they found Batrawille. tn the end they did, and a patrol killed hirn durhg an attack on his hideout. His death signaled the Einai end of the Caco insurrection as the hsurgents begm disbmding.
Ovemll Response to the Ilzszirgency Despite the paucity of formal doctrine available to guide the Marine effort, the Corps nonctbcless developed a number of measttres to defeat
Intervention in Haiti
74
TABLE 3.1 Comparisc>nof Prior Dc~ctrineand Measures Used in Haiti
Formal Doctrkt" Civil Measures Military Govemmnt Public Works (non-Road) Road Building Medical /Sanitation Judicial (incl. Martial taw) Education Arms Control Other (AgricuXturat Refc>rms> Military Measures Bush Garrisons Constabulary Civil Guards (Vafunteers) Intelligence Collection Guides Kecmnaissance Mapping Patrolling Columar Opera tiom Small Combat 13atrals tong-Range/Mc,bile Pa tmls Night /Inclement Weather Ops Search cSs Destr<>yOperations Air P w e r Reconcentration Other (Cordon Operations)
Mmsure Used in H ~ i l l No Yes
Yes Yes Limited Net Ncj Net Yes Yes
No Limited Yes Yes
Ncj Yes No Yes Net No Net Ncj
Yes
Yes timi ted Yes Yes Limited Net Ncj
the Caca hsurgents, including civil m d military measures (see Table 3.1). In the Haitian case, Marines undertook governmental, medical, public construction (mostly road b.taildinti;), and jueiicial measures on tbe civil side to help pacify the populace. Few edracationai m d no poljtical mcasures werc undertakm, so far as the records show's Ch the military side, Marines engaged in garrisoning, the creation of constabulary units, intelligence networking, systematic combat patrolling, and search-and-destroy m d night operations, Air power may have been used for the first time by iamericans to bomb Caco forts. No reconcentration measures were ul-rdertakar, unlike in the Fhilippi,nes.
Intervention irz Haiti
75
Since Haiti was the first Marine small war, not all the measures ider~tified above were instituted immediate@ upon the Corps" arrival in July 1935. Most of the civil measures were mandated in the treaty signed between Haiti and the United Stat-es and were impfcmented shortly a h r the occupation began. Unfortunately, the records do not show whether the txaty's provisions sirnply repmsented some individual% or groupfs insight hack in Washhgton or rcfiected lessons learned fmln the Philippine muor Cuban expeditions. If the latter, it is surprising that no educational or political forms were attempted. Most ot: the miliwy measures, by contras ven though they easily could have been lifted out of the Philippine and Cuban experiences-appear to have evoked over time as Rsponses to the growing threat pox"ctby the Caco movement. In particular, the Marines garrisoned only the miljor population cerrters before realizing that systematic garrisoning of the countryside was nece* sary Atso, the Rllarines conciuckd their campaip hitiatly on the operational defensive. They gmisuned to defend the towns and villages. %me reconnaissmce patrolfing was done, but most of the early battles were initiated by Caccls firing on the garrisons or the smdl recomaissance patrols. M y afier months of this constant, grokvhg harassmer~tdid the Marines switch to the operational offensive and systematically begin developing better imtelligence measms, c ~ a t i n ga cmstabdary and using combat patmls. This is somewhat surprising given that Col. Waller had experience both in the Philjppines and Cuba that, as Chapter 2shows, exposed him to most of the military measures used by the Army. Wether he f o ~ oabout t them during the jntervcning years, simply fajled to provide well-designed ord.ers, or felt Haiti was a different case altogether, one can only guess. Nothing he or others w o t e that survives in the archives today explains the oversight.
Civil Measzrres Used to Coznzfev the ITzsztrgenfs Three principal reasons account for the Marine Corps" use of civil measures in Haiti. The first was intellectual. M m y Marines believed h an ecmomic ur~derpiinniingto what they referred to as "bmditry" in Haiti,lg Tn the Commandant's words, "As the peasants are secure in their life and property and as each is able to earn something ~ g u l a r l yf m the sale of his little crop, the danger of rclvolution and bandit.ry will di,minish.To Capt. Smedky Butler, head of the Haitian Gendarmerie, fundamentally agreed with this proposition." h a letter tc:,a colleague at the U.S. State Department, he extoued the civil reforms under waq' in Haiti. Waller, now in charge of the MarineskciviJ.effort in Haiti., was busy reformhg the postal, telegraph, and telephone services while implementing an overhaul of the Department of Sanitatim. Waller also o ~ a n i z e da Publjc
76
Intervention in Haiti
W r k s Departmetnt for the rural districts; its primary function was to improve the mads, in part so goods could pass between mariccrts. As Butler wrote about Waller, "These steps of his are all to hasten the solution of this problem and leave this pour land in far better shape than when he hmd it.p'= The second =ason for implementing civil measures lay in their utilitarian nature." m e Marines attempted to control the Caco insurgency by reforming various departments within the Haitian government and implementing new services in the country$&. Evidence for this line of thought is seen in the focus of the reforms. Far example, Waller's sdorms of the various comrmunications systems helped the Marines collect and pass along intelligence (particularly to the remoter garrisons) in a timelier m n n e r than was othervvise possible. 'The Pub:lic Works Department almost exclusively focused c m road-building-to two cmds, One was to grant freer movement of goods among the people so they ccruid help themselves econolnically (and thus presumably stop supportkg the Cacos); the other was to permit the more rapid movement of troops between trouhle spots. In the dawning age of motclr transport, trucks ofkred a relatively rapid means for moving soldiers to where they were needed. Using them, however, required roads in better cditiion than existed in Haiti when the Marines lmded. The final rclason for intplememting civil measures was the s a m for the Marines as it had been for the Army in the Philippines-a weak manpower base.24 111 the case of Haiti, the RcTarhes never had enough manpower even to garrisnn all the villages and towns. As Figure 3.1 shows, the total number of men in-country fluctuated between roughly 1,000 and 2,000 over the seven-year p"Xli~d(If the insurgency Tbat =presented the conntoined minirnum nunber of troops considered necessary to stanch the insurgency and extra troops rotatjng through Haiti on a temporary basis. Together, they had to cover a country some 1(1,70 squaw miles, with a pllpulace of approximately f .5 million..'This compares with the 60,000-100,000 men the Army had. in the Phjlippines to cover mostXy tuzon, vvhich is approximately 411,400 square mftes with approxirnatefy 3.5 million inhabiwts. Another way of ma;king Che colnpnrison would be one Marine per five to ten square miles in Haiti comparcld to one Army soldier per one-half square d e on Luzon.25 C~ontiequentlk;the Marines were forced to engage in a pattern of civil activities that they hoped would induce the poyulace to cease supporting the Caco irtsurgents. One of the key civil measurcls was to give military commanders a role in the running of civil and econmic operations in their own arc3asezb meorci.. ically, "the orciinary civil gave nt was allowed to continue and was not to be interkred with except in cases where its aclion was b e r i r m interests."z7 Pmctically, shadow co~ntmlmechanisms were em-
Intervention irz Haiti
1915
1916
77
1917
19113 Yeas @ Mill. # Troops
1919
1920
1921
1922
Add'l. Troops
FIGURE 3.1 Number of Marines Deployed to Haiti, 1915-1922. Navy Department, Regisker of IFze Commissionlrd wlzd Warrnlzt Officers of the Ulzited States Nnzy n ~ Mal.z'ne d Cotps (Wshington, BC: Gc>vernment13rintingOffice, various years, 11i315-1934)
SC3URCE:
ers (i.e., captains) ~sponsiblefnr ployed by makilng company co the welfare of all commm~ities the district of their command. A commander was at all times to be "'fully posted as to irrigation, roads, bridges, topography, pcwtal ser\iicei telegrapl~sand teiephonclls, sanitation, and concessions, and hL' must also report on all work being perfamed by the judiciary, municipal and.government official,^.""" 8 e y were also expected to learn the lmguage, the l w s p o & ruraland penal), and. elements of dvil engineering (e.g., smiktion, irrigation, road-building, etc.)..Ckiginally an ad hoc iapp is oversight process was formalizd. with the l advisers program in October 3917' that gave establishment sl:a eo oMicers the authority se mmicipalities on govemme~~tal, fhmcial, and educational activities. Communal books were established for each fhmces and. public wwks of town ar village that r mmity. The district c was r e ~ i r e dto audit ail the c books of his subcorn inspection trips each month. anders to be intiserved &E!intelfigmctt function of forcirrg di?;h.icteo mately kno\v1edge"ble of Che state of affairs \zrithin their jurisdietiom.
78
Intervention in Haiti
C)n the medj,cal and sanjtation side, Marhe officers were placed in charge of the Public Health Service to ixnpmve the quality of health incountry. n ~ was & not necessarily done foremost to protect Haitians. American experience in Cuba and Pmama led such measures to become part of national foreign policy to protect American trooys from unhealthy medical and sanitation conditions. Consequently, medical/sanitation work was one of the five ""services" that the United States established u11der Artide 13 of the U.5.-Haitian Treaty." Y i s part of the treaty was des i p e d to be similar to agreements the United States had with Cuba and Panama to have smitary engineers clean up the countryside.30 Conditions on the ground by all accounts warranted such medjlcal intervcmtionism. Sanitation cmditions were so poor in the countryside that disease and morblity "made it extre~~ely diEicztltt to recruit f-able-bodied =dames capabte of formhg the nucleus of an efficient constabulary"'"1 Malaria was a constmt threat to the military forces, so the officers of the Medicd Service (stalfed mostly wjth Navy personnel) "carried on the work to improve sanitary conditions, not only for the general good, but in sheer serfdefmsc;?,anrl to prc.serve the health of ail Gendarmerie unitseff32 Toward that end, the Marines form& the %nice d't-fygime quickly to providc immunizations to the populace and soldiers, The Mediral Corps ran the Haitian Generd E-lospital and helped anyone who came in for iree: Medicille was completely swialized.33 Wce sanitatio~~ affected the medical efforts, Marine offirers were put in charge of sanitation as well.sWater supplies were better guarded, markets and s o m e s oE foods inspected, trash removd from the streets, and general clemhg, grading, and guttering of the roads was undertaken on a programatic basis. As important as the medird and smitatim efforts were, Marines officers felt their most impormt civil injtia.tive was the buildjng of mads. Most roads in Haiti had virtually ceased to exist because they bad. not been maintained. ever since the French built them a century before. Recopi;zing the importance of passable roads, the Marine chief of the Gendarmerie mandated that his o i f i c e ~ complete a certain amount of road construction each month-in addition to the numerous other duties for which they we= rclsponsihle." He did so for both utilitarim and philosophical reasons. On the one hand, road repairs allowed him to use motor trucks to move men mar Caco area." hh,he deemed. road-building ""a matter of utmost intportance, both economicatly in the interclsts of the dabitants of the rural di&ricts and the Republjc in gcneral, and strategically for the proper uelkation of the Gendarmerie d'Hai.ti to maintah ordezm3TCkr the other hand, the overall public work effort served a larger purposc:
Aside from the military and police duties, our Marines acting as Haitian officers are doing evexy-thing in their power to assist the native population in
Intervention irz Haiti
79
rebuilding their roads, their irrigation works, their bridges, to clean up their t o m , and generally better the condition of the people at large, by doing which, we hope tcr abmlutely d o away with. the desire on the part of any Haitian to revolt against his go>vernment,~
As a result of the rcrad-building program in particular, several new roads were built and macadamized and hundreds of miles more cleaned, leveled, made passable, and kept open.39 That was th good news, How the Marines actually accomplished their mad-building was the bad news that became a source of great embarrassment to the Corps and to the United States. X n order to build certain public roads, unpaid labor, known as cctrvce, was used." Unpaid labor was used because most people were too poor to pay taxes; thus there was no government money to pay cmstructiun workers. To circumvent this constraint, the Mar-ines forced people living in a district to work (for free) to help build and maintah roads that passed through their district. Labor canps w r e buitt to provide k e food, shelter, and entertainment to the workers. This made the corvee highiy popular at first. Gradually however, various m y o r s and native Gendarmerie soldiers began abusing the system by altokving some workers to bribe their way out of labor and.by forcing others to work beyond their allotted time. Under pressure to complete their quota of road canstructhn, some Amrican officers simply did not release their laborers. Fhally, a Senate investigation forced the Marines to abo146h the corvee h July 1418. Unfortunately the abuses did not end then. One zealous major commancfing the Depnrtmcnt of the Narth continued the wrvee inhis jurisdiction. Additionally, he ordered Caco prisoners to be executed, not bmugl" ta prison." In this rare instance, it took a court-martial flw was f o m ~ dguilty) to bring an end to such practices.. The final civil measure used by the Marine Corps in Haiti irwolved the application of martial law. Adm. WLfliam B. Capertcm, in charge of the fleet oM Haiti, formally deelmd martid law on Septelnber 3, 1,915, in a "Proclamation to the People of Port-au-Prince, f-IaitieM4Vt was augmented cme week later with an mder prcrhibitirrg the carrying cJf firearms or other deadly weapons. Initially; martial law seems to have applied only to the trouble areas, princlipallp Port-au-Prince and the immediate territory occupied by American forces. Unforbnately, the cords contain very little detail concerning the mechanisms of how martid lacv was applied in Haiti. What is known is that when Cacos were captured they w a sent for immediate trial, whert- the prosecution usually had witnesses to testify against them (e.g., a victim, the victim's children, or other wih-tesses).43Thus, standard judicial procedures seem to have been applied (unlil?;e in the Phiiippines, where suspects were nat atways brought to triaf,and wihresscs were not needed to assulne guitt)." "ill,
80
Intervention in Haiti
the Cacos almost always committed their depredations in front of others, leadjng to no lack of wihesses who could testify agahst them. Unfortunately the files do not indicate wken martial law was lifted, though it would not have mdtered much: The military measttres undertaken by the Corps in Haiti, far more than the civil measures, were responsible for terminating the Caco insqency.
m e of the first and most importmt military measures undertaken was garrisoning troubled towns. When Col. Waller arrived with the first Marine contingent in July 1915, he tried to quiet the norlhern regions ftraditional Caeo strongholds) initially by garrisoning the major towns of Ouanamixlthe and Fort Liberg, bribjng Caco leaders, and trylng to find some of their strongholds by reconnaissance patroiling." As previously noted, the Marirres concentrated hitially upon garriso~~hg the major port cities. FIowever, as the Caco insurgency spread., officers garrisoned. minor towns to rid them of the insurgents, just as the Army had learned to do in the PhGippiws. In many instances t o m s were gmisoned because they contahed custorns houses that the United States, under the treatTv; were to contml.6 Towns near the Uomi~~ican border wew also garrisoned to Mock arms and other smugghg from that country. To accomplllsh the garrisoning, the entire country was divided into three departments-mpartment of the Cape (northern Haiti), Department of Fort-au-Prince (central Haiti), and the Department of Capes (southern Haiti). Each department was further divided into districts. Each district was placed under tbe contrtr of a company (which contahed roughly 100-120 men)." At the district level, each company was subdivided into small posts of a half-dozen men throughout tke affected area (although during the second Caco campaign the posts were hcreased to nine men or abandoned altogether)." This meant that each district was dotted with posts from which patrols could be launched daily s r on a moment's notice. Usually, not enough men were available to place posts throughout the elltire district"Districts such as those h Map 3.2 were thus often divided htwo, with one half cleared of Cacos before the other half was. A few posts would be maintained in the cleared half so the insurgents did not switch back m d brth between areas. With no mnre than 2,000 men in b i t i at any given tinne, the Corps could not provide tbe men necessary even for this half-arlta method.49 Neilher could the Corps use Haiti's army, having disbanded it a h o s t immediately afier July 1915. Meanwhile, as many as five difkrent police organizations operated in the cities, undermi~~ing the inf;elligenceand security measures necessary to defeat the insurgents.5Vhey had to be
Intervention irz Haiti
MAP 3.2 Divisictn af Haiti into Districts,
disbanded, too. Conseque~~tly; in December 1915 the State Depart~~ent ordered the Corps to organiz a single cmstahdary in Haiti "organized along on the tines of the Philippine Constabdary" even though the treaty had not been signed."' The const&ula,ry-not Ihe Army and not the police-wdd help the Marines pacify the country. The inwolvement of thr State Department in establishing the tlaitian constabulary highlights how lessons of the past may have inffuensed contemporary responses to the insurgents. The Philipphe Commission's creatim of the civilian-cmtrof.IedPhilippine constabulary, as well as G m Charles E. Magoon's creat-ionof the Cuban cmsta,bulary out of the Rural Guard, both coutd have been the mgur inspimtim behind the creation of the Haitim Gendarmerie. &e or more individuals in the State Department m y have -embered the civilian role in creating either force or may have researched it in their files. Unforh_lnatdy,tlne rationale behind the State Department%spanw~"hipof the Haitian clrnstabuiary fnrce remains unknown. Still, a couple of Che more senior Masine officers, like Waller, likely would have been familiar with constabulary operations from thefr service in the Philippines, but we do not have their ~ o u g h t s on this subject. C)ne author has argued thus:
82
Intervention in Haiti inspiration for the U.S. sponsored constabularies seems to have come primarily from the Mexican nrrales of the bte 19th century, but knowledge of ather foreign paramilitary police forces may also have helped encourage US political and military leaders to rely on such units to bring stability to certain countries of strategic importance to the United Skates. Militarized police forces were widely used in the British empire, for example. In the United States, Native American resewation poXice functioned very much like the overseas constabularies, supplementing the army by controfling hostile elements and perfclrming law enforcement and civic action dutiese52
On the one hand, it is clear the Marhes created the Gendarmerie under State Department pdicy (through the treat_?iand orders). On the other hand, the s a m Marjrw leadership h-thcater may already have been predisposed to creating a conatabdarp without State Department interference. Moreover, there were concrete problems facing fie shcnt-handed Marhes that might have led them down that path anyway; Capt. Smedley Butkr was assigned to command the new Gendarmerie dWaiti. H e immediately set about resruitiq officers anci men to achieve the designated size of 112 of,llcers and 2,500 enlistees. In order to maiintain control over the Gendarmerie, officers were pulled from the ranks of the commissioned and nfmcornmissiwd mnks of the Corps and Navy only. The Marines eventually suppiid a[l f Z O officers of an expanded 2,600-man fnrce.?WOffers hired were usually given a pay raise m d pmmoted one rank while in the Gendarmerie. Thus, a sergeant irr the C q s codd be a lieutenant h the Haitian orgmization. No natives were hired as officers, although the publicly stated intent was to have trained native officers in place before the intervmtion ended. By contrast, ail enlistees were native." R~truitmemtwas skw, though, because mmy na.t.ives did not want to be associated with the occupying power and because many had been abused while serwing in the d d Haitian armyi.To speed up the recruittnent process, Butler simpy culled many of the Gertdarmerie from the old army (the one, ironj.cally, that had been beaten many t h e s by the Caco insurgents). Wtkzin two months, Butler had raised almost half (1,200) of the men he needed. Urr Febrrrary 1, 1916, the various Haitian police organizations were stripped of their powers and responsibilities; these were turned over to the Ge~~darmerie (which kept growing slowly), Next, a public casnpaip to disarm, the populace was undertaken. Enlistees were equipped with the old Krag rifles so famous from the Philippines. Their training was conducted by drill. sergeants from the Corps, although it was initially quite limited. The major mitigating factor was the language barrier (mmt Haitians codcl not speak hglish, and the Marines could not speak Creolie), which made training extremely difficult. C h top of
Intervention irz Haiti
83
that, enlistees were not trained in musketry because their loyalty was as yet mtested.s5 As the princir>alpdice and military force in Haiti, the Gendarmeriefs official responsibilities were preservation of order; protection of indjvidual rights; protection of property; supervision of ams; and prevention of smuggling. In reality, tther responsibilities went far beyond these, extending more into the civil ream than had the Philippine constabulary. For example, Gendarmerie officers became responsibte for protecting and reporting on the cmdition of highways, bridges, and telegraph and telephone lines*Officers censored traffic over telegraph and telephme lines as well. They becme msponsible for the condition oi public buildings; supervising public lands; werseeing puhlic irrigation works; and cmtmll,ing all prisons. m e y colkcted vital statistics, including the census when orbered, and ~ g u l a r l yreported on the state of agriculhrc around the nation. On the medical side, they enforcled sanitary orders and regulations, particularly those designed to prcvent Chc spread of epidemics. They enforced harbor and docking regulations m d ensured all weights and measures conformed to the established legal standards. T%e extent of Gendarmerie involve~ne~~t in the civil infrastructure is probably best illustrated by Butler" ddesire to reorganize the Public Works Department under thc. Gendarmerie headquarters. Butler did so because he felt the Gendarmerie was the only organization capable of carrying out the necessary reforms, ALso, he believed that "'by taking all these little departments under our wing we have a greater influence for good and over a large number of the population rerei\ring pay from and owing allegiance to the same organization and that organization charged wiEh the peace anci saftlty of their country.'"" B&utlerwas not the only officer to believe as much. Another requested relief from his duty as supervisor of roads unless the Gendarmerie were placed in. charge, arguing: If this policy is to build roads and public works at the least possible cast without accepting any responsibility for the tzrelfare, health, or self respect of the men employed, 1 believe it can best be accomplished by civilian contract, if hawever the policy is to build roads and public works, at a reasonable cost with a desire to live and let live, to train and help these people to administer their c3wn minor afkirs and to assist them in living cleaner, more honest and self respecting lives, I: believe it can best be accomplished by the officers of the Gendarmerie,'?
De facto, Butler h a n d a way to bypass the sclerotic mmiripal governments to effect reform, Aside from the Gendarmerie, d y the pwsident of Haiti was given any say over civil reforms,.
84
Intervention in Haiti
On the military side, the Gendarmerie was no less active. Approximately If500 personnel were distributed armong 117 outposts by kbruar). 1916." The geographic distribution of G d a m e r i e units was the m e as for the Marine Corps, 'There were three departments dividing up t-he entire c m t r y , each headed by a colonel, M"ifiin each deparment, Ihe districts were commanded Zly a captain who oversaw a company of rout;hly 100 men. Subdistricts hvithln that: were commixnded by a lieutenant. Finally, there were small outposts generally commanded by a noncommissioned officer. Some of those posts might be as m a l l as three to six m. For most of 1916, Gendarmeria posts in the int.edor of the corntry were conbixzed with Marine posts for support. FXowever, the latter were withdrawn in late 1916 because the native cmstabdary was accomplishing its job well enough to obviate the need for Marhe assistmce. In the field, Gendarmerie units earned. the Marines-rust to make long patrols on their own, although there was same concern ower h w wise this was. m e off-ices charged during an investigation that Gendarmerie patrols sent out wit.hout Marine leadership had bem comitting depredations: "lt is practicaily certain that prior to this time Gendarmerie patrols operating against bancfits and not led by an Alnerjcan had killed prisoners, and such patrols we= therefore not sent out unless absolutely necessary."" Despite such concerns, Gendarmerie persmwi were allowed to patrol on their own because, u11like the I"h.iiippine scouts, Hait.ian scouts knew their way fairly well around the countrysid.e and so were able to find hidden Caco camps and posts on their own.h%deed, in February 191Whe mgor Caco fort at Boucm Car& was discovered and attackd solely by Gendarmerie mits. This action marked one of the first engagements in which U.S.-trained. I-laigans fought other Haitians.61 Good inteuigemee was key to finding and attacking the Caco forts like Boucan Carrk. However, when early in the campaigns the Marines began to occupy the interior, it became clear they lacked the requisite intelligence to find their way around the overgrown colmt-ryside. By focusing upon Haiti" cities and major towns first, they did not &lielop sketch mapmf Haiti's trails early on in the occupation Simple knowledge of the countryside explains why the Gendarmerie had better success than the Marines in finding hiddm Caco strongholds, ?b overcome this knowledge gap, the Marines decieSed to employ their limited forces not to attack the Cacos but far basic reconnaissance of the countryside.a T0waJ.d that end they crcated sketching patrols whose task was to develop accurate maps of Haiti. Fhailly, the Marines did not mderstand Haitim cufture and language, which gabre the Gelzdarmerie m indisputarble advantage hsecuring information, The records are at best k~completecclncerniw the overall Marine ercperience in developi,ng an intelljgence system in Haiti. From wfiat can be
Intervention irz Haiti
85
discerned, t h e salient features emerged from their el"fort. First, the Marines focused their initial intelligence activities in, the wrong areas. They attempted to create their intelligence networks within the cities they occupied, wSle~asthe Cacos operated strictly fsm, and usually within, the countr)iside. Seconb, the Marhes took advantage of communications technology to distribute new information down to tbr district level. They toak advantage of the telephone to maintain cmtact between gcrneral headquarters and town garrisons. Larger bases in the field were prowided with field wireless set. sstflntiafZy raetitas-with which they codd comnunicate back to the district headquarters. Despite Che generally puar communications (due to weather, mountains, cut lines, etc.), the new technology allcrwed the Iklarines to distribute infornation faster and wider than the Army had been able to do in its small wars"The telephone also allowed brigade headquarters to m a i n t b a level of control over field units that far exceeded what the Army attained in the isolated provhces of the Philippines, Third, unable to speak the language m d illhformed on local cUlture, the Marines could not djstinguish between simple peasants and the Cacos. To overcome this handicap, brigade headquarters restricted individual travel throughout Haiti. Permits (internal passports) were issued so that Marines could monitor and control movement around thr countryside. h this way a patrol that discowewd an individual on the trail wotrld he able to determine whether Chat pers m belonged in the area. There is nu indication whether the Haitians, like the Filipinos, became adept at escaping these constraints by falsifying ide~~tii-ies or not.&" In addition to using internal passpo'tq Marhe patrols used local guides extwively and successfully. Usually thry used capbred Cacos who were afraid to go back to their gangs and who rcmained unsafe as long as their former comrades operated near their home vilaages, so they cooperated (even if reluctantly) with the Marines. Other tirnes, officers paid locals from the villages to hclp patrols in unfriendly territory Due to the size of villages and the commmal nature of West hdians, such locals were usually able to identlfy vvbo werl, h e s t peasants and vvho were Cacos. 64 The combat patl-ols that used these guides were an irngort;mt part oi the initial Wfarine movements into the countryside. Indeed, ccmlbat patmlling became a key part of the Corps's effort to staneh the Caco i n s ~ ~ gcrncy The nature of combat patrolling, though, changed over the course of the first year in Haiti. Initially, Marines simply patrolled outside the mgor cities like Cap Hatien in order to ensure that Cacos codcl not bloclcade the cities.65 Patrol operations during this t i m can best be described as defensive in natum. For example, patrols did not chase after Cacos simply milling about. Neilher did they seek to lure Cacos into fire-
86
Intervention in Haiti
fights. They simply patrolled in order to keep the trade lines into the cities open. h so doing, they generalb operated only within a ten-nnile radius around the occupied cities and ports.". Thrn~tghthe fail of 11915, the c o d a t patmls opera.t.ed on the deknsive until the Marines began to understand the nature of the Caco insurgency. Once brigade headquarters ~ a l i z e dthat tbe Cacos generally operated out of old French forts, the Marhes went on the offezzsive. Rather than use small. patrols, though, headquarters ordered the formation of multiple large colurnns-comprising upward of nearly 500 men-that would be based i,n the tokvns and search for the forts based on gathered intell.igence.67In October 1915, for example, Zlutler was given command of a large mobile column to track dam and attack Caco forts in a particularly troublesome district..Far weeks Bzrtler's colurn, and others like his, did not find any of the forts, despite bejng informed by natives that they were in the right areas. Consequently, brigade headquarters ordered its colulnns to disperse and redeploy as rcconnaissancc pntrcliis.68 However, immediately thereafter Butlcr located the remaining key Caco stronghofd of Fort Kviere in the hills near the town of Crand Rviere.. Headquarters reconstituted the columns, and they converged on the forts in order to "get the Cacos to stand and fight once and for all with no avenue of retreat u p m which to escape."6Y Fort Rviere was captuled in rather conventional fatihjon, amazingly with no Marinc fatalities. Butler and two others received Medals of Hmor for tl-reir actions during the attack. To follow Chrough on Che success of cagttlring Fort Riviere, brigade headquarters stuck with large column patrols supplemented with garrison p"trols. Butler" formatlon of the Gendamerie in December 1915 did not change this posture, It did, hocvever, carnse the Cacos to begin attxking the Gendarmerie garrisons: "As the gendames we= the visiZslr syme aiso of the corver, these attach served cornmm bols of the ~ g i m and purposes of resistance, djserediling the cxcupati"nl and acquiring comparatively modem weapons."70 Initialiy, the Gendarmerie operated on the defensive, orgmizing patrols to chase Caco bands ozzly after a Caco attack. However, as the Cacos e x p d e d th@irbases of operations into the interior vatleys of Haiti during the summer of 1916, the Marines and Gendarmerie changed their patmlliq opemtions to compensateP1 They went on the offensive. First, the number of garrisons was expanded to get iorces operating over larger areas. Second, m a l l combined patrols of Marines and Gendarmerie scoured the countryside around the bases and garrisons for Cacos. The idea was to keep the Cacos constantly on the move so they had little time to harass the populace or garrisons, rest, or clbtain supflies. Finally, m the theory that if the patrols could not find the Cncos then the Cacos
Intervention irz Haiti
87
shot~1dfind the patrols, the Marhes and Gelzdarmerie began uskg small patrols to lure the Cacos into fights that the better-tsained Marines and Gendarmerie would win, Even when almost all patrolling operations were turned over to the Gendarmerie in late 1916, patrolling operations were maintained on a near continuous basis. Gendarmerie patrols would campaign for over two weeh in the bush before retumhg to the gmrison for rest. Patrols were always on the move to capture Cacos. The assumption was that as "the natives figurt. out this strange new persistency of the white mmfs law that never gives up,'"hey would cease aidbg the Cacos." The size of these combat patl-01s varied, thou& not widely. Predominately they comprised fewer than fifty men.7Ut the higher end, two squads of twem.t.y-somemen each patrolled together if operathg m u n d the garrison area. They were accompani.ed by large detachments from time to time when makk~glmg-distance mwements from one part of the country to another.74 At the lower end, some patrols comprised only fiiteen men. Oftm, the Gendarmerie began long marches with a mediumsized patrol of thirty to forty men. mile encamping on the march they would send out s~nailpatrols ol a kcv men each down t-he narrnw Haitian trails to scour the bush for Cacos or their hideouts.7"ese patrols often carried only arms and ammunition, nothiztg else that could make noise. To maintain the eleme~zi: of surprise, talking (evezz whispering) m d smoking while on the trail were forbidden, This offensive method of combat patrolling-lrtrilIg the Cacos into fights and then chasing after them-proved to be the most effective method of wearing down the insurgents, With& six months the offensive combat patrols managed to accomplish what Waller" reconnaissance patrols and Butler's c d ~ ~ ~had n n not s managed to do: drive the Caco insurgcrncy into retreat. Once in abeyance, the Marines did, not stay out in the field. At that point, all garrisoning and patrolling was turned over to Butler's Gendar~aerie.All Marines not associated with that organization were withdrawn back to the major cities and galrrismed the=. W e n the insurgmcy Rared up again under the leadership of Charlemagne Perault in 1918, the Marines did not go through the lear~zing process again, Rather, once the Cacos began traveling down the central valleys from the north, the Gendarmerie immediately increased the number of small patrots to seek cornbat With the Cncos. Marine patrols emerged from the cities to help the overwhelmed Gendarmerie.76 Approximately one-quarter "of the brigade was r e q u i ~ dto be on the t d , patrolling around the clock.'"n Cme smbdistrict cornander kept his Gemdamerie pah-ols permanently m the go (by rotating them through the tjarriscm) so that the Cacos never knew when one would st them. As a resdt, hlrit:hin four months his area was fajrly clear of Cacos.7"
88
Intervention in Haiti
Even after Charlemagne was killed, the Marines m d Gendarmerie maiintained their ofiex-rsivecombat patrolling. 'T"houghlime 3,0W Cacos surrendered after Charlemat;nefsdeath, several minor Caco leaders joined forces with Benoit Batraville in the south.79 However, after his disastrous attack on Fort-au-Prhce, Batraville was never able to recoup the losses that he suffered. His diminution of power caused the Marines to redoublc their efSort." 0C)ffict.r~ and men were driven at a Ifurious rate. Six months later the Marines were still campaiping actively trying to mop up the active Caco hddouts under Batravillefs leadership. So inte~~se was the effort that Cacos could not move during daylight for fear of being seen. Moreover, patrols focused their effnrts ""on sections where the Cacos f i g h t find food and watrtr," which narrowed the search somewhat since much of the countryside had already been '"ravaged."a &spite such intense efforts, d y after a patrol found BatravilIe's hicieout and shot him during a firefight did the Cacos give up once and for atl. .Among the reasons the offensive combat patrol operations were successful was that they d e n operated at night or in the rain in d e r to surprise t-he Cacos in their c m p s or along the trails, just as the Army had learned to do in the P1.lilippines.a Unfortunately, in the Marines' case we do not h o w who first initiated night ojb"em"ti"ns. The fact that most patrols seemed to emgage in them, though, suggests some sort of order or htelligence bulktin as the source, which m a n s in turn that smeone from brigade headquarters must have thought them up. LlsuatZy, night operations were hii-iated in response to intelligence c o ~ ~ c e m hthe g locations of suspected camps. The commander of a garrism or post would get new information early in the evening and then ready his pat& to leave c m p m u d midnight (some commanders p r c f e r ~ dto march just belore dawn).= These marches were undertaken prirzcipally so that the patrols wodd be in place to launch their raids at early tight, when the Cacos would most tired or least on their guard. On one such occasion an officer so lisurplised and captured a large nurnber Cacos having a Voodoo Dance at a place called Redeau""that there was no sh~oting~84 Smetimes, patrds actu,a%lyengaged in firefit;hts at night. as well. This was uncommon, however, and usually occurred only when attacking well-known Caco camps. An exception to this was Hameken's famous attack on Charlemagne. In addition to ni.ght operations, another importmt mjlitary measure the Marines used was search-and-destroy operatricms. &re the Markes went though two phases of determining wh,& was sought fnr destruction other than weapons.HVn the first phase, the Marines burned Caco shacks and etestwed other lodgings that mif;ht be used to harbor the insurge"t* Often these were houses from which the Cacos had fired upon
Intervention irz Haiti
89
the patrol, warranting their destruction in the minds ol the officers.86 These stmcturcs were generally so isolated, so far from the villages that domilnated local life, that the patrols might assume they were used only by Cacos-but not atways. In one isolated locale a patrol destroyed between fifty and sixty houses, suggesting that they may have destroyed an isofatecl village ratber than just a Caco hideout." This observation is borne out by one officer who privately admitted Chat in the northern part of HaiS4, at least, his patrols were constantly burnhg down Caco vitlags hidden in the interior of thr country.88 As noted above in the section. on intelligez~ce,the Marines and Gendarrnerie also engaged h a spirited hunt fnr Caco forts and camps, The patrols always destroyed any Caco camps they came acmss, even unoccupicd forts so they could not be used in the htlare. C)me of the morc3 famous of these occurretd the month before the storming of Fort Riviere when Capts. Willim Upshur and Edtvard Ostermann stormed, capt u ~ d and , destroyed Fort Dipitie at dawn with only thirteen men &r having spent the entire ni.ght in a streambed undcr siege f r m an estimated 400 Cacos.KV~'ortheir feat, Upshur and Gtermann were each awarded the Medal of H o ~ ~ o r . During the secmd phase, the prepmderant emphasis was placed on targetillg the Caco Icadership for '"decapitaticm," Marine officers from the start had wanted to target the Caco lenderslnip for destruction. Hokvever, this was tempered in the early m n t h s by a desire first to find the hidden fnrts and camps. m e n that activity did not yield resutts, the hunt for Cacos was pushed from the highest- levels of headquarters. 'The regimental cornmandel; Col, Elti Cole, himself wrote to Butler: There are still some bands of Caco>sunder arms in t~iotationsof the agreement signed by their chiefs, and such bands should be disarmed, or attacked, captured, dispersed, or destroyed as circumstances in each particular case may demand: in capturing or attacking Cacos fc~xes,particular attention should be paid to their leaders, every endeavor being made to destroy or capture them-~vithaut their leaders the bands will mm disintegrate,%]
Following through on the order, Butler wrote to his own subordinates that "natiwes with a m s in their possession are bmdits and are to be treated as such. Particular attention will be paid to the capture or destruction of the Chiefs,'"l Field c o m a n d e r s quickly latched onto this measure of success, concerning themselves in their reports primarily with indicating the numlcler of Cacos killed, wounded, and capt~rcjd.~2 This may explah the marked drop in the discussion of search-and-destroy operatims twarcl the enli of 1915. Patrols seemed less inclined to hunt for Caco supplies to destroy; hstead targeting the Cacos personally.
90
Intervention in Haiti
In targethg particularly Charlemagne and Betraville, the Marhe assessment of the insurgency's viability proved highly accurate. Wthin a week of Charlemagne" death, hundreds of Cacos srtrrendered, and a few thousand suendered with.in months, bringing Cacoism to an end i,n northern Haiti, When Batraville was killed, most of his soldiers surrendered their arms as well, virtualty (but not quite) bringing Cacoism to an end in central and southern Haiti. .A final military measure that the Marines used was airpower, During the first campaip airplanes cmly delivered mail and other supplies between mf-ajor towizs since the aircraft were not fitted with combat weapons. Even so, this f.ixsrited function provided much combat and togistical support that sometimes freed the h/larines from having to use vulnerable supply trains*During the second campaign, coming after Ihe end of World MIar Z, aircraft were a m e d with machine guns, In March 3919, Marine patrols surrounded a large force oE &atrawillefsm a mowtahtop. Marhe aviators strafed Batraville's rebels, scatterhg them into the gmmharnbush patsois blocking all of the trails down the mountain. This may well have been the first Marine air-ground operation ever.93 Mari,ne aviators also attempted thcis first bombing operations in Haiti. The lack of bonb racks initially limited the extent to which they could do so, Nonetheless, the aviators dwised an ingmuous method wheretty in at teast one instance they attached mailbags between the legs of the aircraft (as would have been standad for the time), with bombs placed hside.%&ce over the target, the pilot pulted strings attached to the mailbag to open it, literally ""de2iverhg" the bambsPUccuracy was naturally a problem, so Marine aviators began experimenting with the tactic of dive- (really glide-) bombing to acfieve better aim.") Between Haiti and the end of Nicaragm over fifteen years later, a generation of Marine aviators achieved proficiency in similar aerial tactics that would serve them later in the Pacific theater during TVVorld War 11, With or without aviation support, it is clear that by mid-l920 garrisoning and combat patrolling (with small patrczls) we= two of the most successful components of the nlrarine Corps's strategy to counter the Cacos. Patrolling was conlinued through the end of the year, after whjch the Marines slowly and quietly pulled out of the field and recmcentrated back in the city garrisons. By 1926 they were further recmcentrated into just Port-m-Prince and Cape Hatien. During the wil:hdrawal, alf field af-. fairs were turned over to the Gendarmerie, who this t h e did not lose its grip ower intern& affairs as in 1918. hdeed, in October 1921Gendarmerie patrols killcd twn xninor Caco chj.efs-Jean Mques iZlbert and Elinorand dispersed their bands as well. Even so, the Gmdarmerie contilrued to patrol for long after the insurgency died down, mostly to act as a reassuring presence so that the lacal. people understood they were protected.
Intervention irz Haiti
91
As Marhe companies reconce~~trated, the reghent drew down, and men sent either back to the States, the Dominican Republic, or onto some other overseas assignment, the Corps could count its first s m d war success. Despite the n m b e r of Haitians alleged to have died in this insurgency, it was not as painful for the Marlne Corps as the Philippine and Moro insurgencies each had been for the h y Of a total 146 Marine deaths, only ten were directly caused by battle (seven killed in action and three wound fatalities),Y7 The rernahing died of disease and accidents (such as truck and plane crashes). An estimated 249 Cacos were killed and an additional 37 wounded in action between l915 and 1920.9" There really is no way to determine the validity of these nurnbers, however, since the Cacos hnbikally carrkd. off their wounded and killed in order to bury them and deny their bodies to their adversaries, In that vein, some of the more inflammatory figures cited in the secondary litcratlrre have no basis in ~ c m eitber, d pa&icularly since the Cacos never kept anyV99
Lessons from the Haitian Experience
So what did the Marines learn from their experiences in F-Xai.tj?On the civil side, many of the measures fmplemented in Haiti rttsulted mostly from the treaty terms hafted by the U-S. State Department. As noted previouslJr, why this is so =mains unclear. The foreign policy apparatus in 3935 (withirr the State Department) might sirtlply have engaged irr problem-solving: What wodd make Haiti stable m d more economically selfreliant so that other European powers would not intervene? The fact &at the treaty provisions contained solutions that mirromd American military experiences in the Philippines, Cuba, and Panama might be explained by staff being h i l i a r with the civil measures overseen by the Philippine Commission until 3902. C h the military side, the course of the two Haitim campaigns indicates that the Marines had to learn most of the operationd measures that helped them &&at the Cacos despik the fact that their manuals covered some of the key measures used. Fnr instance, the Marines began first with reconnaissance patrols, then moved to large column operations before settling on small offensive cornbat patrols. However, combat patmlling was one of the k w measttres covercd by formal doctrine as borrowed from the Army Moreover, not until the late in the fall of 1916 did the Marines msort to night movement, yet the benefits of this measure too was discussed explicitly in the landing Force Munzlilt that was itself a vestige of Army doctrine.l"fi To their credit the Marhes in Haiti did not take long to learn what worked. W t h h six to nine months of landing t h y had implemm.t-eda
Intervention in Haiti
92
rudimentary combination of all the measures that helped them win. To summarize, on the civil side they: Engaged in public cmstruction (particularly road buildhg);
* Provided medical service; * Developed sanitation procedws, providing institutional oversight;
* Oversaw tfie civilian governing institutions; and * Implemmted limited martial law, They could bave engaged h b u i l d 4 and staffhg an educational system, as the Anrry had in the Bhilipphes, but for whatever reason they did not. Likewise, they could, have engaged i,n p&ty buildjng, q a i n as the Army had done, Likcly they did m t because them already we= a number of political parGes in Haiti prcrvidint; outlets for political expression. Moreover, nei&er of these two measures w r e part of the U.S. trcaty with Haiti. Un the military side, the Marines of the 1st Brigade: Garrisoned first the major cities but later the entire cou~ztryside; Created a constabulary, the Gendamerie; Attempted to develop htelligmce networks (with quite limited success); Made systematic use of local guides; Use recomaissancc;patrols to map locales; Developed patrol operations, first wi& columns and then wi& small. combat patroIs, and possjbly engaged in a few long-range pa trols; Operated at night; Conducted search-and-destroy uperations; and Used airpower for garrison logistical support.
h most every m y the Marine experience in E-faiti during the sclcond campaip mirrored that of the Army in the Philippines and selectively mirrored tbe Marine expcrjence in Cuba,mI The only measu3-o that the Marines did not engage in was the reconcentration of the popultace. Yet the MarintJs did introduce an entirely new measure into the cmduct of slnall wars: the use of aviation. Most important, the Marines did not g0 througfn the learning process again upon commencement of the second campaign against Charlemagne's forces, They had learned what: worked, even to the point of brushing asjde the Gendarmerie to implemnt the measures fully. Still, the sparse =cords indicate the Marines never did get quite right one measure, that is, establishing an effective intelligence systen.
Intervention irz Haiti
93
U'dort-unately, it remains mclear what lessons Waler and the few other Marine officers who participated almgside the Army campaigns might have bmught to the Haitian campaign. Since semh-ad-destroy operations w m not discussed in off'icial doctrine but were implemetnted quickly they may well have resulted from Waller heading the ini.tiaf interventim, gken his experience cm Samar in the Philippine Islands. But the records do not say for certain..Wtnat remains of other personat papers left behind does not sked. further light on the learning process either.10" I'he pap"" softenindicate the intent bcbind measures but not their cause, suggesting they were inlluenced mostly by unfolding events on the gromd.. As will, be seen in the Dominican case in Chapter 4, circurmstantial evidence points to a greater role for p e r s o d eqerience in implementhg certain antiinsurgent measures in that country.
IT?fi,nrralDoctrine: kssons Learned u ~ T!zeir ~ d Dissani~~aliorz Just as so many officers did not write in their own papers what lessons they may have bmught: personally to fightiw the Cacos, we also do not h o c v h a t lessons t h y m y have read about and applied, save whetn they and their peers wrote articles to which t h y appended bibliographies for further rt?a$.ing.los In the Haitian case, the lessons of that experience as reflected in the form of Gazette articles WE generally dim and ill-timed to be of use for either the second Haitian campaig or the Uominican experience. But there wem a few. Two articles in 1927, the second year of the Gasette't; publication, discussed small wars lessons. The first articte was a simple exposihon on conducting reconnaissance patrols in Haiti.1" lit focused only on the short period when the Marines hvere movi.ng out: fmm Ihe city garrisons and were trying to find the hidden Caco forts and camps. Its primary benefit lay in cfiscussfng the already wd-known tactic af recclnnaissance marches-this time set in the bush milieu. The secmd article was a much more compxlehmsiv+and potentially useful-treatment of insurgency warfare., but not in the Haitian context. The author, a British officer, discussed basic operational procedures and tactics for fighting guerrillas, rendering one of the first analyses of the tjuerrilia style of war to be found in Marhe w r i t i n g s . ~ ~ ~ To overcome gwnilla fighSers, troops always had to be on the offensive. The ultimate objecthe was to penetrate the country, drive back the tjuerrilias, and break their resistance. Generally, it ~vouldbe impossible to inllict dtcjsive defeats- Consequewly, troops would spetnd mwh of their tirne attempting to destroy everything that helped the enemy prolong resistance-essentiafly search-d-destroy ~pcrations-cornbind with persistently hunting the enemy and driving lim from his bases to wear
94
Intervention in Haiti
him down, Troops would even use scouts-usually friendly locals unless the army had its own trained scouts. As for patrolling, the author did not discuss the frequency or systematization of patrollhg. Instead, he focused on the method of patrctlling but. contradicted hinnself. On Che one hand, "the role of troops so employed will frequently be that of a punitive ccrlumnffwith the caveat that the size of ""punitive" wlumns depended on the nulnber and style of enelny m d nature of the work to be performed.l(~% the other hand, the longer the column the more difficult it was to move, not give off noise, and thus protect. Accodingly the best tactical unit was one small enough to operate h a timely and efficient manner. Such smafl patrols would not bother to cut their own roads or paths because it would be too difficult. They would stick to the nah;lral but narrow trails, which meant the men had to march single file. The marchers would have to be taught how to pass verbal orders quietly down the l h e a d , when under attack, to have even- a d odd-numbered men face opposing Aa.nks.rn7 Finally, the aulhor wrote that it would be impossible to perform night operations because to do so required excellent guides and trained troops who could operate together-a measurt. the author felt too difficult to accomplish. By the time this second artick was pulolished, the Marines had already become embroited in the Dominican insurgency. Indeed, too little time elapsed between the first Haitian campaig~nand the Dominican case for lessons to be distilled and passed along infoma1l.y through tlne p m f e ~ sional literature to be of use for the Dominican campaigners. One can never say what the ifngact was of the British oMicerfs mticle. It clearly represented one of the most pertinent artides m m a l l wars that a Marine officer of the time couid have read. Shce all officers were expected to be members of the Marine Corps Association, they all received their monthly Cazefle (even overseas) and would have l&ely seen, if not read, the article. Even so, it is unlikely that a single good article would have had any sig~nificantimpact on thc Dolninican campaig~ns.By contrast, there arc more formal writings that Marine officers would have definitely read and trainkg regimens with which they wutd have been familiar that might have aided them agairrst the Domhicm hs~~rge~nts. Nm~lTrainitzg C)ppwtu~zitZ'es and Fon~ralDoctritze As discussed in Chapter 2, the Marhe Corps during the Haitian i m vention was slowly expanding its trakIting system back in the States for Marhes. Overseas, training smetimes picked up \zrhere it left off back in the States, For example, a school was established in Port-au-Prince for noncommissioned officers to attend twice a week, A similar one was estab1il;;hed for officers as weil, with atrt-mdmcerequired &rice weekly. Ex-
Intervention irz Haiti
95
actly what was taught in those schools remains u~~clear, and at least one participant called it a fa-t.ce-anything to give a Eeutenant colonel somethi~~ togdo.108 Mast like@ officers used these schools to &udy for promotion examselO" The Gendarmerie developed its own training regimes as well, Col. Butler established a school in Port-au-Prince specificalfy geared toward tsajning Gendarmerie officers in their duties.1'0 What dist.ingzriskd the Gendarmerie officer" scchoof from its peer Marine schools was that it alme attempted to prC"pare Offictfr~for enacfing a range of civil measures that were accorded greater importmce than training in the military measures used in bush warfare, After the second Caco campaign was won, this Gendarmerie curriculum was also used in the Ecole Militaire established to train native officers. Fourteen specific items were established for the officers to learn in the Ecolc Mifitaire."l Note the order of precedence, particularly the last item: 1. 2, 3. 4. 5. 6. 7'.
8. 9,
10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
Drill Ceremonies G ~ ~ amotmtkg rd Close and extended order drill French and Creole The Civil Code fbased on the French Code Napaken \zrhich i s still the basis lfor Haitim law today) The Rural Code Sanitation and hygie~~e Proper9 administration Correspondence Farms m d their accomplishments Duties in comectian with other treaty departments Duties of the subdistrict a d district commanders Patrolling and bush warfare
On that last point-patrolling and bush warfa tler ordered Gendarmerie office= to be trained on the basis of the infantry drill prtions of the 1912 edition of the Marirze" own Lalzdz'ylg Force Manual, and he had it trmslated into French to do so.112 He also used the Army" 11914 edition of the Murzliurl I!/: Interior Guard Wztw to teach the recruits how to perform sentry duty. fn addition, Butler must bave bad more than just those mmuals transtated because French versions exist of Scoliting and Prrt-olli~~g (translated from Trainhg Rcgdations 200-5 of the same name) as well as of M u s k t r y (presumably from the manual of the same name),'" These latter two, however, we^ trmslated several years after the end of both Caco campaigns.
96
Intervention in Haiti
Despite the presence of the noncommissjoned and officer's schools for Marine regulars, there is no indicatlion that m y speciatized bush warfart. course was tau@t. However, near the beginning of the Haitian campaign brigade headquarters had issued several sets of orders on how to patrol and fight the Cacos. These orders were generally basic and typically concerned more with logisticat than combat issues.nI For example, a key set of orders, the "Letter of Instructicms-Campaigns Against Cacos,'k& &red the folfowing instructions: Troops should wear white rags for easier identification at night and use flags and flashlights for identxfication purposes, 'They should operate on the sidcs of the trails (rafier than from the middle) when attacking. On the march they should maintain contact s to their left and right. Troops coulci drink the water safely, would need no mosquito nets, &odd take extra shoes and clothes, and were instructed on what they should do with their personal supplies while encamped. They were also tofd how tc:,effect basic supply, transportation, and smitary arrmgernents and haw to use radio posts. Fhdly, the orders issued special instructions for individual units, t e l l i l ~ them where to go but not disrussi~~g counterinsurgency tactics of any hd. In contrast to the brigade orders, a second set of orders, the Gendamerie" '*Ordersfor Patrd, by Order of Col. Coil.,'" was m m detailed on what tasks patrols were to acc~mplish."~ Almost half of the hstruetions dealt with tlne treatment of large groups of suspicious men. Patrols were givm pemission to search and disarm such gmups and even fndivid,u,al loiterers, as wejl as detain them if t h y did not con?ply. afficers were supposed to visit every part of their district during their stay and do so at three different times of the day: daylight, evenhg, and late at night. Pdrols we= s u p p o ~ " d owork h pt?irs, but that order seelns to have been honorcd more in the brcacb than in the hservance. Most patrols operated alone unIess ccrordirrathg an attaek. W ~ i kon patrol, the troops were not to "enter saloons or houses, nor become familiirr with the natives." Even if troops suspected arms were inside a particular house, the patrol was only supposed to report their suspicions to the nearest commander, 'This, of course, was not adhered to at suspected rebel, camps. The after-action =ports show that patrols routinely entered the houses irr such camps to search for arms and other supplies. Moreover, the order not to fraternize with the natives, particularly if adhered to, was n m e too wise. It deprived the patrols of potentially valuable intelfigence sources. While brigade headquarters and the Gendarmerie i s s ~ ~ eorders d and translated manuals, the Corps published revised editions of its l - n ~ d i l ~ g Force illunural, Butler had translated the first of three editions (the 1912. versiorl) issued during the Caco campaigns.""" As discussed in the Last
Intervention irz Haiti
97
chapter, the 1"32 edition of the manual had been revised to mirror the Army's Ififanfry Dritl Xeg~~Eatiozsof 2911, including borrowing the Army" lhited tactical doctrhe for minor warfare Fn its entirety. Near the time Butler issued his Gendarmerie tsi-tinhg proclamation, the Corps released the 1915edition oi the Landilzg Force Mrnzla1.117 This edition principally substituted new firing regulations for the Corps. Otherwise, the manual remained consistent with the pre~riousedition, and this is refiected. in the fact that a new board was not cmvmed to update the mmual. The Bureau of Naval Personnd simply made the minor chnnges and kept the section on minor warfare Hrst added i,n 191.2. Rather than have the P915 edition trmslated, Butler issued his own new manual of training and regulations for the Gendarmerie entitled Gendarnzevirr Rg~les.His principal intent was to discuss the duties of the Gendarmerie as police forces in Haiti. However, it is clear Butler considered t h m more like clrnstabulary forces than simpfy civil police. En addition to standard police du,ties (E.$*,licensing of firearms), Rut-ler gave the Gcndarmnerie paramilitary tasks such as patrolling and establishing small garrison posts throughout the countryside.118 Additbnally, Gendasmerie garrison comanders were placed in charge of public works and the disbursement of funds for such projects, just as Marine district commmders had been, Butler 'S sales also discussed extensively the implementation and/or oversight oE o&r civil measttres related to me&sine and sanitation. As institutionally sanctioned doctrine, the Latzding Force Manual reflected a split between stateside perceptions and theater realities. The manuals written in the States did not hclude small wars doctrhe based on the Corps" experiences in the Caribbean. Instead, that doctrine was borrowed dirt.ctly irom the A m t y - Consepently, the slateside mnuals reflected, earlier lessons m patrolling and night operations and little else. By contrast, some small wars doctrine was created and disseminated intheater that reflected Marine expcriex~cesfairly, if not in great deb:ail,Several reasons pr&ably account for this. First, given the number of interventions the Marines had undertaken, Haiti may have looked like im momaly that required localized oversight m d localized responses" %Cond, there was hardly any bureaucracy back in the States that could have created a doctrine, and if there was it remains unclear whether there wou3d have been interest in disserninaling the lessons of small, wars given the war that was being waged in Europe. Third, such a bureaucracy likely would have taken far longer to create a doctrine for theater use than could have been accomplished in theater itself. It made sense then to keep the doctrinal efiort (not that it was necessarily thought of that way) localized. B e n so, the mmner in which thr doctrine was promulgated through proclamations and Butler's lZziles meant that it was
Intervention in Haiti
98
personalized and lacalized. Butler had the manuals trmslated, but someone else might not have bothered to provide the s a m level of instruction, I'heater doctrhe easily could have looked different. The downside to the localized effort was that as the Corps began to htervene in the Domjnitan :Republic the only official, doctrine readily availahte to 2nd Rrigaeie personnel was that in tbe various editions of the Laloding Force Manual. Certaildy, commanders transferred from Haiti brought their howledge with them. However, they were a clear minority of officers serving in Smto Domingo, anci except for those officc-lrs in civil affairs the remaining transferees from Maiti were not antong the leadhe; officers of the early hterventim, The result was that many key lessons learned im Haiti had to be =learned in the Dominican Republic. Notes 2. Col. Waller may have seemed an interesting choice to lead the initial Marine expedition given his court-martial over pacification efforts in the Philippines. f-lmwer, he was one of the few Marine commanders to participate in previous small war effc3rt-S.From the Philippines he should have been at least peripherally familiar with the Army" g a ~ i m f i n gsmall , combat patrol operatiom, use of native constabulary, search-and-det;trc>yopera tions, and possibly even civil measures. Moreover, as a newly promc~tebcolonel, he had led the Marine landing at the outxt of the Cuban Pacification, immediately garrixlning his command at the major transportation and economic nodes thoughout the countryside and establishing patrols until the Army assumed the occupation and the Marines withdrew 2, Tjze f-list.0~of the Gnrdl-ld'I-iaifi (also known as the Hart Report), prepared at headquarters, G a d e dxaz'ti, under the supervision of the commandant of the Cwrde d'T-Iaiti, Apr.-July 1934, p. 120, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Bwelogment Command, Quantico, U. 3. Jane M. Rausct?, '"~arde dW~ifi/Cc?nlla~n~erie d"HaiE.6"h inire Wgr c$ IS98 and U.S.Intcrve~gtiuns,1898-1934, ed. Benjamin Beede (New York: Garland Pubfishing, 39941, p. 221. 4, During the period under discussion here, numbered Marine groups (e.g., 1st Marines) were regiment units comprising on average 1,000 soldiers and officers. 5. "Army and Navy Journal, Mar, 4,1916," Geographic Files, Haiti, Operations, 1915-1934, p, 869, Marine Corps Historical Center, Historical Reference Sction, Washington, DC. Hereafter, individual repoX"Ssare cited as Gec~graphicFiles, Haiti. 6- ""Repod of Operations in North Haiti from Nov. 1, 2915 Until Arrival at Hinche," Geographic Files, Haiti, 1915-1916, p. 27. ApproximateXy 5 gourds equaled IJS$l, roughly the same exchange rate that is in effect today. '7. Lest-er D. Z,angtey The Bn~znna Wnrs: U.S. Inteuvcntian in the C~ribbenn, 1898-1934 (Lexington: Univ. oaf Kentucky Press, 1985), p. 137. 8. The Marines paid 15 gourds, the equivalmt of only $3, per arm surrendered, That tvas significantly lower than the $27 per vveapcjn that the Army paid fifteen years prim in the Philippines.
Intervention irz Haiti
99
9. "Repc,E"c of Operations, Oct. 1-Nov. 30, 1915 and of Conditions in North of Haiti," Geographic Fila, Haiti, 4945-191 6, p. 4. 10. Bid., p. 3. 11. Maj. Thornas E. Thrasher, ""The Taking of Fort Kiviere," Mnrirre Corps Gazette, vol. 25, no, 4 (Feb. 1931), p. 32; Maj. Hugh D. Wise, "Notes on Field Service in Samar," iitlfizntjylozrmnl, vol. 4, no. 1 guly 190f;"),p. 17. 22. "Report of B.G. George Davis," Reports of the Lieutenant General Commanding the Army and Department Commanders, Artnuat Report of file War Dep~rtitnent,3902, vol. l , pt. 9 (Washington, DC: Government 12rintingOffice, 2c302), pp. 523.-.525; Wise, "Fietd Service in Sarnax;" p. 11; Brian M. tinn, The U.S.Arnzy and Cuunterittszrrge~cyin the Plzill;ypi~cWar, 1899-1902 (Chapel Hill: Univ, of North Carc>linaPress, 1989), p. 38; "'RepoE"cof Gen. Elwell Otis," Report of the Secretary of War, At~ttllalReport ofthe War l>epnrtmc~tt,1899, vol. 1, pt, 9 (Washington, BC: Government Printing Office, 1899), p. 71. Hereafter, editi~Jnsof the Annual Repurl of Ctzc War Dcparf-mcrtt are cited as ARWD, along with the relevant year (which represents both the year to which the report pertains and the publication date), volume number, and part number: 13. Maj. John A. Gray, ""Botrcan CarrkfMMarine Corps Gazette, vol. 2 C;, no. 3 (Nov. 1931), p. 31. 14. Langley Ba~alzaWars, p. 162. 15. "Haiti Casualties: 1925-1934," Geographic Files, Haiti, Sept. 28,1934. 16. Using burned cork to cover their featuresf Hanneken and Cpl. William Button pretended to be Cacu primners while their Gendarmerie ""guards'" pretended to be Cacos. The ruse worked well enough in the dark until, just outside the campfke, they were discovered. However, by that time Hmneken and the others were close enough to rush the camp. A melee ensued just outside the camp, and Hanneken overtook Charlemape at the campfire, shooting him as he reached for his gun. Cf. Herman Hanneken Oral History, which includes the riveting story of Hanneken" safe in placing a fc~rmerCaco leader back in the field to befriend Charlemagne and in the subsequent attack on Charlemagne. The Herman Hanneken Oral History can be fo3und at the Oral History Collection, Marine Corps Historical Center, Wshington, DC. Far his bravery Hanneken tvas awarded the Medal of Honclr and in December 1919 was promoted to 2nd lieutenant. Five months Xater he was awarded the Navy Cross far a similar feat-he had personalty tracked down and killed another Caco chieftain. T-hirteen years Xater he won his second Navy Cross in Nicaragua for capturing one of Sandino" ggeeraIr; (see Chapter 5). Hanneken eventually retired, after World War 11, as a brigadier general with thirty-four years of service in the Corps. 17, Jnseph Mecarthy, ""Caco Campaigns, Haiti," in Tbc War of1898 and U.S.. Interz;lentio:ans,2898-1934, ed. Benjamin Beede (New York: Garland Publishing, 4994), p, 84, 28. Like the Army in the 13hilippines,the Marines farmed a military governorship. Unlike the Army, they appear not to have engaged in political activitiessuch as forming alternative political partiesdesigned to provide alternative outlets for political expression in order to counter the insurgents.
200
Intervention in Haiti
19*As was common among Army officers, Marine officers in all three small wars never recagnizd their opponents as insurgents fighting for political Legitimacy Rather, they chose to think of them as "bandits" without justification for their predations, This view may have been true for Haiti. It was less SQ for the later Dominican and Nicaraguan insurgencies. 20. Repcjrt of the Major General Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, REnttnl Rclports of fkc?Navy Bep~rfment,2922 (Washington, BC: G w e m m n t f2rinting Office, 1923), g. 839. 21. Butler commanded Marines in the Philippines, China, and Mexico before being ordered to Haiti, where he was later awarded the second of two Medals of Honor for his role in the capture of Fort Riviere (discussed Later in this chapter). He served in France during TNctrXd War T and, after being passed ower for promotion tcr commandant, retired as a major general in 4931, 22. "Letter to J, Butler Wright, State Department, May 15, 1916," 'medley B. Butler Personal Papers Collection, box 2,491%1918, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA. Hereafter, the SmedXey D. Butler Perso)nal Papers Gdlection is cited as flutiter Papers, 23..Civil measures can be view-ed essentially as ""bribing" the people not to support the insurgents. This tactic as traditionally used by the United States comes in the fc~rmof the grc3mise of better quality of Ilk; hence the emphasis on medical, educational, governmental, and ecmomi c measures designed to win the support of the people and psychologically isolate them fram the insurgents. Because it is less cel-rtly to implement psychological isalation, it is generally a preferred method of pacification. Howeveu; when the ""bribery" is perceived to have failed or wilt not work at allf the armed fc~rcesmay reso& to physical isolation. This was the case, for example, with Army General John Bell's reconcentration grogram in Batangas Prcyvince in the Philippines and with the British reconcentration program later in Malaya. 24. ARWD, 1900, vol. 1, pt. 4, p. 330. 25, A. E. Feuer, Combat DzTnry: Episodesfvom the P.lisEury of Ctrc 22nd Regimep~t, 1861d-1905(New York: Praege;?r,1991), p. 153, q 41, no. 2 (June 1926), 26. "The Haitian Gcndarmcrie," Marine Gi~rpsG ~ z e f fvol. p. 80. 27. Gen. George Barnett to the Swretary of the N a v "Report ~ on Affairs in the Republic of Haiti, Jun. 1915-Jun. 1920," Geographic Files, Haiti, 2924-192@ p. 23. 28. Capt. Frank Bride, "The Ccndarm~tiedrHaiti," Marine Couir;ls Gnzeffe,vol. 3, no. 4 (Dec. 19181, pp. 297-298, 29. Department of State, "Draft of Treaty Between the United States and Haiti Concei-ning the Financesf Econamic Devebpment and Tranquillity of Piaiti,"T~pers Relatiug to the Ft7rez'glz Relatz'ons of the United Sl"tates(Washingon, BC: Govern.ment Printing Office, 4924). In fact, the twaty was not fully ratifid by bath parties until a year after occupation, but the United '"Eats chose nonetheless to implement the five services without full legal support of the treaty. The other four services were providing a financial adviser to the Haitian government (article 21, giving the United Stata controf ower customs receipts (articles 2'3, and 51, creat-
Intervention irz Haiti
202
ing a native constabulary (article 101, and undertaking pubtic works to improve the country's infrastrudure (article 13), 30. Robert HeinX and Nancy HeinX, FVrllfen izz Blood: The St1~ryof the FJ;lilianPeoplc, 2492-1871 (Boston: Houghton MifBin, 4978)' p, 418. 31. Capt. Stephen M, Fuller, Illnrirzes in Haiti, draA MS, n.d., Marine Corps Historical Center, Historical Reference Sedion, Wasfiington, DC, 32- Ht'stmy of the Cnrde drHaif-i,p. 38. 33. Gen. tester Dessez, g. 102, Oral History CoXIection, Marine Corps Historical Centeu; Washington, BC. 34. ""Army and Navy Journal, Jan. 29, 1919," Geographic Files, Haiti, Operations, 1915-4934, p, 688. 35. "The Haitian Gendarmerie," p. 75. 36. Butler to Commanding Officer (CO), 1st Regiment, Cap Hatien, ""Repart of %erations, Oct 9, 2925 to Nov 27, 2%5, inclusive," Butler Papers, box 1, folder #1915-B. 37. H k t o q ofthe C o d e drHaiti, p. 41. 38. Butler to Mr. Mann, ButXer Papers, box 1. 39. Bride, "Cekzdnrrrrerie drHaiti," p 2299. 40. "Statement of Lt. COX.A. S. Wilfiams, USMC, Relative to Certain Irregularities Atf eged to Have Been Committed by Officers and Enlisted Men in the Republic of Haiti," Repc~rtof Investigation 10 Mar. 1919-13 Mar. 1920, Marine Corps Historical Center, Histcrrical Reference setion, Washington, DC (hereaAer cited as "Statement of Lt. Col. A. S. Williarnsf')41, Report from the Major General Commandant to the Secretary of the Navy, "Investigation of Affairs in Haiti," Repart of Xnvestigatian 10 Mar. 1919-13 Mar. 1920, Marine Corps Historical Center, Historical Reference Section, Wshington, BC, 42. Commandant of the Marine CorpsTeport on Haiti, Geographic Files, Haiti, 1914-4920, 43. Geographic Files, Haiti, Operations, 1915-193. 44, ARWD, 1902, vol. I, pt..4, pp. 90-400; vol. 1, pt. 9, p. 209. 45. Col. R. Emtest Bupuy and Maj. Gen. William H. Baurner, The Little Warn of the United States (New York: Hawthorn Books, 4968), p, 149. 46. Heinl and Heinf, Writtelz it2 Blood, p. 421. 47. "Report of Operations, Oct. l-Nctv. 30, 1915 and of Conditions in North of Haiti," Geographic Files, Haiti, 1915-2 926, p. 24. 48. Nislo~yof the Gczrde drFZnifz',p. 54. 49. Often, the number af Marines in Haiti tvas approximately half that amaunt. Office of Naval Intelligence, "Naval Forces on Shore Duty in Haiti" "erno for Chief of Naval Operations], Geographic Fileg Haiti; Heid and P-ieinl, Written in Blood, p. 237, 50.E-ilsturp of tlzc Garde d%tzz"li, p. 22, 51. Report of the Major General Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, An~ l r a Reports ~l cf the Nazy Depart nzent, 1926 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1917), p. 72; ""Army and Navy Journal, Oct. 23, 1915,'" Geographic Files, Haiti, Operations, 1915-1 934, g. 233.
52. Benjamin Beeclef "Constabularies in the United States CounterguerrilXa 8 p eration%" in Zze War of 2898 and U.S, In teruetz tiorzs, 2 898-1 934, ed. Benjamin Beede (New Ycfrk: Garland Publishing, 1994), p. 122. 53. David X Zabecki, "Butler, Smedjtey Darlington," in The War of 1898 and U.S. Irzterventio~s,2898-2934, ed. Benjamin Beede (New York: Garland Publishing, 4994), p. 80. 54. Histnq of the Gade drHaiti, p. 33. 55. Gray '"oucan Carr4," p 29. 56. "Letter to J, Butler Wright, State Bepa&ment, May 15,1916,'" Butler Papers, box 2,191 3-1 92 8. 57. 'Xetter from Maj. E, A, Oslermann (6d"f- July 23, 4917," Butler Papers, box 2,191 3-1918. Emphasis in the original. 58. Hislurp ojffzc Garde d%aili, p. 30. 59. "Statement of Lt. Col. A. S. Williams." 60. Capt. J. N. Munro, "The Philippine Native %suts,"Ynf-aizl~y jt~urr-zal,vol. 2, no. 1 (July 1905), pp. 178-179; Lt. Col, 'JamesParker, "%me Random Notes on the Fighting in the Phifiipines," "~uztrvlnl of the Milz'Cn~yService Irzsfz'futio~zcf the Utzz'ted States, vol. 27 (Nov. 1900):338. 61. Gray "Boucan Carr4," p 2128. 62. "&port of Operatiom, Oct. l-New. 30,1915 and of Conditions in North of Haiti,'' Gec>graphiicFiles, Haiti, 1915-1 916, p. 6. 63. Lt. Col, C. J. Crane, '"T11e Filipino" War Contributic~n,"It~urr-zal offlur Miiifary Service Institu timr of the Ulzited States, volt. 29 oune-Nov, 1901), pp. 270-273. 64. t'nEc>rtunately same Marines, like a few Army officers in the Philippines, devised unethical and extralegal means far getting infarmation from reluctant "puicies" while out on patrol. Nc~tabXythese tofiurous means were brazenly p&Xished in the professional literature without any word of sanction from the editorial staff. The most blatant admission was a detailed and graphic discussion of a torture method that the author clffered as ""a way to jog the memory of a reludant guide that is not laid down in the text books." The individual was heid by both arms (implying the complicity of Marines other than the interrogator). The interrogator then wed a small flat club to hit the person on the neck at the jugular vein. Apparently this was painful enough to drive a grown man to tears rather quickly. It was certainly painful enough that after a few hits most individuals told all they knew. The author even bragged that ""the beauty of the method is that it does not leave any permanent marks nor does it place the recipient of the attention hors-de-combat.""Maj. John A. Gray "Cul de Sac," Marine G o v s Cnzetfe, vol. 46, no. 4 (Feb. 19521, p. 42. 65. Heinl and Heint, Written izz BEoc?RIpp, 42&42[7. 66, "Report of Qperatims, Oct. 9, 1915-Nov. 2T7,4915,""utler Papers, box 2, 191S1918. 67. '"Personal Log, Haiti, 30 July 1915 to 24 June 1916,"%dolpFt Miller Papers, box 2,1923-1918, Marine Corps HistmicaX Center, 13ersonalPayers Section, Washington, DC; Fuller, Marz'r-2c.sizz H ~ i l in.g. , Hereafter, AdoXph Miller Papers are cited as Miller Papers. 68. "Report of Operations, Oct. 1-Nctv. 30, 1915 and of Conditions in North of Haiti,"' Geographic Filer;, Haiti, 4915-1916, p. 6,
Intervention irz Haiti 69. Ibid., p. 10. 70. Heinl and Heinl, Writtert in Blood, p. 452. '71.ZJangfeyBnnalza Wars, g. 138. 72. Letter to his mother, Fa& tibert4,12 Jan, 1916, phc>tocapiesof the William P, Upshur Papers fmm the Sc>uthernHistorical Collection at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hilt, Marine Corps Historical Center, Historical Reference Section, Washington, DC. Hereafter, the Willam P. Upshur Papers are cited as Upshur Papers. 73."General Instructians for Advancing Through Streets," Butler Papers, box 2,1913-191 8, 74, "Report of Operatiomt Oct. l-New. 30,1915 and of Conditions in North of Haiti," Gec>graphiicFiles, Haiti, 1915-1 916, g. 13. 75. Letter to ltis mothel; Upshur Papers, 76, Gray, "Boucan Carr4," p 32. 77. That waltfd have been approximately four hundred men on the trails with a similar number on base waiting to relieve them, Heinl and Heinl, Mrrifte~zin Blood, p. 453; Joseph McCarthy "Caco Campaigns, Haiti," in inlie War of 1898 and UpS.Irtterventions, 3898-4934, ed, Benjamin Btsede (New York: Garland Publishing, 1994), p. 83. 78. Gray "Cul de Sac," p. 41. 79. Dupuy and Baurner, Little Wals, p. 152. 80. MS, p. 5, Gerald Thomas Papers, 4949-1944, folder 3, Marine Corps Hiutorical Center, Personal 13apers Section, Washington, BC. Hereafer, the Gerald Thomas Papers are cited as Thornas Papers. 81. k i d , 82. Gen. George Barnett to the Secretary of the Navy Oct. 11, 1920 [Marine Corps Commandant" Repart on Haiti], ""Report on Affairs in the Republic of Haiti, Jun. 1925-Jun. 1920," Geo)graphic Filer;, Haiti, 1914-1920, g. 9'7; letter to his mothel; Upshur Papers; ARWD, 1901, vol. I, pt. 5, p. 5; Crane, "Filipino" War Contribution," p. 500; Wise, ""Field Sewice in Samar," pp.47-48. 83. Capt. Waiter Hil, ""A Haitian Reconnaissance," M~nritzeCorps Gazette, ud,2, no. 2 (Mar. 1917), pp. 31-36. 84. "Report of Operatims, Oct. 9, 1915-Nov. 227, 4915,""utler Papers, box 2, 1913-1 918. 85. The Marines placed some emphasis on capturing and destroying rifles and gum, but this did not become the measure of effectiveness that it previomly had for the Army Although one can find numerous references to arms surrendered or caught and destroyed, there seems not to have been a systematic hunt for arms. One reason for this might be that no one had a goo)d idea of the quantity of arms that existed in Haiti. Thus it wc>raldhave been too difficult to determine how much success the capture of a particubr amount of arrns represented. Another reason may be that the relatively porous border beween Haiti and the Daminican Republic allowed the Cacas to purchase arms from enterprising Dominican soidiers. 86, "Iilc?port of Operations of 5th CO, Cape Haitian, Haiti, Dec. 2, 1915," Geographic Files, Haiti, 1915-1916, p. 1. 87. Ibid., p, 22.
88. "Personal Log, Haiti, 30 July 1915 to 24 June 1916," Miller Papers, box 2, 494&1918. 89. Upshur Papers. 90. "Instructions from March Overland with Motor Truck tcr Fa& Libertb,","" Butler Papers, box 2, 1913--1918, Cofe transfened fmm the Navy to the Corps as a seem8 lieutenant. In 1890 he commanded troops in the Philippine and Morn insurgencies. After commanding both regiments in Haiti, in 1916 he took over command of tlne brigade. He later sewed in France and then in various domestic posts. 91. "Field Order m," h t I e r Papers, box 2,1913-1 918. 92. "&port of Operations of 5th CO, Cape Haitian, Haiti, Dec. 1, 1915," Geographic Files, Haiti, 1%5-1916. 93, EIeinl and Heid, Wriftert in Blood, p. 242. 94. Langley, B n ~ n ~Wars, n p. 162. 95. Gen. Lewis Puller and Col, William Lee, p. 61, Oral History Collection, Marine Corps Hhtorisal Center, Washington, DC; Heinl and Hcsinl, Written in Blood, g. 242. 96, Lt. Col. Edward Johnson, Mal.z'neCCT~TS Az?intion: Tfze Early Years, 2922-1 940, ed-.Graharn Cosmas (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 19177), p. 53. 97. "Eiaiti Casualties: 4915-1934," Geographic Files, Haiti. 98. "Haitian Casualties Since the Occupation of Haiti by the USMC," "wine Corps Historical Center, Historical Reference Section, Washington, DC. 99, Cf. Langley, Bnlrnnn Wnrs, p. 162; Hans khmidt, Tke UtriteH States Oeczkjlatiorz ofHaiti 2945-1934 (New Brmswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ, Press, 4497l), pp. 84-85, 102-1 05. 100. U.S. Navy, Tke Landirzg-Force and S~nnllAr~nshzslrriclions, 1912 (Annapolis, MD: U,$. Naval Institute, l"322). Hereafter, editions of the I~zsfructionsare cited as Lnndirzg-Force and S ~ ~ aArms l l I~zstructiu~zs, along with the relevant: year (wfnich represents bath the year to which the edition pertains and the publication date). 103. Tn addition to the previous Army references, see "Report of the Army of Cuban Pacificatic~n,"ARWD, 1987, vc~l,1, pt. 3; Lt. Col. Kobert Bullard, "Tine Army in Cuba," "~-1rrzaloft-tllleXbliEifn~yServie Insfz'tution oftjte U~zitedStates, vol. 41 Uuly-Nov. 4907); Lt. Col. Robert L. Rullard, "Military Pacification,""lara?-rzal of flze Military Servie Itzsfit~tion(?ftJteUnited St-ntes,vol. 46 Uan.-Feb. 1910);Allan R. Millett, Tke 170ll'Cicsof Itttem~ntion:T ~Militn~y c Occzapation of Cuba, 1906-1909 (Colurnbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 1968). 102,.Cf. Butler Papers, box 2,1923-1918; Upshur Papers. This failure to discuss s bmught with them to their personal experiences is sirn;ilarly what l e s s ~ nofficers evident in the papers of other officers who fought in later small wars. 103. This was a highly common practice among writers for the Gizzet.tepfor instance, 104. E-?lill,"Haitian Recmnaissance," pp. 31-36. Gazette, vol. 105, Capt. E. M, H&day, ""Notes on Jungle Warfare," Marine CCT~TS 2, no. 4 (Dec. 191'7), pp. 332-32. It was not unusual b r the n/lnrz'rleCOTSGazette to publish British authors, Marine articles refiected the fact that officers read the foreign (mostly British) literature on cuuntetrinsurgencsy. extensively Tbrc>mghout G~zettearticles there are repeated references to ClallwelYs Small Wizrs and other
Intervention irz Haiti
2 05
British writings, such as Hennekers" P~;"lzrEhnn Wafnue. Occasionally; articles even included bibliographies for further reading. 106..ibid., p. 333. 107. Ibid., p. 338. This is exactly the same tactic as the Army Learned in Samar and Mindanaa, Cf. ARWD, 3905, vol. 1, pt. 3. 108, Entry for 22 Aug. 4945, "Personal Log, Haiti, 30 July 4945 to 24 June 1916,"" Miller Papers, box 2,2913-1 918. 109. ibid. 2 10. "Proclamation from Expeditionary Commander, Haiti, Concerning the Gendarmerie," "Butler Papers, box 2,1913-1918. 144. PIislorp of ftie G r d c d%aiti, p. 85. 112. "Proclamation from Expeditionary Commandex; Haiti, Concerning the Gendarmerie," Butler Papers, box 2,1913-4948. 213. Clayton Voge;?lPapers, box 18, fslder 191, Marine Corps Historical Center, Personal Papers Section, Washington, DC. 234. "Letter of Xnstructions<arnpaigns Against Cacos," Geographic Files, Haiti, 1915-1916. 115, "0;rders for 13atrol,by Order of Col. Cote,'" Butler Papers, box 2,2923-4918. 116, Landing-Force and Slrzall Arrns btzslrriclions, 1912. 147. hr~ding-Forceand Stnafl Arms Instrtictiorzs, 1926. 118. Headquarters, Gendarmerie d Waiti, Genhmzerie Rules, Butler Papers, bc,x 5, p. 3 (19163).
MAP 4.4
The Dc~minicanRepublic.
Intervention in the Dominican Republic and Lessons Learned Conduct of the Small War The Marines-second small was occurred. in the Dornin.ican Republic, overlapping in time with the Haitian campaigm. Marines were dispatched to deal with the Dolninican problem (3,916-1921) at the same time others were already in Haiti (1.915-1934). Ucspite the temporal overlap, the Marines did not wage their small w a s campaigns in both countries simultaneously- Owing to the fact that the Dominican and Haitian insurgents never cooperated, the Corps was able to concentrate on snuifing out each insurgency separately at different t h e s . By the time the 2nd Provisional F-Zrigade was f o r m d in Sant.0 Dolningo in 1916, the 1s' Brigade in Haiti bad. almost terminated the first Caco campaign. With fresh troops and only a feMi reserves from the 1st Brigade, the 213d Brigade under Col, foseph Fendeton's command was able to lamch an initial concentrated effort again.st the Dominican insurgmts.l Once a stalemate was reached in the rebel stronghold pmvinces, the ikfarhes turned their attention back to Haiti to deal with the Caco leaders Charlernag~~e md Batraville, As they successfully defeated. the major Caco resistance in Haiti, the Marines refocused back on the h i n i c a n Republic to accornplish the same.
On May 2, 1916, a contingent of Marhes landed in the capital of Smto Domhgo City officially to protect American lives and property as well as to support the legitimate presjdent, Juan Isidro Jim,enez, against a rebel force raised. by former Miniskr of War Desiderio Arias, Because of America"~ overt politic& support for the president, the rebels attempted to oppose the Marine landling. They tried to scare m a y the Marines by firing
upon their landjng craft as they approached the coastline. Hcrkvever, the Marines returned fire and successfully landed one company each of infmtry and artiffery. Four days later P ~ s i d e nfimenez t resiped. 'f'he rebel forces immediately ceased their coup attempt, and c a h was temporarily restored. With fimenezfs resignation, the political situation inside the country rapidry fell into confusim. Since no president. was in charge, the N'ational Congress created a Council of Ninjsters to run country Meanwhife, the Marines brought in two ccmlpanies from Haiti, brkging the total nuniber sl: Marines h-country to 400 (see Figure 4.1). With enough men to protect the capital, on May 14 tbe Marines demanded Arias to disband his rebel army and surrender their weapons. Arias rrfused, instead evacuatin; the capitai and rnarchillg his army north to the city of tiantiago. While he did so the Marines brought in seven more c o q a n i e s from the States and.by the end of May there were eleven companies (some 750 mm) in the Domhicm Republic. The principal reasm morc Marines were brought in-country was because the collapse of the national government brought about as wdl the collapse of civil governmetnt at the municipal level. What neither Navy nor Marine officers understood was that central: government in the Dominican Replablic historically had been very weak. Outlyillg provhces were traditionally dominn.t.ed politically and tnilitarily by stro~ngmnto whom, the central ruling powers were often beholben, It quickly became evident that the A/larines wlrutd have to occupy the L\lhde country if local communities were to be kept free of rebels," At the same time that the Mari.nes prepared to occupy the entirc country, Col. Fendleton decided to attaek Arias's forces in Santiago and attempt to pacify the important nort--hern.agricultural ~ralleyof Cibao. h anticipation of the attack, four companies were landed at Monte Cristi. and Puerto Flata on the northern coast, as there were no roads from the south passable for large attaek forces movi,ng xlnrth.Vrom the north, Fendleton initiated his drive on Santiago and, despite some opposition abng the way, peaefully entered 5mtiago on Juty 6. Immecliately, the Marhes began trying to identify and capture rebel leaders, From July to October t h y arrested rebel leaders throughout the island and disarrngd them. It was not e n o w to stem the insurgency, however. Toward the fall of 11916, sporadic outbursts of insurgent attacks threat.ened to undernine what was lrfi of the Dominican political system. In order to c m t d better the political chaos that threatened, on Nowember 9 U.S. Navy Captain Harry S. h a p p formed a m i l i t q government. He moved. sirndtaneously to assume cormplete control, of government finanws and the judiciary. The Dominicm army was paid off and completely disbanded,VFinally, ail the (jovermentai departments were
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
209
FIGURE 4.1 Number of Marines Deployed to the Dominican Republic, 1916-1924. SC3URCE: Navy Department, Regisker of Ik Commissionlrd wlzd Warrnlzt Officers of the Unifed Slates Navy nlzd M17rz'~~e Corps (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, various years, 1915-1925)
ptaced under the administration of the miZitary gwernor. By the end of 3916 the entirt. corntry was under occupation by fie 2nd Brigade, with some 2,200 men under the command of now Brig- Gen. Pendteton.5 In the process of occupation, the 19,001)-square-mile rcpublic was divided into two military districts-north and south. The forces assiped to the two districts were garrisoned in the major cities of Santiago and Santo Domjngo, just as the Marines had. occupied d y the major cities at the outbreak of the Haitian insrtrgency. 'llhe Marines would soon be forced to move out of the cities and h ~ t athe corntryside to suppress the gmowkg insurgency.6 For four years followirrg fie Marine intervention, insurgents verated in both the northern and southern districts. In the northern district, the insurgents stayed m i d y in the western provinces of Santiago and llos Ros, where the terrairt was roughr and afforded the rebels intermittent access to supplies from Maiti. In the southern district, the insurgents op-
erated in the eastern agricultural provinces of San Pedro de Marcaris and Seibo, where there existed hi@ social unrest due to sugar companies" employment practice^.^ The rebels naturally migrated to these northcrn m d soult.lern areas not: just because they could get support from the populace-it also made them harder to find and target. Most of these provinces had hardly any roads. Even. the agricultural areas had roads leadj,ng only to nearby docks or rail heads, not the capital, Thus, the Marines could not use their trucks for rapid transport across the countryside. Furthermore, there were fewer than twenty-five miles of telephone lines in the emtire cou11try, which meant that rebel movement could not be reported in a tirndy fashion. The i n s q e n t s coutd marn the countryside with little fear that their activities and whereabouts would be rczported to the Marines. Like the Cacos, the Dominican rebels generally coalesced around a charismafic bcal leader who they fiought would t&e care of them and their daily needs. The insurge~~t bands usually consisted of kwer Chm fifty men.%uch bands might be amed with old bfack-pwder rifles, perhaps a k w Krags and Springfields. However, the vast ma~orityarmed themselves sintpiy with macl-tetes and the wcasional pistol. Wheln they were not dismptjng life in the cities, they often committed all mamer of crirnes that terrorized the villages. Rebel depredaions were frequent and effecthe enow,& such that their simple presence Chreatened the security of the mm1 population and chdletnged the arathoriw of the central gave From the beginnjng, the tactics of fie Dominican insurgents were fairly cmsistent, They initiated most battles."Thjs is because they were usually too difficulit to find. Just as in. Haiti, the Marines eventually learned to lure fie guerritlas to them, which they etid firough offensive combat patmlling using small units. This W= not: easy. The Dominicans more o'tcn than not attacked in very large groups. Indeed, unless they we= in large tjroupflwell over two dozen) they s c a t t e ~ dalmcrst immediately when the Marines came in contact with them. Even though they armed themselves more with machetes than rifles, and.could fight better with macheks, the Dominicans rarely rushed troops for hand-to-hand combat; they did not have the ferocity of the Philipphe Moros to s ~ ~ s t asuch in close-quarters cosnbat, Consequently their lines of attack usually collapsed under the firepokver of the troops. Two of the earliest emgagemel~tsbetween Chc Marines and t-he Domiaican insurgmts iIlustrate a tactical pattern of attack and response that one sees throughwt the five years of the insurgency. The first was a large battle on June 27, 1916, at Las Trencheras (see Map 4.22, a widely k ~ o w n rebel stronghold that had never been successfully t&n by government troops. Here, m indeteminate number oE rebels (probably numbering in the hm~dreds)made a stmd at the crest of two hills to block Pe~~dleton's
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
212
MAP 4.2 First Attacks and District Delineations in the Dominican Republic.
advmce an Santiago. Quickly attacking the insurgent positions, the Marines used field artillery to bomh the tsenches, machine guns positioned belzind the troops to s u p p ~ s the s fire of the rebels, and the11 quick rushes to rout the insurgents from the trenches, The insurgents broke away quickIy horn the bold Marine attack. h e to the mountainous and overgrown nature of the terrain, the Marines could not give chase successfully and were far(=&to )et thC guerTi1las go. The second engagentent occurred only six days later, on July 3, when the insurgents made their second stand against Fendleton's column. In this attack the Marines could not use their artillery, so they relied on machirze guns ta s~~ppress the ixrsurgents-rifle fire. T h i s time the ixrsurgents broke only after several. hours of intense fighting, but: as usual they retwated along back traiis that only they h e w . The Marines agajn were thus unable to chase &r them, ensurir\g the insurgents would. be back to fight. Ovemll Response to the Ilzszirgency As in Haiti, the Marines used a combhation of civil and miitary measures to padfy the popdace and defeat. the insurgents. C h the civil side,
the most. prominel~twas the reorganization and strengthening of civil governing structures at the national and municipal levels. This had not been done in Haiti. a h e r civil measures inctuded reforming the edlzcational institutions (not done in Haiti), providing medical care throughout the republic, edancing sanitation measures, and promotirrg agricultural ~ f o r m s?"he . :Marines atso quickly promulgated public works projects fmainly mad-building). Finally, unlike in Haiti, the Marines instituted martial law fcrr the entire =public that gave sweeping powers of arrest to the troops. The military measures used to sttppress the rebels emerged over the first year of operations, suggesting that the Marines of the 2nd Brigade were going through a learni~~g process rather thm applyjng what the 1st Brigade and Ge~~dasmerie had learned in Haiti. The Dominican offieers seem nut to have paid attention to the first Haitian campaign, nur did they take advantage of the experience of the first couple of companies transferred from Haiti. n o s e two colnpnnies WE simpf,y garrisomd in the two major cities of Santiago and Santo Uomingo City As Table 4.1 shows, officers did not have much in the way of doctrine that would have made up for their lack of learning from Haiti. Like the Marjnes oE old, those in the Dmjnicm Republic learned on the job, Ewntually the 2slWrigade established garrisons and posts in the countryside to protect the villagws from the guerrillas, The Marines d s o iorrned a native constabulary, agairr ofiicered by Americans, to supplement the spread-out h/larine force. They built an intelligmce network and system to track and counter the rebel movelnents through the countryside, After the first year of occupation, small. unj.t combat patrols were created to scour areas surroundhg the garrisons to lure the rebels into battle. 'These same patrols ellgaged in night operatiol~sand attempted to debititate the guerriltla movement with search-and-destroy operations targeting guerrilla camps and supplies. 11%1918, the Marines even experimented briefly with reconcentrating the populace in certain rebel provinces, but they we= furced to abort the measure under extreme public pmssure for lack of clear ~sults.10Finally; the Marhes experimented more extensively with the use of aviatim in the Dominican Republic, dmmstrating tangible Iogistical and war-fighting benefits to the troops on the ground.
Civil M m s u ~ sUsed fo Coutzfer the hsrrrgel-tts At least two of the three reasons that underpinned implementation of civil measures in Haiti-htctllectud, utilitarian, and a weak manpower baseapplied to the Dominican Reputntic as well. On the utilitarian side, the impehxs far implementing civil-sedor reforms was the s m e as it had
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c TABLE 4.1 Comparisc>nof Prior Dc~ctrineand Measures Used in Dominican Republic Pofertt i d Measures
1!nfov~naIL>iocfrizze Prior h m l from Haiti Doctrine
Measure Used in Dum. Rclpubtk
Civil Measures
Military Govei-nment Public works (non-Road) Road Building Medical Sanitation judicial (incl. Martial Law) Education Other (Agricultural ReEt7rms) Military Measures Bush Garrisons Constabulary Civil Guards (Vc3tunteers) Intelligence CoXlection Guides Recmnaissance Mapping Patrdling Cuf urnnar 9erationti Small Combat Patrclls Long-13ange/ Mubile Patrols Night /Inclement Weather Ops Search & Bestruy 9erationti Air Power Reemcentration Other (Cordon Operations)
Yes Yes
Yes Yes
Yes Yes Yes Yes
No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No
Yes
Yes
No Net
Yes
Ye Net
Yes No No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No Yes Yes Net Ncj Net
Yes
No
Yes Yes
Yes Limited
Yes
been for Haiti, Without s t r q e r educationaf and medical institutions, for example, the federal and municipat governments could not demonstrate that they could provide for the people, which in turn gave the people POliticd reascm to support the rebels over the duty elected government. Similariy, the exp1matian of strategic weahess holds for the Dominican Republic as it did, for Haiti (indeed, as it held for the Army in the Philippines and Cuba). ?"he 23WBrigacie did not have the means for defeathg the inszlrgemts militaily and protecting the pllpulace from the rebels at the s m e time. As the figure above shows, the total number of men incountry fluctuated between some 2,OW and 3,OW over the rcrugbiy sevenyear period of the insurgency. That represented the combhed m h i n u r n
number of troops co~~sidered necessary to stmch the insurgency m d extra troops rotating througfn the Dominican Republic m a tennporaq basis. In a country of some 19,000 square miles, an average of 2,500 Marines (or one per every ten square miles) could barely garrison and patrol the insurgent stronghold areas let alone the populated parts as wel1.11 Given such strategic weakness, the Marines were forced to implement civil measures to pacify a popdace that might aid the insurgents. h Chapter 3, this process was r e f e r ~ dto as implicitly "'bribing" the people to coopt the Domh~icmRepublic. erate..The sibation was no d i f f e ~ nin As was the case in Haiti, most of the civil measures m d the creation of the constabulary were implemented by State Department order, Athough this tirne no treaty codified the measms in l w . Rather, the Wilson admhistration liberally hterpreted a l907 conventiol~s i g ~ ~ ewith d the Dominicm government to allow it to form a constabula~on behalf of the t j o v e r m n t in power." Acting S e c ~ t a r yof State Frank Polk also detailed a military e~~girreer to the Dominican Republic to hspect the public works and recomend. how to spend the remaining public works funds.lWnce again the focus on civil measures resulted from national policy; not military doctrine per se, although the State Departlaent and the Corps now had the success of the Haitian experitnce to rejnforce this approach. Under State Department orders, a sweephg array of institutional and public works =forms was Fmplemented to strengthen the republiC.14 On the institutional side, the hedth and sanitation systems were extensively reformed. So was the educational system. A natimd primary school system was established with mgulatims governing a stmdard curnculurn, the result being that "schwl enrcrllments [rose] from 14,000 in 1916 to 100,000 by 1"30Q."fi'The postal system was reorganized. Natia~~al fhmces were rationalized and brought back into order, and the penal system was =formed. e)n the puhlic works side, the Corps enpged in a large-scale mad-buildhg program, again not o ~ ~to l yixnpmve to flow of goods between internal markets but also to facilitate quicker movement among insurg"nt hot spots. The telegraph and tclepbone systems were rebuilt, which facilitated the reporting and di,ssentination of intelligence about insurgent actkity. The Mal-ines also embarked, m a previously unseen refnrm: teachifig the Domfnicans new agriculkral methods so they could diversify and expand their food pmduction at the local levels. W i l e the Navy and Marlnes took charge of federal-level functions, for the most part they left mmicipal level ofices in the hands of locals, as done im Haiti.16 Nonetheless, the local garrison commander usuaily played a major governing role in his municipal area. Prior to the intervention, each municipal governm commanded the militay forcles in his provi,nce. M e n the Marines to& over they =versed the municipal dvil-
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
215
military relationship. All military power reverted to U.S. commanders, and the province governors became responsible to their military counterparts. The potitical chain of command, fn fact, dcrvolved ail the way dokm tt?the garrison commanders, who ~crveddouble cluty as local marshal as well. En this capaciv, commanders became the direct point of contact between the mititary government and t-he populace at large. h addition to their governhg responsibilities, Marhes worked to improve local markets and implemented the mad-buitding programs mdered by the national deparments. They became involved in promoting agriculture and chasity work that at the local levels brought thcm closcr to Dominicans. Because of this, personal ties were developed, and the t the natives. As will be discussed later, Marines gained much ~ s p e cfrom this helped the Marines develop better intelrigence than had been the case in. Haiti, where they remained. more separate from, the populace. Aside from the agricultural teachiilg and charity work, Marine officers &so helped sthutate the economies of local towns and provided "the shield of public peace and order behind which other agencies and the Dominican people themselves attempted to rebuild the nation.'"7 C)f course, when it c m e to police powers, Marines participated in a visible manner. They directly enforced decrees and maintained oversight of law enfortlernent and public services. As in Haiti, building roads was cansidered of paramount importance. The reason for this was no different than it had been there, the Philippines and Cuha: Roads increased the mobility of econornic goods as we11 as of troops chasing a h r insurgents. Here, personal experience played a m;pjor and dil-ect role, Shortk after the initial Marine landjng, Col. Waller was transfer~dfrom his positim werseeing civil rebrms il7 :Haiti to a similar one in the Dominican Republic. At the outset he called for a national effort to begixl impmving the mads hmediately. Efforts to do so, however, wew han-tpe~dby a lack of funds. To overcome t-he financial obstacle, Waller requested increased monthly fullding sp~ificallyearmarked for such purpose." "Other obstacles became apparent, however. For exam*, the c~riginalmaps of the republic were highfy unre1iable.w They codd not be used for the planning and susveying of roads. The department was forced to expend resources undertaking a general. survey of the entire country in order to get back to the rod-building task. The failure of national revenues in 1921 eventually brought an end to all road-building md. mlaprnlaking efforts, By that time, however, the Marines had accomplished a fair portion of what they had set out to do. The final civil measure implemented in the Damhican Republic was martial law, but on a more widespread basis than in Haiti. First, the Marir-tes circumvented t-he civilian court proces which was maintained. per balpp's martial lahv proclarnation)zo by establishixlg military cou,rts
and commissions. All banditry and insurgent-relaled crime was redirected to the military courts and commissions. Second, Marines were given wide powermf arrest as provost marshais. Most provost marshls were captains and lieutenants who, @merally s p e a b g , had received no special. trainhg for the job of being di.pIomat and soldier. Most did not Even so, these men speak 5pa"i" ((and few Dominicans spoke E~~glish). were given the power to detain suspected enemies of the occupation. This is important because, from what little the records show on this topic, such sweeping pokvers had not been authorized since the Philippines. M y they were suddenly aut.lnorized is unclear. M a t is clear, though, is that these powers of arrest allowed the Marines to carry on an extensive espionqe camp";p against the insurgents by placing spies w i t h the i n s u r g d bands and then ""arrestjng" and ""dtaining" &em br dehriefing. Another benefit was that, given the power to control a m s licenses directty, fie Marhes could immediattrtfy arrest and detain anyone carving arms without a license, This had never been the case in Haiti, In the early months of the occupation, Marine officers wielded this broad power extensively, even arresting individuats for municiQat offenses. E v e ~ ~ t u dthe y , pocver of arrest becme a sensitive issue such that it: was restricted only to milifary offenses (actual or suspected)." E w n so, "through the power of arrest and through the provost courts, the Marine's enforced the wiE of the Military Govermnt. disectly upon the individual Domisricm,"~2 s noted above, this had concomitmt effects on the military m e a s w s that w r e undertaken. ivfilifrr~jMeaszrres tised fn Cazinfer the hsurgmts
Marhes in the Dominican Republic had access to the s m e formal doctrhe as inHaiti: a brief discussion of combat patrols and night operations r ~ f nothing else. As discussed earlier, what in the hl-rdi~zgForce M a ~ ~ t land limited informal doctrine existed wodd not have applied to the first year of the occupation since neither was prrblished. until March 1917. Therefore, the 2 n d Eirigaeie had only the Haiti experience to learn from, but, as also noted earlier, only two companies transferred from Haiti, m d they were simply garrismed in the two m;pjur cities, This means that most of the measwes used in the Dominican &public we= based cm learning incountry and pctssibly sui gemris ChinEng on the part of 2nQBri,gade officer~,namely: Garrisonhg
* Creation of a constabulary and auxiliaries * Creation of an intelligence network Smalt unit combat patrolling
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
* Night operations
* Search-and-destrq o p e r a t h s * Populace rcconcentration * Aviation support As in Haiti, the Marines garrisoned first the major cities and then the ports h m attempt to assert control over the cou~ztry'sfkancial mechanisms (i.e., the customs h s e s ) . Santo Domingo City and then Santiago were captured. Because each commanded, rczspecthel~the south- and northern portims of the island, the country was i~~itially di,vided into two military districts-the Northern and Southern Districts. During the first months of wcupation, troops operating either district were garrisoned wilhin Santo Domingo or Santiago and operated fmm, there into the countryside, Even the two companies transfermd from Haiti were fnlLied into the regiments and used for this pur-pose. 'These garrisons secured the country's econolnic and political centers, protected the Z3riQ;ade"bases of supply, and $&guarded the custom" houses-still the main source of revenue of the Dominicm gove Far roughly the first two years, this relatively conce~ztriztedapproach domjnated the Marine Corps's garrisoning efforts, which is surprising since by this time (1918 or so) the Marines in Haiti had dready learned to operate from small garrisons spread t h u g b o u t the countryside. By nowI roughly me-third to me-haIf of the Marjnes in the Dominican Repubtic were likely transfers from Haiti.'Wonetheless, the Marine app r o d this time proved as unworkable t?s it had in the eady days of the Haiti intervention. The insurgents simply avoided the majn provincid t w n s and instead terrorized the numerable small t w n s alld villages that: dutted the comryside. In fact, insurger~tactivity rcached such a level in the eastern prwi"cemf Macoris and.El %ibo that the Corps was fnrced to create a new Eastern Dstrict combiming the two provinces in July f 919, Some 1,f 00 meln under Col. James Breck,e~~ridge were sent directly horn Philadelphia to ganism these two provirrces.25 Throughout 3919 and into 1920, Rreckenridgefs forces and those in the other provhces were dispersed widely over the entire countryside, garrisonhg even small towns and vilIages.26 C)utl:ying areas of the provinces might have garrisons as small as ten to twenty- men.27 In the Emtern District, which rt3quired the widest dispersal of garrisons, posts were even estakllished in the bush, These very isolated posts often had only eight men commanded by a lieutenant. Sometimes, not all eight of the men under that lieutenant were Marines. By the time bush garrisons were established, the Corps had crcated a constabulary fortle-the Guardia Nacimal Dctntinicana-to help pacify the country and to provide a security organization that cot~1dserve the
country after Che Marines left. fn creating a constabulary, the Marines adhered to State Department fiat and borrowed directlly from their experiences in I-laiti: ""In view of the fact that conditions in the Republic of Santo Domingo are practically the s m e as those heretofore existing in Haiti, the organization of a native military force, similar to the Haitian constabdary, was deemed expedimt."" However, the 21.1 Brigade waited a full year before forming a constabulary, which was unusual given that (1)State Department policy directly stated that such orgmizations would be required to help suppess the rebels; and (2) a parallel organization exjsted in the country next door before the interventiotn. Such behavjor would. indicate the Marines were not paying all that much attention to State Department views or to their experiences in the neighboring country" Moreover, Marine officers with constabulary experier~ce were not transferred f r m Haiti to the Ominican Republic, so the 2nd Brigade did not benefit f m persmal expc~rienceon that measure either. To crea.t.ethe new constabulary the Mmines djsbandcd the old Guardia RepubIicana (which served as both rural guard and militia) in April 1917. I'he new Guardia usurped the fmc"cicmsof the otd Guardia a d more; it replaced the Dominican Army' Navy; and other security organizations that existed when the Marines landed. Each of those other services were disbanded as well, and many of their personnel were not allowed to reregister with the Guardia. Fourteen companies of the new Guadia were created, each generally with s-cventy-three enlistees and three officers (usually Marine persmparallelkg the nel). The Guardia develoiped a district-based organizatio~~ Marine C o ~ s "own territorial basis for garrisoning. It went m e step further by assigning each company to a province, except for two that were statimed in Santn Domingo and Smtiago, These two were part of- a rotation tsainhg system whereby the Santo Dmjngebased companies mderwent atlditional training before being rotated back out into the field. Under this system, the whole authorized organization of 1,200 etn:listees would have undergone retraining each year. It was a fiiighly hnwative approach tc:,field trailling not seen before in either the Army or the Marine Corps. Hocvever, it was never fully implemelrted due to closures of the training school and. a shortage of government funds, In 1920, the cmtire organization was cut back to 346 enlistees.30 C)nc very important consequernce of dmmizing the Guardia was that the civil governor of Seibo formed native auxiliaries-a form of civil civil volGuarcJia-to hunt down the guerrillas in his prowince.3"ese unteers werc "usually men who have suffered some injury at the hands of the bandits and are eager to operate against them.""" %Such '"epputized" civiiiam had been used before by the A r q in the f'hitippines, but not by the Marines. Toward the end of the PMippine insurrec.lion
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
219
the Army tolerated the formation of sirnilas bands that actualfy proved quite adept at hunting down and capturing Filipirro perrillas or their supplies." h the Dominican case, they wert? so successful that the new commander of the 2nd Brigade, Gen. Harry Lee, encouraged their hrtber development: The employment of the Civil. G u a d s recently in your district in operaticyns against the bandit groups having proved of such great value in bringing about the surrender of the bandits, tile rmdersigned deems it af utmost importance to perfect their organization and by training in the use of the rifle increase their efficiency against the time of any coming emergency that may require their services.%
Despite formation of the Civil Guard., its contribution did not comparc to that of thcz regular Guardia. Over thc. four-year pericxd from the Guardia" hception in 1917to 1921, it undertook some 5,500 patrols.3" average, fifteen Guardia patl-01s were in tkc field every day The patrols covered an average 7,200 miles each month and engaged tbc insurgmts between 122 m d 158 tinnes"36It was defeated only once. In these ellgagements, the Guardia killed or wnunded 320-388 of the insurgents and captured scores more." It also confiscated approximately 1,500 rifles, 1,2110 rev~lvers,3,216 machetes, 34,690 rounds of ammunition, 250 sabers, 2,769 daggers, 2 cannonsf and 1machine gun. For this kvel of effort, the Guardia paid its share of blood. According to one official source, the Guardia suffered 3 officers m d 24 elllisted men Elled (27 total) and 1 officer and 46 enlisted men wounded (47 total),Sg Another official source placed the casualljes at 9 total killed and 50 wounded.39 In 1922 the Guardia was reorganized and renamed the Palicia Naciond Domin.icana ( P m ) , This organization was as effective as its precSece?jsmr.One sees this in the fact that the level of vicllence, unlike in Haiti after 19l1.6, did not increase after the Marines reconcentrated into the larger cities and then left. The Policia maintained control, unlike the Garde dfHaiti, in large measure because it continued the patrolting operathns used so successfully by the Marines over the preceding five years, As tribute to this, the Marine Corps Commandant himself noted that: The greatest advance in the military government of [the Dominican 13epub-
lic] made in several years has resulted from the organization and training af the Dominican National Policef so toward the end of the fiscal years all important arrests of natives and the capture of practically all bandits has taken place by natives; the final result being that every important bandit has either been captured or surrendered
Exactly what End of patrolling operations the Marhes and Guardia undertook is open to some interpretation. The only authoritative source on Damhicm operations, by Stephen Futier and Graham Cosmas, views it this way: Small patrols of less than thirty men, often molmted, roarncd the countryside staying in tke field, for days and weeks, Tke operatimlal objective was to cover territory so that the bandits would be flushed from their Z.riding places and forced into baHle. The pat-rots' srnatl size bajted the enemy into attackirrg (with Dominicans often outnurnberlng Marines 30:1 in combat). The Marines won every encounter, usually due to superior marksmansf.lig, small-unit xnaneuvel; and the quality of i n d i v i d d training (cohesiveness, ubedience, etc.). Patrds might work in zones, but generally they traversed random routes or respmded to local intelligence or contact reports when rcceived in a tirnely f;lst.tion. Patrols tried to surprise the bandits in their carnps but more often &an not found an empty campsite." "Futler and Cosmas's description (except for the use of horses) does not vary greatly from what had occurred in Haiti. The more complex situation in the Dominican case is that tfie size and nature of combat patrouixlg varied in three stages from the beginning of the occupation. to the middle years to the last year or so before exit in 1922, Early m, numerous operations reports show that in most instances combat patmk were composed of roughly forty to fifty men (or half a company)." They were usually led by captains and lk~~tenants who took to the field onlly in response to collected intelligence on specific locations of .rebels, which was sporadic and almost never timely. Indeed, the Marines retied too heavily upon this mode of operation, leaving them very much on the operational (and tactical) defenske, to the point of absorbing numerous attacks on their camps and garrisons.43 'Iihese "midsized" combat patrols did not succeed for several reasolls*'The most obvious was that the information they obtajned was often wrong or too fate to be of use. This was usualiy the result of poor coordination between echelon headquarters and the field. The poor coordination is also reflected in the fact that two or three patrols from differ~ntcommnds might operate in the s m e area ur.lbekrzownst to all. Ancrther =ason for the lack of success is that the e n m y operaed in many independent group"in many different localities, each of which had to be cwered by several patrols in orcler to find a d attack an imurgent group. Wally, the inszxrgmls wodd not attack the larger Marine patrols, so even if the latter took to the fjeld they could not lure the insurgents into a fight. As the Marines begm to spread out over tke countryside a year into the insurgencyf the patrols became smaller in order to cobrer more territory. The patrols were not " d e n mounted," as Fuller and Cosmas indicate. One contemporary accmnt cites only 20 percent of the men h Santo Domingo as behg mounted." NNeither did patrols stay in the field far
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
221
weeks at a time. Rather, since the me11 carried their rations on their own backs or on the few mules they could fjnd or purchase, they did not pack for mom than a few days at a time. If, in hot pursuit, the patrol r m out of food, it might try to live oft the lmd for a short period (days only). However, the extreme poverty of the natives meant that even a subsistence level of foodstuffs was difficult to pmcure.. Patrals were led more oAen by n011c sioned officers (sergeants,and corpods) than regular officers.$' A1 usually comprised of fifieen men, some patrds operated with as few as eight to ten men. This hrlped lure the hsurgents into battle. Moreover, sb~cecollected intelligence had not led the patrols to the insurgents, these small patrols were forced more f~quentlyto seek the enemy themselves. As one crmtemporary officer put it: "We had to bait the enemy wi& small patrols m d take our chmces on whipl"hg greatfy supesios n ers with the same small patml.'"ab Certainiy, f i ~ ~ d i nthe g insurgents was no easy task. O fen the underbrush and surrounding rain forest was so thiCk that huntixlg for bandits was like looking for needles in a haystack. As in Haiti, patrols were usually Limited to marching along trails rather than through the bush itseff because of its thick;tn,ess. These trails were so nasrow that patrols had to proceed single file. Interestingly, the hminican insurgents never took advantage of this fact to attack close h,as did the Moros and Pulajanes in the Philippines. hstead, they rmained content to fire upon patrols from safe distances. This explains why the patrols aggressjvely swung onto the offensive once the f i ~ f i g hbegan. t To remain in the open space of the trajl would have made p a t d members easier targets to hit., Ironically, it was often safer to charge into the bush into the path of fire than it was to take cover and return fire. One Marine tactic, recomaissance by fire, often tricked the bandits into givhg away their positions before the ambush could be sprung: Whenever approaching a spot along the trail FR which the terrain was ideal for an ambush, the patrol point guard would fire h t o the bush. m h b g that their positions had been discovered, the guerrillas would often =turn fire before the patrol had entered the trap. Near the end of the occupation, the operational nature of cclmbat patrolling changed agah. In 1921, the 15th Regiment abandoned entirely the policy of constant patrolling under junior officers, apparently in response to U.S. Senate hearintgs investigating reports of alleged atmcities." For thc next year or so, until the end of the occttpatim, operations consisted of sendlng the entire regiment into the field, a h a y s with previously defined objectives to be achieved, under the commanci of higher officers. account claims this new field orgmizatian worked: This method, although it has apparently imposed hardships upan individuals not identified, has on the other hand relieved them of many more severe
hadships, such has having their territory- frequently visited by patrols under less responsible control and more Xikefy to inflict damage upon the people. The operatims have resulted in clearing the zones af operations of bandits and the disappearance of bandit raiding parties frc~mthose zones, and have made indiscrixninate patrolling of armed forces unnecessary.48
Despite the perceived success, the reality is that by the time the regiment took to the fjeM the small patrols had already redured bmdit activity such that they had accomplihhed what the midsized, operational:ty defensive patrols had failed to do. It wodd not be unfair to chararterize the regimentskork then as mopphg-up operations, By 1 9 2 , there were only a hanclful of insurgent holdouts, and tbeir area of operations was hisly welf known.Marine successes had also induced a better level of cooperation from the people. Field radiophones had been distributed throughout the country, makimg informatim relatively easier to collect, collate, and dissetninate (to the extent: Chat it was) in a morc timely fashion, Consequently, the regiment simply waited in its garrisons and emerged only when necessary to encircle an area and fipatively "beat the bush'' to find the =mining s m l l bandit groups. The Marines were back on the operational d e h s i v e again, Intelligence efforts were ohiously key for these defensive operations, and the Marines had better success establishing intelligence and communications networks in the Dominican Republic than they had in I-laiti. b r example, to hefp oversee and cmtrol popuiation movement, the 2nd Brigade established national identity cards. The Dominican constitution had abolished the use of internal passports, but World. War I caused the Marines to consider establishing cmtrols over fntemal movement to prevent sabotage. Thus, ndionai identity cards were mated, technicay for all who zoaated them. In practice they were issued. to eveyone: ' ' M i l e by l w and the constitution no p a s p d w a r n e w s a y for leaving the [int.ernal] dominions, l.he prnvost m(.trsh.alm d the mihtary intelligence officer were inclined to require their production for pur-poses of identification,"39 Just as in Haiti, the Marine intelligence service in the Domhican Republic undertook extensive mapping activities (there were no accurate m a p w f the country) in order to prepare a two-volume handbook cJf strategic information about the repwglic. Here, the 2"QSri,gade took advantage of personal experience and placed Lt. Col, Dion Williams in charge of the mapping effort in tbe province of Samana.~Wi11iamshad been in charge of field work for the military survey of Cuba during the first year of the pacification effort (1906-1907) and would have understood the role his worked played in the antiguerrilla effort. It is unclear when his inikiathe began, but. certahly it was not before 1918. References
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
223
to the Samana surveys refer to work do11e in 1919-h the end, the survey data we= not transformed into maps in a tinnely fashion. By September 19211there still were no maps available for usee51 The Marines generally relied upon the intelligence network syste~s they had established. This included hlring spies to infiltrate the insurgmt bands. One prhlt-lm was that so many of these bands operated without any coordination among themselves that intefigence m i n s u r p t s was somwhat compartmentalized. Had this been a purposeful tactic m the part of the insurgmt leaders, similaf to what communist cells wUtd later do, it w u l d have appearcd as brjlliant: scheming. However, the compartmentalizatim prObXem was merely the by-product of organizational anarchy among the insurgent leaders. This was no different than had been the case in Haiti. To try and circumvmt the compartmentalizatim problem, 2nd Brigade established a central htelligence office in each district. Field infornation was collected horn disparate sources and reported back to &strict offices by written report, then collated by the district FRtelligence offices into daily m d monthly summaries af activity throughout the districts, From the records, informaim was clearly being sent up the chain of command to the military governor and other higher officials, It is less clear whether this collated, and thus valuable, informaticm was passed back dozon the chain of cornmand. A few g a r i s m off'icers, thou@, seemed to h o w who all the insurgent and bandit leaders were in their provhe, suggesting that at least some intelligence was being disseminated to the garrisons. Late in the insurgency, the Corps began relying upon the telephone and radio to speed up the collection and dissemination of tirne-sensitive infctrmation. The centraf brigade intelligence office combined its own tekphone switchboards wjth that of the country so that it could wceive prompt reports from the sugar estates and other private citizens with telephones. Radiophones were used to keep in constant cmtact with company headquarters in the provkces. They were not, however, distrib.uted lower down to the smalZer garrisons and posts until 1919. Cmsequmtly, for the first three years of the occupation there was no rapid cornmunication between the intelligmce oMices and those inthe field. To compensate for this intelligence weakness, the Marines made more effective use of night marches and operations during inclement weather. As had been discovered in Haiti, night marches were particularly effective when attempting to sneak up on suspected rebel stmngholds and camps." This experience was no different from what the Army discovered in the Philippines or from wt.tat was in the Landing Force M a n u ~ since l 1912. By leaving camp in the middle of the night, the r&els%spies wert- unable to discern where the patrds were beaded or what their objective might be* The insurgellts were thus liable to be
caught unawares in camp since the approach of the patrols would go unnoticed in the dark, The Marines also made effective use of inclement weather as much as they could. Ag;ain, this was no clifferent than hlrhat Che Army )earned in the Phil.ippin.es and t:he 1" Brigade had. learned in Haiti. Even though rainy season occurred from JuXy through November, the patrols kept moving. This worked to their advantages in several ways. First, the bandits did, not have the discipliste and morale to operate in the rain; they were less likely to establish ambushes for the patrols. Second, the wealher, like the dark, often served to mask the approach of Marine columns (particularly with respct to noise), making their whereabouts less certain when trying to set up an mbush. Like night maxhes, this had an adverse impact upon the insurgents-telligence system since informants were more likely to stay out oi the rain than to spy on the Marines. Finally, less inclined tcr verate in the rain, the hsurgents werc. more likely to be caught in camp, thereby increasing tkiv risk of being ambushed by Marine patrols. The P-Rrigade during this period tried one other highly cmtmwrsial weakx~essin its intelligence apparatus. measure h order to circ~~mvent As the Arrny had in the Philippines, in late 1418 it tried populace reconcentraticm, Campaip Orcier No. 1, issued in August of that year, orctered the rural populace to be reconcentrated into towns so the Marines and Guardia could sweep the rural, areas of suspected rebel bands. Extreme public outrage caused the concentration progmm to be wspended within months. It is unclear whether the commanding officer in the town of Hato Mayos tried the s a m program separate from the general order.53 The end result, howevele, was the same: Reconcentration was cmceled posthaste. With or withuut popullation contl.ols, patrols did achieve success by confiscating c ~ destroying r insurgent supplies and arms left behind in the fight.. As in the Amy's ccalnpaigns and parallehg the Haitian campaigns, Marines =sorted to search-and-destroy operatims often for their w n sake. Al:hou& not as common in the first year or two of operations as one might. anticipate, by 1918 patrols were routinely sceking and destroying any proper-ty of the insurgents they could find.54 Usually this consisted of minor shacks hidden in the bush, food, clothix~g,guns, and amunition l& behind inthe fright of surprise. Indeed, the capture of guns and ammun.ition was the Corps" most frequmtty cited rwasure of success from the Dominican interventicm, In the alter-action rcports of 7,'33,6and later, one finds the scizure of rifles, pistols, ammuni"tion, and occasionally machetes trumpeted as a measure of Marino effectiveness counterix~gguerrifla activities.""Miithin t-he first year of occupation done, Mari,nes seized over 6,OW rifles and 22,001) pistols.36
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
225
Unfortmately for the Marines, captured arms were not as good a measure of dectiveness as they would have hoped. They probably figured that with so few a m s being importc;d to the island, reducing the number of weapons in the hands of insurgents would eventually neutdjze the hsurgency. However, unlike the Army in the Philiypines, the Marines did not have sotid intdigence indicating how many arms origirufbwere in the general population. 'Thus, they did not h o w how many more Rmained in, a society that higSlly valued the ownership of individrtal weaponry. h addition to counting weapons, the Marhes sought to "decapitate" the insurgent leadership. This practice became commonplace sometime beginning in 3937 as the Mazines realized that, just as in Haiti, many of the guerrillas were willing to return to tht.ir more peaceful existence before the occupation if their leader werc killed or captured.." In fact, over time the Marine combat patmls successfully capbred many of the guerrilla Ieadcrs, The result was by and large what the Marines thought would happen: The insurgency sfowfy waned. I n k e d , all organized armed resistmce was thought to have virkally ceased by mid-1920. The brigade commander reported only forty-two engagements during the year (out of a total 927 for the entire six-year occupatim).rn Perhaps in response to the perceived sLtwdown in insurgent activity the brigade cornmander rotated out the majority of Che Masines in-country. Some 3,060 enlistees were mtated back to the States while 2,435 were rotated into the Domhican Republic. On the officer side, 142 (of approximately %0) officers were rotated nut and 1,18 back in.59 II%understood by brigade HQ was the fact &at in a country as farge as the Dominican Republic, with as fw Mazines as occupied it, there were bound to be smart insurgent leaders who escaped being Elled or captured. Taking advantage of the speedier communications that fjeld radiophones prwided, headquarters began experimenting in October 1921 with cordon operations-a large-for~nationtactic not used in previous Marine operations, In the eastern prwinces, around the towns and villages Mthere the insurgents were known to hide out between depredations, patrds from nearby garrisons would deploy iut a rough circle around a specified, village or mcampment area (see Map 4.3). This was almost always accomplished at ni&ht to maximize the likefihood of surprise. 011ce the emirclement. was complete, large patrols would sweep inward, along LalZ avenues of approach to the central rneetjng point, In so doing, they would engage any bandits who resisted andim arrest most of the adulf:m l e s trapped within the cordon area. m c e all the mates had been round.ed up, they would. be brought to a central &tention area. Other natives from the srtrmunding bcale would then be brought in to identify ,?ll the maXes detained.""nterestingly, a si,milar tactic had been
MAP 4.3 IlXustration of Cordon aperatirons in the Dominican Republic.
used by mounted Army units on a limited basis in the Philippines, but no pubtic record-that is, hformal or fomal doctrine-was even made of it.61 Whether some Marine heard of cordon operations from Army sources, formulated m inllovative way to detain all males, or creatively thought it up, no one can really say Learned or not, cordon operations proved highly successful at first blush. In one drive, 576 "suspicious" males were picked up: 105 of them were "identified" as bmdits.62 In another operation 568 were captured with 101 bandits identified." h at least four more such cordon encirclement~between October and March 1922,340 bandits were identified out of 1,420 individuals rounded up.& Despite this statistical evidence of succes, cordon operations were declared heffective a d called off- in March 1922 after only six munths of operation. The official reason for this abrupt termination was that despite the capture of so many bandits in so short a period of time, the cordon patrols had failed to capture the bandit leaders. Indeed, several insurgent leaders continued to operate during the months the cordon operations were in effect and actually increased their depredations during this period." The overall result was that HQ ordered the resumption of the small combat patrolling opera-
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
227
tions that had characterized the middfe period of the occupat-ion with a twist. By then, a combat aviation component had been added to the mix of military measures. The 1st Marhe Air Squadron was established in the Dominican Republic in 1919, Through 1920 it perfomed principally logistical functions. Its chief duties were to:
* Transport military mail and official communication from capital to towns; Ferry military passengers; * Give local officers airtime to explore their district's terrain features; Participate at field manewers at maneuver grotrnds afier train-
ing;
* Rapidly scout for bandits; Make photograpS-iicmaps; and
* Make photographic surveys of coasts and rivers,& hdeed, the Air Squadron" soperatkg records show that through 1920 most Ri;ghts werc for trmsport and mail purposes.67 There were, after all, only six operating aircraft in the entire country during 1920, so there were none to spare fos nd0gisti.c~duly MSO,because of the novelty of air-ground operations, aviation was valued more for services such as mail delivery, evaruation, and aerial surveying and mapping.68 Perhaps m o important, ~ howeves, is the fact that no communications methods had as yet been established between air and ground forces. Aixraft could drop written messagm, but at that time pmcedures for picking them up in the field still had not been developed. And radios were not small, enough to fit into the cockpit. Thus, air and grolmd units could not coordhate their actions. Despite the communications problelx, hlate 1921 the Corps begm experimenting with using planes and troops together in air-gmund---like teaming, shcrrtly after having done so in Haiti." Although undocumetnted for this period, records from the (fater) Nicaraguan insurgency suggest that the bmakthrough that dlowed the Marines to experiment with air-grounli operations was the use of gmund panels to communicate with the pilots. Many of these panels w m symbolic and thus codd convey clear meaning with only a k w strung together on the ground. (This also saved the patrols from carrying excessive baggage to c o m u nicate with air ele~xents.) At first, the aircraft were used as recomaissmce hthe field, command cating rebel force size and direction to nearby patrols. The probfem with air reconnaissance was that it s~~cceecfed only in clleared areas. Conse-
quentl?~, patrols begm cmmunicathg bandit locations to the pilots, who would in turn help the patrol attack the bandits by attacking the insurgents directly, mostly by strafing but occasicmaily by bombing them as well, Unfortu~~ately the records do not hdicate how prevale~~t such airground operations became, However, the groundwork was clearly laid for the sipificant use of air combat operations beginning five years later h Nicaragua. By the time air-ground cooperation achieved some capacity to irtfiuence the tactical fight, t-he reality is fiat the operationaf use of small cornbat patrols and large-scale cordon operations had ehausted the insurgcrnts to the point that the few remaining bandit leaders could not recruit new forces as easily or operate near the Marine garrisms with impunity. What the Marhes faced from that point in time hrward (1921) can probably best be termed ""isolated banditry," Thus, by June 1922 the nation could be consietered at last fuib pacified.7":ln six years, the :Marines were invdved in at least 467 engagements, with 1,1137 jnsurgents Mled or wounded in, action to the Marines-twenty kiXled and sixty-seven w0mded.71 The Marine Carps could now count its secmd small wars success, built substantially on the same masures it had used in Haiti with a few key distinctions. The Dominican goue ent, for example, was reorgmized at the nat-imal and municipal levels. Likely this was the product of the United. States initiating a military government, giving it a level of control never wte achieved in Ilaiti. This also pmbably accounts for MIhy educational reforms-a government functio11-kvere undertaXcen in the Dominicm Reprrblic and not Haiti. n e attempts at rcconcerntsatim and the use of cordon operatims also separate the Bminican and Haitian operations.. U1.lfctrtlanately because these measzlrcs were highly contmversial, the recods are largely devoid oi their discussion, Certainly, as with garrisoning, intelligence operations, and search-and-destroy operations, such practices wcre not part oE formal doctrine (for that matter, neither were air-ground operations and the creation of the cmstabulary). Rut such omissions from formal doctrine did not prevent the Marines from learning how to perform these tasks well enough to win their second small war. Lessons from the Dominican Experience
With respect to small wars, t-he Dominicm intervention seemed to have captured the attention of thinkers in the Marine Corps in a way Haiti had not, ior the pust-hminican years witnessed the first fomal attempts to incorporate smaIl wars lessons into training at the new Marine Corps khools at Qmntico. At both the Field and Csnpany Officer's Schools,
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
229
lesso~~s learned were hcorporated in the curricula via lectures on small war experiences that Marine officers we= reqrrired to attmd.. These first steps wertJ tentative, however. Not until the Nicaraguan intervention f19261.932) did smdl wars training grokv fsoln a few hours at-the auditorium lectern to a hll-time effort in the classroom*Even so, it was the beginning of a trend that ultimately led to pubhation of the h u l l Wars Manual k 1935and 1940,
IT?fi,nrralDoctrine: kssons Learned u ~ T!zeir ~ d Dissani~~aliorz Clearly, lessons frm the Dominican experience-initiaXly slow as the measures may have unfolded-were picked up by offirers who tho-t to translnit them to their peers. Unlike the Haiti case, sonte of the lessons of the Dominican expesience even became availa:ble in time to be of use to new officers serving during the last two years in that country- Moreover, unlike in the Amtp'r; case, the smaj) wars problem occupied a significmt Of the roughly fifty article?$pubportion of the professional literat-. lished by the Caztte betwet-m 1918 and 1926, thirtem b o r e than a quarkr of the total) were on small wars. Of that number, eight covered aspects of the Domixlican experience, five oi which appeared b e f m the Marines retired horn tbr field. Mmy of the articles we= simply overarching histories of the Marhe htervention. As Table 4.2 shows, however, for the first time civil measures such as road-building and political governing and rnilitary measures such as garrisoni~~g, Guardia formation, i~~telligence procedures, small combat patrols and crzlu tactics, and search-and-destray operations were all covered.72 Moreovelr, they reflected with a high degree of accrtraq the lessms of the Dominican exprience. mree of the articles that discussed civil measures in the Domhicm Republic are of special importance because they were among the few to analyze the role civil measures played in antiguerrilla operations.7"e first article addressed narrowiy the issue of the Cuardia's role incivil and military measures, letcusing principaily u p m the forxner.74 The second mre comprd"hen&velya d d ~ s s e dseveral of the civil measures undertaken by the hifarhes." Here, the author" key contrib~~tion was to discuss a subset of civil measures-public works projects-that had not reccked much themtical attention by the Army or Marines but had been a core part of their response to the insurge~~cies. The final arkicte expanded upon the second, breakirrg w t by department the discussion of civil masures implemented to impmve the national infrastructurr.76 Underscoring the key importance of: Che constitbulary in Che Marine success, half of the eight articles on the flomjnican experience discussed the formation and use of the Guardia.77 Another two articles focused upon its counterpart, the Cendarmeric, in Hait-i.78 The im,portance of
TABLE 4.2 Small Wars Measures Discussed in the Corps's Pmfessional journals, 11918-1926 Civil Measures
8
Mill tary Gc>vernment Medical / Sanitatic~n Civil Construction noad Building Military Measures Garrisons Scouts / Constjtabutary Intel lilgence Procedures Columnar Pkmitive f2atrafling Small Unit Combat Patrc>lling Search and Destroy Ops
6 3 5 6 9 2 6
2 2 4 3
NCITFS: The table includes one article written cm civil m e a s u r e s f o r t h e Navy" professional journal, U.S. N a v ~ lInsfifzrte Proceedings, SCIURCE,: Maritze Corps Gnzefte
and US. Naval Institufe Proceeditzgs, varic)us issues
these articles lies not only in their similarity but also in their relative accuracy in reflecting actual events in-country n e constabulary role in 1.mplementing civil measures, particutariy road-buitding and safiitation, along with its role beside Masines in the fidd and even training, were covered to one degree or another by these articles, Because of the anecdotal natrlre of most of the writing during this period, most of the measures used in the Donninican Rep.ublic were mentimed in passing but. sub~ed to little analysis of effectiveness. The only masures not mentioned were the use of night operatrions, aviation, and the limited recancentration that was tried. Most important for this period, for the first time Marine officers attempted to distil1 elements of a small wars doctrine b r tbeir peers. Flrur articics on this topic by three separate aulhors appeared in the GazetteThe first of them was a cmprehenske expressim of small wars lessons by Maj. Earl El.. Ellis that focused on delineating a strategy for defeating inszxrgmcies.7WElfis's own explanation for dohg so is notable in its own right: He lamented the fact that to date there had been no formal writ.hg of the d e s of land warfart; for guerrilla forces.8"" Writjng in M r c h 1921, near the end of the Dominican occupation, El.. lis laid out some tactical problems, sketched out his strategy, and discussed what tools occupation forces needed to cornbat rebels. He noted up front that the nature of enemy operations wodd be to light with ir-
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
231
regular forces in a series of surprise raids, ambushes, and assassinations. To defeat such an enernF other nations had historically engaged in four counterresponses:N
* Killkg or wounding the irtsurgents and destroying their property; Uestroying the property of aides and abettors-that is, people felt to have helped the insurgmcy in some manner; * Laying waste to entirt~areas irThabitcd by those frienetty to rcbels-the Shaman approaeb; and * Removing and dispersing the women and childwn from the area of unrest, resettling them elsewhere, and then waging a campaign against the males remaining at large. Ellis simply concluded that in most cases the best approach was the first one and the11 laid out his own three-part strategy. First, the occupying power would land and seize control of all major seaports, It was important to e n c i ~ l ethe seaport city while taking it so that the bandits would not escape into the bush. As we have seen in Haiti and the Dominicm Republic, the Marirzes did take the seapods at the outset.%However, in Haiti the Cacos did not operate in the cities, so encircling them would have been fr~~itless, Only in Smto Domingo City would S L E C ~an effort have been useful, but even then the insurgents had their base of suppo" outside the cities, so it would have not stopped fie insurgmcy a n y a y . Furthemortl, encircling the cities heach of the two cases would have taken far more soldiers than the Mar;iwrescould muster, Seccmd, the occupier would establish a line of fortified posts lead% into and then scattered within the interior with the objective of sec~~ri-ng the aajriculturdly producthe areas to steady the population f r m revolt. I'he posts in these art-as, supplied from nearby markets, woutd serve fie dual function of supply bases and rest havens for units operating against the irtsurgents, This is not quite what occurred in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In those cases, the Marines focused first on securing the larger towns. Chly whesz f orced by eventdid they then go into the rural areas and garrison the bush areas that the insurgents used as their bases of operations. Ellis's ideas here were a little fcrrwarci-teaning and reflected some thought-about lesst>nsthat should have been learned but were not or at least were not reflected anywherc public. Fillally, the occupier would ""drive nying columns into the isolated districts and mop up." On this point Ellis's strategy only superficially reflected the previous campaigns. In Haiti, a mobile reserve had been fnrmed im Port-au-Prince tc:,act as a flying colu ,but this was done at the end of the insurgelzcy to help the Haitian constabulary maiintain the
peace after the Marines left in 1934. In the Dominican case, orlly after the insurgency had. been severely weakened and the Senate hearings bad occurmd did the :Marines resort to the use of flying columns. By then fie insurgency was almost over" If several key tenets of Ellis" strategy did not reAect the lull reality of counterinsurgency warfare as waged to date by the Corps, his discussion of the operatimal compctnents of his strategy did. According to Ellis, occupation fnrces would need to undertake four key fwctions to connbat rebels: the building of intelligence scrrwices; fie establishment cbf provost services (essmtially martid law); creating morale effects among the popuIace through troop prt.sence (garrisdng); and outright cornbat.83 Inexplicably, Ellis did not clarify hrther his thoughts on martid law, whereas he did for the other three. The intelligence service was tasked with gathering and disseminatixzg all information pertinent to taking the correct political and military actions. Eitis automatically assurned that such an organization could be crea.t.ed effectively only by a military government, which was not quite the case in Cuba and FIaiti.84 On garrisoning, Ellis argued for distributing troops in posts ammg the people for popular rnnrale effect, as well as for protecting resources. From such posts, "representatives" of the occupying power would come in daily contact with the people, thereby asswing them of their sectrrity and thus mollifying them, Though this measttre was hewn to the Army since the the Marhes had to relearn this lesson f i e hard way in Haiti Philippi~~es, and the Dominican Repubtic. Einaily, patrolmould beat the insurgmcy back by destroying the rebels thmtlgh field combat with "the idea being to beat the native guerrilla at his own game on his own ground."BV~nthe initial stages of fie small war effort, the wcupying power would use colurnn qerations Chat could be fairly l a g e &,g., over contpany strength). As the enemy wore down, however, the size of such formations would becme smaller, with squad-sized combat patrols sufficing. Here ElIis reflected what actually happemd in each of the cases noted to date, but it was the wrong answer. In o d e r to wear the enemy down, the Army and Marines were forced to deploy into small unit combat patrols. So long as they operated larger column patrols, they couldn't even find the etnerny much less wear him down, C o m p l e m e n ~ gEllis"s focus on the skategic and operaticmal lessons of the Marine small war experiences, the second articIe orn dsttrhne formation by Capt. G. A, Johnson focused upon the tactical measures of operating small comhat units in fie bush." "most of his points accurately reflected not only Marine but Army lessons as well inthe bush, His two rnost importmt observations were on patrol communication and search-and-destroy &servations. On the former, Johson observed that the dissemina~onof the radio to s m l l units had improved connmmicat.ions greatly, particularly
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
233
betwee11 separate col~~lnns trying to caordbate their nrrovemel~tson the march,g On the latter, be argued that fjnd-ingm d destsoy-ing enemy foods t d s "is ordinardy more vital thm the t a h g of the town,"@This advice accurately reflected bolttn the Army's and the Marbes' historical =cord in waging small. wars. Each insurgency weakened significantly withi.n six months to a year once search-md-destq measurcls we= rigorously pursued. That did not man sttch masu,res wertl instituted ill a tirnely fashian, however, only that they were highly effective once instibted. Even more important than his points on topic, Johnson's article is notable for the sottrces hc. used: war dimies and reports of opemtions from files located at Marjne Corps Headquarters statcsidc and numerous publications, mostly f m Britain. The first two sources are important in that they appear not to have survivd during the intervening years between the Dominican and Nicaraguan interventions, The third source, British publications, is notatille for how typical@Marine read them and ~ f e r s e d to them in their writings on counterinsurgency lessons. Unlike Army writhgs up to World War I, Marine oEficers mutjneiy referred to British campaigns in Kashmir and South Africa, 'The majoriw of C;iazrrlifem a i l wars authors seeln to have read the 1906 edition. of C.E. Cdl.we21fsfamous SlrfalE Wars doctrhal mmual.
I~@orvl"IDoctrine: Lessons Snlzctionczl' by the Institrrtion &ring the six-year period between the Domi~~ican and Nicaraguan insurgencies, there were two sig~~ificant attempts to put u~~official small wars lessons into a doctrinal context, In both. instances the officers on their own i~~itiative wrote down small. wars lessons in a manner that attracted the attention of HQ staff, who in turn felt the lesscrns should be iurther dissemjnated to the Other officers of the Corps. One attempt failed and the otl~erdid not. The one that did was a lengthy treatise, miginail,y prepared in June 1923 bp Maj. C.J. MilSer as "The Transition of Ihe Second Brigade, U.S. Marhe Carps."BVt was edit& by higher staff officers at Qua~~tico Headquarters for serializaticm im the Clzzdft., clearly intended for distribution to the officer corps. Why it was never published remains unknown. However, it was pEaccd inthe HQ%oofficid file system and as such was open to student officers at the Field and Company khools. Thus, along With simi,lar papers in the file, it was likely read by a number oi the students before some of them were sent to Nicaragua."" The attempt that succeeded was a treatise entitled ""Strategy and Tactics of Small Wars"" drafted by Maj. Samuel Harrington in 1921." Written somtime after his earXy service in Haiti, possi:bly during his tollr as dr411 instructor on Parris Island near the end of World Mrar I, Harringtonfs monograph was brought to the attention of Ihe Commandant, wfio felt it
important e ~ ~ a u gtohwarrant hcfusion in the Marine Corps curriculum. It was simultaneously serialized in the Mlarine G o y s Gazette and translformed into lecture notes for the Field OfficersTourse at @mtico. Marrington's monograph is by far the most important doc.lrinal work in the post-Domjnican period, and it was mcognj.zed as such at the time. In October 1922, the cornmancling officer of the ikfarine Corps Schools wrote the Commandant a m e ~ n oa s h g him to request "that Major Sarnueit M. Harhngton, USMC, return to the files of this organization the copies of his work on small wars. tn order to build up a course in strictly Marine Corps work, the work of the previous year should be available lfor comment and crit:i~ism,""Y The Commandmt must have agreed because the request was issued, but Harrhgtrm begged off sending back the one copy he h d g 3Matever the final outcome of the Cornandant's revest, Har-tds tmatise is properly recognized as the first attempt by the Corps to dissemimate officiafly and instihttionally through the ikfarine Carps Schoos the lessons of antiguerrilla warfare. For Harringtm, small wars manifested themselves when ""organized forces are d&ated and scattered, its members may still be unconquered m d may cmthue opposition through petty depredations degeneratkg into unorgani.zed guerrilla or bandit warfare. Such unurganized forces have as a last retreat inaccessible strongholds in the mountains and sparsely inhabit.ed distriets."g4 So long as the opposing forces remaincd o r g d z e d in the field., then the so-called, first principle of war govemed-that is, conquering the hostile force. m e n the opposition became disorganjzed, however, the ob~cctiveremained the s m e , but: "the nrmrls cfreachi~~q this ohjectivr will differ from those used in regdar warfare."'"" tlarrington envisiofied two basic phases of a small wars strategy. The first was a campaign waged against cities, and Che second was a c m paign waged against the rernainjng forces in the field. The reason for the first phase was twofold: I. ""Owing to the weakness or ignorance of our enemy an announced objective such as the seizure of a principal city will act as a m a g ~ ~to e tdraw the enelny to its defense and to oppose our advance h the direct line of our advmce."q6 2. ""lis a further genclraf fact in small wars that a seizure of enemy cities has a great moral effect and t e ~ ~to d sdisintegrate his forces and discourage qposition.'"'" Actually; Harrington was incorrect on both counts hsofar as Haiti and the Dominicm Republic were concerned. Enstead, this analysis probably ~ f l e c t e dm m the experiences of Vera Cruz in 1914. Even so, this phase of operations was consjdered such a common part of Che i,ntervemtionist
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
235
mission that Ellis and later Maj. Harold Utley copied this format for their work on the subject, and it explains why Maj. Sannuel M, Harrington devoted the first third of his work to explaining landing operati~ns~gs The second phase began wfien most of t-he cities had been occupied and the memy began resortirrg to desultory campaips of terrorism and ambushes in the countryside: The strategy develops into a division o f farces into small units pursuing an enemy active in movement and petty reprisal, The tactics of such an enemy are ct.-taracterizedby great mc>bilityand ability of escape. The small bands will not give battle and mutit be trapped into destruction. These bands must be suppressed because they prey an friend and foe alike, If successful their strength will grc>w-by the addition t c ~their fcxces of those otherwise not wholly detmmined by attitude.99
1x1 order to find asld fight these smaller predatory bands, the regular iorces had to establish bases of supply in the countryside (either in cities or strtmgholds) from which they could operate against the insurgents, seize the insurgents' ljveslock and supplies, and seize all a r m ol all inhabitants in the occupied territory. Harrington outlined six operational steps to implement his twophased strategy, peppering his analysjs with Dominican examples where relevant. The fixst and second steps were complemntary. The occupying army would seize the ports or border toclins commanding the mutes of trade and entrance into the country. Then it wodd seize interior cities, towns, or villages commanding the economic resources of the territory and establish there (m at other suitable points) its bases of supply. Each of these two steps mirrored not only the Haitim and Dominican experiences (aibeit later in boot occupations) but also the Philipphe and C&an ones as well. The third operationnl step was fnr the occupying army to divide the theater oi operations (generally the mtire country) into military districts. I'hese districts would be crr-located with the econornicafty more productive areas of the count-ry, such as the agriculturd areas or even (as later turned uut to be the case in Nicaragua) the cattle or mining areas. To a lesser extent the occupying army mi@t also target fishing, hunting, manufacturing, and commerce districts. The fourth step was to initiate operations aajainst the insurgents based horn the capturttd cities or other fortified bases of supply. Harrington considered this operational step-localized offensives against the insurgcrnts-the most important elemnt of his strategy.l(lQ Here, units operating from established bases would seek out and attack the insufgents on a continual basis. Harrhgtm seemed uncertain as to the optimal size of
these units. He was torn between the canflicking prirrciples of mass and economy of force: Tn regular warfare it may be desirable to sacrifice a small command in a dehying action. X?z strtrnll wars became of the loss in prestige to regular troops by the defeat of even a small force, it is a pn"ncipal ttinf ourforces are never diz~z'dedexcepk zolzen eaclt porlion SO diz~idedzoill be nbk to cope zoith elze-nzy tlmt if may meet wz'thozit sliflering d e f e ~ t , ~ ~ ~
Despite his ul-rcertainty, Harrington was dear on why the offensive had to be maintained contk~ually,and he used British examples to boIster his point: "The moral or psychological effect of the offensive is well known. Success grows with stlccess. Hence the importance in mail wars of a continuous offensive whereby the enemy comes to expect that you will be successfZll whenever you make the affect."m "This is true in all wars but is particularly applicable in m a l l wars. The reason is largely psychological. The enemy must be overawed and made to feel the hopelessness of opposition. . . . Delay he will mistake for fear white his o w i ~courage will rise.'"o3 To maintain the offensive, commanders shoulcjl never focus upon gaining ground but upon grinding down the enemy: If the enemy is Reet of foot and being able to live on the country is unhampered by supply cl-rlumg as is usually the case in small wars, his loss of any particular po~sitionwill prc~b&btynot concern him greatly. He will be sure to have a line of retreat, Since his tactics are essentialy guerrilla he will assemble again to attack at his convenience, We affect his spirits chiefly by inflicting losses in his persc>nnel.Hence izz snznll zonrs oltr kacfics are sziclz as to inflict Insscls if1 the enetny personnel: w$rerrfore zue associalafewith n frontal attack: an envelopitzg muve~nctztor an ambziscnde alotzg the ertcmy's line cfretreat with itfanfly or pursuit by ca;imftyor nerpfane rnncili~~e gun and bambjrc.k""
The fifth operational step in Harrhgton's strategy was to seize all livestock and supplies if necessary, those of the insllrgents alone if possil_lle. Here his analysis focused more on how the occupying m y might supply itself than with how to deny s u ~ p l yto the insurgents. As such, the analysis was short on specifics compared to the other ekment-Sof his strategy fndeed, Harrington opined that the fifth element of his skategy did not appfy in the Dominican case because the opposition was '"desdtary" m d because seizing supplies was difficult to sustain without kjuring the local populace to an extmt wherc they would turn on the Americans. To bolster his points he instead cited success in two foreign campaigns, one British and one Fretnch.rn5
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
237
Marrington's s:ixth and final operatjonal step was for the occupyilg a m y to seize all arrns from the entire populace. The reasming here was obvious. The occupying a m y needed to prevent arrns from fatling into hsurgent hands and needed to dissuade otherwise neutral individuals from siding with the insurgmts. Here, Harrington had the benefit of both Haiti and the %minican Repuhlic as test cases for this step since it was tried inboth corntries with mixed suecess.~0" Despite the personally and.historically immediate availability of Haiti and the Dominican Republic as test cases, Harrk~gtondid not focus on them as much as other writers did. hdeed, one of the most s e l ~ h afeal tures of H a r r h g t d s work was that he tried to write from a broader perspective that would give his strategy applicability acmss time and cases. To dn so, Harrington relied on Ihe authors of other s~nallwar treatises for examples to highlight the points he was trying make, En addition to yuoting from Lt. Col. Mil HennekerfsBush Waqare, he also cited Col. C.E. Callfirst published in 1896. Hacwell, autSlor of the famous Srili,sh Srnall rington even cited since-vanished material from the Army, ssuch as Col. Harry A. Eaton's Interrzral Uisnders, written for the Illfantry Schod of the I:.,heat Port Leavcnworth between 1920 and 1921. In Chc end, of the fortyfive illustrative historical pohts Harrington made, d y ten were horn the Dominican &public and four from Haiti. The remaining came from Calfwelll (twenty-two) and ot:hers @:heremaining nine examples). mese were part of tbe lessons that eventually w d d be imparted to classes of Marine officers at Qumtico.
E ~ y a ~ ~ soif oTrai~zitzg n Qpporfldjzities: Qzdesfio~ableRelevance fo Small Wars WhjXe the Corps was instituting formal militay education back in the States during the period of the Dominfcan intervention, dficers inside the Dominican Republic decided to undertake a similar va~ture.A trallning center was upened in 1919 in an old agricultural college just outside the capital, Smto Domingo City. Each company m the island was rotated through the center for six weeks, during which they undenrrrmt trahing and schooling in '"occupation duties."lQ7The tirnixlg of the center" opening coincided with the end of World Mlar I for a reason. Not only had demobjlization after the war caused a shortage of junior officers, but those sent were "ill-prepared for their jobs.""QVhereason for the lack oi trahing was simple: Because of the rush invoked in getting Mmines over to Etlrope, t h y wercz less thoroughly trained than ordinary peacetj.me recruits. Sometimes this lack of training had comedic, if potentially disastrous, implications: "-r detachment of these men in bandit territory m their first night in camp, mistook the flare of lighted cigarettes for elnemy
riAc hshcs. They bkzed away with theis own weapms, and orlly their poor marksmanship prevented them from mowing down the battalion commander'S escort.'"'"";'For a service that prided itself on its rillery, the comment &out poor marksmnship is telling*Further telli,ng is the sporadic discipline problem with mcruits who resented, serving in the isolated tropics after having done their part in the war. 7"he Dominican cenkr focused its trajning rclgirncn on accmplishing three key objectives: suppressixrg the rcbels, traellg the native constabulary, a d performing civil administration.'lVoward that end, each of the Marhe companies was taught military ad mini strati or^, basic tactics, musketry, topography first aid, hygiene, and finally the rudiments of agriculture. This last subject was taught because the first head of the t r a h h g center, Lt. E. FelSokves, thought it "wottfd be uscful to the soldiers h improving the living condjtions of the people."l" :'For the Guardia, units that passed &rou$ the center, traini~~g "emphasized guard duty discipline, personai cleanlhess and hygicne, and above all, marksmnship, which, would give the [Guarbia] a clear tactical advmtage over the average Dominicm bandit."ll" Meanwhile, across the border in Haiti, the 1" Brigade opened its own training center and held its first courses beg ing in February 1922. By this time, of course, the Caco insurgency was long over, as was the Dominican insurgency Nonetheless, the training c a t e r offered an eightweek course for companies focusing upon automatic fire, troop leadership, minclr warfare, tactical exercises, musketry, patrdling, and scouting.~1Wnfortrtunat.el~ the =cords for the trajning center do not define the term "minor warfare." If it meant the same thing as the term. used in the Lundi~zgForce Mnlz~lal,then it was nothing new-just a =hash of old Army doctrine. Despite the presence and operation of the brigade-level training centers in both Haiti a d the Dominican Republic, it is by no means clear how many troops were trained or that the training was thorough enough to be effective. Qn an island, isolated from the supporting resources of the States while suppressing an fnsurgency, systematic training was extrente%ydi,ffic.ult.More often than not, Che djre need for manpower meant that units were sent out to the field as soon as they were raised, meaning they were not given much training. Even the brigade commander in Haiti admitted as much when he wrote that most of his men were not in traiSling because such activities were ancillary to the more important task of continuous patrolling. Thus, the Haitian brigade training center was not destined for success. More often that not it remained closed as troops were detailed to other construction projects. That same year, the brigade cornander aeiMftted that while the brigade training center remained under opwatim, only four rile
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
239
companies had passed through (rather than the twelve that should have),"4 The loss of centralized training at the brigade level, tboul;h, was mitigated as each of the regiments in the Donninican Republic and Haiti opened their own training centers "at which the various units reccived valuable trainiq in bush warfare,""'l" Despite the nod to "bush warfarlt,'" the few cowse references for regim,etntal-1evd trabing retain a tactical fiavor: cooperation and communication with airplanes; use of riAe and hand grenades, machine guns, and automatic rifles; learning close and extended order and gllard duty; and marksmanship through extensive range-firing. ?b a much lesser extent, some officers were even taught skills in the use of aviaition, artillery, and armored-car units. These were all skills uselui. against most enemies-but some not at all in the bushGarrison-level and noncommissioned offjeers were also given access to s o w form of militay education through correspondence courses based back in the States. UnfortunatelyI.all such coursework material and syilabi disappeared over the years bciore t h y could, be mhived. Thus, we do not h o w what was taught both at the garrism level a d at the corresponclence schools. It: is probably safe to s m i s e that instruction coniormed to the contemporary emphasis on basic tactical and leadership principles abng with otl-ter abilities like 1anguat;e instruction. h the post-Domhicm period Che schools back in the States did little ta incorporate or add to the trahing the fielid schools had provided officers. The Basic School curriculum for training new lieutenants in the fall of 1925 co~ntainedno small wars material specifically designated as such.llb It is mclear even to what extmt, if at all, bush warfare material was subs u e d under the tactical portion of the curricutum, fn a sirnilar vein, the first syllabi available for the Company Officers' School in 1924-19214 Rflect tactical considerations and trainhg only for amphibious landings and duty ashore, likely reflecting the continued institutional schizophrenia between being a naval service m d a lmd service."y 'That said, some of the key measures, particularly military government (which somtimes included civil measures), hettlligence, comlbat patrolling, and nigbf: operations were taught in the Law, Tactics, m d Techique, Tactical Prhciples, and Military Intelligme Courses, although it is unclear whether the morc unique aspects of bush warfare we^ covered at all."Qis hefd true as well for the more setnior Field Officers' School-with ane difference."g The 1924-1925 academic year mariced the first confirmed p~sentationof small wars material to the s b d m t officers. Seven fifv-mhute lectures of indetermillate suhject matter were delivered to alS the ofiicers (attendance was mandatory) between December and February. This, however, was out of over 750 totaf hours of instmction that year, so less than 1 percent of the curriculm was devoted qeeificaHy to slnall wars lessons Chat year."O
The schedules for the foilowing acadcrnic year (19214.--2926)reflect Ihe continued dominance of landing operations within the renamed Company Officrrs' Course.12JOne minor addition to the syllabi was the teaching of tlight patrolling m d mnvements, This was taught using the &mywritkn manual Sccrzlting and Patrolling."-e officer criticized the Field mficers' Course for the same period as being little different, "'mart? or less a copy of the &my type of instruction-the various types of attack, night operations, and so on."l23 There were the same number of small s :However, that year Maj. Harold Utwars lecbres as the p ~ v i o u yew121 ley taught the Combat Orders, Military Intelligence, and Tactical Prkciptes Courses md. part of the Tactics m d nchniqrres Course.'""Given Utley's experience in Haiti, and his personal intellectud interests, it is possible that stnall wars lessons were introduced to the st~detltswithin their studies m patrolling, night operations, and the like. The 19261927 academic year saw the migration of landing operations A from the Company OfficersTourse to the Field Officers' C0~1rse.l-26 new course, Overseas Operations, was added to the curricula that year. Various lertum notes remaining from the period indicate that this course was cmcerned morc with studying proto-ampkibious doctrine-mostly Advanced Base exercises-to the pojnt of not recowizhg guerrilXa warfare as a category of werseas expeditions."y Mwever, the Company Officers' C-ot~rsemaster schedule does show that small wars material was introduced for the first time during this acadcmic year,lzWt of forty lectures given during the school year, four were a discussion of small wars,D"t was a start. Meanwhile, the opposge occm,rred over at the Field OfficersTourse. The small wars syllabus m a i n e d the same, but Overseas Operations seems to have been added for the first time. Approximately five w e e h compTisinf: rou$hXY ninety houfs of instructjon appeared late in the academic yeas. All told, small wars material comprised less than 3 percent of the Fidd OfficersT~oursecurricda c o m p a d to over 12 percent for coursework on tanding operations.130 The following year (1927-1928) is notable for being interrupted by the Nicaraguan interventicm,At the Company C>MricersfCourse, four hours of was taught before this small wars m e r i a l (topically u~~delineated) school shut down as well,l" At the Field OfficersTourse, a brand-new, yearlong course on expediitionary duty memeas had just been added to the schedule of classcs. Given the Corps's most =cent experiences, this likely would have covered some comterhsurgency material. However, the ccwrse was discmthued in March to muster officers for Nicaraguan service. All that can be &finitely traced, trhough, is mughiy five hums of lecture matdal., the s a m as the prior year. The following year (1928-1929) both schools remained closed. By this time the insurgency in Nicaragua had assumed a sort of statetnixte be-
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
241
tween the insurgents operating out of the jtxngles of north-central Nicaragua and the Marines based to the east, west, and south. Che might have ercpected that the h/larine school system, as offjcersrotated back to the States, would attempt to impart Nicaragznm lessons learned to new officers during those periods when the schools we= open. FXowever logical, this was not the case. The Company Wficers' Course schedules for the last year the school was open durhg the Nicaraguan insurgency are telling; the s m l l wars lectures had been deleted, entirely from the academic year."2
Prodz~ctio~ of Doctrine, htsf Not
ola
Small Wars
Atl through this p e r i d of expanded schooling-in-country and out.countsy-thrt Marineshmuals might as well have been writttn by the Army. 7'ke most recent edition of the L a ~ d i n gForce Muszz~ulhad last been revised in 1918. Maj. Willim Upshur, a Medal of Monor winncr in Haiti, was a member of the board that revised that edition and the first Marfne to sit cm a Navy board revising that manualemHis critiuisms of the 1918 edition were quite accttrate and extraordinary for the period. Me roundly criticized the infmtry drill sections as contajnirtg "the same instruction in all particulars as does the (Army"~]Intantry Drill Reguiatioms."'"34 The one unfair aspect ol Upshur's criticisms is that he looked ahead to the Corps's future missions without realizing that the 1918 edition reRected the institutional focus at that time on trahing to fight the war they had just won. This is buttressed by the fact that Marine Carps Order No. 51, issued in 1917, ordered that the Army's Itlfn~zfl-?,,! Drill Xegtrlnticrns be put into eft;ectfor the entirt, Corps until puhlication of a new landirzg Force Manual. 'This was done explicitly because Marines were being mshed to Europe and. needed to understand this new (for tl-rem) type of warfare. Thus, when the 1918 edition was =leased, it probably satisfied an instihxtional need that Upshur missed. Two years later the landing force manual was published again,'" Like the 1915 edition, the 1920 edition was merely updated by the Bureau of Naval Persorznel, not a formal board. As with the hrmy m n u d s rekascd during and just ater World War I, it reflected mostly the war" impact,'"" I'he tactical discussions focused upon t ~ n c warfare h concerns, reflecthg the Marhe experielzces on the Western Front during World War I. Gone, even, were the discussions of Advanced Base tactics that the Marines had practiced. C h a less fundamental-but equally important-level, various sections of the manual were rewrittm in, ways that omitted learning from the Corps's small wars experiences of the previous four years. For example, in the 1920 edition, Ihe section on patrols =sated that they w r e sup-
posed to avoid combat, as typically had been the case in Europe."7 m e y were d y supposed. to engage in reconnaissance duties. Efiectively, four years of experience using comttat patrols to counter tbe Caco and Domhiem hsurgelzts were dis~nissedas irrelevant. In mother section, the discussion of night operations was changed, to cover operations more like those seen cm the Western Front. The secticm as a whole omitted any discussion of night operations in combating gtrerrilla fi&ters. The 1920 hndirlg Foxe Manual at least retained the section on minor warfare borrowed from the Army Moreover, it was elevated to chapter status (chapter 'Q, to which was added existing discmssjons on riot duty, street-fieting, and the occupatim of cities, At the same t h e , the manual emphasized mom the street-fighting and civ-occupation tasks than the antiguerrilla tasks because its writers erroneously concluded that ""the opposjng forces' . . . plan of campaign consists fargely in the attack and defense of cities.'""" K i s statement directjly contradicted the Corps's experiences fighting guerrillas, but it was congstent with what Harrhgton and Elris had written in parts of their work, and it was consistent with the conduct of other major interventions, ncrtably in China m d Mexico.139 Set against: the backdsop of missiolz uncertainty discmssed in Chapter 2, Marine Corps Headquarters tried briefly to elevate small wars lessons to the level of institutional awareness. By the post-Dominicm period, a l q e writt.en body of htelligence rcpmts, .AI?\Rs, regiment- and brigt-ldelevel reports, and the general musings, formal and otherwise, of officers detailed to Haiti and the Dominican Repuhlic had accumulated in the headquarters file system. To date, little attempt "had been made to cmsolidate [the small wars files] into a fmm. which could be used in passhg on this information of other officers."14'" To remedy the failure, the Departtacmt of Miljtary Tactics lawzched a form& eMort to produce a manual and some handbooks reflecting the newest lessons of small wars. Afthough the handbooks have shce disappeared, the manual refermd to was actually a bound ~ r e r s i ~ofnMarrington" so~zograph,"The Strategy and Tactics of Small Wars." Haw widely the manuals were dissemhiated (or even how many were published) unfortunatety remains unknown. Certahly headquarters failed to give small wars lessons enough prominence to become part of formal Marine doctrizle before the Nicaraguan intervmtion, The first manual to elnerge front the Marine's new educatimd system was the 1921 Marilze Goys Manual. It was desiped mart. as an administratiwe than a doctrinal guide. As such, it suyerseded the M a r I ~ eCOTS Orders but not the Ltl~~Cifi~q Force M U I Z E ~O~f Iprim S pears. Even within this manual, the doctrinal hlRuence of the Army was openly acknowledged. Moreover, as part of a new promotion exam process established within the Corps, officers WE dsilled not just on the Matifre Colps M a ~ ~ z t and al
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
243
the Fleet LQfldiq Mtlf~t~fl but on the Army's Field Service Regzrlntkfls as we11.19Vor Qctics-the promotion exam from 2nd lieutenant to 1st lieutenant-the candidate had to h o w War Department Training Regdation 200-5: ""Scoutingand Palroiling'"ori$inal:ly written by the Army). To be eligible for prornoti.on from lieutenant to captan, the candidate had to h o w Regdatim 420-100: "Uwelopment of Offensive Combat." "dly prontotion fmm captain to major meant the oflicer had to know Regdation 10-5: "Doctrines, Prhciplcs, and Methods." The lessms irngarted by such manuals were fuf&er dritled home in large fieid exercises such as the 1923 Sharpsbufg m c k battks (see Chaptefl). At least five years eXapsed between revisions of the Marine Corps Mantizl and the LLlndi~z,c: Force lblunz~al.1" Ltike the 1921edition, the 1924Muri~ze COTS Mtlill~ralremained an administrafive rather than a nnilitasy field manual."""t contained very f.ittle operational or tactical. value as to small wars in the chapter entitled '"perations and Training." The same held true for the 1927 editiol~of the b ~ t d i n gForce Ma~ttia1.144AS with the Marine C o v s n/lanuu%,this edition was littk different from the 1920 predecessor edition. All of the ground force-oriented portions of the manual were keyed to maiintaining consistency with Army training regulations. As the preface stated: The revision of the Landing Force Manual has brought- it into agreement with the present United States Army Training Regulations, and in addition tcr facilitating cl-roperationbeween the services wilt insure that recruih entering either branch of the service will be drilled in the same manner, and that men hanorably discharged from one branch oE the service will be able tcr enter the other and profit by their previcjus experience."?
Thus, Marine growd. force doctrine remalned geared toward pas& tiltnal warfare per MiiJrld War I, as exemplified by chapter 19 ("'Combat'". It ~ t a i n e dfrom the previous editim, however, the section liSted dirclct%y from the Army regulations on minor warfare, althuugh subsurned under another chapter. It was amended slightly by inserting a list (wi& no explanation) of the strategy for conducthg small wars:
* Seizure cJf ports or border t o m s commanding routes of trade or e~~trmce
* Seizure of interior cities commandhg the resources or the territory and the establishment therein (or at other suitable points) of bases of s ~ ~ p p l y * The diuision of the theater of operations into miljtar)i districts * @=ations based on a capbres city or fortified base of su~plies against the remaining oppsjtion
Seizure of livestock m d s~~pplies
* Seizure of all arms146 Remarkably, this list resembles Marrington's ideas in his 19222 treatment of the subject, although. no board with Marine mmbers had revised fie m a n d , Perhaps the Division d Operations and Training Assishad submit.ting a copy of Marrington's tance, acknowte@ed by the N ' a v ~ work to include in the mmual. In the end, despite two small wars behind them, Marine officers by fie time of the Nicaraguan intervention had received Ittle training on the conduct of small wars and still. had onty Army doctrine as the only formal expression of Marine intent in such wars. A Marine officer in 1927 had few venues for Learning Ihe lessons of small wars: mostly reading FIarrington"s five-year-old monograph (if one could find a mirneotjraphed copy) a d the numemus person& reccrltecticrns published or otherwise during the hterve~zjixlgyears. To be sure, there was a sig2ificant body of material for officers diligent enough to search, or lucky mou@ to have access to, the Marine Corps University l i b r v and file system, Since that was not l.he case for the majority of officers, lessons went unlearned. fnstead., junior officers posted to Nicaragua learned to fight the fnsurgents the hard way: We received no training in [small wars] when we were ordered to these
places. . . . I arrived in Managua . . . and three days later 1 was out in bandit territory with a patrol, having received no instruction whatsoever on the situation, the general intelligence situatian, the methods tu be employed, training. I always thought if only they" $ha a school in Managua that could have briefed the officers thoroughly befc~rethey went out that it might- have saved some lives.147
Notes 2 . 13endletun,a Naval Academy graduate, was appointed 2nd lieutenant in the Corps in 1884. He served in the southern Philippines twice and commanded the American forces in the l"b2 Nicaraguan intervention. He was promoted to brigadier general soon after his command fought-the initial Dominican battles of %asTrencheras and Guayacanes. He served as military governor far two years, after which he heXd numerous domestic commands. He retired in 1924. 2, Capt. Stephen M, Fuller and Graham A, Cr~smas,Marines in I k Dt~rnitzicat~ Repzlblic, 1911;--1924 (Washington, DC: U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, History and Muwums Division, 1974), p. 10. 3. Ibid., p. 13. The island of Hisyaniala is highly mountainaus, with the most important mountain chain, the Cordillera Central, extending across the tzrestern
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
245
section of the Dominican Republic. This chain contains the highest mountains in the Caribbean and effectively divides the republic into northern and southern halves, This geography later helped the Marines because they used this divide effectively tcr isolate the imurgent strcmghold provinces from each other. In the beginning, however, it effectively kept the northern-based rebels out of reach from the south, 4, Maj. Charles E Williams, "La Gunrdia izlacionnl Domirzicana,'" Illnri~zeCorps CazeCfe,vol. 3, no. 3 (Sept. 1918), p. 195. 5, "Memorandum for Chief of Naval Operations: US Naval Forces on Shore Duty in Romjnjcan Republic, Prepared by Office of Naval Intelligence, 22 Jan. 4931," Geographic Files, Dominican Republic, General, Marine Corps Historical Center, Historical Reference Section, Washington, DC. Hereafter, individual reports are cited as Geographic Files, Dominican Republic. Pendleton was promoted to brigadier general shartfy after the successful capture of Santiago. 6. This same pattern of occupation, taking major cities and then only slowly begiming to occupy the countryside in response to the insurgent threat, parallels the Army" actions in the Philippines and the Marines' in Haiti. During the Cuban Pacification, haweveu; the Army occupied as much of the countryside as go~ssibleat the outset of operations. 7. Togethel; these two provinces tzrere just slightly larger than the entire island of Puerto Rico. 8, Fuller and Cosmas, mri.rzes irz the Dt~rnitzicatlRepubtic, p. 35. 9, Ibid., p. 37. 10. Campaign Order No. 4, Aug. 1918, ordered the lc~calpopulations of various districts into the towns so that the Marines and Guardk could sweep the rural areas. Kennetk Grieb, "Antiguerrilla Operations in the Dominican Republic,'' in The War of 2898 and UpS.Itztem?entiot~s,1898-2934, ed. Benjamin Beede (New York: Garland Publishing, 19941, g. 24. 14. This compares with the average of one Marine per every five tcr ten miles in Haiti, 12. Acting Secretary of State to Minister Kusxll, Sept. 47, 1915, The Foreigtz Relnfiolzs of trlte Urtifed States, 2 925 (Washington, K: Government printing Office, 4916), pp. 321-325. 13. Ibid., p. 325. 14. Col. Rufus T. Lane, ""Civil Government in Santo Dorningo in the Early Bays of the Military Occupation,'" Mari~zeCorps Gnzette, vol. 7, no, 2 (June 1922), g. 15. 15. Kenneth Grieb, "Civic Actim in the Drjminican Kepublic,"Yn Tbc War of 1898 and US. Infe~r~enCions, 1898-2 934, ed Benjamin Beede (New Ycfrk: Garland Publihing, lW4), p, 410. 1 C;, At the national level, even though the military governor was a navy captain (and his personal assistants Navy personnel), Marine officers were extensively involved in running the government, Marines ran the Departments of Public Works, Communication, Justice and Public Instruction (Education). Later, they created the Department of Sanitation and Public Benefits, Lane, ""Civil Government," p. 141. 17. Futfer and Cosmast M~nritzesin t h Dominica~zRcpzlblic, p. 64. -.
18. "Message from Walfer to Commanderi Cruiser quadrcjn, June 6,191 6," Geographic Files, Dc~minicanRepublic, 1936. 19. Lane, "Civil Government," p. 3143. 20. Proclamation of Occupation and Military Government, Foreig~2Relalio~zsof the Ultifed States, 3925 (TNashington, DC: Gove nt Printing Office, 1917), pp. 246-247. 21. Maj. C. J. MilXeu; "Diplomacy and Spurs in the Dominican Republic, File 653," ppgp. 306-107, Historical Amphibious Fites, box 34, Marine Corps Research Centeu; Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quan.tico, W. 22. Fuller and Cosmast M~nritzesin t h Dominica~zRepzlblic, p. 56. 23. Ibid., p. 2.8, 24. There tzrere between 1,7000 and 2,000 Marines in the Dominican Republic during the first two years of occupation. Normal fluctuations due to persomel turnover account for the three-hundred-man difference. The only records on the subject indicate that up to nine hundred men could Itnve beez transferred from Haiti. That would translate to roughly seven companies transferred-.Two were transferred in May 1916, so another five might have been transferred between then and the end of the year. Fuller and Cosmas, Marir-zes:i~ the Domir-zican Repubtic, pp. 7-41; "Office of Naval Intelligence fONI], Memorandum for Chief of Naval Operations, US Naval Forces on Shore Duty in Haiti," Geographic Files, Haiti, General, Marine Corps Historical Center, Historical Reference Sectic~n, Washington, DC; "Memorandum for Chief of Naval Operations: US Naval Forces on Shore Duty in Dominican Republic, Prepared by ONI, 22 Jan. 1934," Geographical Files, Dominican Republic, General. Hereafteu; individual reports fram the Geographic Files, Haiti, Marine Corps Historical Centex; Historical Reference Section, Washington, BC, are cited as Geographic Files, Haiti, 25. Fuller and Cosmas, Maritzes ir-z the Ilo-t.rtinicarz Reptibfic, p. 28. Breckenridge was commissioned as 2nd lieutenant in 1898 for the war with Spain. Ele later served in the Phi1i ppine insurrection and in the Cuban Pacification (1906-3 909. He padicipated in the capture of Vera C ~ M Z Mexico. , After serving in the kandinavian countries during MlorXd War I, he commanded a regiment in the Bominican Republic for a year and then cc>mmandedthe Gunrdia Nnciorzal. From 1928 to 1930, and then spin from 1932 to 2 935, he was commandant of the Marine Corps Schools. He retired in 1941. 26. ""Memorandum for the Scretary of the Navy Concerning Strength and Buties of Marines in Haiti and Santc) Dt~mingo,25 Sep. 3920,'' Gecjgraphic Files, Dominican Republic, 19261, 27. Headquarters, District of 9 i b o and Macoris, "Weekly Report of Strength and Distribution,"" 14 June 1919, Geographic Files, Dominican Republic, Strengths and Casualties. 28. Report of the Major General Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, Rnnual Reports offJle Navy Department, 2917 (Washington, BC: G w e r n m n t fZrinting Office, 1918), p. 840. E-Iereafie~; the Report of the Major Generat Commandant of the U.S, Marine Corps from other editions of the Annual Reports of the Navy Department is cited as ARPJL), along with the year to which the edition of Arznual Reports pertains (the edition for a given year is published in the follc3wing year).
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
247
29. Scretary of State to Minister Russell, 14 Nctv. 1916, Tke Foreign. Relations of tjlze Utzl'ted Stntlrt;, 1926 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1947), p. 335. 30. Fuller and Cosmast M~nritzesin t h Dominica~zRcpzlblic, p. 47. 31. Brigade Commanding Officer, Headquarters 2nd Provisional Brigade to Major General Commandant, ""EZigade DiaryrF74Oct. 1919, Geographic Files, Dominican Republic, 1919, 32. Fuller and Cosmas, M~rizzesir-z kke Domirzicnn Repzlbfic, g. 45. 33. Brian M. Linn, The US.Army and Cozknteririsurgency i~ the P!tl'lippine War, 1899-1902 (Chapel Hi tl: Univ. of North Carolina Press, l989), g. 43. anding Officel; Headquarters Eastern District to Cornmanding General, 2nd Brigade, 'T~ontrolof Field Forces by Regimental HQ, 15 Rgt," 2 Jan. 1922, Geographic Files, Dc~rninicanRe 1922; Distrid Commanding Ofnding General, 2nd Provisional ficer, Headquarters, Eastern District, to C Brigade, "Operations of Law Abiding Citizens Against Armed Thieves,"T2 Mar. 1920, Geographic Files, Dominican Republic, 1920. Lee was appointed as 2nd lieutenant in 1898 for the war with Spain. He served in the 1912 Nicaraguan intenrention and later in Haiti. He led the 6th Regiment in France and was afterward given command of the brigade in the Dominican Republic. He, too, served as military governor of the country He died in service in 1935. 35. "Report of Operat.ic>nsof the I>olici~Nncional Domir-zicana from Sep, 1917 to Nov. 1921," p. 5, Marine Corps Historical Center; Historical Reference setion, Washington, BC (hereafter cited as *'Operations of the Po1icia NncionnE Domini-
ca~ln"), 36. bid.; Geographic Files, Dominican Republic, Strengths and Casualties. ~ Pt~ll'cigMaeional Dontizzicnna,""g. 5; Geographic Files, Do37. N O p e r a t i ~of) ~the minican Republic, Strengths and Casualties. 38. '"perations of the Polici~Naeional Domir-zicana," p 5. 39, Geographic Files, Dominican Republic, Strengths and Casualties. 40. ARND, 2922, p. 31. 41, Fuller and Cosmast M~nritzesin t h Dominica~zRcpzlblic, p. 37, 42. Geographic Files, Dominican Republic, 1917, 43. Assistant Surgecm Brig, Gen. Hager to Commanding Officer, "i"Oth. Com1918, pany, La Romania, Bomirrican Republic, ""Operations in the Field," "pt. Gec>graphicFiles, Dominican Republic, 1918. 44. Col, G. C. Thorpe to Commandant, "Reports Certain Gallant Services in Santo Domingo," M May 1919, p. 5, Marine Corps Headquarters, Washington, DC (hereafter cited as Thc7rye to Commandant); Brigade General Order #C;-19, 7 Mar. 1919, Geo>graphicFiles, Dominican Republic, 1919. 45, Geographic Files, Dominican Republic, Engagements and Casualties, 1918-1922, 46. Thorpe to Commandant, p. 5; Thorpe tcr Regimental Commanding Officel; ""Engagement at Dos Rios," 8 Sept. 1918, Geographic Fifes, Dominican Republic, Engagements and Casualties, 1918-1922; Lt. C . C. Sirnmons to Battalion Commanding Officer, 1st Battalion, 3rd Provisional Regiment, "Report of Skirmish with Enemy;" 20 2 0 191~8, Gec~graphicFiles, Dominican Repubtic, Engagements and Casualties, 1918-1%22.
47. District Commanding Offices; Headquarters Eastern District to Commanding General, 2nd Brigade, "Csntm1 of Field Forces by Regimental HQ, 15 Rgt," 2 Jan. 1922, Geographic Files, Dominican Republic, 1922, 48. Ibid. 49. Lane, ""Civil Government," p. 128, 50, Williams was a Naval Academy graduate (48%) and participated in the first Advanced Base exercises an Culebra in 1903. At the Naval Mrar College in Newport, RI, he authored one of the first dc>ctrinalstudies on amphibious reconnaissance. He served in the Cuban Pacification (15306-1909) and in the Dominican Republic. In 1928 he became the editor of the Marl'rle Corps Cazetfe and until his retirement in 1934 was instrumental in publishing operations reports an Nicaragua and articles on both smatl wars and amphibious operations. 51. Without maps, Marine field commanders in certain circumstances used a unique method for gaining informatian about and capturing insurgent leaders, On several occasions they hired bandit Ieaders who h e w a given area, to prc~vide information on the focatian of rivalskcamps. In one instance, an insurgent leader war; hired to lead his gang against another one, Fuller and Cosmas, Marines in the Domilzicnn Republic, p. 36. 52. Geograpl-ricsFiles, Dominican Republic, 1916. 53. Lester D. tangley, The Bn rznna Wgrs: U, S. Inlerz~ez~lion in the Cnribbenn, 1898-2934 (Lexington: Univ.
graphicFiles, Dominican Republic, Engagements and Casualties, 1928-1 922. 55. WlXer to Commander, Cruiser Squadron, ""Report on Engagement with Dominicans in Villa Duarte on Oct. 24, 1916," Geographic Files, Dominican Republic, 1916. 56. "&port from HeadquarZers, 4th Provisic~nalRegiment, 2"i"pr. 4947,"%eographic Files, Dominican Republic, 1917, 57. Cf. Geographic Files, Dominican Republic, 1917. 58. Commanding General to the Major General Commandant, ""Report of Activities of the 2nd Brigade for the Year Ending June 30,1920," W Oct. 1920, Geographic Files, Dominican Republic, 1920. 59, Ibid. 60. In this endeavclr the Marines, tzrittingly ar not, copied a tactic used by the Army in the Philippines: They would find local prostitutes and use the threat of exposure and prosecution to cmrce them into telling what they knew c ~ their f customers. The few mentiom there are of the practice suggest it was effective. 61. Maj. Hugh D. Wise, ""Notes an Field Service in Samr,"YInfizlzfly )t?urr-zal,vol. 4, no. 1 (July 1907), p. 2762. Commanding General to Majctr General Commandant, ""Xiepc~rtof the Activities of the 2nd Brigade, DR, for the Year Ending 30 Jun. 1922," 2% Aug. 1922, Geo>graphicFiles, Dominican Republic, 1922, p. 2. 63. Ibid.
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
64. Ibid., p. 3. 65. Ibid., p. 4. 66. "Report of First Air Squadrcjn, Marine Al~iationForce," p 3 , Subject Files, U.S. Marine Corps Aviation, 1920, Marine Corps Historical Center, Historical Re& erence Sctiron, Wshington, K. 67. Geographic Files, Dominican Republic, 46321, 68. Fuller and Cosmas, Mal.z'~zczsi ~the i Da~rti~zican Republic, p. 41. 69. Geographic Files, Dominican Republic, 1921. 70, Fuller and Cosmas, Mal.z'nc?sif? tfie Dorni~icanRepublic, p. 45. 71. Commanding General to Major General Commandant, ""Xiepc~rtof the Activities af the 2nd Brigade, DR, for the Year Ending 30 Jun. 4922," 24 Aug. 4922, Gecjgraphic Files, Dominican Republic, 1422, p. 2. 72. The table includes one article written on civil measures for the Navy 3 professional journal, Naval X~zstz'tuteProceedz'rtgs. 73. Col, George C. Thorpe, "Dominican %rvice,"%ri~ze C u f ~ sGazette, vol. 4, no. 4 (Dec. 1919), pp. 315-326; Lane, "Civil Government"; Comdr. C. C. Baughman, ""United States Occupation of the Dominican Republic," ".S. Nazmf Institztle Broceedizzgs, vol. 51, no. 12 (Dec. 1925), pp. 23062327. '74. Thorpe, "Dominican Service." 75. 1st Lt. Robert C, Kilmartin, ""idcloctrination in Santo P>omingo,"W~ri~ze Co~psGazette, vcf. 7,no. 4 (Dec. 1922), p. 380. 76, Baughman, ""United Skates 0ccupatic)n." 77. Williams, ""Gzmdr'n izlacianal"; ""Torpe, "Dominican %miceM;Lane' "Civil CovernmentUfit. Edward A. Fellowes, "Training Native Trc)c>psin Santa Borningo," Masilze Co~psGazette, vol. 8, no. 4 (Dec. 1923), pp. 215-233. 78. Capt. Frank L. Bride, "The Gendarmerie d Waiti," Marine Corps Gazefie, vol. 3, no. 4 (Dec. 1918), pp, 293-2991 "The Haitien Gendarmerie," Marillcl Corps Gazette, vol. 11, no. 2 (June 19261, pp. 73-81. 79. Maj. E, H. Ellis, "Bush Brigades,"W~nritze Corps G~zetfe;vol. 6, no. 1 (Mar. 1921), pp. 1-15. 80. Ibid., p, 10, 81. Ibid. 82, The Army did the same in the northern Philippineg seizing and cmtmlling Manila and the northern port of Vigan from the outset. Seaports were not contested by the Moros so this step was unnecessar)r in the southern Philippines. The same was true for Cuba in 1906. 83. EIIis, "Bush Brigades," p. 112. 84. Mc>rec>ver,the organization af Ellis's intelligence service an paper was more comprehensive than actual experience indicated. Split bePV\7een a centralized office and the Geld, his service was composed of five key elements; Ellis, ""Efsh Brigades," pp.13. In the cmtralized office these would be three sectic~ns.The first was a correspondence sectic~nthat performed research and collation and disxminated daily, weekly, and monthSy reports back out to the field. The second was an information file [or reference) section that performed analysis, established personnel cards and files on insurgent Leaders (but not necessarily on their followers), and collected and stored militaty information on the insurgents. The third section tvas the mapping section, which was involved in the preparation and dis-
tribution of maps of all kinds. In the field there would be h - osources of infc~rmation. The first was troops themselves, tzrhc) pmvided much of the raw data collated and analyzed by the central office. The second was minor intefligence networks established by garriscons to take advantage of native agents as well as public sources of information such as the press. 85. Ibid., pp. 8,9. 86. Capt. G. A. Johnsrrm, ""Jnior Marines in Minor Irregular Warfare," Mari~ze Co~psCazetEe, ~01.6,no. 2 (June 19231, pp. 152-163. 87. He did retain some old beliefs, though. Fur example, he felt that pigeons remained invaluable#particularly for communication bemeen rapidly moving mobile colurns that did not have the time to set up the radio to co 88. Johnso)n, ""Jnlor Marines," p. 361. 89. Miller, "Diplomacy and Spurs," p. 14. 90. The Miller paper is also important because its observations and conclfwions on the Iesstons extracted from the Dcominican experience were similar to cmclusions being reached by other authors that were being incorporated into the small wars curricufum at Quantico. Miller" work thus offers a cmfirmation of what lessons commanding officers at Marine Corps Headquarters thau&t should be learned about counterinsurgency warfare. As such, it is worth summarizing here. On civil measuws Miller focused on the importance of disarming the populace and limiting martial law and he touched lightly on the use of censorship and provcost courts, On military measures, Miller" sobservaticons were among the keenest that sumive from the period, and his work semes as an excellent summary of the Marine military effort in the Dominican Republic. For example, Miller sketched out the logic of garrisoning in Santo Domingo, including the economic necessiq of colIecting customs revenue to pay down the c o u n t ~ "debt. He analyzed the cmtralized kteligence system that was created and believed it ofen seemed designed more for keeping the militar~r.governor and the brigade commander informed than for keeping the fc3rces in the field apprised of events. Finally, he accurately noted the different styles of patrolling that were u n d e ~ a k e n in the Dominican Republic, including cordc~noperations, He seemed to think this resulted from the lack of a centralized, coordinated effort to plan or discuss methtds necessary tct suppress the insurgents, Field commanders were thus left to their own devices on the excuse that the senior military leaders did not want to take away the initiative of their Icjwer commanders. 91. Harrington, a Vale graduate, joined the Corps in 1909 and served briefiy in the Philippines and Cl-tina before being odered to the Dominican Republic in 4946 for a period of roughly one year. He later served as a Certdarmerie aclfcer in Haiti (after the Caco campaigns) and also in the Nicaraguan Cunrdin for two years begiming in 1927, Beginning in 1929, he seived for five years in the Marine Corps %hoofs, first as instructor and then as director of the Division of Clperations and Training. 92. Memo from Commanding Officer of Marine Corps Schools to Commandant of the Marine Corps, Oct. 1922, Biographical Files, Samuel M. Harrington, Marine Corps Historical Centeu; Hhtorisal Reference Sction, Washington, DC, 93, Letter to Commandant of the Marine Corps, "'Copies of V\Ir>rkon Small Wars,"" 2 0 v * 46322, Biographical Filesf Samuel M, Harrington, Marine Corps His-
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblr'c
251
torical Center; Historical Reference Section, Washington, DC. In rebuffing the commandant, Harrington suggested instead that there should be numerous copies in Quantico, VA, available for the commandant" ff es. For example, he knew that a capy was on file with the Office of the Adjutant and Secretary of the Corps. Another was on file in the Department of Military Tactics, At least one hundred copies had been mimeographed in the Spring af 1921 and distributed to the three classes of the Marine Corps Schools. Finally, a complete copy had been sent to the Mnrine Corps Gnzefte for pubtication. 94. Maj. Samuel M. Harrington, "Skate= and Tactics of Small VVars," lecture notes for the Department of Military 'Tactics Field Officers9Course, 15 Jan. 1926, reprinted from 15 May 4922, p, 4, Merritt A, Edson Papers, container 16, Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division, Washington, DC (hereaker cited as Harrington, ""Strategy and Tactics"). 95. Ibid., p. 2. Emphasis in the original. 96, Ibid. 97. Ibid. 98.OE the three-part article Harrington published based on his monograph, the last half of the first article was devoted to landing operations. The second article continued the discussion befc~refocusing on city seizure. 99, E-Iarrington, ""Srategy and Tactics," p. 2. 100. Harrington considered this element of his strategy so important that, albeit in somewhat rambling fashion, it was the only element other than the taking of cities in which he discussed the tactical considerations of marching and fighting. h the prc~cess,he was ane cjf the few to highlight the importance cjf night operations: The enemy" intelligence newark was less likely to notice patrol movement, the guerrillas were less likely to be active, and dawn attacks on guerrilla encampments would be the most unexpected. 101. Harrington, "Strategy and Tactics," p 47. Emphasis in the original. 102, Ibid., p, 50. 103. Ibid., p. 37. According to Harrington, this last point was central to the failure af the British expeditions in I(at-;hmir.The British would march out from their bases only for a few days. The tribesmen would retreat without necessarily putting up a fight, and then the British had to go back to their bases. This was interpreted as retreat by the guemillas who then were mbaldened to continue, Allc>wingsuch a mindset to develop among insurgents could only serve to prolong the insurgency, no matter how much attrition one inRicted upon the guerrillas over the long haul. 104, Ibid., p, 41, Emphasis in the original, 105. The first example was the 19QQ--1902&,,er War in South Africa, where the British systematically cleared enemy territory of livestock and supplies, using the gmds seized while denying them to the enemy. The second example was the experience of General Hfiiocheduring the French Revolution. Faced with stubboim resistance in La Vendke, General Hoche pacified it by seizing all of the foodstuffs and c>tihersupplies in the area. He only restc3red the seized goods to the peasants when they turned in their arms. 106. In Haiti, although many pistols and rifles were successfully removed from circulation, the Cacos often resorted tcr using their machetes to spread their
terror and inflict casualties. In a country dominated by an agricultural economy, the populace tzrould not tc~lerateccjnfiscation af their machetes. h the Dominican Republic the Marines encountered a digerent problem . Dominican society had been violent fc~rso long that all males considered it a sign of maturity to m and carry their own firearms. Nevertheless, the Marines proceeded on a disarmament campaign that eventually netted a significant amormt af arms, although not enough to prevent the insurgents from carrying on their fight for several years, ~ p. 32. 207, Fuller and Cosmas, Marines in trlte B o m i n i c ~Republic, 108. Ibid., p. 29. 109, Ibid., p. 31. 110. Ibid., g. 33, 144. Ibid., p. 49, 212. Ibid., p. 51, 143. "ReparZ of Operations, HQ, First Brigade, Oct. 2Ot192&"%eographic Files, Haiti, General. 114. ""Report of Operations, HQ, First- Brigade, May 31, 1921,"Geographic Files, Haiti, General. 115..ARNL), 1921, g. 52. 146. Wifbur Brawn Papers, box I, folder 4, Marine Corps Historical Center, Personal Papers Section, Washington, K. The courses taught were: administration, boats, drill regulationg first aid and military hygiene, interior guard duty, military field engineering, marksmanz;hip, musketry, naval and military Xaw tactics, and topography. 2 17, Company Officers' School Schedule, 2 "34-1 925, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA. 118. Just because a course existed on a topic does not mean it covered small wars material or even the general material well. One noted general af World W r 11, prior to the war, had been charged with creating a comprehensive Miljtary Intelligence Course and teaching it to officers senior to him, because the school course was generally consider& very poor. In his words: "1 must say that Y think our intelligence cmcept up to [1937Jtvas pretty, pretty sad. We had really no intelligence training that was effectirfe. Most every commander [in Nicaragua] made a decision as a result of what little he knewI he had very Xittfe intelligence collection, he depended on outposts, and at that time of course aerial observation. He also had patrc3ls. But our communicat.ic>nswere very poor, and most of the reports were late in getting in." Gen. Craves Erskine, pp. 169-470, Oral. History CoXIection, Marine Corps Historical Center, Washingtc.tn, DC. All oral histories cited are frictm the Oral History Collection, Marine Corps Historical Centel; Washington, DC, and hereafter are cited as Oral History, along with the relevant individual"^ name. 2 19. Fidd Officersf Course khedulits, 19241925, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA. Hereafter, the Field QfficersTourse khedule for various years is cited as F E Schedule. 120. Ibid.
Intervention irz trlte Bominimn Repziblic
253
121. Cornpany BfficersT~ourseMaster %heduXe, 1925-1926, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Cornbat Devebpment Command, Quantico, VA. Hereaftex;the Company OfficersTourse Master Schedule for various years is cited as COC Schedule, The Company Officers"School was changed to the Company BfficersTourse in 1926. 122. Ibid. 223, Gen. BeWitt 13eck, Oral History, p. 67. 124. FOC Sshedute, 1925-1 926. 225. UtZey served in both of the Caco campaigns in Haiti as well as in the Nicaraguan campaign in 1928-1 929. He returned to Quantico the same year as Harringtc~n(1929)to teach the Field Officers"Course. He wrote his own doctrinal treatise on small wars, which was Xater published in the Marine Co~psGnzeftc. He was later assigned to head the effort that produced the 1935 edition of Stnall Wars Oyer~tions, 126, ""nepc~rtm Marine Corps Duplication of Effort Between Army and Navy, 17 Dec. 1932," p. 27, Studies and Reports, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Research Center; Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Marine Corps University, Quantico. 127. "Overseas Operations----Naval Considerations for an Overseas Expedition," lecture nates, Field Officers" Course, 10 Feb. 1927, Craves Erskine Papers, box 5, Personal Papers Section, Marine Corps Historical Center, Navy Yard, Washington, DC, 2 28, COC Schedule, 19261927, 129, Ibid. 230, F8C Schedultits, 19261927, The Field Officers3chml was changed to the Field OfficersTourse in 1926. 1 31. COC Schedule, 1927-1 928, 1 32. COC Schedule, 1929-1931). 133. Upshur, a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, joined the Corps in 1904 and served with expeditionary forces in the Philippines, Cuba, and China before being ordered to Haiti in 1915, There he tvas awarded the Medal of Honor for his capture of Fort Bipitie agaimt overwhelming odds. He later served in France, then in Dominican campaigns, before returning to Haiti briefly in 1922 after the Caco campaips. 134. Maj. Wiltiam Upshur, ""A Marine Corps Drill Book" Marine Corps Gazette, volt. 4, no, 2 (June 1919), p. 175, Section by section, he attacked the doctrine fc7r being borrowed Ercm somebody else. Instruction for the bayonet was taken frorn a British manual that had been adopted in slightly modified form by the Army (Upshur, Drill Book, pp. 177-179). The section on interior guard duty was taken frorn the Army's Manual on Gunrd Dzify*The sections on outposts, patrols, advance guards, rear guards, and other formatians were lifted from the Infa12try Drill Rcgutntions, the FBld Service Regulntz'or~s,and other Army textbooks. The section on provost guards was fmrn the Regz4lnti;onsJarMilitary Polz'm. Entire sections on combat and field operations were taken directly from the Army's f q Regzdlntions and the Field Sermanuals as well, principally frorn the I ~ f ~ r zBrill vice R e g ~ l ~ f i oMost n ~ . important, despite the Corps's experience in Haiti and the Dominican kpublic, the seetic~non minor tvarfare brtrrclwed not only the term
ntz'zzor ;loafare from the Army but its contents as well. The subsection on minor operations came directly from the I~zfnrttqDrill Regtitaliotzs. The subsection on street fighting and the o>ccupixtionof cities was taken from instructions issued by the Army" General Staff, And finally, the subsection on riot duty came from Army l not a Matextbooks, All in all, according to Upshur, the Lnndz'rzg Form M n ~ u a was rine manual, but an Army manual. 135, U.S. Navy, The Landing-Force and S n ~ ~Arlrzs l f X~zstructl;olzs,3920 (Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute, 1921). 136, X cautd find no trace of the 11918edition of the tandislizzg Force Ma~zual,only the 1915 and 1920 editions. 137. U.S. Navy, Lnndit~g-Forcealzd StnalE Arms Inslrucll'orzs,p, 97, para, 400. 138, ibid., p. 2Ff0, para. 1095. 139. Even though E-Iarrington and Ellis both wmte steps for defeating insurgents outside the cities, they both started their arguments with the idea that the insurgents could possibly be defeated first by capturing the principal port cities, an idea with no basis in the cases of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, or Nicaragua. 140. Lt. Anthony A. Frances, "'Histov of the Marine Corps khools," MS, Dec. 1945, p-30, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA. 141. Ibid., insert. 142. U.S. Marine Corps, Man'ne Corps Manual, 1926, wifjt Cltangm to 1930. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1930); U .S, Navy, The La~zdingForce M~n~tlal, 1927 (Washington, BC: Government 13rintingOffice,1927). 143, U.S. Marine Corps, Maritfe Corps Manual. 1 44. U.S. Navy, Landi~g-Formilifiz~unl. 145. ibid., preface. 146, Ibid., p. 355, 147. Lt. Gen. Edward Craig, Oral History p. 30.
Intervention in Nicaragua and Lessons Learned Conduct of the Small War Tn April 1927 former Secretary of War Henry Stirnson was dispatched by President Calvin Coolidge as an emissary to Nicaragua to negotiate an end to a civil cmfliclt that had broken out after the 1926 eledions. Accompanying Skimson was the 2nd. Provisional Brigade, formerly of the Dominican RepLlblic, under the command of Brig. Gen. Logan Feland.3 Rland seemed to be a good choice, as he had led units during the Philippine, Cuban, and Domjnican padfications. A total of 2,896 men comprising the 13t h Marines a d a mfx of companies from diff;erent~ g i ments were dispatched from the U.S. mainland, Cuba, and Haiti to form the brigade; the troops remaining in Haiti formed a reserve h case the conflict esc:alated."e brigade" primary mission was to protect Americlan property; lives, and hterests under the revolutionary conditions that existed h the spring of 1927.3 Relative calm surmunded Eke negotiations, and on May 7 Stimson successfu1%ygot the opposing factions to agree to a disarmament: pact. As part of the agreement, the LJberal Party under Gen. Jose Moncada ceased its insurrection and surreneiered its arms to the government. One Monclada lieutenant, hawever, refused to surrender. His name was Augusto Sandino, md. he wnuld. soon prove to be a fnrmidable practitimer of insurrec-tionary warfare, I17 Efie northern jungles of Nicaragua, Sandino to set up his own government to rule over the Nicaraguan provine of Nueva Segovia, From, that base he launched a drive to "lead the people in an uprising against 'forcsip intervention and the expioitation of the country by the money powers of Nicaragua and Wall Strtset.'"~For the first two months after the Stimsm Agreement, however, peace prtrvailed. There we= some minor attacks by oullaw blandits, but nothing the Mahzes hvotrld consider theatening.
Ivtferventl'ouin Nicaragua
256
MAP 5.1. Nicaragua.
To help preve~~t further unrest, the Corps, just as it had in Haiti and the Dominican Reprrblic, fnrmed a cmstahdary called the Guadia National de Nicaragua, officered by Marines with entistees drawn primarily from the focal popdace. hdced, the US. State flcpartment- had been tryicrg to establish a cmstabulaq for Nicaragua since before 1925. This was the first WIarine measure, a d it was accomplished at fie very outset of the inszxrgmcy, well h4ol.c. Smdino o ~ W e his d first attack. Situation apparently h hand, the country stable, and a constabulary formed, the 211d Brigade in June began witheiravving forces from Nicaragm. Sometirne cfuring this process the brigade's rnission chiinged from p r o t e c t 4 American interests to c o n d u c t 4 and. supervising the 1928 naticmal prtlsidential election. The N l a r h s were to maintain law and order in the time leading up to and during the elections, but it seemed that not many we= needed to accomplish this task. Thus, Gcn. Feland and most of the brigade were recalled to fie States in early 1927. Soldiers left behhd were slowly distributed around the main popufatio~l centers to form, the nuclteus for defensive operations should Sandhots threats came to fruition. &ce agairr, as irr Haiti and the Uomhican Republic, and in accordmce with Harr-ington's doctrine, the Marines se-
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
257
c a d the major cities and towns first. 'They seemed to have forgotten the importance of garrisonbg the countrysjde.
Natzcre and Progression of the Inszcrgcrzcy Based on letters later caph;lred by the Guardia, Smdinds objectives in fomenting insufreetim appear thrczefdd.5 First, he wanted to establish his own government. This he attempt& to do in the northern Niraraguan provi~~ce of Nuwa Segwia. W e n he failed to estattlish an alternative governmetnt, Sancfino turned to his second objective-to mintain a revolt for as Img as the U,S.-assisted Micarapan government remained in power. m e n that seclrnd &jective failed because t w legitimate elections installed new governments, Sandino turned to his third hjective: He would revolt until the Americaz-rswithdrew b m Nicaragua. Sandinofs tmacity, cuming, and overtly pditical insumction gut him on a par more with Ennilio Aguha1do of the Philippines thirty years prior than with any of the other insurmctionists the Marhes bad fougtnt. Marine leaders recognized this and felt it hatl an irnpact as well on the tenor of hsurrectiorrary operations, maEng them more ~riolent.The Guardia manual published after the hsurrection noted that the ambiticjn on the part of Sandino to set himself u p as a hero and patriot, as well as to make himself an object of fear by the pvernment and people of Nicaragua made his operations different from those of the ordinary bandit encountered in the West Tndies and Central America, who avoids contact with the forces of law and order and fights only when cambat is avoidable; and who can usually be persuaded to cease operatic~nswith an offer of amnesty accompanied wit11 some sort of financial inducement."
While this was not entireb accurateIlaitian Cacos oftm codd not be enticed with amnesties or induced to remain peacefui. for long with financial Lncentives-such statements reflect the Cntcnsity of the struggle Sandino waged against the Marir~esand Guardia and perhaps a frustration over Che fact he was never defeated in the same way dl previous insurrectionistshad been defeated. Sandirrcrfsfirst attack against the Marines was at a small village named @otd on J d y 16, 1927. Unlike other insurgents (e.g*,Filipinos, Cubans, and Haitians) who mstly fired on Marlne village posts from the bushes, Sandinofs insurgents had infiltrated the town prior to the attack. Sandino's second major atrt-ackoccurred a couple months later, \zrhen several hundred of his m n attacked the garrison in 7elganeca in September 3927. For the first time, the Marines faced insurgents using machine gums, dynamite bonrtbs, and hand grenades.7 %me of the bandits shot re-
258
Irtferventl'ou in Nicaragua
markably well, as though they had received some marksmanship training. Furthermore, to reduce the Marhe" marksmanship advantage, they attacked at night and made effective use of cover. Only the fortuitous intervention of an air patrol and the firepower it and five other planes brought to bear saved the Marine contingent. Ocotal and Telpaneca were important in that up to that point Sandino thought he could operate on the offemhe and drive the much smafler Marine contingents from. their village garrisons (and, presramably, through a cclntinual series of such victories, drive them from the country altogether). Perhaps takj,ng a page from the Caco campaigns, the 2nd Brigade retaliated by targeting Smdino's mountain fortress, EL Chipote, which had a mythical invincibility to the locals (the same ones who did not h o w how to fhd it). Aerial observation evezztually located it in December 1927, and several columns of Marines moved northward in a pincer movement to cut off and take the fortress. After bring set back by a cout"fc of tenacious attack by Smdino on both colums, in January f 928 the Marines stormed Sandha" fortress aifter an aerial bombardment, Although heavily defended, it was not the imp~gnablefnrtress Sandino might have hoped, and the Marines took it in one afiernoon with minimal losses. Unfortunately, Sandino escaped, and be established new headquarters deeper in the jungles of Nueva Segovia, from which he cmtinued to direct attacks against the pat-rots who hunted him and his men (see Map 5.2). From the offensive Sandino was now put on the defensiwe. Sphtering his army into a loose confederation of bands nulnbering from a few dozen up to 30U men, Sandino began to attack Marine patrols inthe bush, mastering the art of the arnbush durhg the next five years of insurrection. Each an?bush was carefully laid with a clear avenue of retreat; as with all insurrectionists, Sandino" ppasarnount concern was saving as many of his men as gossiblc. &ce the ambush was laid, ""everythiw was staked on infl,icli,ngcarnalties with the first burst of &."Us one nnight expect from a ragtag group of rebels, most of whom had mver served in the military, tbese ambushes were not all that sZtillEully executed. Even so, they w r e m r e effective than one might expect if for no other reason than the element of surprise compmsated for the lack of skill. As the war progressed, the insurgmts became better at executing ambushes, although the Marines compensated by learni~zghow to avoid surprise. Rebel leaders generdly placed themselves well behind the lines of attack so they could rclltreat the quickest. 'This worked to their advantage, D ~ ~ r i nthe g entire insurrectio~~ only three of Sandino's top leaders were lost to the Marirzes, and no insurgent machine guns (usually placed near the leaders) wew ever captured.Vet the insurgents did receive a disproportionate share of casualties. In engagements from MatagaSpa to
In fervent-ionirz Nicaragua
MAP 5.2 Sandino" Majctr Areas of Qperationti.
Jicaro to Quilali, Marine and Guardia patrols inflicted lopsided casualties on the insurgents approaching exchange ratios of 30:1.'0 They did so despite being vastly outnumbered. One contemporary noted that "our patrols were constantly attacked by bandits from individual snipers to bands as large as 250."" Yet the patrols meeting such large bands were often themseives no larger than ten ta twenty men. There were several key differencesbetween Sandino's insurrection and the others the Marines had faced. For one, numerous aftereaction =ports suggest Sandino's guerrillas were better trained than were previous guerrillas.12 The guerrillas attempted flanking maneuvers during firefights, a tactic the Marines had never really encountered before. The guerrillas made effective use of cover, and they often attacked at night so that the Marine marksmanship advantage was reduced. For another, they were comparatively well armed and supplied. Each rebel band usually had one or two Thompson (.45 caliber) sub-machine guns and sometimes even had grenades. During the second major attack on the Marines, at Telpmeca on September 19,1927, Sandino's men used both Thompson sub- and Lewis machine guns, dynamite bombs, and hand grenades. Some of the bandits are reported to have shot well with their 1916 Rus-
2 60
Ivtferventl'ouin Nicaragua
sian Rernington riFles Ihat were standard issue for the insurgents. So well supplied was Sandino" 'hrmy" that it even had a uniform consisting of a blue denim shirt, trousers of any type, a hat with red and black bands, and a red neckerchief. Pict-z~resof Sandino show him hvearing the unih r m as well, How Sandino managed to supply his forces remained a mystery to the Marines for some time, Obviously; Sandislo received some but not all supplies from Honduras across the border. It turned out that Sandho took advantage of an ancient Incan ""tlighway""that led from Mexico down into South Ameriea.l--?He used this route to supply his forces from Mexico as wefl as to encamp his forces for rapid movement to various sectors of the northern Nicaragua prowinces. The Marines discovered the highway only after one lieutenant was told &out it by native hdian members of his patrol (attached to the Guardia). Another supply route that the gwrrilias used was the river system flowing down to the eastern (Caribbem) coast of Nicaragua. This riverhe source of supply; however, was effectively blockaded once the Marines began esta:blishing posts up the river, particularly m e Capt. Merritt Edson began his patrols deep into Nueva %govia in the summer m d fall of 1928. With the guerrillas3eta.iled knowledge of the provirrces in which they operated, they appearttd to maintaitl an intdigence system superior to the Marhesf own. The guerrillas usually had unknown adherents in the villages who would act as pickets around. Marine encampments to spy on their activities. Addl.ticlnalIy, tbe guerrilias maintained networks of spies and guards along traits who codd w m of patro) mo~rerne~~ts.~d Sandinista tactics also helped enrourage the perceptim that they had better intelligence than did the Marines.1V~orertample, the insurgents did not use horses or mules (as did the Marines for transport), because they restricted movemnt to the trail rather than through the bush. When the Marines hegm using aerial observation to track guerrilla movements (a technique first developed in the Dominican Rephlic), the guerrillas adapted, read% To avoid such recomaissance, Sandinok men marched g and late afternoon, before and &er the planes took to the ajr.l-When the gtrerrillas m v e d during the day they did so under concca1.mentof the thick jungle canopy that hid them from overhead observaticm, Saneiinofs men seldom moved during inclement weather but did move by moonlight if possibfe. Despite all these advmtages-good sources of supply, intelligence networks, a demonstrated ability to learn new tactics-Smdino's revolutionaries never were able to gain the upper hand. At best, they could only fight the Marines m d Guardin to a stalemate. AIthougjn both of the latter could defeat Sandino's men in the field, they could not impose a polizical peace on Sandino and his supporters. Still, continuously defeating thc
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
2 61
rebel bands gm"d""i1y took its toll, on Sandino's ability to influence pditi.. sal events in Mmagua, Ovemll Response to the Ilzszirgency No different than during the operatiom in the Philippines, tlaiti, and the Dominican Republjc, the Mari,nes in Nicnragua depctlded on a combhation of civil and military measures to counter Sandino" insurgency Howewer, the emphasis on the civil side was quite different. Since the Marhes were focused on shepherding the 1,923Nicaraguan presidmtial elections, the government was left intact, That further meant that the Marines did not assume command of cabinet departments (like education or health and sanitation) as they had in the prior cases. 'The Guardja was given responsibility over what Iftle medical work was done. Civil projects were almost amexistent, and wen road-huitding efforts were mininnal. k'et the Marines relied upcm mrtial law to a greater extent than before and interfered with the judicial system in a way not seen since the Armyfs Philippine experience. If the civil mix looked different from the preceding cases, the mix of military measures did not. The Marines once again used garrisoning, constabulary brces, combat patrotling, seaxh-and-destroy and night operatims, intelligence networks, and aviation to beat back Smdjno. The way they used those measures at first, though, suggests that once again the Marines did not learn from experitlnce. This appemmsufpri"~g at first glance, because by this time a body of i n f o r d doctrine encapsulated most of the measures used in the Uominican &public (and, dc facts, Haiti as well); see Table 5.1. Moreover, Harrington's work expanded the measures included in fnrmal doctrine fmm that sjmply borrowed from the Army. However, the countervailing hfluence here may have been both the lack of trairr% (see the end of Chapter 4.) as well as new officers who had not developed experience in the prjor two small wars, The Marine campaign agaillst Sandino can be roughly divided into two operational phases based on rnilitary plans developed by the 21%" Brgade. In the first phase, the Marines sought to defeat Sandino by ocrcupying "certain critical t o m s in the infected area with small detachxnmts, thus clenyjng to the enemy their use as bases of operations." This was Little different from the Haitian and Dominican experiences, and it also adhered to Harrington's and Ellis's v i m on the first phases of small wars. When that. operational approach did not achieve its inlended effect, a second plan was tried whereby the goal was ""t occupy certain key points in the infected area and operating actively against known bandits with forces of e q d or superiof strength."lY
Irtferventl'ou in Nicaragua
2 62
TABLE 5.1. Comparisc>nof Prior Dc~strineand Measures Used in Nicaragua Prior I~@rrnnI L)aclrz'zze Civil Measures Military G w e m m n t Public Works (non-Road) Road Building Medical Sanitation Judicial (incl. Martial taw) Eduea tion Other (Agrisufturat Refc>rms> Military Measures Bush Garrisons Constabulary Civil Guards (Volunteers) Intelligence Collection Guides Keemnaissance Mapping Patrolling Columar Opera tiom Small Combat 13atrals tong-Range/Mc,bile Pa tmls Night /Inclement Weather Ops Search cSs Destrc>yOperations Air P w e r Resoncentration Other (Cordon Operations)
Prior Fc7rmal Doefrine
Mtvsurc Lked in Nicnr~gztn
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
No Ncj No Nct No No Ncj Nct
No Ncj Limited Limited No Yes Ncj Nct
Yes Yes No
Yes
Yes
No No
Yes
Yes No No
Yes
Ye Ncj
Limited No Ncj
Ncj
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes Yes No No Yes No No No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes No Ye Ncj
Yes Yes
Limited No
In-beween switching from the first to the second phase of their cornterinsurgency efforts, the Marines in May 3928 offered an amnesty to guerrillas who sumndered. The offer was aecepted by over 1,001) insurgcrnts, who also krned in 11,600 rifles, 303 machine v s f and 5.5 rniXlion rounds of ammunition by the end of May aIcmc,lK U~lfortunatQ, Sandino's personal charisma and his politicat pfiilosophy cornbined to keep enough hsurgents rand= m s such that the 211"rigad felt obligated to take to the fieid ag"inst Sandino, It had taken over a year to reach this point where the Marhes went on the operatio~~al ofiensive, Wth the ensuing success of: Ehe 1928 presidential elections and the apparent success in cmtahing Sandir~o,fie 2nd Brigade was reduced h r n 260 to 166 officers and from 4,650 to 2,949 enlistecs.19 Among the suc-
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
2 63
cesses the Marines could count during this period of fighting was the capture of one of Sandino" top leaders, Gen. Malluel Maria Jiron (by en of Haiti fame), the destruction of Gen, Carlos Salgado" band, permanent- exjte of mother leader, Gen. Miguet, Angel Ortez, to the Honduras. Only months later, Smdino felt ubliged in Mexico for his personal safc-ty The Marine Corps Ctr cmcltrded that "Nicaragua has been pacified, with the exceptio~~ of a few diso~anized. bandits in remote sectjons, the rnission of the Marine Corps is being accomplished, and the cowtry seems to be rapidly assuming a normal st-ate.''ZO With the drawdown in forces, the mission of both the Marines and Guardia changed. By one year later, April 1930, the success of the Guardia in accomplishing the counterg~~errilla mission allowed the 2nd Brigade to draw down further to only forty-four officers and 701 enlisted." Given that the aviation squadron remained the same size, even fewer soldiers proportionalty remained in the field. 'The Guardia was now largely devoted to policing the countryside, which for all intents s the and purpcses meant hunting the uncoordinated bands of ~ b e l in northern m d eastern provinces who had rernaiined behind while S m d h o was in Mexico. MeanwhiXe, the Marine contingmts began reconcentrating h m the villages to the major cities. Beanfng in the summer of 1930, they began withdrawirtg altogether from operations in the field, The Commmdmt noted that ""bditq- has been so controlled that the coffee crop could be harvested without loss tc:,a single o~ner.~'Zz A yeas later, on March 31,1931, a powerful earChquake ripped through Managua, severely damag4ng the city and military structures througlnout, I'he quakc was so devastating that an additional hlfari~~e regiment was sent temporarily to Nicaragua to help mahtah the peace and rebuild the city. The Marines on hand demonstrated their best as they irnmediatety set about helping to clean up tlw city and tending to the wounded. Perhaps cowinced the Marines were diverted to helping rrbuild the capital, or perhaps just sensing some opportunity one of Sandino" main chiefs, Peciro Blandon, launched a major insurgent offensive in the eastern pro~rinceinApril 1931. 'This forced the Marines back inlo the field, as happened with the outbreak of the second Caco campaign in Haiti. BLandods " o d was eventually driven off by a combined air-ground Marine counteroffensi\le and Blandon himself killed. However, Blandon's offensive marked the begiming of a yearlong increase in insurgent attacks. During that year, e'ievtm officers died either in action or from woul~dsreceived, o~zeof the kighest-mortality years for Masine officers in any ;insurgency.2" Despite Sand.inofsrenewed fighting, as Figure 5.1 shows, the Marines continued to withdraw from the count-ry while also concentrating in
2 64
Ivtterventl'ou in Nicaragua
FIGURE 5.2 Number of Marines Deployed to Nicaragua, 2927-1933. Navy Department, Register c$ ltte Co~rztnissionedand Wannltt QBcers cf the United Slntes Navy alzd M ~ r i n cCorps (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, various years, 1925-1935)
SOURCE:
Managua. Tn fact, by May 1931 afl units were supposedly in the capital. I'he 2~1dBrigade was rczduced again, after the additiolts had been added for earthquake relief, to rouglkly 800 personnel- An additional, 183 Marines still served in the Guardia. Why the Marines contjnued drawing down pcrlrsonnel while insurgent activity increased is not entirely clear. Mast likely it was because the Guardia were fully operational in the field, contaking most of Sandinds bands within the northern province (and to a lesser extent 'l-heeastern one as well).,However, comments made by the Commandant in his 1931 report suggest a secondary explanation-the Great Depression. Fully gldalized by 1931, the D e p ~ s s i mcaused an 8 percent reduction in officer pay in 1930 alone, along with a number of other money-saving measures, including drawing down expeditionary forces.24 Miith the full brunt of the insqent: offensive on their shoulders, the Guardia, under Che command of Col. D.C. NcDougaf,, launctned a major offensive in July 1431 against Smdino" guerrilXas.25 So successfuX was this ofSensive that by the time it ended, in the fall of 1932, Sandincrfsinsurgemy had dishtegrated. S m d h o himself remained at large and was
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
2 65
never captured bp the Marines. After the last Mari,nes depmted in 1932, however, he voluntarily ended what remained. of his insurgency Cizril Meastires Used to Cazlntcr the Inszlr,gent.s
The U.S. political strat.cgy going into N i c a r a p was fairly simple. It was based upon the assumption that after a cease-fife had been negotiated free and fair elections would solve Nicaraguds internal political problems. Consequentiy, the U.S. State Department devixd new electoral lakvs (eading to the presid,e~ntidelections of 1928 and those of"1932. Moncada, the L-ibeml general who had started. the insurgency after the 1926 Conservative victory, won the 3928 elections and became president. nfter the elections, the Marines worked kvilh Moncada's government to try to stem the ixrsurgency of his former lieutenant. h the process they ~ s t r i c t e dtheir participation fn Nicaragua's civil affairs tc:,an extcnt not seen previously despite theis rclative weakness (as had been the case in the previous two small wars), For example, the Marirres did not engage in economfc or educatimai =vitalization projects as in Haiti and Santo Domingo. Oa the medical side, they sealed hack intervation in sanjtary and other masures, The Marines did not even attempt to establish regularized access to medicat care outside the garrisoned villages, This meant that as Marine units reconcentrated to the major cities medicai care in the countsyside dropped. Still, the Guardia was given a larger role providing medical aid than p ~ v i o u consthularies s were given. Even that bastion of civil effnrt contmon to the previous coumterinsurlittle attention, An approprigcrncy campaigns-road-building-received ate description of the road-buildi~~g effort in Nicaragua would be the term "mhimatist." h scant eleven miles of road were b d t despite a formal attempt to institutionalize the process in 1927.26 It failed, although the Department oE Roads was eventually organized under the Guardia in A u g ~ ~1929. s t Vet Mo~ncada'sgovernment could not directly cmtrol the expmditurc of funds since the program was placed under the Guadia, so it could not direct the flow of money for political patronage purposes. Consepently, the program W= effectively co-opted by the government and dismmtIed by the end of 1930, The Marines did interfercl in judicial matters to m erttent greater than they had in Haiti and the Dominican Repubic. At: first, thcy tried to operate with established institutions such. as the poiice and judiciary, but this appeme"lto fail as c a p t m d insurgents were released by the civil courts." Consequerztly,both the Marines and the C u d i a began brh8in.g their prismers before the Police Court, Although this institutjcm had Iimited powers of punishment, those powers were used tc:,the M e s t extent. Its director was authorized to hold priso~nersat his diseretio~n,provided
2 66
Ivtferventl'ouin Nicaragua
their crime met the legal defh~itionof argmized banditry or rebellion. In efiect, prismers could be kept indefinitely. Simultaneously,during the insurgent offensive of 1931, the Marines went one step further and declared martial law in those provinces most affected by the insurgency: Nueva Segovia, EsteXi, Jinotega, MatagaIpa, Leon, and Chinankga. fn keeping with the intent to interfere as little as possible in Nicaraguan internal affairs, the pctkvers of martial law WE nominally restriclve: "hllartial. law under Nicaraguan law [was] a modification of martial law as it exists under American faMi in that the powers of the military c m a n d e r are mare circzmscribed m d limited m d there is less hterferelzce in the conduct of the civil govemment."2Wven so, the Marhes and Guardia enjoyed a broad latitude of power from a military perspective: Bandits, bandit suspects and anyone giving assistance to bandits may be placed under arrest, guides may be impressed, fcmd stuffs and animals may be commandeered, prcjperv camps and dwellings in use by bandits may be destrayed and any measures taken that will injure the cause of the bandits and lead to their defeat, or dixl-rurage and cause members of bandit groups to fc~rsakebanditry and return to peaceful c~peratic>ns.zg
One interesting twist in the Nicaraguan case was that even though banc-fit property could be clestmyed it could not be confiscated, as had been the case in the Philippines, Haiti, m d the Dominican Republic. Second, and more fmportant, the property of aiders and abettors (as opposed to bandits themselves) was txated diferently. Their houses m d property codd not be burned or dczritroyed.m The reason behind such differentiation was that aieters and abettors inNicarqua were thought to be forced by the bmdits to give help rather than giving it willhgly. The state of martial law was left in place mtil the Marines vacated the country in 1932. tn the larger perspective, it seems to have had a much slighter impa,ct than in the Dominican Rept~blic.Few insurgent leadeus were actualify caught, unlike in the Philippines and the Dorninicm Repuhtic. Marines and Guardia silnpfy incarcerated Smdinofsfoot soldiers, with marginal eti;?et on Sandino's irntentions and c ~ a b f i t i e sIllis , forced the Marines to rely mre on military measures for pacifying Nicaragua compared to the prior t w cases. ivfilifrr~jMeaszrres tised to Counter the hsuugmts
To cape with Smdho's rising hsurgel~cythe Marhes employed the full panoply of military measures identified in Chapters 2-4, In their own commentary on measms used to overcome Sandino, Marine writers focused principally upon patrolling and garrisoning." However, it is
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
2 67
clear-by the formation of the Guardia and the role it played in Mcaragua-that the Corps relied upon the use of constabulary forces and, iz~some iztstances, civilian auxiliaries, intelligence networks, and aviation to support its main efforts, In Nicaragua, personal experience played a more ndiceahle mle in the htcalized implementation of certain measures tban had been fie case p=viously. One commander, Capt. Lewis (Chesty) Puller, ran his mobile cmpany sinnilar to how he learned to as cornander of a Gendarmerie compa"y in Haiti." Fw&ermore, he made effective use of night trainfng, which he thought was the most valuable task he had learned." filler was not the only one to draw on his Haiti experiences. Guardia garrison commander Victor &:tearid& also drew the parallels between his service in Nicaragua and that previ,ously in Haiti in 191.5,34 Overall, it seems that: a significant minority, if not the majority, of the Marine and Guardia commanders had prior experience in either Haiti or Santo Darningo that they brought to Nicaragua.3Wven the Brigade and Guardia cmmanders, Feland, Hanhgtm, and Cal. 1uliar.l Smit.h, had had extensive prior experience fn Haiti and the Dominican Republic." Of course, that experirnce seems not to have made an impact on them given the measures-particulariy patmfling and intelligence collection-fiat had to be relearned.37 As was evident from flarri~~gton" work, garrisfming, particdarly of economic areas, made sense. Toward that end, the 2nd Brigacle quicki.y divided Nicaragua into five areas: the Northern, Western, Central, Eastern, and Southern Areas. Each area in turn was carved into smaller districts. Each of these districts was commanded by a Marinc captain with hnio lieutenants and thir_ty to fifty soldiers, The goal of each district commander wap; to keep the insurgents out of his district. In this first phase of the Maine e f ort, the commanders stuck mostly to a strategy of just garrisoning the districts. It effectively placed the Marines on the operational defensiwe in garriscms spread throughout the country In the more active provinces, such as Nueva Segovia, the Marines tried to garrison most of the towns and even small villages whwe names wouid enter h i s t q books for battles in and around them: Jicaro, Telpaneca, C)cotal, and Qui1ali.B The military p r d e r n with this garrison-orimted phase of Marine operations was that it spread the limited Rcrarine force thin& acmss the country in atternpts to cover the irnportmt ~rilfagesand towns. Given the distance between towns and the absence of an adequate transportation network (road. or rail), garrison forces were not in supporting distance of each oCher.39 'This was important because the average size of garrisons was forty to sixty men. 'They were left to deknd against far higher numbers of insurgents who, in the beginning, could choose the time a d place of attack." Moreover, the garrisons also required significant supply lines. At the time, there was
2 68
Ivtferventl'ouin Nicaragua
only one trmsport plme in the Air Squadron, and it did not have much lift capacity Therefore, all supplies had to come by pack train over land. To prevent supply interdiction on the n a r r w roads and trails betcveen towns, the Masines were forced to provide guards for the pack trains, in the process depieling manpower h the garrisons, This situation invited attacks on the garrisons Mthilt Marine forces were ternporarily diverted to guard duties elsewhere.. Smdino's at-lacks at Ocotal and Telpaneca are examptes of this, Meanwhile, troops not in garrison were detailed to protecting key rail and supply routes (and there were only redly two of them) or garrisoning Managua ( s o m 3 W 0 percent of the total nurnber of troops in-country). Taken togetherr, all, these forces committed to the defense meant that at any one time only 11-17' pertlent of Mazine fnrces were availhle for active engagement with hst~rgents,41 mere were officers who criticized this garrison-oriented posture. Two key commanding officers im N i c a r a p felt that it placed the Marines on the defensive and tied dokm too many soldiers takkg c m of property, such as the large for~ignplantations where the smaller posts were placed." Even smailer garrisons, mom widely distributed, were not desired. First, they required at least half the men available to guard &em, which in turn put fewer soldiers on pah-ol whert. they could be seen protectir-tg the natiVes.43 Second, the stationary nature. of smaller garrisms meant that hsurgents could simply avoid them (mfushg to give combat) or maneuver ammd them to attack marby patrols. During the second phase of the Marine effort, the 2sl"rigade began to implement a n w style of operating against: Sandino. The Marines moved to a combined approach incorporating limited garrisoning and offensive action. They even gave up same cJf their larger garrisons, notahly those in areas least affected by Sandino's insurgency (such as in the southern portion of the country), mahtaining only key ones in the northern half oi the country This dleviated some of the manpower shortages, and forces theschy freed from garrison duty took to the field to hunt duwn Sandino" mm. The manpower shortage was also alleviated by the establishment of the Guardia Nacimal de N i c a r a p ; initially not trustworthy or trained enongh to send into the field, Guardia personnel werc excetlent gasrison forces for guardjng many areas of the country. There were interesting differences in garrisoning between areas as Map 5.3 partly shows. In the Southern Area, the Marines garrisoned thruughout the districts. Early in the second phase, however, they drew down their garrisons and left the various districts lightly defended, mostly by the Guardia, In the Northern Area, by cmtrast., the Marhes retained many of their district garrisons throughout the insurgency and operated on the offensive from those same garrisons. The s m e held true, although to a lesser extent, for Marhe forces in the Western Area. In the
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
MAP 5,3 IIIustration of Different Garrison Concepts.
Central Area, the Corps reorgmized its garrisons to establish a line of connbat patsol posts cirding, or circurmvaling, the area rather than ptacing them directly in the area as was customary. From these posts, patrols would march into the interior districts to operate against the insurgents as opposed to marching out into outlying districts. To support the smatler patrds, garrisons were catrally piaced at RcTatagalpa and Jinotega to probride reserve forces in case of need.4Vew garrisons were ptaced at all in the Eastern Area, owing mostly to the pauciv of troops assiped to the area despite the prevalence of ins~rgentactivity. Inskad, in that area the Marines conbcted oMensive operations in the h r m o( roving long-range patrols, These arc best exesnplified by the patrols that operated under and in conjunclim with Capt. :Memitt 'Xed Mike" Edson. The Guardia itself was not an effective organization for Chc first year and a half of 2s existence. Initially it was too small, and there was not mmey enough to expand it in an organized fashion. Furthermore, the "demand for troops to assist in the szlppression of banditry, and the pro-
2 70
Irtferventl'ou in Nicaragua
tectian of towns in the northern sections af the coulztry, caused the arganizatim to grow on a piecc-meal basis."44' This demand also meant that format training went by the wayside: In the beginning there was an attempt to have a centralized recruiting and training center in Managua, but these functions w e l SQCIII ~ decentralized to meet the needs of isolated parts of the nation. Training included instruction by Marine officers and attachment of Gixardia units to marine contingents for learning thrc~raghemulation,%
The i_nitialGuadia c0mpanj.e~formed were sent to garrlsm the vub nerable areas first, meming the t o m s of the Northern Area. Over time and as the organization grew, they were sent elsewhere ar atherwise freed up to perform, other duties. From an initial couple of hundred mlistees and a couple dozen or so officen;, by December 1929 the Guardia could count 2,279 men among its ranks." Fm the first two years the Guardia was headed by no less than Col. Harrington. Its official,missions were several-fol.d.48
* Preserve peace and securcl indi\.idual, sights; Control the trafficking and ownwship of arms (primarily through licensing) and other military supplies; * Maintain admjnistrative controt aver forts, prisons and other nation& property; Become the Honor Guard for the Nicaraguan president; and * Train nathe officers to replace the American officers who formed the irritial leadership cadrtz of the Guardia, During the spring and. summer of 1930, as the overall number of Marines in the countryside was being reduced, the 2nd Brigade began curtailkg operations and turned over all d e n s h e patrolling to the Guadia, By this time there was a growing cadre of Guardia personnel. who were trained fn tactics and had proven themsefves under fire fn the field. Even so, the G~~ardia remaiined chronically u~zdermannedand reyuircd additional support in order to patrol. To help the Guardia further, the Cuardia Municipal was creatd irr 1931 to perform routillw policing h c t i m s amnng the poplllace and to protect the towns. It was placed under the administrative contsol, of the Guardia so the two osgmizations could coordinate better. This new municipal paramititary organization defcndd the t o m s when the Guardia was on patrol, just: as the Guardja had done when the Marir\es went on patrol. In addition to the Guardia Municipal, local civilians were deputized to help carry out l.he defense of thcir towns while the Guardia was on pa-
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
2 71
tml. This w s no different- from Che civil guards that had been atlowed to hrrn in the Domixlican Republic. There were two classes of these a m e d ci?liccrs, as they wert? called. %e first class was ordinary citizens placed under the control of the Graardia Municipal. These ci-iliwt:;usualty accompanied the Guadia Municipal on guard. patrols rather than operating on their own." The second class were civicosfilzms, who were essentially private guards hired to protect the wealthy estate and plantdion owners. With the creation of both the new police organization and the civicas, the Guardia was freed from poking missiom in order to focus u ~ c m direct suppressiotn o( the insutgent bands*" In order to perform this mission, the Guardia patrols often marched in a m m e r cakulated, to invite ambush. 'I'he goal was to achieve tactical adit.antage where initiative was lost. The Guardia did so by relyitng upon on training given by the Marines and upon discipline often learned under fire, The Guadia engaged i17 116 firefights with the insurgents durkg 1931 alone.51 By the end of 1931, and through easfy 1932, however, Che insurgents attempted to huld their ground in counterattacks by the Guardia.52 This was in large measurl, the result of teaming Guardia tactics and firrding better means of eottntering them. In order to overcome this nevtriound ef; iectiveness by t:he insurgents, the Guardia began moving at night and fighting fn near-dark in order to gain tacticat surprise. Tl~eGuarclia bec a m so successful at. this that when some insurgent bnnds stepped up operations in the Northern Area in December 1931, the Guardia alone moved in and patrolled aggressively until the insurgmts ceased and left the area." "roughout 1932, the last year of the Marhed occupatj,on, most of the enemy contacts were with the Guardia, Hardly any occurrcd with Marines. In fact, the Marine Corps began b i t i n g its mftitav aid to the Guardia to aviation support. This successful transition oceufrtld despite the impact of the &pression m manpower levels, which saw the Guardia reduced from 2,256 in Octokr 1931 to 1,810 only a few months later. The increased insurgent activity helped raise a credit line that financed expansion back to 2,150.'" As is evident from the Marine and Guardia operations, small unit combat patrolling was the cornerstone of success h Nicaragua. Equally evG dent from the discussion of the two operational phases of the Nicaraguan campaips, the naturt? of that patrolling underwent changes much like what was seen in the Haitian and Dominican cases, A key difference is that the Corps did not rely as much on recomaissame patrols as it had before. fnstead, it stuck to small unit and large colu h the first phase of operatiorns, brigade HQ used colzlmns of 100 to 2C)U men in an attempt to trap and capture Sandjno, The January 1928 assault on El Chfpote over a year into the occupation was a logic& extensionindeed, culminatio~n-of these operations. As a set-piece assault it was a
2 72
Irtferventl'ou in Nicaragua
significmt sttccess; the Marines proved to the natives that Sandislo was not infallible or his carrrps invulnerable. As Sandino moved eastward into rollgher tcrritory however, columar patrolling became no longer viahle hecause such patmls' nnobility was too slow. Mreover, as the Marines tried to push into rebel areas to shrink the territory available to the insurgents by establishing forward outposts, they iiid not hawe enough men both to garrison and form laxgo columns.55 In the second phase of the Nicaraguan campaign, the Marhes developed small, garrison-based combat patrols that routhdy left the garrison, traversed the traiis seeki.ng inswgents, and returned within a few days of departure, The size of the p a t d held constant whether the patrol was a Marine or Guardia one. It typicafiy comprised two officers and twenty-five enlistees."" %e form of patrolling was undertaken h Nicaragua that was not in any of the prwious cases-the b q - r m g e rowing patrol. This type of patrol uszlalXy comprised thirty to fifty men freed horn garrison duties to patrol throughout an area for as long as several weeks before returning to garrison to rest and refit. The famcrus Coco patrole; led by Capt. Merritt A. Edson typify this type oE patrolling, hut a variation on it was also undertaken in the Gentml Area by Capt. Lewis Puller.57 Edsm formed the idea fnr his famous p a d s after a liaison visit to tbe NorZ-hernArea, where he observed p a t r o h g techniques that- he thought counterpmductivc to the mti-insurgent effort.58 His observations led him to suggest alternative options for suppmssing the ins~rgentsfn the Eastern &a and possibly parts of Nueva Segovia as wcll. Mis werd idea was to flush Sancti.no's closest leader, Gen. Pcdro Altannirano, and his men into other patrols, causing them to be killed or capturtld over time: My idea is to organize a patrol of about 40-50 men, with no fixed limits of patrolling, free to move in this territory as outlined, foi->llowing such clues as it can pick up-and reporting in at the nearest post in any one of the three areas for rations about once wery fifteen days. Such a patrol would not supplant the combined rnaneuvers now being carried on, but tzrorald be in addition to them-a continuous rc3ving patrol. The idea would be an outfit as near like the bandits as pussible-using the side trails they we-becoming bush men Like them-and living like them, This patrol would have na regular base to return to e\rer)r ten to Wenty days-but would prc~babtyreach its orignal supply base once a month or once every six weeks.5"
The area cornmmder for Edson's Coco Patrols, Maj. Harold Utley; had himself earlier experimented with using a series of roving short-range patrols to flush bm&t groups and drive them into other patrols. Aithou* his shorter patrols WE unsuccessful, tltley saw the benefits of
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
2 73
Edson's suggest.i.on for a longer-lerm rovi,ng patrol and gave the latter carte blanche: "Go where you please, d.o what you please-and return when you feel like it. If then you feet Iike going into the wilds again, it is all right with us, for the rest of: the time here you wjll be foot loose and fmcy free."6~1 Edson formed his Coco Patrol h September 1928, and it existed for nine months. Starting from Puerto Cabezas along the Caribbean caastline, it traveled 400 miles eastwad, upriver to Poteca.61 From Poteca the Marines operated up and down the Coco fiver chasing insurgents. &ring the nhe-month period that the Coco Patrol existed, Edson" patrols connected and operated with furccs from the Northern and even Southem Areas. n r o u g h rainy season and dry, the muing patrols conducted operations deep in the heart of insurgent stronghold provinces. Edson's patrol over that period engaged in twelve encomters with the bandits, resdting im thirty-four known bandit casualties. This was a rather low xlllmber of contacts with the enemy Edson's explanation was that "Potera was a considerable distmce from the bandit area, almost 4 complete days of hiking being necessary before any patrot would be in close proxintity to bandi,t aetivilies."b"rven so, he kept up the constant patrolling, particularly in the Northern Area, where he coordinated with larger drives to sweep the provinces of larger rebel bands. Perhaps redefining his mission somewhat, Edson wrote that he Mt that his Coco Patrol was accomplishing its mission if it simply kept the insurgents dispersed rather than capturing or killing them.@ The Coco Patrol" relative success led Edson, with Utley's approval, to organize a company of Guardia to perform long-range patrols. Placed under the cornmand of Capt. Herman Hanneken (of Haiti MEtdat of Monor farnc), this ncw patrol becme a mObile force tasked solely to pursue insurgents, It was not split up into garrisons, and it was given authority to disregard all commmd boundaries." Edsonfs idea oE the longrange patrol was fucther validated by l.he operati.ons of Company N under Capt. PuIler." Based in the town of Jinotega, Cormpany :M operated almost exclusively in the Central Area. Like Edson" Coco Patrol, Company M did not perform garrison duties, as it would limit the number of men availabfg for patrolling. PulXer continudly kept at least half of his commmd on patrol far weeks at a the." Apprflximately twenty of every thirty days wcre spent on the trail.67 When one patrol came in, the other half of the command would lezlvc that same night to continue hunting insurgents. Company M operated right through the rah~yseason in order to prevent: the insurgents from resthg in their strongholcfs. Dttrkg the t h e Company M operated, fewer insurgents tarorized. the Central AR~ compare"lo the Northern and Eastern &as. Howver, the insurgents did rely upcm the Central Area, via the ancient hcan highway, for
274
Irtferventl'ou in Nicaragua
receiving supplies moving north to Nueva Segovia.bTonsequently, Puller" mmobile patrols spmt much of their tirne pesformixlg interdiction operations in the absence of bandit activity.69 A b y reasoll Edson's and Puller's pdrols were considered successful was that by flushing out Sandino" bands and raidjng their camps the Marines made up for their perpebal intelligence handicap. fndeed, if one thing remained common between the first and second campaig~~s, it is that the Marines and Guardia suffered a lack of adequate and tirnely intelligence information. 'Tb a large extent this is because the 2 ~ 3 dBrigde s e e m not to have emphasized the hrxnatio~lof intelligence systems as early as one might have i m g h e d gken the Dominican experience, According to many of the AA%, Marine officers pertleived Smdino's intelligence system to be superior to that of the Corps. It was \zridely held that rebel leaders were informed of all necessary details by th local populace when Marines went m patrol. By contrast, the patrols gleaned their intefligene on the enemy only from, contact in the field rather than through he1pfu.l locals. .As m e report stated: "Enemy" hknawledge of our intention: Excellent. Has thmough intelligence system. Inhabitants indifferent, suspi"ious, distrust..ing,and hostile.9 .A handf-ul of officers disagreed with the common view that Sandho had a suyerior intelligence apparah;ls. Edson himself stated pubiicly that it was a "'fall,acythat all movements made by blari,ne Corps forces in that country were h o w n by the inhabitants."71 Ironically Edson collected ammg his p q e r s a 1928 brigade memormdum that supported his view over the general wisdom: Whenever several patmls aperate against bandits it has recently been disclt>sedthat they become confused and their information service, almost, if not entirely breaks down. This is particularly true if the movernrtnts of the patrols are prc~perlytimed and comrbinated. While it is realized that present dispc>sitionsgredude the operation of many patrcds against the bandits, it is essential t h a h s many patrols as possible operate against enemy known and suspected renbezvous.?2
Edsm himself proved, the validity of this argument when be led his famous Coco Patrol. He discovered that when he used the river for travel, information about his progress was relayed ahead of him. Altemati\reliy;rely, when he used old, trails or blazed new ones he usually surprised the natives in the villages he was traveling to, discovering that often they had no idea of his arrival u11til he stepped from the bush at the edge of the village, This was particularly true, he found, when he combined shore patrols with river patrols. h e m y attention usually focused on the river patml so much Chat the shortl pat-rot was overlooked.
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
2%
Despite Edson"s intelligence successes m d the &onitions of the 2nd Brigade commandelr, beadquarters did not establish an adeguate intelligmce distribution system in :Niraragua. b~itiaily,intelligence reports from field contcnanders wre re~nittedto headquarters peshaps once a mnnlf.1.73 This meant that they we= out of date by the time they werte received.. Two years went by before the Guadia even estabfished an intelligence OM-ice, called R-2, and begm requiring weekly intellige~~ce reports of all commanders.74 The failure is interest'tng in light of official brigacle HQ memos that asserted ""intelligence activities arc. of first hportance."75 Although individual intelligez~cereports might contak haccuracies, the cumlative impact of each district commandes providing them regularly was to create a better set of data for brigade HQ to understand the overall nature of the insurgency Rut even if HQ had a better perspective of overall events in-country and in a g k m district, that picture was not necessarily distributed in a t h e l y fashion back to the field. There are no indications in the records that field c o m a n d e r s saw 13-2 reports in a er." Personal recollections confim this obsewation,TT The Guardia was no better. Xt tclcrk three ycurs to establish a distribution system to field comanders, This 1ef the Guardia open to aiticism like the folilowhg: When the Intefligence Section received reliable infc2rmation [which war; not often], the method of transmitting this to districts, other than those equipped with radio was by telegraph or runner. The telegraph Line was usually cut by the bandits or if sent by runner he war; intercepted, which necessitated a follow-up message and by the time the second or third copy of the original message was received the infclrmatim it ccjntained was of no value because it war; too oXd.78
ing in July 1930, Guarclia HQ tried to ~ c t i f yits prciblems by publishing a classified newsletter issuiz~gcombined intelligence reports weekly to all units in the field. These newsletters included sketches of Zscations of contacts, patrol movements, and other material considered pertinew to field commanders. However, it is clear by t-he form, and content of these newsletters that they were produced for the HQ%perspective, not that af the field commander&yg The rcllative failure to ifngrove intelligence coiilection and dissemiaation meant the Marines did not engage in search-and-destroy operations per se compared to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. At the end of the first: campaign, right before the May 1,428 amnesv? the Marines djseovered large caches of insurgent supplies and destroyed them.""ecause this came so early in the anti-insurgent effort, the insurgents newer really had the opportunity, or probably the foolishness, to create large stock-
2 76
Irtferventl'ou in Nicaragua
piles again. Moreover, since Sandino's men usually attacked on the trails rather than defend forts, as did the Cacos, they usually did not have signiEicant stores of supplies m them. MarinlJ and Guardia patrols thus often captured o d y a few insurgent- pack anjmds along with some food and mmmition. This situation changed somewhat wbrn the i?narines began t a h g advantage of inclement weather and the insurgents9endency to bunk down in camp during such weather. 1Phe Cmo Patrol m d Company M, fnr example, often operated at the height of the rainy season. They also often marckd at night: to achieve swprise.8" part, Che move to night marches mirrorcd rebel tactics noted previously." It was also a natural ~ s p o n s for e those co andhg officers who had previous experience in Haiti or the Dominican Repzlblic." If s h d d have been stock-in-trade for all. commnders, since night marches were one of the few measurcs covered in the formal doctrinal mmuals-84 Athough s m e xcounting of: provisions destroyed was provided in AARs, the brigade does not seem to have placed m emphasis upon tallying provisions &stroyed as a proxy for success agairtst the insurgents. Bath the Marines m d Guardia tended to focus on the number of bandits killed and.wounded. and arms captured, with only an ocrcasiod reference to supplies captured c ~ destmyed." r The nurnerous AARs, mostly in the form of telegrams back to brigde headquarters, &ways provided casualty lists for thr rebels.~~ The reason for this is the same as it was for Haiti and the Dominican Republic. 'f'he hlfarines befieved that the insurgent bands would disintegrate if their leaders were filled or captured.87 The Guardia" additional focus on guns as a proxy for success was also consistent with what had been done in Haiti and the Uomfnican Republic. However, it is a s~~rprising proxy since, unlike in the previous two cases, the number of guns in the hands of Sandinds men was not finite. Moreover, the Marines were highly aware of that fact." Throughout, Smdino readily smuggled arms across the Honduran border. While Sandino smuggled his supplies by ground, the Marines made air logistical support. a more critical componcmt of the antiguerrilla operations ia Nicaragm b r i n g the sccond phase of operations. The first aviation m i t arrived in Nicaragua in Fhruasy 1927; the second 'followed in May. Since there wem k w lmding strips in all of Nicaragua, Marine aviators nearfy perfected airdrops as a supply task. Both in the bush and in Poteca, almost all of Edson" supplies came by air owing to the impassability of the river rapids most of the year. The air litnk was even more hportant for medical evacuali.on. Practically every man of the Coco Patrol contracted malaria at one point or another. Access to quinhe and other t mention fresh intelligenc+became imperative medical s u p p l i e ~ n oto as Edson was slourly depsived of manpower.
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
2 77
During the Domhican campaign, aviation had been gelnerallly limited to aerial reconnaissance and dropping messages to patrols. During the Nicaraguan campaigns, howver, the Marines further developed and expanded the concept of air operations. Not only were planes used for scouting and communications; they wese also used extensively to sulpply isolated garrisons and forces in the field." The Commandant of the Marine Corps even colnmelnted on the perceived utility of Marine aviation: "By continuous m d careful recomaissance over areas occupied by bandits, air patrols, workfng in colljunction with ground patrots, have been so harassing that few a t t e q t s at concentration on the part of thc bandits have been made."W There were, of course, skeptics about the complete ul;ili.ty of aviation. Ground officers found aviatio~~ recomaissance useless in the jungle, whcre the foliage canopy made it nearly impossible to pick up e n m y movements or camps, m d they found. its value marginal elsewhere as insurgents adopted new marching tactics to avoid detection from the ak91 Advanchg techology helped underwrik the exyansion of aerial logistical support to the n/larhes and Guardia foxes. Early planes were 1itnitc.d in what they could, carry and WE thus limited in the provision of supplies, Once, however, the Marhes received Fokker transportri (19291, each of which could move a squad of men (appmrtimately eight soldiers), the Marincs could move men arourtd the country to where they w m needed most, They could also now move a ton of suppties out to the field in short d e r . Whh such a rapid =supply cap&ility the Marines began to experiment with primitive air mobility operations to support the Guadia when operations were turned aver to that institution. This was particularly irnpol-tant around towns like Ocofal because "the region c d d furnish k w supplies locally and o1nly pack trains could negotiate the rnvlCes through that section of the country""" In 1930 alone Marine aviators flew more s field units and garristms.93 than 5,WO s o r ~ esupporting In addition to their role in supplyi"g field forces, Marine aviat-ors experimented with fire support operations as well. This proved usehl early in the Nicaraguan c a m p a i p when the insurgents targeted the garrisons for attack. Divir-tg in with hods or flying strafing runs, planes hefped sow fear and confusion in the attackirrg forces, helping to disperse &em in the process. &ring one such attack, in January 4928, the first medical evacvatjon of w o u d e d personnel in Arnerican aviation history occurred.94 Later, as Marine and Guardia forces incwased their patrols, fire suppo" was not a h a y s as uselui."' 'This is because aerial bombarciment and strafing tended to scatter Sandjno's men rather than hurt them. 'That made the patrol" task of r ing down the insurgents more difficult. Even with aerial help at previously unseen levels, Sandincr continued to frustrate the Marine and Guardia leadership, to the point that 2nd
2 78
Irtferventl'ou in Nicaragua
Brigade tnied an extreme measure that had failed in Haiti and that had failed in the Dominican Republic: reconcentration. :In the spring and summer of 1930, the Marines tried tc:,resettle the population in the Northern and Cesztral Areas. They intended to move the rural populace into the towns so food trade could be more easily regulated to deprive the insurin RcTay, the Marines started with the popugents of suyplies. Re lace around Ocotal, J ,and Yali-towns kzown for their proximity to insurgent operations. '"ayme found. roaming the countryside after June 1st would be considered a bandit."% However, the Marhes never got the opportunity to assess the viability of their plm. Allnost as soon as it was undertaken, the effort was shelved for practical as well as political Rasons. 'f'he government and Marines rescinded the concentration program altm only two months*" M a t is interesting to note is how little officiill mention of the program exists in the records for the period, :It is an easy chapkr of the Nicaraguan experience tc:,wer1ook.B Failure of the reco~zcelztrationmeasure did not matter. Over the next two years, sustained Marlne and Guardia patrolling reduced Smdho's effectiveness tc:,the point Mthere the centrd government no longer faced a military threat that could overtt-rmkv it. This was no easy stmggle, as attested by Marine casudty figures, the highest of the three campaigns fought in the Caribbean, ?"he Corps suffered some 136 hta%itiesand sixtysix wounded, though not a11 from direct contact with the insurgents; some were kom accidents, disease, and other causes** Despite such losses, the Marhe Corps and Guardia helyed shrpherd the 1932 elections to a successful outcome. The success of these elections, based upon broad participation, helped prove that Sandino's political views no longer held the currency they had six years prior. So when in 1932 the last Marines left Nicaragua, Sancfino declared "victory," came down from the hills, and negotiated peace with the gove ever, he was p e ~ e i v e das a continuillg political t h a t by the general of the Guardia, Anastosio Somoza, who in the span of a few years had risen from a litutenant commissioned. and trained by the Marines to become its dirrctcn (GVith the help of hmily connstions and his open support of the governing party). One eveslillg in 1434, Somoza hosted Sandino at dimer m d then had him taken back to the airfield m d executed. A few years later, Somoza took control of the country; his dynasty ruled until the assump"cion of power by se%f-proclaimedSandjnistas in f 47"). Lessons from the Nicaraguan. Experience
The Marines in Nicaragua for the first time gained access to formal mater i d m lessons learned durir~gthe campaigns rather than after, as had been the case previ,ously Within the first: year of operations, Marine
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
2 79
Corps Headquarters began publishhg reports from the 2nd Brigade in the Gazcffe"in oorder that marine officers may gain some jnformation relative to "bush warfartt."""o'E Quantico Headquarters also issued a calf for papers on aX1 aspects of bush warfare to help inform other officers who m i e t eventually be sent to Nicaragua or some other intervention, Mean\Alhilt?, from 4928 onward the articles on the topic that appeared in the Gazctbc, althoug%l=presenting the opinions of contrib~ltjngofficers and thus not official dactrine per se, were blessed by the Corps's institutional leaders. As such, there was no body of ""unofficrial" tessans-learned material to speak of that c m out of Nicaragua the same way it had aker all the prior Army and Marine s m l l wars, fn this instance, most of th material is best categorized under "official'9essons learned. Meanwhile, thfs interest in small wars lessons is reflected in the development and institutionalization of counterhsurgency doctrine through the 1930s up until World War 11. This is evident in the explosion of institutimdy sanctiomd articles, by the papers kept on official fite at Quantico, by the inclusion of comterbsusgency-related courses in the curriculum, and finally by tbr publication oE the Small Wars Nlnlzzltal in 1940.
More so than for any other canpaign, the Marines made a concerted eh fort during and after Nicaragua to distribute information relatirrg to the conduct of small wars through the vehicle cJf the Guzefte as weli as through access to AARs, relevant memoranda, and papers on file at @antic0 Headquarters. For exmple, in the eleven p a r s tcletwcm the inception of the Maritre C o ~ Cazefttl s in 1916 and the beginning of Nicaragm, fifteen articles were written on smafl wars t-tistory and lessons learned. Half of these were published. during the last two years of the Dominican campaips and fierealcter. Beg ing with the :Nicaraguan campaigns, the number of articles in the Gasctfe more than doubled to trhirtyfour in the ensuing thirteen years (1927-1941). Another six were puhtished in the Navy's Pnlceeditzgs. Half (eighteen)o f the Caz~~ttc articles were officially solicited by Marine Corps Headquarters or were AARs that HQ ordercd. printed so that Marines could learn directly from the Nicaraguan experiences."XCurictusly, the Domirrican experience is not represented or rekremced among the articles of this period, as if six years in Smto Domhgo never happened, By contrast, five of the iorty-two articles focused on aspects of the Haitian campaigns. Another twenty f c t cused on Nicaragua, while the remaimder refexnced it for illust.rativc purposes. As is apparclnt from Table 5.2, there was hardly any discussion of civil measms, reflecting the fact they were hardly undertaken in Nicaragm; by contrast, there was a phcnomenat level of disczrssit-tnof Ihe
Irtterventl'ou in Nicaragua
280
TABLE 5.2. Small Wars Measures Discussed in the Corps's Pmfessional journals, 11927-1941
Menszlres Discussed
# Articles zoiZlis.cz.fssion.
Civil Measures Medical / Sanitatian Civil Construction Martial Law MiXitaq Measures Ganisons Scouts / Constabulary Intelligence Procedures CoXurnnar Punitive PatroXIing Small Unit Combat Patmlling Night Operationti Search and Destroy Ops Chemical Weapons Aviation SOURCE:
Mal.z'ne Corps Gazefte and U.S. Na.t?alIrtstit u te Proeeedir?gs,various issues
military measures used. As in the Dornhicm case, there was no discussion of the litnited reconcentration measures attempted and aborted. One can put the articles of this period into four gemral categories. The first is a series of four articles printed for HQ in 1928 and 1929 that compiled AARs written during the first phase of the Nicaraguan campaip. The second category comprises ten articles submitted fn Rsponse to a call for manuscripts by HQ. The third category covers Che bulk (If articles on topic that, although not necessarily published at H(;2"sbehest, were nmtheless pertinent to distribut% the lessons of Nicaragua specifically and srnatl wars in general and thus werc officially sanctiomd.1"" Representing a fourth category all by itself was a serialized monograph, like Harringtds, that tried to efucidate a general set of small w a s lessons that could be taught to the oft-icercorps, The four ""Codat Reports of Operations in Nicaragua" that the Gazette published in 3928 and 3929 covered mly the first phase of Marine operations. The first: two reports focused on the Marine and Cuardia deknse of Ocotal, Teipaneca, and other towns during the early period of Sandino" offensive.1" The third focused on the Marines>earch for, and attack on, El Chipate, along with a detailed report on. Sandino" preempt h e attacks on Richal"~and Lvingston" ccolumns headed for El Chipote.1" "'f'hefind port discussed Sandint, attacks against other Marine cal~11~ns~l0"
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
282
Unfortunately, HQ did not publish combat reports from the second phase of the Nicaraguan campaigns, This meant that junior officers were given access to lessons h m an outmoded, a d discredited, camp"ign precisely when they needed the necver material, Tc, get this ncw material they had to turn to the other Gazcite and.Pmceeditzgs articles. At tbr same timc. that HQ made the decision to publish the after-action reports, it issued a call through the Gasctte for papers on small wars lessons learned. The list of topics rim fmm the use of hfantry weapons in bush warfare, to trmspcrrtation and suppl?/, to the role of air power. In the words of Marine Corps Headquarters: This type of combat, which might well be called "h&htzrarfare" is the one which has been most frequently encountered by marke personnel in the past, and yet is still unknown to many officers, either through a failure to be a participant with same expeditionary force, or through a Lack of any available repc,E"cs which might be studied . . . Therefc~re,with a view of keeping these programs alive and available far future rderence and study the contact repc~rtsfrom Nicaragua are to be published in the Marine Corps Cazetfe, Tt is the intention of the Marir-ze Carp Gnzetfe to publish in c=F.irc~nolcrgicat order articles containing patrols reports fram the Second Brigade in Nicaragua in order that Marine officers may gain same infc3rmation relative to ""bstsh warfare.'' In addition to being very instructive it is believed that these reports will be very interesting reading.f%
The published calf,for manuscripts eliciting small wars lessons was UIIprecedented in the preWarld VVar II era. Et reflected the Corps" nneed for information retevant to the prosecution of its primary mission at the time. The ten articles in the second. category were subdtted in direct response to H q s request based on a topic list publisked in December fY28."7 In fact, the topir list was a subset of a m c h longer list that the DivBion of Operatinns and Paining had put together in November 1928 fnr feedback from officers then serving in Nicaragua."'"" From that feedback (two thick foldcrs were r e ~ ~ i t t etod Masine Corps Headquarters), the division had. intended to compile a pmphlet on :Nicaraguan experiences for new offiicrrs and soldiers, 'Fhe pamphtet was never compiled. Instead, give11 the overlap of topics, &ere may have been an attempt to try two avenues-a pamphlet and Gazette publication-to see which would work better. It seems that in this case the Gazeftc won out. Had the te11 articles followed the pattern of the post-Domhicm period, there would have been a rich discussion of the operational measures used to dekat Sandin-the panqly of civil measures, garrisoningf the cmsta,bula,ry,hteuigence, night and search-and-destroy operations, and
282
Irtferventl'ou in Nicaragua
small unit combat patrolling. This was not entirely the case. Given the litnited civil measures undertaken in Nicaragua, one would expect little commentary on that topic, and such was the case. C)n the military side, garrisoning was mentio~~ed only in passing, gem.erally as a source of or destination for a patrol, not as a systematic means fnr helpifig suppress the insurgency" There was equally little mention of intelligence issznes save in the doctrinai serial fsce discussion below). The same would he said of night apemations and search-and-destroy operations; discussion of both occurred only ir7 passing as part "'f ~ l a t i n g historical ta,les."qere was no treat~aentnf these measures as key parts of a sy"t"matic effort to eradicate Sancfho" hsurgency. If garrisoning, night operations, search-and-destroy operations, and intelligence received short at-tention, then the opposite was true for the constabulary, patrolling measures, m d the role of aviation. Constabulav operations were mmtioned in the majority of articles, &ough not always treated in a systematic manner."i Two articles in particular focused on the Guardia after Nicaragua, Oxle was written by Nicaragua veteran Evans Carlscm, Miho captured a number of key points about the Guarciia: the garrison defe~~se role in the first phase of operations; the lack of trallning early on; combat patrol role in the second phase of operations; and hcreasing skill to the point where the Guardia crruld undertake? successful night operatio~~s against Sandislo" men."2 :Nearly all of the articles treated patrolling in its proper context as a systemfc measure used to defeat Sandino; some also efwelled on the tactical aspectmof patrolling. Most of the discussion was consistent over time, be it in the histories or the articles devoted exclusively to patrolling. All three oE the main patrolli~~g styles pertinent to the cases were malyzed. I:.,arge-colurnpatrols were dj.scussed predonninately through the four Rports offered by Headquarters and other historical monographs,ll" Smail-unit patmls were treated in a couple of key articles, inctuding histories.lw "Finatly w i n g long-range pat-rois were discussed, but mostly affer the first edition of the SZYI~EI Wars Mantnal was released in 1935.115 The treatment oE aviaticm" rde in small wars was extenshe, providing one of the 6rst in-depth sbdies to be published hthe Gazffe as well as an additional three monographs in Proceedi~zgs."G The Gazette study-actually a series of articles-accurately portrayed aviation" role in Nkarapa but also highlighted some of the exaggerations that accompanied the aviation effort.117 Most of the material was repetitive yet detailed. One of the more abswd conclusions =ached was that air forces could do independent policing operations ~ Ismall I wars-that by threat alone they could prevent unrcst from tuming into insurrectim and that air forces were the primary factor for contrd% people ill-disporied to t;ovc?ming authorilty (i.e., insurgents).llB Clearly, such had never been the case.
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
283
For some mexplajned rcason, the tcrpic of chemicd hveapctns use in guerrilla warfare received, as much attmtion as did the topic of aviation, No less than three articles focused on chemical use exclusively and two more included discussions of it even though such wapons had never been used and, moreover, we= illegal to use under existing international conventions on war&119 F b d y , one of the more pertinent s~~bjects to receive attention was the use of infantry weapons in the bush, This topic was one of those listed in HQ%call for articles. Four arZicles focusirtg Mtholly or in part on the t o w were published."O As a whole, the discussion was rather academic, as weapons in general hardly changed the strategic or operational picture fnr the Marines. Officrrs reading these should have been fmpmssed with one particular fact, however: The benefits of using machine &uns (partieuIarXy sub-machirte guns) inbush warfare were unanimously extolled.
I~@orvl"IDoctrine: Cuntil~ulqin flnrringtorz 's Tradif ion By far the most important treatment of small w a s during the postNcaragm period is Lt. Col. Harold Utley's scminaf monograph, "Tactics and Techique of Smail Wars," which the Gnzclte serialized in 1931 and 1933.121 Writint; in three sections, Lltley set down a general approrxch to slnall wars for fellow officers that was on par with Hacrington's post-Dominicm monograph the decade prior. Like FXarringtds monograph, Utley" tot>eventually formed the basis for small wars lecturrs and classroom teachhg at the Marhe Carps Schools. Unlike Marrington's work, Utley" work (at least its organization) seems to have owed much to his predecessors, from whom he plaigiarized and borrowed ideas. At the same time, however, he seems to have followed an idealized approach to creating doctrine by reviewing all the work published in the Gazctte up to 1932 as well as some DIJn~ztqfozcr~zalm d CnvaEry Jllrlrnul articles.Qz Beginning Mth a definition of the term "small wars," UUey cited renowned Britjsh small wars manual writer Col. C.E. Callwell in positing that they "are those operations by an irwgular and compmatively untrained enemy."u2 He later amended it to "those operations in which a trahed regular force is opposed by an irregular and comparatively untrained enemy.."'12WUeley's reason f o r tackling the subject formally echoed complaints made by other officers. Although the= were m n y relevant historical records on file, no complete study had. ever been made of them. This was no surprise, as ""prior to the World War we were satisfied to karn by experiencel or perhaps it would be more accwa.t.eto say we l e a m d by precept and example from our commanders and senior lieutenants."'QF Hwever, the probtem Utley saw was that an expanding Marine Corps would have officers cvho had never led before.
284
Irtferventl'ou in Nicaragua
FIGURE 5.2 Comparisc>nof Harrington" sand Utley" View-s on Srnafl Wrs.
souacl::Samuel M. klarringtan, ""Strategy and Tactics of S m a l Wars," lecture notes f a r the Department of Military Tactics Field Officers' Course, 15 Jan. 1926, reprinted from 45 May 4922, Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division, Merritt A. Edson Papers! Washington, BC, container 26; Maj. Harafd H. Utkey, ""The Tactics and Technique of Small Wars," Manuscript, Marine Corps Historical Center, Personal Papers Sctian, Navy Yard, Washington, DC, Harold H. Urtley 13apersf box 5, bibtic)graphy
Consequently, he put down his ideas for future, inexperienced junior officers to learn from, Utley plagiarized almost verbatim from the Army (Small Wars and Punifiue Expedif ions, 195-1 926) in organizing the? kinds of small wars &at existed.a"bs Figure 5 2 highlights, his discussion of how small wars might begin is also not much different from Harrington's view a decade prior. No one can know for sure whether Utley had his own copy of Harringtun's mmuscript, but it is likely at the very least that he was familiar with its precepts. The one small difference is that Utley saw guerrilla warfare as a purposeful strategy on the part of any rebels, whereas Harrington saw it as a by-product of being dispersed into bands. Taking in-
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
285
tellectual liberties, Utley enumerated four potential strategies that borrowed diz.ectly from Ellis" work and.looked like an elongated discussion of some of Harringtcm" operational clmcepts.127 Moeover, titley elucidated lour phascs of malt wars, encapsdathg and summarizkg Mmrington's work. Wtley departed kom the others in his extended treatment of intelrigence and personnel issues in the second and third sections of his stu,dy. Indeed, hjs discussion of inteuigence stands wiCh Ellis's earlicr, and Edson" later, articles as some of the best analyses on that topic in small wars. Roundhg out his discussion on intelligence, Utley touched on a couple of points that are relevant to what the Marines did in most, if not all, of their interventions. The most interestjing was the commonly held belief that nationai politics in Latin and Caribbean nat-ions formed around the hdividual, not around principles.128 This belief would cause the occupiers to seek out the leadership of the insurgent party to bring an end to the sfnall war, It d s o explains the tendmcy to try to "decapitate" insup gent forces. Utley also devoted attention to orgmizational and administrative functions that strayed from the small wars theme of tactics and technique. Erntded the "F~~nctions of Personnel Section of the StaM,'' the find (third) section of his monograph dealt completely with mundane topics of supply, the field postal service, payroll, troop reinforclement, radio contmunications, and other poinls that did not address unique small wars needs but could be found, albeit dispersed, throughout a number of Marine manuals. Nonet.heless, Utley cclnsidered the topic so importantlilcely because of his experiences as an isolated commander in eastern Mcaragua-that he later expanded, a d revised it for inclusion in the Small Wars Maszual, Like Harrhgtozzfswork, Utley" work bridged a gap between publications and classroom teaching. But these were not the only goad sources of small wars lessons. Junior officers also had access to the ideas behind many, if not most, of the Marines' smalf wars measures through student papers and officer lectures that were copied and put into the Marine Corps School files. Ilnforh;lnately, as discussed prewiously, very few of these monographs remain to conirm, what was being taught in the schools, In some instances topical lists exist of the classroonn research papers so that we can tell what was fikely written about.12V:ln other instances they were later published by the Gazette, demonstrating a reverse link between classroom lcarning and lessons distribution to the oificer corps at large.130 The few papers that remain (in additjnn to the published ones) confirm the types oi smdl wars lessons that UtIey and other authors took away from their experiences in Nicaragua and &where. Two key papers, for instance, touched on mgor thmes-civil measures, garrisoning, and
286
Irtferventl'ou in Nicaragua
combat patrolling-that refleckd the actual experiences of the Marines in their three Caribbean m a l l wars,l" OM key area where published and classroom monographs often disagreed was on the t o w of training for s~nailwars. Few authors ehase to devote attention to the training question, but those who did often c m e to opposing canclusions (as well, their cmclusions focused only upon officer, not enlistee, trainh~g).There was a fair c m s e ~ ~ sthat u s enlistees needed mixlimal changes in their tactical training, training that could (and often was) conducted decentrally in the bush rather than at h-country schools. C)ne school of thought held that dficers djd not need much addjtional training over and above that nomaily givm in Basic Sctnooli: "m ouch has been said for the t r a i r r a oE Nlarines for small wars, I believe troops traj,ed to handle alf infantry wapons, combat training, and above ail, an intensive course in scouting and patmllin.g, as prescribed in the U.S. Army Traini12gRegulufictt~s,would fit our troops for any requirment for a small war expeditionary force.'"32 Certainly; officers needed to understand. the strategy of guerrilla war better but-reflecting a historicist bent-cmly on a case-by-case basis, as generalizations were not wise. The opposi.ng school of thought. argued that the Marine Corps Schools did not teach enough m a l l wars material and that curricular changes were warranted. 'The Field Officers' Course, for example, was criticized for being patterned on the courses of Arl~y.schools. Marines had engaged most recently in small wars, and the conduct of these was not touched upon at Army schcrols. Since the Corps would. likely engage in s~nallk w s again in the future, the Field Offkers' Cou,rse should specialize in teaching this mode of warfare. In a similar vein, those parts of the and were inappropriate to the Army curricula that t a u e t division co Corps. C)ne observant wag accrbically commented: "In oar I55 pears of history we have had one officer commmd a division in battle."l3~ 'This latter school of thought did not win the debate. 'The Field Officersf Course never specialized hthe teaching of small wars, as Will be seen below. By the same token, small wars lessons were not ignored either. hstead, over the course of the period between the beginning of Nicaragua and the eve of America's entry into World War If, the Marine Corps Schools begm to take more seriously the need to train its officers in same of the u n i p measures required for waging and winning srnaIl wars. This curricular effort eventually culminated in the production of the Small Wars Manual irr 1935 and its publication in 1940.
Small Wrs Training Bef'ore the Small Wars Manual The Marine Corps khools did not emphasize small wars training during the period between the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua and even dzrr-
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
287
i~zgthe Nicuraguan e,upedifion for officers or enlistees..'This is m s t l y because the Corps was walking a line between land and naval missions training, for which it borrowed doctrine from t_he relevant service: hm?y doctrine 'nr lmd missions, Navy doctrine for dut.y at sea, The Marine Corps had yet to pmduce its own mission doctrine, but that w o d d change in the post-Nicaragua period, In theory; enlistees received some training in bush warfare patdling.1" However, a detailed exmination of the schedules reveals that recruits received seven hours of training five days a week (plus three hours per wcekend) for eight hvceks-over 300 hours of trailling. Within that, in the third week they were r e q u i ~ dto attend. a me-hour lecture on bush warfare.135 The lack of trainhg for officers wodd seem surprising because by rhe tirne Nicaragua began the schools had. been up and mnning for almost seven years.It woraid seem even m m surprising that junior officers new to Nicmagua needed bush training. However, s~nallwars trahing was only just beginning in the schools, me= hours in the auditorium out of a 1,000 hours in the classroom. iadditionally many officers had not received traini~ngsimply because the schools were not open during 1926-1927. The personnel demands of peacetime expeditionary duty in I-laiti and Nicaragua, among others, caused the Cornmadant to shut down the schoals so ofiicers could serve in their billets overseas instead. One upshot of failing to train soldiers hthe States was that they had to be trained by their superior officers h the field. kcording to one junior officer, most of his peers and etnlistees sent to Nicnragua had been in -the Corps fur less than a yeas md.had not been fully trained inbush warfare. This particular commmder l-rad to take the troops assiped to him into the bush and train them himself for a solid nrto~nth.'" bommmders u~nlucky enuugh to have green Guardia enlistees assigned to their garrisons had to provide bush warfare. trainil-rg for them (in addition to their own troops) because they were no better trained.137 Indeed, even though a Guardia military academy was started in 19B, most native enlistees had to be schooled first in simple readhg and writing and then in math and was no time to give them small geography (for map readhg)."Qere wars training before sending them into the field. b e n for the first two years of the Guardia officers academy, students learned through emulation on the patrd and instruction by their Marine offisers.l" Addit-ionally these was some camp training of a practical and theoretical nature.'") This generally c o v e ~ dpersonal sanitation and hygiene, mark-smanship practke, theoretical instruction in scovlling m d patrolling, m d practical trainjng in extended-order drill. a c e the academy was fully operational, Guardia officers were given eight months of theoretical and practical trajning. This training covered such topics as rnilitary science and tactics,
288
Irtferventl'ou in Nicaragua
admhistratian, laws and regulatio~~s, infmtry weapons, and military ellgi.neering.131 The training also included a one-month practicum in the field, often in Nueva Segovia, where SmdU~o'smen were concentrated. This cwricufar format prevailed Chrotrgholrt the time that the Marines remisted in Nicaragua. Back in the States, the Company a d Field Officersf khocrls were reopened far the 1x9-1938 academic year. The coursework picked up sonnewhat from where it had left off in early 1928. Pehaps because of that, or perhaps for other rt;asons, Commandant Maj. Gen. Ben Fuller called together a board "to co~~sider m d make recmmendatians regarding the curriculum for the Marine Corps Schools."142 Harnngton, then still a major, was a member of that board. Perhaps not surprisinglypfie board called for teachhg small wars at all three of the Corps schoolsBask, Company, and Field-at the same t h e that it called for a landing operations course. A review of the schools' curricula at the time, though, shows that the board didn't r e c m e n d anything that kvas not a l ~ a d y being dme, save for the eli&ation of a couple of o16 courses, The board did manage to cross the Commandant somewhat Mthen it opined that "the instruction now given . . . wfiich is foumded on instruc.lim obtained at various schools of the Army, is . . . necessary."uWhile concurring with most of the board" recommendations, the Commmdmt wrote back his belief that there is a field in the conduct of war which can be properly covered only by Marines, and that is military operations connected with naval activities. Once ashore, there is no great difference between Army and Marine forces, but skillful execution of the vital aperatic~nof transfer from tr-nc~pshiptcr a safe pc~sitionon the beach, of its&, justifkes the maintenance of an efficient Marine Corps as an essential part of the naval establishment, The d e s i p of courses at the Marine Corps Schools shauld, therefore, have in view that the Marine Corps is not an Army but an essential part of the Navy to be employed for naval purposes, and that emphasis in the education of its officers should be placed an the requirements af those p u r p o s e s . ~ ~
Both the bmrd and the Cornandant would get their way The period
of the 1930s would see the growth of both small wars a d landing operations trainhg until just before the eve of World War 11, when the trends would diverge in favor of landing operations. Fornal dnctrhes would he created for both as wefl, but fiat would rt?quire four more years. During the interim, Mwine officers had four venues through \zrhich they could have gotten small wars training, if it was given. The first venue was Basic shoal in Philadelt->hiafiat trained all new Marhe off-icers.C)ne contemporar)i account asserts that over 100 hours of
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
289
s~nailwars instructim was (jjven out of more Ihm 900 totd hums mnually. Howeverf this analysis in.volived a liberal interpretation of smdl wars material that included ""operations . . . from embarkation in home territory to turning over occupied territory to its recognized government" that clearly fell within the purview of normal expeditionary duty14 5 i s f i b 4 fnterprcrtatrion probably also explains the clairn that the Company School taught 197 hours on small wms: The official =cords actually show me-third that level of effort.1" berall, one should, not expect to find much fn the Basic School curricutum, as was primarily cmcerned with teaching basic tadical prhciples, m d the common (but not inaccurate) vjcw of the time was that most of the tactics taught for general wars applied to small wars as welt.'" Nonetheless, the discrepancies are instructive. 'They help underscorn the fact that beyond the formal Small Wars Course, small wars-related material could be 'found in other courses the officers attended. The second venue was through the Marine Corps correspondence courses that all officers had access to after Basic Schoo2.148 Tl~eGorrespondenee School had four categories of officer study: noncornmissitmed officer; basic officer, company officer, and advanced training. Noncommissioned officer courses focused skictly upon tactical issues, so the d y small w a s rwasures they would have h e n exposed to would have been in the Scoutbg asld Patrolling Course and perhaps C o d a t f3rinciples. Basic officers (first and second lieutenants) might have received similar training in the same two caurses plus one cm aerial ~clmnaissance.The Company Officers' Coufse offered an additional course: Operations-Infantry. However, the latter course covered material that was only peripherally rczlated to small wars. Antigucrrilla warfare was not a S ~fhe , term "qyecial operations" during this period part of the C O I I T as gcrnerally constoted operations (e.g., mountain warfare, river operations) that were not ccmsidered a significant part of cmtinental-style war, The text used for this course likely was the Army" Trainhg Regulations 1570: ""Special Uperations." lf so, as discussed in C h ~ t e5, r only two pages of it were devoted to minor warfart-. Finally, the ccnrespondence-course listi.ngs h r seniof officers are too generic to determine whac if any, s~nall wars measures were covered. The third venue was the Company Officers' Schocrl, although when it =opened in 1,929 only one how was taught on military governments in the Naval and Military Law Course.149 This is buttressed by the fact that no small wars-mlated material even shows up in the list of publications officers had to take on expeditionary duty none of which would have covered small wars except perhaps the Army's training regulations.""" Beginning with the 1930-1931 academic year, smaff. wars materid was formally incorpom"t"dinta the Landing Operations Course, sharing
Ivtferventl'ouin Nicaragua Other Courses
Smaf i Wars
FIGURE 5.3 Al~eragePercentage of COC Curriculum Devoted to Small Wars, 1930-1 940, SOURCE: Company OflicersT~ourse Master Schedule, Field OflicersT~ourse Master Schedule, Junior Schc3ol Syllabus, and Senior Course Syllabus, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, various years, 1924-1940
roughliy half of that course with Advanced Base operations materiais,lgl Il-tstead of the usual five to ten hours devoted mnually to bush warfare, seventy hollrs were nocv devoted to over thirty specific small wars topics-out of a I m s t 1,200 hours of overall instnlction. This repmsented over 32 percent cJf the time spent on tactics and, as Figure 5.3 s h m , nearly 7 percernt of t:he overall school effort (or m r e Chan double any of" the prior five yearsqleveX of instruction at either the Company or Field Officer'S Schools). hcluded within the coursework were map exercises that emphasized solving problems encountered inNicaragua. Beginning with the 1931 academic yea, Spanish was formally taught for the entire year.2" Small wars training continued during the 1932-1933 F a r , the last year of Nicaragua, at roughiiy the sarne level as the prior year. CrossIfertilization with other courses shows the influence of small wars trairning. For example, in the Scouting and Patroliing Course, the pqer-exerclise problems were based on. small wars problems."" 3 e sarne was true for terrain exercises, where officers had to pretend areas around m a n tic0 wew like tl-tejungle of Nicaragua."" Even so, small wars howledge may not to have b e n highly valued bceause, of the nine topics that offi-
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua Small Wars
Qther Courses
FIGURE 5.4 Averago Percentage ;?of FQC Curriculum Devoted to Small Wars and Landing Operations, 1932-1 9317. SOURCE: Field OfficersT~ourseMaster Schedule and Senior Course Syllabus, Marine Corpaosearch Center, Archives Branch, various years, 1924-1940
cers had to know in order to complete the coufse successfdy, it was the twelfth szrbtt~picunder tadics-'5" The fourth and final venue for small wars training during the 1929-1933 period was the Field C)fEicersfCourse. When it reopemd in 1929, small wars "training""was rnovecf from the ad hoc lecture hatl to a iorrnal course offering and would grow tenfold to the level shown in Figure 5.4 by mid-decaeie. At that time it would reach a phteau and hold at nearly 1,2 percent of the overdl curriculum for severd years, By comparison, the Lmdjng OlJeratims course load would grow to just over onequarter of the curriculum (or almost twice fiat of small wars training) and hold thm for most of Che decade before mushsoorning to half the course load on the eve of World Was 11.156 For the first year of the decade the hours devoted to small wars initiatly were still, minj,mal, only fourteen hours of over 900, or less than 1 pescent of the curriculum.157 For the first time, thou&, the material was presmted as a cmplete topical package that covered rwasures such as intelligence, patrolling, garisnning, njtght operations, and air s~tpport.fi"K The fdlowing p a r , 1930, Maj. Hamld. Uthy (Edson" cmrnanding officer in Nicaragua) succeeded Llpshur and expanded the formal Small Wars Course to cobrer nineteen hours of instruction as the overall curricu-
292
Irtferventl'ou in Nicaragua
l ~ ~itself m expmded to over 1,000 hours.139 hcluded within those nineteen hours was an analysis oi Edsm" Coco Patrol, along with recowizable measurrs such as intelligence and garrisoning, as well new issues such as trahing and organhation of logistics staff fbased on Utley's own hterests),'&OAdditionally, student officers were assigned at least one problem for soZution outside the classroom that focused on small w r s measures, albeit: ones that =presented more the first phase of the Haitian and Dominican campaigns (e.g., no garrisons; only major towns occupied; no patrols; only one coiumn operatit.% in the fielci)."l Several small wars-related cmference problems may have also been part of the limited course structure,"Vn 1931, the Field OfficersTourse increased small wars trainhg to twenty-seven hours, eight of which were on pack transportation.'" T"he course was stili taught by tltky, who had been promoted durhg the past year to assistant director of the school. fn addition to tbe measures taught the! prior year, three new ones were added: medical. issues, captnxring a hill fort (based on. Haiti), and organization of the personnel staff.16"he same pedagogical approach (common to all courses) was maintained: classroom kcturcrs, map exercises, and group projects c d e d ""small wars conferclmce problems-'' The problem during that year examjned hypothetical expeditionary duty in Costa Rca-but just tcr protect Anlerican lives m d property not to wage bush warfare.165 In the final year before slnall wars instruction was term,jnated again,it was i n r ~ a s e dthis , time to forty-four hours out of over 900."6 Maj. Utley continued to teach the course, even &:houghhe had been elevated to directar of the school. No new measttres were added to the already packed course, but the nramber of map problems was reduced to one (out of a totai fifty-me for the school as a Mlhde). Interestingly, small wars material was even taught to the reserve officers of t-he field officer level (three of sixty-seven hours)."T Up m t i l the schools closed down q a i n in 1933, then, the level of small wars training in the Marine Corps Schools increased over what it had been in the period between the Dominican Republic and Nkaragua expeditions. Two Rasons pcssibly accowt for this. One may have been a response to the severity ol the Nicaraguan insttrge~~cy and the lack of training officers had received going into Nicaragua The other may have been the individual imprimatur of Utley--wlto had rotated back .from Nicaragua to becomc an instructor, then assistant director, then director of the Field Officers5chool-and who was obviously intellectuaily fnterested in tbe lessons cJf small wars. Whichever the case (and a codinat-ion of the both is most likeiy), Utley and other key il-tdividuals would begin, to play an even larger role in the expansion of small wars doctrine as the Corps in 1934 opened an intcmal debate over its future mission.
In fervent-ionirz Nicaragua
Notes 1. Feland was appointed as 1st lieutenant in 1899 during the war with Spain. He had more than eight years of foreign duty before Wc~rldWar I, including commanding troops in the Cuban Pacification (190G19043). After valiant service in France that earned him many decorations, be was given command of the 2nd Brigade in the Dominican Republic in 1919, In 1927 he was @v= command of the 2nd Brigade in Nicaragua, in which position he served Wice until 1929. He retired in 1933. 2. Report of the Major Generat Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, Annual Reports of the Navy Department, Z 927 (Washingtcm, DC: Covei-nment Printing Office, 1928), p. 1188. Hereafteu; the Report of the Major GmeraX Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps from other editions of the Antzllal Reports of fke Navy DCp~rt-itnent is cited as ARND, along with the year to which the edition of Anlzual Reports p e ~ a i n s(the edition for a given year is published in the folXcwing year). 3, Brig. Gen. Dion Williarns, "The Nicaraguan Situation," Marine C o j ~ Gnzett-e, s vol. 15, no. 3 (Ncw. 119301, pp. 19-23. 4. Ibid., p. 21. 5. U.S. Marine Corps, A Review of file Qrganz'zafion alzd Operwtio~fscf Clze Czmrdi~ 193"j"),p. 21 (her-eafter cited as Review elf-tfre Gunrdia). Nnciorzal de Nkiarngzia (nap., 6. Ibid., p. 22. 7. Sandino" men used both Lewis machine guns and Thompson sub-machine gum during their insurgency. The tewis, weighing I-mrtmty-seven pounds, rested on a tripod, had a forty-seven-rc>unddrum of .303 caliber bullets, and usually required a crew of two to operate effectively. The Thompsrrm, although heavy at eleven pounds, was generally used as a perso)nal weapon, with either Wentyround magazines or fifty-mm8 drums of '45 caliber bullets. The Marines used both weapons as well as the Browning automatic rifle (BAR). The BAR was a twenty-pomd weapcjn usually used by one man resting the barrel on a bipc~d, with a twenty-round magazine of .30 caliber bullets, 8. Capt. Evans, E Carlson, "The Cuardia Nacional de Nicaragua," Mnritze Corps Gazette, Aug. 1937, vol. 21, no. 3, p. 10. 9. Revliew of:the Gzkardia, p. 25, 10. Division of Operations and Raining, U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, ""Combat Repc)E"csof Bperatictns in Nicaragua," Marir-ze Corps Cazetle, vol. 14, no. 2 (June 1923), pp. 81-94, 11. Unkncjwn monograph in file, Gwgraphic Files, Nicaragua, 19217, Marine Corps Historical Center, Historical Reference Section, Washington, DC, HerreaAer, individual reports are cited as Geographic Files, Nicaragua. 12. Geographic Files, Nicaragua, 1932. 13, Sandino" ties to Mexico became clearer to the Marines after June 1929, when, during a particularly vigorous and pstentl-atly successful offensi.rre, Sandino fled for a year to Mexico with apprcsxirnately Wtmty-five of his closest assodates, Special Operations Research Office, ""Nicaragua, 1927-1 933," fiepublication Wrrking Paper, n.d., Ceograpktic Files, Nicaragua, General, p. 6. 14. One Glaardi~commander long remained suspicious of his telegraph operators, whom he thought (though he could not cmfirm it) were giving away patrol
294
Ivtterventl'on in Nicaragua
mo>vementsbased on o d e r s they transmitted during the day, by surreptitiously providing the orders to Sandincl" men at night. "Letter to Smith (from Nc~rthern Area GtttzrdU7 Commander), 11 Dec. 1930, Julian Smith Papers, box 6, folder 113, Marine Carps Historical Center, Personal Papers Sedion, Washington, DC (hereafter cited as Smith Papers). 15. "Information Received from a Deserter from Sandino" Forcesf 1Feb. 1929,"" p. 2, Merritt A. Edson Papers, container 19, Library af Congress, Manuscripts Division, Washington, DC (hereafter cited as E$so>nPapers). 2 6. Maj. A. DeCarre to Commanding Officer, Eastern Area [eftleyj, box 3, folder 2, Harc3Xd H. Utley Papers, Marine Corps Historical Center, Personal Papers Section, \Nas&ngton, BC (hereafter cited as tltley Papers), 17. ""Estimate of the Situation, Nicaragua, 'l" fan. 1928," Geographic Files, Nicaragua, 4929. 28. Bernard C. Nalty, The United States Mal.z'nc?sirz Nicnragzia (TNashington, BC: U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, 496B), p, 15, Marine Corps Ejistorical Centel; Historical Reference Section, Washhgton, DC; ARND,3928, p, 2242. 19. Wiltiarns, "Nicaraguan Situation," pp,28-21. 20. ARND, 3929, p, 1184. 21. WilXiarns, "'Nicaraguan Situati<>nrm p 2122. 22. ARND, 1930, p. 1253. 23. ARNI), 1931, p. 374. 24. A m D , 1932, p. 1145. 25, McDougal entered the Corps in 1900 and served in the Philippines, Cuba (before the pacification), China, Korea, and in the occupation of Vera Crttz, Mexico, He was ordered to Haiti in 2915 and served there for one year before being one of the few- officers transferred to the Dominican Republic in 1916. He served in France and became chief of the Haitian Gendarmel.ie for four years near the end of the second Caco campaign. He served in the same position fc~r the Nicaraguan Guardin from 1929 to 1934, after which he was the director (sueceeding Harrington) of the Division of Operations and Training in Quantico, V . , until 1934, 26. Special Operations Research Office, "Nicaragua, 1927-1933," Prepublication Working Paper, n,d,, Ceclgraphic Files, Nicaragua, General, p. 14. 27. Carfson, "Guardia Nacional," p. 15. 28. Review cqlfze Cunrdiaf g. 59. 29. "Area Order 3-1931: Authmity and Duties of Gaadia Nacional as National Military and Police Force in Central Area Under Martial lEJaw," Rezjiew of ttzp Gunudin, p. 413. 30. %id., p. 414. 31. Geographic Files, Nicaragua, 1932, 32- Gen. Lewis 13ullerand Col. William tee, pp.13, Oral Histmy Callcsction, Marine Carps Historical Center, Washington, DC, The similarity of experiences even prompted 13ulferto reinstitute a bugle system for giving orders while under attack that he had learned in Haiti. AI1 oral histories dted are fmm the Oral History Cotlection, Marine Corps Historical Cmter, Washington, DC, and hereafter are cited as Brat History along with the relevant jndividualrs name. 33. Ibid., p, 16,
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
295
34. Undated notebooks written in 1927, Gen. Victor Bleasdale Papers, bctx 1, folder 7; Marine Corps Historical Center, Personal Papers Section, Washington, DC (hereafter cited as BXeasdaXe Papers). 35, Over two dozen such officers left behind personal papers ar oral histories that discuss prior experiences in Haiti or the Dominican Rqublic, 36. Smith was commissioned as 2nd lieutenant in 1909. He served in Vera Cruz, Mexico, and in 1915 was ordered to Haiti. In 1916 he was one of the few officers t~:,transfer from Haiti to the Dominican Republic. After various domestic and minor foreip commands, he was ordered to Nicaragua in 1930, where he stayed until the end of the intewention in 1933. He retired in 1946. 37. In Harringtom" case, it is difficult tcr discern the distinctions between the impact of his personal experience and that of his dctctrinal work, particularly with respect to Gzanrdiu aperations while he led that organization. Gunrdia and Marine operatians overall adhered, in practice if not intentionally, to the first four operational phases Harrington discussed. The Marines seized and secured the major towns of the coast and interior and then spread out to smaller ones. Military districts were created and garrison posts placed within. Once the second phase began, Marine and 6unr.cdia patrols alike hunted down and fought Sandino" men from their bases in those garrisons. Meanwhile, by regulating the ownership and traffic of arms a m n g the civilian pc~pulation,the Gzinrdia implemented a de facto toned-down version of Harringtonk sixth phase: seizing the arms frc2m all inhabitants. The ane phase of Harringtan" work that was not adhered to closely (the fifth) was the searchhg out and destroying of rural supplies and livestock, Both Gzrardz'm and Marines had difficulty doing that against the insurgents. Moreover, political consideratiom blocked any such action against the populace at large (as the failed reconcentration prc3gram demonstrated), 38. "Estimate of the Situation, Nicaragua, 7 Jan. 1928," Geographic Files, Nicaragua, 1929. 39, Note here that this problem af spreading forces too thinly due to garrisoning was XargeXy the result of the Marineskot having enough tmops. By contrast, the much larger Army contingent in the Philippines did garrison virtually every place, The difference in troops was some 3,000 to 5,000 in Nicaragua versus 60,000 to 100,000 in the Philippines. 40. ""K-313eriodicRepod, HQ, Northern Area Western Nicaragua, 2 Sep. 2 928,'" Gec>graphicFiles, Nicaragua, 1929. 41. ""Etirnate of the Situation, Nicaragua, 7 Jan. 2928," Geographic Files, Nicaragua, 1929. 42. Gen. tewis Puller and Col, William Lee, Oral History, p. 5; Gen. Julian Smith, Oral Histc)~,g. 116. 43, Gen. Julian Smith, Ural History, p, 103. 44. Memo from the Commanding General, Headquarters, 2nd Brigade, Nicaragua, tcr Commander, Special Service Squadron, 3 May 1929, Geographic Files, Nicaragua, 1929, p. 3. 45, Cartson, "Guardia Nacional," p. 9. 46. William Kamman, "Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua," in in7"1te War of 1898 and U.S* TnfervenCions, 1898-1 934, ed. Benjamin Beede (New Yc3rk: Garland Publishing, 1W4), p, 212.
296
Irtterventl'ou in Nicaragua
47. Review cf flze Cztardia, p. 15. 48. Reviero oftfrc Guurdin, p. 28. 49. Geograpl7ic Files, Nicaragua, 1932; Guard ia Nacional de Nicaragua (GNN) Headquarters, Gunrdin Newsletter #GO, 3-13 Aug. 1931, John C. McQueen Papers, box 2, Ealder 15, Marine Corps Historical Centeu; 13ersonalPapers Sctian, Washington, DC (hereafter cited as McQueen Papers). 50. Capt. G. R. Weeks, "The Summary of the Organization, Training and Operof~the Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua Trc.ops of the Central Area Under atic)~ American Supervision with Critical Analysis Thereof,'" Geographic Files, Nicaragua, Lor~sePapers, g. 4. 51. ARND, 1932, p. 375, 52. Cartson, "Guardia Nacional," p. 111.. 53. ARND, 1932, p. 1162. 54. Rezjiezu of the Guardia, p. 27, 55. Memclrandurn for Gen. Feland, 8 May 11i329, Utley Papers, box 3, folder 6. 56. Capt. Victor F, Bleasdale, "La Flor Engagement,'"arine Corps Gazette, vol. 16, no. 4 (Feb. 153321, p. 29; Battalion Order No. 2, Headquarters, 1st Battalion, Guardia Nacional de Nicaragzla, jinotega, Nicaragua, 27 Apr. 1929, file 940.1, en.try 222, Nicaragua, Cztnrdia Nacz'anal, GN-3, Record Group 127, National Archives, Washington, DC. Early in the campaign, patrols were often compc~sed of a column of files, all mounted on mules, with a point, main body, and accornpanying pack train. Indeed, even as later patrols shifted to foot marches, if they were to be gone from garrison far more than a day or two, they would also bring along a mule pack train. For some undocumented reasan, there was usually a Wo-to-me ratio of mules to men, which meant that a typical patrol might have fifty mules along with it. Suck pack trains caused prcjblerns becauw they slowed down even small patrols. Time was apended each morning in rounding up and packing the animals for the day and each evening in breaking down the packs and sending the animals to pasture, Moreover, native pack train drivers constantly called out to urge their animals on. This noise cmveniently also warned nearby rebels, which prctbably explains why the Marines eventually made their own soldiers learn how to operate pack trains. Hereafter, Record Croup 127 is cited as RG 127. 57. 13ul_ter,a Virginia Military Institute student, enlisted in the Corps in 1918 (for France) and, alter being placed on inactive duty, enfisted again in 1919 to serve in the Haitian Gendanrwrie until 1924, He was commissianed as an officer upon his return tc.1 Quantico, VA. At the end of 1928 he joined the Nicaraguan Cunrdk, and in two tours there he won the first two of the five Navy Crosses that he eventually earned. He became an instructor at the Basic School in Philadelphia for three years beginning in 1936. 58. For example, he noted that patrols there generally were no smaller than three squads, unless short distances tzrere being covered, Furthermore, patrols seldom operated far more than t m days in the bush and generally went out far only a few days. By operating with SC)many men and for so short a duration, Edson .found it natural that no imurgents were encountered. He was further chagrined by the idea that if no contact were made with insurgents, the commanding
In fervent-ion irz Nicaragua
297
officer often assumed they were not operating in his area. Edson to Uttey, 27 Aug. 4928, Utley Papers, bax 1, folder 6. 59, Edson to Uthy 22 NOV.2928, Utley Papers, box 3, folder 7. 60. Edson tcr Utley 25 Feb. 1929, Utley Papers, box 3, fc3foLder 7. 61. This small town was considered to be Sandino's headquarters, and takhg it proved two pclints, To the insurgents it showed that the Marines tzrould now operate deep in Nueva %govia instead of merely patrolling just inside its borders. Tb the rest of the country it demonstrated that the Marines could take and hold insurgent territory. 62. "The Coco Patrol," lecture delivered before the Marine Corps SchooXs, Quantico, VA, 8 Apr. 1934, p. 22, Edscln Papers, container 22, 63. Rezliezo cfflze Cztardin, g. 35. 64. Memo: Organization of Company af [Guardia Nacional], from Commanding Officer, GNN Detachmen& Managua, Nicaragua, to Commanding General, 2nd Brigade, 3 Aug. 4929, file 940.4, entry 222, Nicaragua, Gt~nrdiaMacionnl, GM-3, KG 127, 65. Gen. lE~wisFuller and COX.Wilfiarn LeeI 01-31Ffistcjry p. 5. 66, Ibid., p. 5. 67. Maj.. Jirn Boyce, ""Combat Patrol: Nicaragua," Working Articlef n.d., g. 3, Geographic Files, Nicaragua; Gen. tewis Puller and Col, William tee, Oral History; 68. Gen. Lewis Puller and Col, Willam Lee, Oral History, p, 41. 69. Carlson, "Guardia Nacional," p. 17. 70. Battalion 2 Report, 26 Feb. 1928, Geographic Files, Nicaragua, 4929. 71. Capt. Merritt A. Edson, ""The Coco Patrol,'" Mnri~seCorps Gazefte, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Aug. 1936), p. 39. 72. B-2 Estimate, Headquarters, 2nd Brigade, Nicaragua, 25 %pt. 1928, Edson Papers, p. 3, container 19. 73. In the intelligence repart, cammanders tzr ere required to provide infclrmation on the insurgmt mc>vementsin their districts, the names of rebel leaders, the number of insurgent men and arms, the sclrarces and reliability of the information gleaned, and an estimate of probable bandit acthities in the near future. The format of these reparts is unclear for the Marinesf but Guardia headquarters clearly conveyed to its area commanders exactly how the *'Monthly Record of Events'" war; to be presented, as indicated by the identical categories used in the disparate reports. Cf. numerous Gzlnrdriz Nezuslefter editions in the MsQueen Papers, box 2, folder 15. The categories required far repc~rtingwere, in order: general state of territory occupied, military situation, economic situation, tzreather, friction betcTnreen Gusrdi~and civil population, political situation, and the condition of roads and trails. 74. Rezjiezu of tJze Gzmrdia, p. $0, 75. Headquarters, 2nd Brigade, Nicaragua, "Mema: General Plan for Employment of Troops in the Field Until About November 25, 1928," file 980.1,1C*raining and Tactical Methc>ds,entry 222, Nicaragua, 2nd Brigade, 8-3, RG 127. 76, The few B-2 reports in, the archives d a not indicate whether they were received in a timely fashion or even on a regular basis.
298
Irtterventl'on in Nicaragua
'77"Cf. Questionnaire, 1I Apr. 1933, Wilbur Brc3w-n Papers, bc>x1, fedcler 2, Marine Corps Historical Center, Personal Papers Secticon, Washington, DC (hewafter cited as Brs>wn Papers).. Brown responded that ""Xtetligence reports receik~ed from the Brigade after the arrival of the 11th Regiment tzrhen 1 was in Makagalpa came too infrequently to be of much value." 78. Weeks, ""Smmary," p 9. 79, Headquarters, G~uardiaNncimzal de Nicaragzia, Guadr'n Hesusletter #56, 8-17 July 1931 and Gunrdia Mezmleffer.#78, 10-19 Dec. 1931, McQueen Papers, box 2, folder 25, Folder 15 contains numerous similar newsletters that bear out this point. 80. ARMD, 1928. 81. ""Summary of Operations in Nicaragua, 9 Feb. 1928," Geographic Files, Nicaragua, 4929. 82. Memorandum from Edson to Maj. khmidt at B-2 Regarding ""Itelligence and Courses of Actim," 18 Feb. 1929, Utley Papers, box 3, folder 5. 83. Gen. Lewis 13u1Xerand Cot. Wilfiam Lee, Oral History, pp,16. 84. U.S. Navy, Landing-Farce Manual, 1927 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1927). 85. Headquarters, Czmrdin Ri~cionalde Nicclragzta, Gzkardh Mewslelfer #56,8-17 July 1934, Gzinrdi~Ncmlefter #60, 3-13 Aug. 1931, and Czlarditz Neluslefter #61, 13-20 Aug. 1931, McQueen Papers, box 2, fc~fder15. 86. Geographic Files, Nicaragua, 4932. 87, Capt. Merritt A.Edson, "The Coco Patrol," Marine Corps Gazette, vol. 20, no. 4 (Nov. 4936), p. 70. This belief was nst altcjgether right or tzrrong. When Aguerra, one of Sandino" key "generals," died of tubexulosis, his group virtually disintegrated and returned home. On the other hand, the highly political nature of liandino" iinsuqency also meant that it was not as personality driven as, for example, the Caco uprisings in Haiti, Certainly Sandino remained the central personality cof the insurgency, and as long as he remained at large, he caul8 attract more fc~llowers.But the fact that his '"generals" were kilted or captured did not automaticafly mean that he lost bands of ""soldiers." There were cother politically motivated leaders who stepped into the gag as needed. 88. "Estimate of the Situation," 7 Jan. 1928, Geographic Files, Nicaragua, 1929. 89, Aviation units also participated in support operatiom other than the typical supply; medical wacuation, and fire suppod c3perations. TWSIof the least known involved ming aircraft for psychofogicalt operations and secret bombings. The first cxlcurred in Nc~vernber1928, wX-ren planes dropped toads of leaflets over the area of Sandino" headquarters. What the leaflets said cannot be discei-ned from the records, but they presurnabty cc>ntained inducements to the insurgents to defect along with dire warnings about cmtinuing the insurgency. The wcctnd type of speration involved a secret single use of phosphorous hand grenades for incendiary purposes. Appawntly, the Marines tzrere tiying to start fires near insurgent hideouts and dropped these genades from the air for this purpose. The declassified memorandum on the subject implied that the use of phosphorous grenades itself might ccmtravene international Xaw and thus warned that the one incident of use should be kept secret. Telegram frc~rnCommandex;SECBRTC; 2nd Brigade], Managua, to Commander, Eastern Area, 26 July 1928, Utley Papers, box 1, folder 5,
In fervent-ionirz Nicaragua 90. ARNLI, 1932, p. 1151. 91, Review of llze Gzmrdin, p. 44. 92. Unknown monograph, Geographic Files, Nicaragua, 1927. 93. Col, Rr2bert Debs Ejeinl Jr., S o l d k ~oft& Sea: The United States Mnritze Corps, 2775-1962,2nd ed. (Baltimore: Nautical and h i a t i o n Pub. Co, of America, 1991), p. 230. 94. In the midst of an insurgent siege on the town of QuiXali, Lt. Christian Schilt landed on the main tc>wnstreet three days in a row, under constant fire, to evacuate wounded Marines and bring in medicine and supplies to the besieged garrison. On each of his ten trips, he had to land on a street so short that Marines would grab the plane's s i n g s and use their weight tcr prevent the plane from crashing at the end of the street. For takeoff they would hold on to the wings again until Schilt was at full throttle! scr he could build up speed to take off, and then they would l& go, During atl this, escort planes Rew figure eight patterns, strafing the rebets ta suppress their fire. Frrr his heroic feats Schilt was awarded the Medal of f-lonor, 5-15.Undated notebooks written in 1927, BlearidaIe Papers, box 1, folder 7. 96, U.S. Marine Corps, The Uzzz'fedStntes irz Nicar~gzdla,Marine Corps Historical Reference Series, no. 21 (Washtngtc~n,DC: U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, 4960); Geographic Files, Nicaragua, News Clipping$ p. 55. 97. Speciali Operations Research Office, ""Nicaragua, 1927-1933," Geographic Files, Nicaragua, General, p. 15. 98, "fmugh he probably was not directly involved in the resettlement program, Edtion thought that it was a viable possibility in future counterinsurgencies, Commenting long after Nicaragua, he wrote privately, "In order to deny bandits subsistence and inFc)rmat.ic>ninhabitants in outlying districts will be obliged to move into tow= or Bncas, bringing all subsistence with them. All cattle and subsistence not claimed and taken into tcywns will be secured and taken to our outpcrsts or to towns or fincas, or if impractical to do sa will be destroyed. The main idea in this part of our operations is to deny subsistence, shelter, and information to the bandits." "Commentary on Chapter 26: River Operations, by Maj. Merritt A. Edson," p.1, Edson Papers, container 22. 99. No author, missing title, Marine Corps G~zetfe; vol. 47, na. 4 (Feb. 19331, p. 25; USMC, The United States i1.1Nicaragua. Twelve of those fatalities were declared suicides, out of a totat Marine population of probably 9,000 t s 10,000 once personnet rotations are taken into account, Compare that with the two suicides that o>ccurredduring the 1994-1995 Haiti intervention, out of a total 20,000 deployed troops. 100. Division of Operations and Training, U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, "Combat Repcrrts of Operatiom in Nicaragua," "~lari~ze Corps G~zetfe; vol. 13, no. 4 (Dec. 1928), p. 241. Hereafter, installments of this article are cited as "Combat Repcrrts." 101. Ibid. 102..Cf. Williams, "Nicaraguan Situationm<'""JngleWarfare Weapons," Marine CCT?TS Gazette, vol. 19, no. 1 (May 19341, pp. 64-71. 103. ""Combat Repox*%" vat. 13, no. 4 (Dec. 1928); "Combat Repc>E"cs,"1 7 0 1 . 14, no. 1 (Mar. 1929).
200
Irtterve~ztl'onin Nicaragua
104. ""Combat Repc~rts,"vol. 14, no. 2 (June 1929), pp, 83-94. 105, ""Combat Reports," vol. 44, no. 3 (Sept..49291, pp. 170-179. 106. ""Combat Reports," vool. 13, no. 4 (Dec. 19281, p. 241. 107. Ibid. 108. "Commanding General, Nicaragua t a MG Commandant, re Various reports and recommendations on operations in Nicaragua, 30 April 1923," file 8x5, box 29, Commandant" Office, Operations and Training Division, Intelligence Section, 1915-1 933, Nicaragua, RG 127" 109. Cf. Maj. Fdwin N. McCXelfan, "The Nueva %govia Expedition," Ma.r.irze Co~psGazette, VCA. 16, nc). 2 (Aug. 1931), pp. 8-32. 110. Cf. Maj. J C IA,~ Gray, ""f3ttucan Carre,"%ri.rze Corps Gazette, vcll, 46, no. 3 (Nctv. 1931), pp. 28-32; Maj. John A. Gray, "The Sconel Nicaraguan Campaign," Mnri-ilzeCorps Gazette; vol. 17, no. 4 (Feb. 49331, pp. 36-42 111. Cf. Lt. J. G. Walraven, ""Typical Combat Patrols in Nicaragua," M ~ r i n e Corps Gzette; vol. 14, no. 4 (Dec. 41.)29), pp. 24S253; McClellan, "Nueva Segovia Expedition,'" pp- 21-25; Maj. John A. Gray, "Cul de Sac," M~arineCorps Gazette, vol. 16, no. 4 (Feb. 19321, pp. 41-44, For the entire period no mention war; made of the Dominican Cz-radia,onXy the Haitian and Nicarapan constabularies. 212. Caclson, ""Crrardia Nacic>nal," ppgp. 7-20. Carison, along with Edson, later formed the Raider Battalions of World War 11. 113. This discussion, of course, appeared in the Marir-zeCo~psGazette only after the Marines I-tad maved on to the second phase of operations with a different patrolling style. ""Cambat Reports,'" vol. 13, no. 4 (Dec. 19281, vol. 14, no. 1 (Mar. 4929), vol. 14, no, 2 (June 1929>,vol. 14, no. 3 (Sept. 1929); McCitellan, ""Nueva Segovia Expedition," pppp.8-12. 113. The key articles here were Witlraven, "Typical Combat Patrols," pp. 24S253, and Gray, ""Scond Nicaraguan CampaignfF"pp. 36-42. 115. AXI four articles focused on Edsc~n'sCoco Patrols, none on Puller" Ctjrnpany M. Maj. Edvvin N. McClellan, "The Saga of the Coca," Marine Corps G ~ z e t f e vol. 15, no. 3 (Nov. 19301, pp. 14-18,71-179.. Capt. Merritt A. Edson, "The Cc~coPatrol," Marine Corps Gazefit., vol. 20, no, 3 (Aug. 19361, pp. 4&23,3W8; vol. 20, no. 4 (Nov. 19361, pp. 40-41,60-72; vol. 21, no. 1 (F&. 1937), pp. 3543,5743. 116. Capt. H. Demy Campbell, "Aviation in Guerrilla Warfare," m r i n e Corps Gazette, vol. 15, no. 4 (Feb. 1931), pp. 3740, 71-75; vol. 16, no. 1 (May 19311, pp. 3542; vol. 16, no. 3 (Nov. 19311, pp. 3%30. Lt. Hayne Boydon, ""Air Mapping in f-laiti,'W.S. Naual Institute Pmceedi~~gs, ~01.53,no. 7 (July 1927), pp. 79S796; Maj. Ross Row-ell, "The Air Srvice in Minor Warfare," ".S. Nazjal Irzstitztte Pmccedz'tzgs, vol. 55, no. 10 (Od, 49291, pp. 871-877; Capt. Francis Mulcahy, "Marine Corps Aviation in Scond. Nicaraguan Campaign," U S . Rinzlcll Insfitute Proceedings, vol. 59, IIO. 8 (Aug. 49331, pp. 1121-1132, 117. The key series of articles, though, were so much in favor of the Air service (without justification) that the author conveniently averlooked facts ssuh as that Nicaraguan weather, particularly the rainy season, often blunted Marine air power. 118. Campbell, "Aviation in Guerrilla Warfare,'" p. 38. 119. Maj. Pedrc:, A. Del Valle, "The Use of Gas in Minor Warfare," Marizze Corps G ~ z e f f evol. , 16, no, 4 (Feb. 19341, pp. 2 5 2 % 1st Lt. E. E. Linsert, "Should the Ma-
In fervent-ionirz Nicaragua
202
rine Corps Use Chemical Agents in Guerrilla Warfare?" M ~ r i n eCorps Gczsefte, vol. 48, no. 2 (Aug. 49331, pp. 36-38; Lt. Robert L. Denig, "Use of Chemical Agents in Guerrilla Warfare," Maritrilzo C o t ~ sGazette, vol. 20, no. 3 (Aug. 1936), pp. 3638; Maj. Harald Ei. Utfey ""An Introduction to the Tactics and Technique of Small Wars,'" IMRritze Corps Gazette, volt. 16, no, 1 (May 1931), pp. 50-53; "bungle Wrfare Weapc~ns,',"pp. 64-71. 220, Walraven, "Qpical Combat 13atrolts," pppp, 243-253; Capt. Roger VV; Pea&, title unknown, Marz'zze Corps Gnzetfe, VOX.15, no. 2 (June 3;930), pages unknown; Col. Wlliam P. Upshur, "The Wasiristan Campaign, 1919-1920, 1923," Marine C o ~ p Gazef s te, vol. 18, no. 3 (Nov. 19331, pp. 56-59; '*JungXeWarfare Weapons," ppgla. 64-74. 121. Tt is unclear whether he prcjduced the manuscript far the files or far publication first. The manuscript copy in the Utley Papers contains refewnces that date his version later than the published version. Con~quontlylfur purposes of this study the file manuscript will be treated as being a lnter version than the pubXished version. Because of missing pages, reference is made here to both versiom. 122. Maj. FTaroXd H. UtXey ""TheTactics and Technique of Small Wars," MS, vol. 1, bibliography, Cttley Papers, box 5, 123. Utley "An Introduction,""g. 50. 124, Maj, Harold H. Utley ""The Tactics and Technique of Small Wars," MS, vol. 1, g. 3,U"fey Papers, box 5. 125. Utley ""An Introduction," p. 50. 2 26, Sntall Wars and Pzlnifive Expeditions, 2925-26 (Fort Benning, GA: Infantry School, n.B.), p. 1. 127, Cf. Maj. E, H, Ellis, ""Bush Brigades,'" Illnrine Corps Gazette, vol. 6, no. 2 (Mar. 1921), p. IQ;Maj. Samuel M. Ffarrington, "The Strategy and Tactics of Small Wars,'%arirte Corys Gazette, vol. 6, no, 4 (Dec. 1921), p-477. 128. Utley ""An Introduction," p 46. 129. Individual Research Papers, 1924-1925 / 1937-1938, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, l list for 1935-1936, far example, had sevQuantico, VA. The Basic S h o c ~thesis enty-eight different topics, including several on small wars. The senior course list went further, with sc~methirty small wars topics out of ten categories of topics, ""tis of Topics for Military Theses, Basic School, 2935-314" and ""Lst of Thesis Subjects for the %nior Course, 1935-36," h s j c School Courses, 1933-1942, Marino Corps Schools, Philadelphia, Marine Corps Research Centeu; Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, W. 130. Capt, Victor F. Bleasdale, "La Flc~r EngagementfPWNIS, 1924-1925/ 1937-1938, Individual Research Papers, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA. Hereafter, all individual research papers from the Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA, are cited as ZK13. 131. Capt. William S. Fellers, ""A Proposed Plan for Assuming and Maintaining 1936, p. 24, IRP; Maj. the Offensive Within an Area in Small Wars," MS, 1 Jmr? Richard tjvingstc>n, ""A Critical Analysis of the Battle of QujlaXi including March of Cofumn," MS, 1June 1936, IRP, Fellers, "A Propc~sedPlan," pp, 3-6,
202
Irtterventl'on in Nicaragua
132. Maj. Richard Livingston, ""A Critical Analysis of the BattXe of Quilalli Including March of Column," MS, 4 June 1936, p. 30, IRE?Note again the prefewnce for Army manuals to fill in c)bvious gaps in Marine doctrine. A Gray, ""A Plea for Revision of the Field Officers' Course,"' Ma133. Maj. j c ~ h rim Goys Gazette, vol. 2 5, no. 4 (Feb. 1931), p. M. 1%. ""Repc~rtm Marine Corps Duplication of Effort Between Army and Navy, 17 Dec 1932,'". 267, Studies and Reports, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development:Command, Quantlco, W (hereafter cited as ""Report on Marine Corps Duplicationf'). 135. Ibid. 136. Capt. Victor F. Bleasdale, "La Flor Engagement,"WS, 1924-1925 / 1937-1938, g. 6, IRE? 137. ARND, 1932. 238. Assistant Chief of S"EffIGN-3, to Jefe Director, Headquarters, Gunrdia Ntzciotzat de Nl'caragw, "Memo RE Progress of Grtardia in Schoc~ling,"3 Sept. 4929, file 92.0, entry 202, Nicaragua, C~ardiaNt~ciotzal,GN-3, RC; 127. 139. Weeks, "Summarry;" p 4. 2 40, Ibid. 141. Review of tltp Gzkardia, p. 102. 142. Memorandum from the Major General Commandant to Brig, Gen. Randolph Berkeley; "Board to Consider and Make Recommendations Regarding the Curriculum for the Marine Corps Sehoc~ls,"13 jan, 4931, photocopy in "Marine Corps Schools, 1930-34,'" folder 1, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Cornbat Develrjpment Command, Quantico, VA (hereafter cited as "Marine Corps Schools, 1930-34,'Yfulder 1). 143. "'Record of Proceedings, Board to Consider and Make Recommends tions Regarding the Cun-iculurn for the Marine Corps Schools," M a r . 2931, in "Marine Corps Schools, 15330-34," folder 1. 144, Memorandum from the Major General Commandant to Brig, Gen. Randolph BerkeXey, "Report of Board, Copy Attached," l3 May 1931, in "Marine Corps Schools, 1193-34," folder 1, 145. "Report on Marine Corps Duplication,'" p. 162, 146. Ibid., p. 163. 2 47. Basic School Courses, 1933-1942, Marine Corps Research Centeu; A~hrives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development:Command, Quantico, W. 248. Marine Corps Schools, Correspondence Courses, 1933-1%4, Smith 1%per%, box 23. 149. Company Officers" Course Schedule, 1929-4930, box "Company Officers" Course, 1x24-33," Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA (hereafter cited as C K Schedule). 150. COC Schedule, 4930-1934. 251. %id, 1 5 2 . 6 0 6 Schedule, 1931-1932; ""Landing Operations Map Problem #5," 17 May 2 932, and ""Lnding Operations Map Exercise,'"6 May 193%Graves Erskine Papers, box 6, Marine Corps Historical Center, Personal Papers Sedion, Washington, DC (her-eaftercited as Erskine Papers).
l n t e m t i o n in Nicaragua
203
153. COC Schedule: Scouting and Patrolling, 1932-1933. 154. “A Marine Corps Infantry Combat Patrol in Jungle Warfare,” in Company Officers’Course: Tmain Exercise No. 2 (Quantico, VA. Marine Corps Schools, n.d.). 155. Letter from Marine Corps Schools, 31 May 1933, McQueen Papers. The topics required for completion were animal management, field engineering, musketry, naval law, naval ordnance and gunnery, Spanish, tactics, topography, and weapons. 156. Field Officers’ Course and Senior Course Schedules, box: “Field Officers’ Course Schedules 1924-33 and Senior School Syllabi, Schedules, Synopsis, Regulations, Courses 1939-1970,” Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA, various years between 1929 and 1940 (hereafter cited as FOC Schedule). 157. FOC Schedule, 1929-1930. 158. Ibid. 159. “Operations of the Marine Combat Patrol on the Coco River, Nicaragua in 1928,” lecture, FOC Schedule, 1930-1931. 160. Ibid. 161. FOC Schedule, 1930-1931; “Estimate of the Situation, Small Wars,” Erskine Papers, box 6. 162. FOC Schedule, 1930-1931; “Conference Problem, Small Wars: Occupation of a Country” and “Conference Problem, Small Wars: March of a Small Column,” Erskine Papers, box 6. 163. FOC Schedule, 1931-1932, p. 62. 164. FOC Schedule, 1931-1932. 165. “Small Wars Conference Problem,” Erskine Papers, box 6. 166. FOC Schedule, 1932-1933. 167. Special Field Officers’ Course, Reserve Officers, USMC, box “Field Officers’ Course Schedules 1924-33 and Senior School Syllabi, Schedules, Synopsis, Regulations, Courses 1939-1970,” Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA.
This page intentionally left blank
From Nicaragua to the Sma Wars m n u a A Clash of Visions Sparks Debate in the Corps
The 1933-.1934 academic year is probably the most important prewar year in fie history of the Marine Carps Schools. A simmering tension between two cultures-the small wars specialists and the Advanced Base adhesents-broke into open debate at the uppermast levels of Ihe Corps. I'he debate pitted the Corps C nt against the 5chods Commang for malf wars adl-\erczmtsevendmtf h the process pravidhg tually to promulgate a small wars doctrine. The argumnts on both sides boiled down to this: a vision of h k r e warfare and an institutional imperative to cement permnently the Marines' relationship with the Navy versus institutional precedence and a latent legacy of Wilsonim interventionism still apparent in U.S. foreign policy." Actually; many sf,llcers with m htellect~alinterest in the debate saw the need for the Corps to develop its own doctine, The reason most cited, particularly by amphibious doctrine adherents, was a need to differentiate the Corps from the Army the Marines having borrowed Army doctrine fur too long." ssecond rclason, usually cited, well after the fact, was that their own doctrine was necessary for the swcess Of the new Fleet Marine Force (FPVXF),both as an institwtb in the Corps and to defeat Japan.With a clear imperative to ge =cognized at the time, the question became which way to chang er small wars and mphibisus dctetrine, or amphibious doctrine alme. The Corps Commandant appeared to win the debate outright when he shut down the Marine Corps Schools in 1934 to write a new manual on lantfing operations to support the );ME 'The historic& reality i s m r e complex, a fact glossed over by the popular histories, like that of Allan Mlllett.4 Before the d&ate broke out, the Marint.s had d y two of their own manuals-the 1926 and 1931 editions of the M~rintrCorps Mnlzrral and
206
From Nimrng~into trlte Small Wars Manual
the I927 Lalzding Farcr. Mu~zcill-and may have had access to a thjrd produced by the Arrny (St~fallWlrrs 171d Pzslzitive Each of the Marine manuals was no different from its predecessor. The 3926 edition of the Murirzc Co~psMantttrl was purely administratke and thus inapplicable to the core essence of the Nicaraguan experience. The 1931 edition was identical to the 1926 edition. The 1922 Lunding Force Mntzuul chapter on rninor warfare dealt sdely With landings and the seizure of cities. In, that it mirrored Harringtm's, Ellis", and Litley" theoretical expositions. However, there.was little applicable to that which hogged down the Marines in Nicaragua, Morcovel; what little of the manual"^ doctrine applied came from the Army and was fairly broad, Meanwhile, tbe Arrny had more specilic small wars doctrine in Small War.; uirzd Puniliue Expedifitlns, but it remixjns ml[cnown what impact, if any, this pubtication would have had (we d o not know if Marine officers had access to it or even read it if they did).h Despite increasi~~g concern at the highest level over Marine doctrine, clearly the way in which Marine Headquarters chose not to revise the two manuals meant that it was content with them and was seeking a diMerent dwtrinat ve:hicle to set forth future missions. That vehicle, at least for small wars, was some time in the making. As early as 1928, Utley and Edson had been correspmdhg with each other and other officers on small wars doctrhe. a c e stationed at @;mtico, "Utley began a private effort to codify the doctrine and historical lessons of minor conflicts. He scmt fetters to Marille officers who had participated in campaigszs of this nature and asked them for accounts of their experiences."WUticy may even have been working on his "Tactics and Techniques" manuscript as early at; this tirne, for in letters to both Carlson and Breckenridge he requested information and feedback on his minor opaatims notes.Vwo yeam later, Utley vi?;ited Edson in Philadelphia in part to &cuss the subject matter before returning to Qumtico to take charge of the Small Wars Course."eferring to his a s s i ~ e s z as t head of tke course (in1930),Wley lamnted, '"It looks as thou@ 1would be ahte to do very littk with it this year, except f o b w the time hanored custom of 'butliitzg' on the subject, but next year X hope to revise the whole t b g , with some help, and see if 1cam& get out something worth while."lo Subject-wise, he &aught he would at least be able to izttraduce some new thoughts into the classroam on "two schools of thought on. patrol formation in close country" Oste of thc schools would be based on a fellow officer" discussion in the Gazette, the other an his awn ideas.lToward that end, he asked Edsm for int.eliectun,l help fleshing out his thoughts on patrols, especially m the use of automatic weapons. Utley also suggested he m a t e d to teach a section m riverine operations fmovemcnt by boats).
From Nicar~gzdnto trlte Small Wars Manual
207
Utley must have spent much of the spring of 1930 t h h ~ h g about the school curriculum, for only weeks after his prcvious letter he suggested to Edson other topics that he wanted to introduce in the course." For example, he wanted to discuss Edsorr" garrison at Poteca as an example of what was then commonly referred to as ""dfense of localities," He was particularly interest& in garrison defeme with one patrol out in the bush. Edson wrote back that he felt the entire course on small wars was bad condition." He perceked that bush warfan. was a side issue for the Corps, anci he thought &at would have to change. "It bush warfare] wiil, in fact, be the basis r&er than a side issue of the tactical course for these young officers." From those opening remarks, Edsm then spent the first part of his letter criticizing one officer" ideas on what rihould be the pmpvphcement of aut-omatieweapons i,n the pat-ml. The sczcond part of his letter answered. Utley's =quest on bow riverine operations ought to be coducted, Edson fortlshadowed mast of the s m e ideas that would later appmr in his article on the Coco Patrol. He did add one thezn e &ought of riverine patrols much like he thought of patrds on land. InterestEn.g17;,not one part of Edson's views cm riverine operaticms made their way into tltley"s manuscript. Finally the third part of Edson's letkr addressed Ut.teytsquestion on h w he fortified Pateca. Given its lucation on the rives, Edson felt particularly sensitiwe to attack from that vantage point. To overc~mesuch vulnerahility, he suggested crclating a systeln of blockhouses, rather than a centralized garrison camp, that wouM give his men multiple vantage points from which to defend agahst an attack on the town. This was a radical deparhre from any&hg previ,ously witten, much less practiced, by either the Army or the Marine Corps. Edson did not allude to m y outside intellectuai hflumces while fomulating this idea, but it is similar to m e sugge"ted by British C o . C.E. Cdwell in S~rallWar,s.14 In a =turn letter, Utley mentioned that Basic School in Philadelphia. was at that time also conducting a course in smatl wars but that it was probably in worse shape than the one at Quanti,co.~Vorectify the situation, Utley was w o r k w hard m his mnuscript as a teachixlg aid. His idea was to divide the h o l e suhjert (i.e., small w a s ) into five parts,lWe relninded Edsos~that fie had already give11 the latter a draft of the first section, "General and Entroduction." The second section ('"ntelligcncc") was ilncluded in this letter to Edson @ut has since been lost from the papers). He was workiz~gon a third section (""Prsonnel"") and a fourth ("MateriaX"') was still in the thi.nking stages but was never written. Finally, a fifth section ("Operations and Tactics,'" later made into an appendix) was also included in the letter, gbing Edson a told of three of the five sections.17 We don't know whether E d s m responded to Wtley in a timely fashion (if at ail), but the following year the (;13zelfebegan serializing Utley 'S manuscript.
208
From Nimrng~into trlte Small Wars Manual
The groundswell for producing a small wars manual had b e g ~ ~The n. year Utley" first article was published (1932), the Marine Corps School Commandant, Brig. Gen. Rantfolph Berkefey put together a committee to "develop and write the text for Landing Operations and Small Wars."H The committee consisted of Majs. C.D. Barrett, L,H, MillerFand RA. del &Be, the last considered a small wars exipert.1Whethc.r the committee was to write a single or two separate manuals is unclear*Either way, the project inexplicably failed, because in October Berkelcy again ordert-d that a board be put togethw to complek a manual, this time only on landing operations." AAgn the project failed, although M4. Barrett did produce some draft chapters-long disappeared-by fie June 1932 deadline.21 Barrettfs chapters, or some parts of the^^, may have found their way six months later into a pu:blication entitled. Juinf Overseas Expedikions.22 This small volume was the product of a jofnt Amy-Navy Board formed in 1932 in an attempt to parcel out missions betweern the services. One key product of those deliberations was the ki~zfOzierseas Expedifions, which focrused on Army-Navy cooperation in h d i ~ operatims. ~ g It cmcerntrated on five differcl~ttypes of landing operations, going though three phases for each.2Vt was clearjy geared toward operations supporting large-scak warfare, since small wars received no mention at all. Efkctively it: pohted Ihe Corps in one particular direction (rdher than Ihe dual-track approach attempted the prior year), smething that sparked ~sistancc? within the upper ranks of fie officer carps The deba.t.ebetween lmding operat.inns and small wars aaerents was now joined as some officers rallied around the latter mission. The first shot came in a key lecture by the assistant ccrmmaneiant of the schools that remhded Masiine offirers they had fwct missions, not one: Some officers cmtend that we MUST . . . take our maximum war effc~rfas our Corps mission, the seizure and defense of advanced bases for the fleet. Those who thus contend farget ithe long record of constructive achievemnts and success in minor wars which has emelusively proved that the Marines have operated, during the last century and a half, in the execution of many important missians in no way related to a war with a first class pwer.24
Assistmt School Commandant Col. Ellis Miller wernt orn to cornclude that the Corps needed to add expeditionary duty (i.e., snndl.wars) to the landing operations mission assiped to it by the Jofnt BoarcJ.25 His arglaments must have been persuasive, beatnse Corps Commandant Nak Gen. Ben Fuller ordered Miller" lecture bound m d distributed to officers at the schools later that year.
From Nicar~gzdnto trlte Small Wars Manual A Period of Fervent Writing Begins
While Miller was arguing for a focus m small wars issues, Col. Wian was Smith was acting on it. One month after Joinf Overseas Exptldilicl~~s published, he was odered to Washington to head a board prepashg the history of the Nicaraguan Guardia that he had cclmmanded for five years." "Smith, a veteran of all .Crhree Caribbean small wars, decided he woufd bmactrn the history with an appendix of the orders issued, to the Guardia during the Marines' tenure in Nicaragua so officers could see what did and did not: wnrk. 7i, he@ him he turned to fellow officcrs to provide written discussions covering various aspects of their work in the field with the Guardia.27 The manual that Smith's Board pmduced, A Revirrur of the Organizrrtiorz and Operntions ofthe Gunrdia Nacionnl de Nicnragz~n,went beyond historical narrative to provide s o m doctrhal exposition on how to wage smdl wars," h parallel wi& the Gazette articles, A Review opened with an exposition on the guerrilla (in this case Sandinofs) style of warfare, Smdino" vvarying objectives were laid out, the conventional wisdom of superior insurgent intelligence propagated, the increasing armament capa:hility of guerrillas discussed, and rebel (specificdy machine p) tactics in the bush malyzed.z"en Smith laid out the Guardia's development of a strategy for clefeating Sandino's men that etncompassed the iull range of civil and m i l i t a ~measures used in Nicaragua. In this respect, A lieukw was the only formal doctrinal putnlication to place fully in context: the civil measures (fimited though they were) that helped the Marines and Guardin fight Sandino to a stalemate. Smith's history discussed arms control, medical work, road-building and martial law on the civil side. Cb the military side, he covered garrisonil7g, various patrolhg styles, the auxiliaries, or civicos, intelligence collection m d dissemination, m d the role of aviation. With the hclusion of aviation, A Reakw covered h o s t all of the miljor military measures used to pacify :Nicaragua. The only omission was a lack of acknowledgment that night operations and search-&-destroy operations played within the overall pacification program. In July 1933, Col. Smith remitted to the Commandant" office three copies oE his board's his to^ cJf the Guardia. Howevec it was not published until four years later (14t37).Otne reasoln for the delay m y be that the Commandant" office fejt Smith" work was historicist-it applied really only tc:,the Nicaraguan case. Atkmativelv, it may have been deliberat.$ szlppressed on the eve of the Comandant's effort to have a new amphibious warfare doctrine drafted. 01- perhaps Smith bimself decidcd not to pursue wider disseminatim once the process for drafthg a small
220
From Nimrng~into trlte Small Wars Manual
wars mmual got under way; reasonhg that it would cover in analytical hshlon much. of the same matcrial that was included, in the appendix oi his work. Quite likely, a combination of tbrse reasons diverted attention .from getting the history published, yet the= were still other efforts ul-rder way to keep institutional &tention on the topic of small wars. One k y effort begm with Assistant School Commmdmt Miller trying to revise the Company and Field OfficersTourses to provide more extensive small wars instruction. n a t , in turn, required writjng new course materials, eslpecially new manuals. To do so, Miller disseminated two detailed questionniiires to officers asking t h m to provide their opinion on a specific array of bush warfare-related topics.") He solicited the opinions of only those who had served in Nicaragua, not Haiti or the Dominican 17epzlbric.a lverz so, this was a higMy uxzpcedented approach to saltiding doctrinal knowledge, and it bypassed the normal board, process for writing manuals." The questionnaires were intencied specific* to cover alt phases of the Nicaragua experience, not s m l l wars in general, although in so doing Miller did. not miss any key military measures, as all had been used in Nicaragua. It is unclear whether Utley had any r d e in devis-ing the qztestiomaires, but clne of t h m contained numerous questions on personnel-related issues, a topic in whirh Utley more than other officers seems to have been interested. In addition to personnel issues, the two questiomaires focused upon intelligence, operations, supply, and cornmmicatims,~Despite the farmal categories, the qwstiomaires also asked for detailed answers on garrisoning, creating constabularies, judicial measures, aerial su,pply and support, night operations, and training, They provide a tantalizing glimpse of wbat Marine Headquarters felt were the saiient issues that needed addressing. Styles oE connbat patrolling, search-and-destroy operations, and civic measures were not m m g them. NOoffiwr other than Sn-tith seems to have kept copiewf his responses findeed, if they responded at all). Moreover, the files of thc Divisim of Operations and Eaining, from which the questionnaire emanated and to which responses were directed, not only contain no responses; they cmtain neither questionnaire at all. The fact these questionnaires existed seems to have become an easily overlooked issue. Smith" own responses to the questionnaires are incomplete because several pages have since gme missing from his files, The remaini,ng pages arc not much, help anyway. Smith consistently refused to mswer basic questims on mjlitary measures by stating that he was not with the brigade and tl-terehrecould not provide an informd opinio~z.'This is strange, as brigade ofiicers did serve under him in the Guardia, and these officers did providc Guardia trailling in the field and school, so Smith should have been able to answer the questions,
From Nicar~gzdnto trlte Small Wars Manual
22 1
Among the questions Smith answered there are some interesting insights. He felt that the '"rinciples of Musketry, Scouthg and PatmlLing, and the Squad, Section and Platoon in Combat, as set forth in the Training lZegulations were entirely applicable to bush warfare," This was not an uncommon view. But he concluded that their application was different in small wars-not as commm a view. This led him to single-syllable agrement with the ideas Chat a training ccmter and an inantry weapons school should have been established in Managma and that the establishment oE short instmctimal classes at higher headquarters (i.e., Quantico) for j~x11iorofSicers was warranted. "Not infirequentX.yInecvly arrived junior officers, some of whom had. never had field experience, were at once dispatched to the hifls anrJlor on patroi duty thus because of their inexperience addi,ng to the jeopardy of the situ,a.t.ion."3Q"w~~~o other key measurcts Smith d i s a p e d with p~vailingviews as well, One was garrisoning. Like Puller, Smith believed it tied. up too many forces on deknse and "instills the defs~sivespirit, and tends to stifle the spirit of the offensive."3" The other was air supply, which Smith contended was not ali that great because in some areas there were no suitable piaces for lmdbg. merefore, heavy supplies could not be brought in, or the sick and womded evacuated, Mikether Smith's Rsponses, as well as those of his fellow officers from Nicaragm, ever got my Curther than an in-box is unhown. No revised syllabus or text was immediately produced for the SrnaIl W r s Courses, and the coufses were not revised per Milfer" intent. Instead, both the Company and Field OMicers' Schools were shut down yet again so the Corps this t i m could focus on producing a landjng operations manual instead. The debate between the small wars and Advmced Base schools seemed over. Small Wars Training Pauses The person who most sidetracked small wars education was Assistant Corps Commandant Lt. Gen. John Russell." Even though he had commnnded two regiments in the Dominican Rclpublic, had commanded the brigade in Haiti (2918-1922) during some of the fiercest fighting, and had been promoted to High Commissionrr in Haiti, Russell nonetheless ""believed [in] the kaditional missions of ships' guards, security of naval bases, and [that] expeditionary forces in 'small wars' w a not in the Corps' nor the naticln" interests.'""7ccording to his unpubl,is%led memoirs, writtell shortly after World War 11, Russell was more interested in the role Marines would, play in a major war between the Great Powers and what changes the Corps wodd need to make to play that role. He thought Marines should not be used for t-he suppres-
222
From Nimrng~into trlte Small Wars Manual
sion of revolutims in small countries. So, as Acting Commandant, he set the ball. rolling: For many years it had been my c>pinionthat the Marines Corps should have a striking force, well equipped, well armed and highly trained working as a unit of the fleet under the direct orders af the Commander-in-Chief. Cr3nsequently in the summer of 1933while Acting Commandant, 1 addreszd a letter to the Cl-tief of Naval Operations setting forth my views on this subject.%
h that letter (to the chief of naval operations), Russell.stated that of the four missions assigned the Carps by the Navy, the last on expecJitionary forces in i m e d i a t e readiness'"-w as the most important." He aalso redefhed the term "expeditimary force:" it appears that the present title, expeditionary forcet is a misnomer=More apprc>priatetitle would be, Fleet Base Defense Fctrce or Fleet Marine Force. The term "wpeditionary force" i s too general in its meaning and wide in its significance to be apprc~priatebr a force having as specific an aim as the one under discussion. While on special occasions this force might have other duties in comection with the fleet's verations, its main p u r p o s is to assist in the defense af the fleet base.40
RusselYs ideas were accepted by the :Navy%top leadership, and m December 7,193Seight years to the day before Pearl Harhor-Navy General. Order No. 241 created the Fleet Marine Farce. Russell etnsured its continued existenre by issuing stl-ict orders that personnel could not be trmsferred out of the FME Promoted to Commandmt three months later (March 19M), Russell was so013 in a position to enforce Chose orders. Wpm the c ~ a t i o noi the FMF, Russel.1" thoughts immediately turned to the same topic that Miller's had the prior year: ""At once [it] became evident: that rues and doc&inescovering lmding operations were essetntial. to progrclss."""lThis task he assiped to the Marine Corps Schools by suspending them for the 4933-193 year and odering them to procluce a landing operations manual. Despite Maj. Barrett's association. with the first (and falled) attempt to write a mnual in 1932, he emerged as a key player in this second round. At the first roundtable called to bring the relevant officcrs togelher, he was Che one who delivered the message that Russe21 wanted a manual that would indicate to the Navy the broad general part that we shoufd play in Landing Operatians so that the Naval Officer who would read this manual (and it should be shart in arder to get Km to read it) would realize the necessity far preparation and training and the things that
From Nicar~gzdnto trlte Small Wars Manual
223
the Navy should grc3vide us in the way of boats, beach gadies, and equipment essential for the defense of a base; that General Russell was especially interested in training and defense of bases, and that we should put that fact over to the Commander in Chief.42
Wth the schocrls shut down, thr process for writing this manual went as follows. The instructors of each section (or course) were assigned a chapter to write (presumably with theia- students). Each instructor wrote itemized lists of all tasks they thought needed to be accomplished, f m incepli.on ol the lartding opera.t.ion to its successhnl tactical compktion. , This produced a polyglot of papers overlapping mostly#if not e n t i ~ l yin their cmtent. Next, an appointed co ittee of nine officers reviewed the inst..ru,cltorstppapcs, and each member crl ike committee drcw up his own consolidated list of the tasks provided. Afieward., a separate committee of five officers consolidated the nine lists produced by the p ~ v i o u corns mittee into one rough manual outline-Purpose, General Discussion, Landhg, Bfense of Bases, Staff, Logistics, Plans and Orders, Trainhg, and Appendiccts.3-3A conference of same seventy officers was then cmverlcd to discuss that outlhe, From the feedback given t h e , the " m n ual" was redivided into sections and assigned to various committees to write. These sections were completed and turned in between March and J w ~ of e the bllowjng year, 3,934. Combi,ned, they formed the draft manual on landjng operations that was distributed to students as the Tenfufive Mutluul on L a ~ d i n gOperafions." The new manual made clear the prirnary Marine mission, and it was not small wars: "The m s t importmt function of the Marines Corps (&I relation to WBr Plans) is to seize and hold temporary advanced bases in cooperation with the Fleet and to defend such bases until relieved by the Army.""- This manual was not concerned with defense of the territorp sejzed, only with the landing operation itself,
Satisfied with the product of his direction, Commandant Russell reopened the Marine Carps Schools the following year. The FRtelXcctual conflict between landing ogeratims and smdl wars officers was not ower, however. New khool Commmdant Brig. Gen. James Breckenridge had c m m n d e d in the Philippines, Cuba, and the Donirtican :Republic and had commanded the Dominican Guardia, Even though as Schools Commandant he obrersaw the successful lmding operations manual process, Breckenridge, like his predecessor Berkeley, believed, that small wars still had a place in Marhe education. Rather than =open the debate, however, he sjmply 0rdet-c.dthe preparation of a manual on m a l l wars. Other
224
From Nimrng~into trlte Small Wars Manual
officers, drafted into producing such a manual,, clearly saw the same need: "There had always been this thuught that there should, be a manual on small wars. . . . Everybody was in favor cJf it because we were engaged in these small ju~~gle wars at all times, YOU see. mere were always a couple of jungile wars on the griddle and the idea was to get it written up in a training pLlblications forn-t."4" The process of producjng w:hat b e c m t-he Mu~zial)in.S~lzlrELWavs Qperations was dissimilar from that Fnrplemented by Rusself." For one thingt the schoclls were not shut down. E'czr another, Bwckenridge kept with fie tradition of appointing a formal board, headed by U't.leyrto produce the S f ~ f a lWars l manual. Moreovet the board. was tasked specifically not to produce a coherent manuai from the outset but a series of separate ""pmphlets" pound together) that would undergo constant revision.4Yo write those individual pamphlets, Breckmridge did shut down the Small Wars Courses and detailed the instmctcrrs to put together the S~zallWan manual in much the same way that Russell's comsnittee had: use the students to drafi papers, consolidate the papers into task lists, consolidate the task lists into chapter outli~~es, and then have the board draft the chapters.49 In the end, however, the instructors expediently wrote the chapter"hemselves and then submittctd them to the boarci, rather than have the board draft: them. Before S r ~ a l lWars OpewtiO~~~ was put into fin d form,, school students were gken the opportunity to provi,de their input, It was made m official curriculum text in 1.93ti1and parts of it were ~maneiedto the Basic School in Philaeielphia for instnactive use there as well. The handiwork of many different authors is evident in the content of the 1935 edition. There is even srrme question over who wrote what cbapters. Edsods biogapher states that the discussions of s m l l unit tactical. doctrjne were all E d ~ o n "but ~ this is contradicted by the recollections of mother small wars veteran and iz~structor,Gen. Victor Bleasdale, who claims to have written the five or six chapters all connected with connbat.?Wespitethe fact that many of the operational measures implemented by the Marines were. each subject to tbrir own chapter, there is a fair amount of duplicative analysis throughout the text. m i s s~~ggests that by 1935 there was a c o m o n mjnd-set arnmg Marine officers-at least m o n g the small wars veterms-of h w to wage antiguerrilla war.fare.'The fact that there arc no glaring contradjctjonsbetween the various treatments of the measures raises the unanswerable question of how much tltleyfsboard had to rework sections to ensure coherence. If the m swer is not much then there truly was a remarhble cmsiste~~cy;, underscoring the notion of a common mhd-set. The 1935 edition of Small W r s Operations did not distinguish between strietly civil versus military measures that sho~~1d be used to defeat m in-
From Nicar~gzdnto trlte Small Wars Manual
225
surgency Mast of the time these two categories were merged in discussion, although, as one would suspect for a milil.ary manual, military measures took p~cedtmt.The tclio most prominent civil-refated measures discussed were disarming the population (uwally left: to the constabulary to undertake) m d establishing military gwernment, The analysis of disarmament was short but accurately reflected the lessons af fie three prior hterventio~~s, hcluding the need far funds to pay for arms, the improbability of confiscating dangerous agricultural implements such as machetes, and fie requiremnt &at security had to be pmvided for the people or t h y would not obey the di,sarmament decrees," 3Th.e analysis of establishing a mititar). government (done d y in the Dominican case) fncused upon the legal mechanisms for rationalizing, creating, and administering it. Here, officers were directed toward Navy doctrine, partieuIarly that contained in Naval Gourts and Boards, for help in undertaking the process. W i t h the averarching discussim, brief paragraphs acknowlcdged the utility of martial law and the need to assume the burdens of state, like public works (inchdhg road-building),sanitation, and public health.") "e benefits of providing medical attention to the natives were aebowledged. Here again, officers were directed to other doctrhe-Lnndifzg Force Manzial as well as Army Firld Malzz~rrls8-40 and 21Ill-for how to implement (and maintainf m i l i t q bygiene and sani-tation.-"T~onspicuonsly absent was any discussion of the role Marines had played, m d could play, in the fiefd of education. h contrast to the attention paid to civil measures, entirc. chapters were devoted to garrisoning, est;xblishirzgconstabularies, patrolling, and aviation, along with other tactical and logistical considerations. As mentioned previously, chapters often mixed discussion of the above measures with developing intelligence procedures, night operations, search-and-destroy operations, and recmcentratim, Additionally, the Small Wars mmual addressed numerous tactical issues that refiected concerns expressed in the Gli!zcrtfe articles, such as the use of imfantry weapuns (e.g., machine guns and trench mortars), the role of chemical weapons, comunications, and pack transportation. Xn this respect, it was as comprehensive as it possibly could. have been. If anythixlg, it may have contained. too much information (concerning, e.g., chemical weapons) that coutd have diluted the mom fmportant f i m e s . The chapter and other discussions on garrisonjag consolidated Marine experiences in the three cases,%Geqraphic arclas were to be divided, and subdiwided along native political boundaries and garrisons placed therein. Commanders likely wodd have to occupy national m d / m state capiLals and, echoing Harrirzgton" and Utley" wmks, the econmicaIly important provinces. From fiere commanders mi@t need to spread firrther into the cou~ztry side to provide several services: protect the natives
22 G
From Nimrng~into trlte Small Wars Manual
from insurgents; provide supplies for flying columns or rovhg patrols; control access and travel points; and base troops fsr operations in the bush. Ch-te of the m m unique garrison technfques discussed was called the "blockrhouse" system." It Itinvolved estabishing a clear line of deh d e d localities to deny insurgents specific territmy, Edson was clearly the source for this idea, for the only Amclrican reference to it is fomd in his writhgs (ina letter to Utley no less). However, the blocfiause concept was not likely Edson" original idea. It was prohabiy borrowed from Callweil's discussion of defensive posts, particularly since there was no precedent in Marine history of usjng bloc&ouses.~~ The discussion of constabulary duties again reflected all three experithe Small Wars manual simply asences of the Marines." I~nte~stingly, sumed that the U.S, government w o d d rclquire the Masines to form native organizations along the G a d s (Le., the Gendarmerie, which chantged its name in 3928) and Guardia Lines. It did not questim L\rhether such organizations would be needed on a case-by -case basis, demonstrating how deeply ingrained this particular measure was in the State Ucpartment"s approach to longer-term interventims. The discussion aiso noted that any constabulary wctdd have to be "'free from poltical inAucnce and dictatosial cmtml."~W~uch of the discussion, particularfy on Guardia organization, was legalistic in nature. WI~ereit was not, however, the Small manual recognized that the dficer corps ol m y nativc organization would be staffed with Marines until native officers could be trained. &ce staffed, constabtrtaries would owersee a variety of police and civil h c t i m s . Indeed, rather than l.he Marines, consta:bu:lary forces shollld carry the preponderant load of ensuring that various in.ternal departments (yuhlic. works, sanitation, medical) operated correct+ Rod-building, even, was explidtly recognized as a likely area of constabulary oversighf. An inteuigence function was briefly alluded to, but no systematic discussion of requirements was given, as Smith had done in his (yet to be puhlisheca) Guardia history. Mo~over,by fajling to include a discussjon of auxiliary forces as well, the author missed a small but key part of the Nicaragum constabulary experience (Dcrminican and Philippjne as well) that was rectified in Edson's later puhbshed version. Un patrollixrg, the discussion accurately reaected all thme Marirre experiences. Ail the various f m s of patrol techniques were anatyzed at one point or another in the text (and not o171Y jn; the chapters on topic).sg Tn large measure this comprehensivmess can probably be attributed to the fact that the Marines experimented with a h s t all possible forms of patrolling during their three small wars experiences. There was not much they could have missed. :Recomaissance patrols were given sporadjc treatment in the Small Wars manual. More detailed analysis was providcd for colrlmar operations (like thc first phase of all three cases),
From Nicar~gzdnto trlte Small Wars Manual
22 7
small unit garrison patrolling, roving patrols (such as Edson's and Puller"), m d even the cordon operations that were used only in the Dominican Republic. It also discussed the viability of integrathg native troops into Marhe patrols and the benefits of using natke guides and scouts (common mort. in Haiti and the Dominican Republic than in Nicaragua). Indeed, this was considered important enough to warrant. a detaijed discussion ol aids to scouting (e.g., such as bow to detemine the proximity of insurgents based on blood or manure droppings). However, details such as how to find, organize, and train scouts we= omitted because that was already the province of the Army manual TR 200-5, S c o u t i ~ ~and q Pafrullirzg. Ancrther area where the influence of Army ercperience showed was in the minor cliscussion of & a s k s and cottntt.rattacks, specifically the bolo attack horn both flanks of the march, The Marirtes had never encountered such m b u s h e e o n l y the A r q had in fil;hting the Morcrs. The discussion of aviation cavered all facets of"M a r i ~ aviation ~e as it had evolved from Haiti to Nicaragua.hWAirplanes could provide the best means for keeping in daily ccmtact with garrisons and patrols in the field. Grom~dpanels, message dropping, m d message pickup (strung betwee11 two upright poles) wollld form, the methods of communication between air and p u n d . Althmgh the Corps had experience with ail three methods, ofiicers were referred to the Army's Field Manual 24-5 (untitled in the text) for learning the last method, Illemwhile, the bmefitrj and pitfallls oi air rc.sonnaissance were resopized. Not only could airplanes provide aerial photographs for mapping or help locate in.surgem.t.forces; grourtd cornmanders m i e t want to rclconnoiter their own districts to understand the geogm"pfik features of the local terrain. Yet weather could prevent undertaking crucial air missions, the noise of aircraft wotxld alert nearby insurp t s of possi:ble p u n d activity, and cram insur;gents could avoid being spotted from the air, nullifying the reconnaissance value while spoiling tacticd surprise. In the contbat support role, aircraft could protect s m a hasty march or in retreat. As mobile artilleq, they could be caIIed in to bomb heavily defended positions or static stmctures. Finally in the air transport role, Marine aviation codd supply djstmt outposts rapidly and could move troops between hot spots. In this last role, aviation allcrwed the theater commmder to mahtain a c a t r a l y located mobile =serve that- codd szlpplernent forces in the field on short notice. .All these roles for aviatjon we= nothing new. The discussion of them in the Smufl Wars manual did not deviate from the historical experience.. But two other discussed roles did: uskg aviation to spread propaganda by dropping leaflets, and bombing with chernical weapons, These generally had not been part "f the :Marine approach to small wars; the first had been done only once over Smdino's mountain t.tideout of EI Chipote, and
228
From Nimrng~into trlte Small Wars Manual
the latter had never been done, Consequently their treatment suggests more t"ne influence of ppersonaliv than institutiond 1earnin.g. A likely model for this discussim was one officer's Gazette momgraphs on aviation in small wars, particularly sillcc his ideas w r e not propagated elsewhere m d d.o not seem to have been past of the common wisdom left behind by so many of thr small wars veterms.hl dthough tfney were not the sub~ectd their own chapters, the hteuigence function, night operations, and search-and-destroy operations were deemed important hy the different chapter a u t k s . Rrfost of the analysis on intelligence fell under the discwsion of staff functions (specifically intelligcrnce or the B-2).Q It was short because officers were directed to other doctrine-the Army" Field iLlanzlal 101-5-to lean1 fie duties of an intelligence officer, The analysis &d capture the lessons well, though, to the point oi highlighting the mapping responsibilities of the B2 and the need for higher inteiligmce offices to dissemifiate inteItigence bad dorut2 the chain of ~portiing.Pex:Inapseflect.ingthe chaotic nat-are of htelligence mporting in all. three cases, the author also included templates for how the different reports should look. Like the intelli,gence futtnction, night operations were predominately treated within two subsections, both entitled "Special, Operations,"" One subsection was brirf in the extreme. It referred only to closing distances between metn on night martlhes and proceeding s:lowly The other subsection, under "River Operations," more accurately reflected the historical record by discussing both marches and attacks. The author recognized there werc a nurnber of legi(-imate reasons to operate under the cover of darkness, among them to march secretly, conduct searches, and move pcsts. Night attacks dong the river were possible but highly discouraged. Dawn attacks, h co~ntrast,would be highly effective. Two other measures-search-and-destroy uperations and reconcentration-received little attention, The fomer was not evm accorded the form d at;lention that hteKgence and night:operations were. Chly one paragraph provided discussion on topic, and even then it ran counter to the hisbrical recod.% The author suggested that enemy camps should not be destroyed since guerriuas had a w e h e s s for returning to them, ""The burning of bjvouac shdters rarely sewes any useful purpose un:lef;s they cmtaifi military stores of some value." Ilhe probk3m with this prescription was that it ran counter to Ihe advice ghen ullder the discussion of strategy, aand it ran counter to two innportant considerations in Nicaragua. First, 5meiinofr; men generdy knew when fieir camps were found, so they rarely returned to them. Sco~nd,since the goal was ta keep Sandino's men constantly on the m w e to tire them down, burning the camps sewed to incrtzase the work the insurgents had to do to stay in a givm area (i.e., they had to build new camps). The mention of reconcetntration only in
From Nicar~gzdnto trlte Small Wars Manual
229
passing probhly had more to do with the political backlash to implementhg that measure successfull.y than to anythhg else. Several other chapter~ddrG.ssedtopics that were either peripherally relakd to the historical, record or would be classified as suppllrt for operations, Examples of these am psychology in small wars, pack trmsportation, embarkation m d debarkation, s i g d communications, river crossings, and wit.hdrawal. Probably one of the most importmt of these was the treatment of small wars trainhg, a topic barcly discussed elsewhere. The chapter on trairr% focused on the needs of officers commandinf: units in a small W ~ J :Interestingly, the authors felt obliged to relate the specific ac;pects of small wars t r a h h g to the larger picture of naval operations and major land warfare training, asserthg that the latter is often applicable to the former and vice versa. The tone suggt3st.s a certain dehsivcness over why effort t;hould be expended on small wars traixling. Indeed, tbe Small Wars manual sugge"ed that enlistees needed no further trainhg than that already provided for small-unit ta,ctics.hVn contrast, officers s h d d concern themselves with the unique aspects of small. wars (the manual as a whole) as well as the training of their subordhate officers and tmops*rhrce time periods were ide~~tified for such training: during concentsatinn before embarkhg on the -edition, once aboard ship, and fien in-fieater. Much of the training was orimted t o w 4 musketry and bayonet training, with sidebars on practicalities such as first aid, although tbe discussion on shipboard schooling concluded that "instruction fn tactics should be sufficiently adeyllate to give all enlisted personnel a howledge of scauthg, patrolling, security measures, and troop leading problems, appropriate to their rank." a c e in-theater, officers should establish local schools-if centralized training centas were not t?lready established-for both officers and enlistees. These schools were expected to cover m a l l wars training and more. In fact, they were designed (in the manual) to make up for the general lack of training opportunilies back home. Qfficers were to be inskucted uskg Landifzg (Ilperafialzs Manzdal, Inlzding F u m ILldnunl, the Army field manuals, and Small Wae Operations. The Snzall Wars rnanualls sample training scbedule gave s~nallhvars trainhg less &an half the time dotted fnr landing operations and less than a yuarkr (including night uperations, marching and camping, etc.) than fnr all trainimg.a Evm withh~Small LVklrs Cfperafb~~s, small wars training was being give11 short shift under the very circmstances it was to be applied. That was not quite the case at (jumtico, however. The Small Wars Mmual E~hancesTraini~g a f COTS Schools
The pmduction of Small Wars Operutions was fie climax of formal counterinsufgency dochinc production within the Marine Corps at the same
220
From Nimrng~into trlte Small Wars Manual
time Chat it masked the continuation of three years of heightened small wars trailling within the Corps. As the Small Wars manual was nearing distribution, at least one high-ranking officer coutd not resist one last plug for slnall wars. His arguments were a mixture of the old and new and boiled down to these hnio fin his own words): 1. The longer our government refrains from intervention, the greater will be the chance that the knowledge of our occupatic>nalduties will become lost to the Corps. Older officers with this knowledge will have become separated from the Corps, and it cannot be definitely predicted that we may never again be fc~rcedinto an intexventicn. 2, Expeditions have included a brge number of young and inexperienced officers, who have had to assume responsibilities beyond their capacity and judgement. . . Only recently have we had an example of he increasing dangers of guerrilla warfare. Failure to train and instruct young officers in small war operatims and the ramifications of rnilitary occupations may react unfavorably to the future pre"ige of the Corps.67
When the stateside schools reopened at the ertd of 1934, they were given new narxtes, Instead of the Basic, Company, and Field Officers' Schools, there were now the First Year Class, Second Year Class, and Base Defense Weapcms Class. The first two were also known as fie Junior and 9nior Sehouls, refersing to the ranks of officers ~lrhoat-tended k m . 'This from a more contemporaq viewer: The course for the First Year Class includes tactical and strategic operations, with command and staff functions of all units up to and including the brigade as an independent unit, and as part of a fc~rcein naval landing operations, including the seizure of naval bases, the occupation and defense of naval bases, small wars, and emergency operations such as Marines as frequently caled on tcr perform. . . . The course for the Second Year Class includes the entire field of naval landing operations with special emphasis on the Marine Brigade, the Fleet Marine Force, both when acting independently and when part cjf the Fleet Command and staff functions in all, types of operations and frcwn srnall, independent units up to and including the mobilization, organization, and veration of the largest probable Marine Force. The study of small wars fclrms an important part af the course.68
I'he course for the Base Defense Weapons Class, comprising senior officers exclusive:ly, was devoted el~tirttyto a q h i h i o u s operations. Curi-
From Nicar~gzdnto trlte Small Wars Manual
222
ously, however, examinations for these officers did not include studying the new landing operations manual.69 Despite productim of Small Warn Operations in 1935, the 1936-1937 acad m i c year was the first full one in which Junior khrtol stuknts had access to it. Morcrwer, they were taught small wars material almost entire%p using it, with classroom lectures organized by chapter. 'I%troughthis appro&, students were exposed to mmy of the measurrzs (including medical, smitation, and arms control) that had worked in Haiti, the Domhican Republic, and Nicaragua. Direct small wars instruction n w occllpied some ninety-five hours out of almost 1,tUO total (or 9 percent of the curriculum),7"Included within that were thirty-four hours devoted to soZving a map problem based on a hypothetical intervention in Puerto Rco, fourtee11hours speM on a n i m l managemtmt' some of hvlnicfi eovered care for pack-train mimals (used mostly in Nicaragua), and another seven hours on the htgistics and operations of pack trah~s.Finally, thfrtyeight hours were devoted to mounted patrols, MIhich had been used mosdy in Nicaragua, less so in the D o h i c a n Republic, and hardly at all in Haiti. Howwer, beg ing with the 1937-1938 school year, there are no more schedutes for the Junior School- Instead, the lecture part of the Small Warn Coume was merged with the Senior School. Thus, m e can ass u e that for this year and the fotlowing ones that the level of instruction inboth was approximately equal. Before the two small wars curricula merged, howevel; the Senior School had boasted an even larger m o u n t of tilne devoted to small wars training, as Figure 6.1 illustrates. The course lectures were generally cross-taught with the Junior School Course, so that officers from both schools essentiatly got the same instmction. Thus, the fifty-six hours devoted to small wars for the 9nior %hod Course nearly ma.t.chedth& for the Jmior Course.7f There the similarities end. Senior officers had to devote far mom time to soiving problems and paper exercises given at the end of each year for examination purposes. They aliso had to solve two smaIl wars map problems totaling approxinnately 115 additional. hours on top of the lectures.72 The two problems Mended landing operations issues with smalr wars ones, mostly emphasizing the latter during the 1936-1937 year.Y%AII. told, roughly 12 percent of senior offjccrs9irnewas spent shldyhg small wars that year." The same was true for the following year as well (for both sChools).T"ierea,fter, hocvever, the peak ol small wars training was wer, even though it continued to be taught, as landing operations instmction begm to consume larger a d larger portions of the entire academic year. The Sellim Course for 1939-19ilO reduced instruction to sevenv-three hours, or 7 percent of the curricuhm, a d the course title was changed to Basic :Instruction-SmaIf MIars.76 Cmtrast that with Che rise of landing operations instruction to roughly 47
From Nimrng~into trlte Small Wars Manual
222
,,." ,9." 'W%, EggmtcfiyOfitmrLe* gfje&gffr~r
Le~eIl
Academic Year
FIGURE 6.1 Hours of Small Wars instruct-ion in the Marine Corps SchooXs, 1920-1 941. Nc3n:s: Data not available for all years, XIURCE: Company OfficersT~ourse Master Schedule, Field Officers"Course Master khedtrle, junior Schtml Syllabus, and Senior Course Syllabus, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, variom years, 11i3241940
percclrt of Ihe curriculum, (or almost seven times that of s m l l wars instruction). By the following academic year (1940-1942), small wars trahing had atmost disappea~d.The iectures we^ elhinated h m the curriculum. Officcrs spent only forty-one hours on an unnarncd rnap problem coded '"VS" that supposedly reflect& small wars concerns.7T This decfine in classroom ine;tmcticm was matched by a decline in the amount: of time devoted to the rnap problem. M a t m k e s the map problem important here is that in the absence of detailed. c a s e schedules, it provides an fmportant sufrogate insight into what type of small wars howledge of,llcers were expected to have learned. The changhg cmtent and emphasis of the map problems over the years leading up to World War Zf confirms the peak a d then slow demise cJf small wars training around the 1934-1937 academic year. The two key map prdblrm devoted to smdl wars durQ this period were based upon hypothetical interventions in Puerto Rico a d Colombia. m Likely the first version of the Puerto Rico problem was written for
From Nicar~gzdnto trlte Small Wars Manual
223
the 1935-1936 acadelnic year, and it contained ~rirtuallyno small wars problem-solvhg. It was essentially a straight landing operation and occupatim of the country, despite the fact it was also supposed to lied with "further operatiolns i,nland in the suppression of hostite forces aperatkg in trczpical or semitropical areas."B The following 19361937 version of both the Puerto Rico and Colombia problems, however, devoted extensive space to disclnssing small wars measures (entirely military ones) and ra tionales for them.wVor the following 1937-1938 academic year, only the Puerto Rico map prob1t.m was require& Its organization was somewhat altered, and only fifty-seven bows were allotted to solving it, down from eighty-one hours the prior year.81 The 1938-1939 map pmblem allotted the same fifty-seven lwurs to solve the Puerto Rico problem, but its emphasis had changed cor1sidcrab1y.e 2 e first half m w covered landkg operations rather than subsuming it as a subproblem under the overarching small wars discussion, as had been the case previously. Another key distinction was the requirement to a s s m e control of the national and municjpal-level governing bodies. That meant that public services and utilities departments were to be m n by the Marines-one of the first times that civil measul-es were required (though not detailed). Furthermore, the Marines were allowed to establish martial courts to try civilians for infractims against the o c c u p w force (the Marines) or for disobeying the miltary government's proclamations and orders. Aside from those chmges on civil measures, the treatment of military measures remained little differmt from the prior year" sversion d thc. s m e problem. Paralleljng the absence of the corlrse syilabi for the 1'339-19.3.0 year, the records for a map problem that year do not exist either. FXowever, despite the imminent approach of wlrrld war and the severe reduction in hours devoted to s m d wars trainhg in the 1940-1941 academic year, officers were still required, to put in a full forty-me hours solving the Puerto Rico problem. Substantively, the sotution set for the first tim detailed ration a l e ~for certain prekrred actims. For example, rnititary djstricts were to be created because they helped decentralize command to permit faster and better Rsponses and facilitated small-unit patrolling. Also, officers needcd to win the "sympathy and confjdelrce of the inhabitants as a whoie" in order to maintain the peace at lesser cost. tn the end, however, the prohlem reflected even more of a landing operations focus tban the prior year's version. It used the 1"36 study of the operational theater, noted above, whirh had not provided a significant small wars challenge. Even the recent addition of civil measures was taken out, as was the assumption of military cor~trolover local government. As such, Chjs prokllem provides m appropriate metaphor for the demise of small wars training in the Marine Corps by pmviding a complementary bookend to the 1934 prohiern-in between which the Corp~chievednew heights of
224
From Nimrng~into trlte Small Wars Manual
small wars training-md by s"g;ekg from small wars to landkg operations requirements. Thereafter, the small wars map problem seems to have existed no more. By the a d of 193.1, of colarse, world war was upon America again. Wilhin the next year the Marine Corps's emphasis on landing uperations was vhdicated while its smdl wars curriculum appeared moot. As one mfght expect, the Small Wars Course was expunged e n t i ~ l yfrom the cttrricultx~n-but not before the Corps revised and republished the Small Wnrs manual, The Pamphlets Are Pzlblislzed: The 2940 Small Wars Manual
When the orili;ind Stnull Warn Opemtims was Mly written and disseminated, the Navy felt under na pressure to revise what little small wars doctrhe existed in its mmuals. Thus, the treatment of small wars in the 3938 edition of L a ~ d l n gForce MUSZZUZI changed little from the prior (1927) hcarnation, although the subject: was subsumed under chapter 16 ("Tactics and iTi.cl?nique of the Rifle Company and Infantry Battalion, Regiment, and Brigade,'Wherc. one might expect to see such a disc~ssitlfl).X~ The Navy even =cognized small wars (for the first time) as one of the missions for which landing forces needed the ""extended-order exercises, combat principles, tactics, and techiques herein etescribed.""" Mission requirement aside, t-he focus on malf wars remained as slight as it ever had been, Just as the Navy did not update its doctrine significantly, neither did the Masine Corps in its 1940edition of Mnri-rleCorps MGklzrlal-K"One wodd expect this, as that manual had always been an administrative puhlicatian directed at enlistees. Even so, it contained a new, small section (mder ""BasicTrai,niag for Enlisted Ned" entitled ""Patrolfingin SmaH Wars," "specifically directed. at privates. Topically, it addressed a few small wart; tactics tbat differed from general combat patmlfing, but it really focusczd more on instilhg the spirit of the offensive, By the time Marine G u y s hlanzanl was released, the latest edition of the SZYI~EI Mrs manual was also in the prwess Of being released. Zn 1939, the Corps Cammmdmt hhseE, Maj. Gen. RusseUi, decided to have the Munzrlrl on Small Wars Clpemllons updated and published fully as a whole manual rat_l.terthan maintain it as a cdwtion of pamphts. Russell chose to use the classic board proems for the revision, meanjng there was no broad participation in the production of this version, as there had been for the prior one m d for the landi-rzg qeratirnzs mmual. He appointed Edson m d two others to the board." 6 fourth officer was added later, so the board in the end comprised an infantry speciafist, aviator, intelligence specialist, and.Cendmerie office~uIn this way Russell tapped the talents of his experts on the subject, ensuring &at a cohesent product emerged.
From Nicar~gzdnto trlte Small Wars Manual
225
Many of the ehanges Edson's board made to the Small Wars m n u a l were organjzational and editorial in nature. Most obvious is the smoother flow of chapters. Et now began with themtical chafnters on strakgy, organjza.t.ion, and the like Ihat officers wndd need to cmsi.der before entering the theater of operations. The middle was devoted to the practical operational and tactical considerations of waging small wars once in-theater. The Zast quarter focused on conditions necessary for withdrawal, induding supervising elections in the host country. Another &vious change is that the thirty-two chapters in Sawll War Operafi~nt; were condensed into :i(teen chapters in the m m e d S~lzlrElWars Mmzral. M q themes sporadically treated in the former were fnlded into more focused discussions in the latter. h the process, sorne of the material was rewritten in ways that showed how authors quibbled more wif-;hthe style rather than the substance of the presentation, . two Not all of the chapters from the earlier version were ~ t a i n e dThe chapters on T o r t of timbarkatiorzf"(chapter 6) and "flcbarkation" (chapter 9)-more appropriately covered in the h n d i ~ gOpemtions manualwere expunged. Other dekted chapta"incltaded "Medicat" (chapter B), "Chemical Agent-sf"(28), and ""TheDefe~~se, Attack, and Occupation of Towns" "0). These were simply eliminated, even though one of Edson's boardmembers, Major E.E. Linsert, was one of the most pubtic proponents of chemical use and Utky (Edson's good .friend and former commander) had generated the chapter on town attack and defense based on Edson's w n expcrlriences. C)f the chapters remaining in Che new edition, several were szxbstantially revised and then renamed, with nominal amounts of new material added and deleted. One such chapter was "Concentration" ((chapter4, renamed "Organization"") ,wherein. the only important revisions were in the section on intelligence: More information on how to organize the B-2 fnr small wars was folded into the etiscussion a d the mom generic functions deleted.88 Officers were r&rred to Che Army 's Field Mtrlzztal 101-5 in order to learn mort. about generic intelljgenre functions. h o t h e r modified chapter was '%viatimf' (fchapter 251, vilherein a number of paragraphs (on the artillery and aerial command missions, aerial phstograpbp, dropping propaganda, m d chemicd weapons) were deleted from the 1940 edition." "Chapter 24 ("The Infantry Patrol in the Field'") was folded into a larger chapter ("'Infantry Patrols"")ith a few mhor tactics and the mtire discussion of scoutirrg aids omitted. A chapter with material added was "Transportation" (chapter 31, Mthert?in pack mules, saddles, and packing suggestions (which hczd been important in Nicaragua) filled a prcvious M e in the analysis?"' There were also a series of minor edits that did not substmtially chmge the nature of the discussion but clid directly reflect E d s o ~ role ~ ~ sirn revising
226
From Nimrng~into trlte Small Wars Manual
Strrall Wtlri; (fpemfions.Under tl'tley's direction, the 1935 edition was replete with historical examples illustrating various points made in the text. As such, it mhnicked CalhlYs Small Wars, even though Utley ~ l e g a t e d mosf of the cxamples to appendices at the end of each chapter rather than hiding them into the relevant points of the discussion, as Cdiwell had. I h e Edsm board, by contrast, =moved the majority of these historical examples and folded only a few of t k m into the chapter texts, this was d m is not h o w n . fn another minor edit, Edsm indulged one of his personal pet pew"" He was on record in letkrs to Utley that he did not believe soldiers in slnall kvars &add be a r m d with shotguns. The only use So he removed that for such g m s was hunting game, not insurgent~.~l one wr~aponfrom the discussion of hfmtry weapons-92 Fbally, one of the last differences between the 11935 and 1940 editions of the Sz~~al% Wars manuals was the emphasis each placed upon the role of trahing for srnalt wars. The earlier edition placed a comparatively greatm emphasis on it than did the I940 edition..The most glaring illustration of this is the ekrnination of appmdices contained in the 1935 edition that not only provided prior exan-tples of field training centers and schools (e.g., in the Damhicm Republk) but also, more important, laid out template trainirtg programs for the company- and battalion-mit levels. 'I'his is suvrising, h r Edwn was the head of Basic khool in Philadelphia at a h o s t the same time Utley hea&d the Company Officers" School. Une would think that he would have been sympathetic to the larger emphasis on trairtin:. More confushg, the board's deletion is inconsistent with the rewritte~~ introdadion that emphasized training for smaI1 wars as simultaneous, nut supplemental, to trainhg for w a l d s sitrns and major war.93 Ef Edson was trying to make a point to his leadership, them he certainly failed. Ironicalfy, the publication of his editiorl of the S m l l Wars Manual came about just as the demise of training in the schools began. By the time of the Munzral's release, small wars training was at an end in the officer's schools, Just over a year later the Small Wurs Mnlzlrnl was buried altogether as the nation embarked on a war that would send Marines into the teeth of an enemy far more deadfy than any they had faccd in the bush of the Caribbean. .A key point to conclude here is that the Small Wars M a ~ u a lof 1940 should not be viewed as the find chapter in the ikfaritles5md wars effort. L a o b g back this is clear, but such was not the case in the 1930s. The Marhes could not be sure in 19335 that they wouldn" t d e r t a k e another expeditionary intervention that w o d d degenerate into a fourth srnarl w m .After a, five years had elapsed betwell the end of the insurgency in the Domjnican Republic and the beginning of that in Nicaragua. Wanwhile, the Marines bad only just left Haiti the year prior to the writing of the first editim of the mmual. C)ne did not know cvhen that pditi..
From Nicar~gzdato trlte Small Wars Manual
227
cally unstable corntry might require htervention again. Fkallly;,the politically useful fa~ade-that the Amny" intervention required war but that the Mariws-id not, as they were ""State Department policef'meant that the Carps was first in h e to engage in the next ptiticalty unstable situation. For al.1 the Marine Corps knew in 1935, the Sz~faElWlas Mnnzral could well have been much in demand over the ensufng decade or two. M y b y the time of EdsOnls revisions, in 193, could one assume that the Corps was headed toward another kind oi war. Even then, however, the end of Lliorld War I brought with it deplopent to two smail wars-thc Dminican Republic and Njcaragua. k\lh,o was to say that: a similar fate did not await the end of World War: IfXndeed, it did, but the Army bore the brunt of those can-tpaigns, apparently without the benefit of the Marhes3~lnalEWurs Manual. Notes I . Since the initial landing at Port-au-Prince in 4915, the Marines had intervened in five other countries (China, Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Russia), multiple times in each case, and cmtinued to have to reinforce elements of the 4th Marines in China through 1939. Capt. Harry A. EIlsworth, One I l u n d ~ dEiglzty Landings of llle United States Mal-ines, 1800-1934 (Wshington, DC: U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, Historical Sction, Adjutant and Inspectars Department; reprint, Wshington, DC: U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, History and Museums Division , 19'74); Carolyn A, Tymn, A Clzro~2okogyof the United Slnrcs Mari-kte Guys, 1935-46, Volume II (Washington, DC: U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, History and Museums Divisic~n,4965), pp. 1-5, 2, "Marine Corps &hoofs 193635: An Outline of the SchaolsT~ourses,"Mari~ze Corps Gazette, vol. lgl no. 2 (May 19341, p. 57; Capt. Arthur 7: Mason, "The Role of the Marine Corps Schools," Marine Corps Gazette, volt. 20, no. 2 (May 1936), p. '7; Maj. C. H. Metcalf, ""A History of the EcJucat.ic>nof Marine Officers," Marine Corps Gazette, vol. 20, no. 2 (May 1"36), pp. 48-50; MT H. RusxLl, ""The Genesis of FMF Doctrine: Part V-I9Q@1935," Marir-zcCOTS Gazefie, 1701. 39, no. 11 (Nc~v.19551, g. 21; Capt. Richard S. Moore, ""leas and Direction: Building Amphibious Doetrine," Maril-zcGo~psCazeCfe, vol. &, no. 1 (NCIV.1982),p. 51. 3, Lt. Col. B, E. Trainor, ""Szlhoc~lfor Dc)atrine," Mritze Corps Gnzefte,ud. 54, no. 11 (Nov, 2967), pp, 64-65; Stephen P. Rosen, Winning trlle Next War: Xt~n~vation and the Muderrt Military (Ithaca: Cornell Univ, Press, 4994), p. 6% "Marine Corps Schaois 193435,'". 57 4. Ailan R. Millett, Senfper Fidelis: The Hisfoly of the United Slates Marine Corps (New b r k : Free Press, 2991). 5. U.S. Marine Corps, Marir-zc Corps M~nraal,1926, witll G l ~ n g e sko 1938 (Mrashington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1330); U.S. Marine Corps, Marine Corps M~fz~r71,1931, wt'tlz Cl?alzgesto 1939 (Washington, DC: Cc~vernmentPrinting Office, 4939); U.S. Navy, The Latzdia'l"lzg-ForceMntzunl, 1927 (Washington, DC: Gc~vernment Printing Office, 1927).
From Niearnglin to trlte Small Wars Manual
228
6. The Army distilled four key measures to be used in small wars: garrisoning, search-and-destroy operations, establishment of a scjlid intelligence apparatus, and even reconcentration-sc) successful in part of its Phitippine campaigns. 7, jon EIaffman, ""Utley Harcjld Hickc>x,"YnThe Wgr of2898 w ~ dU.S. I~zt.lte~.rtcmtio~zs, 2898-2934, ed. Benja Beede (New York: Garland Publishing, 1994), p. 557. 8, Edson to tiitley, 25 Oct. 1328, Harold H, Utfey Papers, box 3, folder 6, Marine Corps Historical C e n t e ~13ersonalPapers Swtion, Washingon, DC. 9. Utley to Edson, 13 Mar. 1930, Merritt A. Edson Papers, container 20, Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division, Washingtm, BC (hereafter cited as Fdson Papers). 10. Ibid. 11 IfitLt. J. G. Walraven, "Typical Combat Patrots in Nicaragua," Marine Corps G~zetfe; vcd. 14, no, 4 (Dec, 1923). 12. Utley to Edson, 5 Apr. 1930, Edson Papers, container 20. IS. Edsan tcr Utfey, 8 Apr. 1930, Edmn Papers, ct-mtainer20. 14, Col. C. E, Callwell, Small Wars"s': Tacticial Textbookfor I~nyeri~lkl Soldiers, 3rd ed-.(London: HMSO, 1906; reprint, Idondon:Greenhill Books, 11990), pp. 94, 135. 15. Utley to Edson, 17 Apr. 1930, Edson Papers, container 20. 16. Ibid. 17, The ""Operations and Tactics" section tvas divided into fc3ur themes-the landing and capture of towns, the general campaign plan from the brigade cornmander" viewpoint tactical formations on the patrol, and the defense crf localities. Tellingly, Utley thaught he could only find one example of a Marine campaign plan that he could use (Breckenridge's plan in southeastern Santo Bomingo) and so thought about using examples from the British VVaziristan campaign (on which Utley later wrote an article in the n/lnrine COTSCnzetfe), the Moroccan campaigns, and the 1896 Italian c a m p a i p in Abyssinia. In the end, what remains of the actual appendix contains only the taking of seaports and the defense af lt-jcalities,not fiis ideas on campaigns and tactical fc3rrnations. 18. School Memorandum, 3 June 1932, "Marine Corps Landing Operations: Tentative Text, Status of, 2 Mar.-28 Oct. 4931,"3onx 4, file 43, Historical Amphibious Files (no number), Marine Corps Research Center, A;t-cKvc?sBranch, Mar;ine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA. Hewafter Historical Amphiihi~usFiles are cited as HAE 19. Barrett was commissioned as 2nd lieutenantin 1909. He participated in Vera Cruz, Mexico, served in France, and later served in the Dominican Republic. He studied at the Ecsfede Guerre in Paris and afte~wardwas an instructor at the Marine Corps Schools from 1%9-1933. EIe died in service in 1943, tyle Miller was commissioned as 2nd lieutenant in 1914. He served with the American Expeditictnary Force Headquarters in France and held a variety of domestic and ship posts, After graduating from the Army Command and General Staff College he served as an instructor at the Marine Corps Schools from 1927-4431. As of 194.2, he served as the deputy commander of the Defense Force, Samoa Group. Del Vatie, born in Puerto Rico, war; a Naval Academy graduate commjssioned as 2nd lieutenant in 1915. He served with the 1st Brigade in Haiti and was among the few transferred to operations in the Dominican Repubtic in 1916. He served various ship commands and tvas aide-de-camp to Gen. Pendleton on -.
From Nicar~gzdnto trlte Small Wars Manual
229
his W s t Tndies inspection tour. He served three years with the Haitian Cendarmerip, had several ship commands, and held foreign obseiver positions. He attended the Field OfficersTourse and in 1928, becoming an instruct-orthere (at least until 1931). He left twice tcr serve on the electoral missicjn in Nicaragua that involved going into the geld to ""observe" operations against Sandino, He retired from the Corps in 4948. 20. Ibid. 21. A draft copy of the manual is in box 27, file 540 (21,HAF 27. 22. Joint Board of the Army and Navy, JoZ'FZ~ O~ersensExpeditions, Jan. 12, 1933 (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1933). 23. Ibid., pp. 1, 3. 24. Col. ElXis Miller, The M~rz'zzeCorps in Support r?J: the Fleef, bound monograph, 4 June 4933, p. 40, file 40, HAF box 1, 25, EXlis Miller was commissioned as 2nd lieutenant in 1903. He served in the Philippines, Panama, and Mexico, as well as in China, where he was chief of staff to Gen. Smedley Butler (from Haiti). He was assistant commandant of the schools in 1934 and retired in 1936. 26. Smith. to Maj. Paul Cayron, 23 F&. 1933, Julian Smith Papers, box 28, folder 33/1, Marine Corps Historical Center, Personal Papers %ctic)nt VVashington, DC (hereaAer cited as Smith Papers), 27. Cf. Smith to Maj. Llojyd Leach (fc>rmerCommanding Officer, Eastern Area, 4932), 8 Mar. 1833, Smith Papers, box 28, folder 33/1, 28. U.S. Marine Corps, A Rezjiezu I?( the Ckrganizntimz n ~ Opemtions d of the Gunrdia Nnciorzal de Nicurngzia (n,p., 1937). 29. k i d . , pp. 21-26. 30. Col. E. Miller; assistant commandant, Marine Corps SchooXs, to Smith, 13 Apr. 1933, Smith Papers, box 28, folder 33/2, 31. 'Tbthe extent that many who served in Nicaragua also served in one or both of the prior two interventions =ems not to have mattel-ed to Miller. Of the three officers who we know- got the questionnaire, Smith had served in all three, another officer in the Dc~minicanRepublic, and the third only in Nicaragua. Miller to Watson, 11 Apr. 1933, Tihomas VVatson Papers, folder 1934, Marine Csrps Historical Centel; Personal Papers Sction, Washington, DC (hereafter cited as Watson Papers); Miller to Brown, 11 Apr. 1933, Wlbur Brown 13apers, folder 2, Marine Corps Historical Centex; Perscynal Papers Section, Washington, DC. 32- Millm's motives far doing so remain a mystery: Che might suggest he was not trying to bypass the board process but In fact jump-start it. 33. Thirty-five questions were asked in the first questionnaire# many with ten or more subquestions, and fifty-three were on the second. 34. Miller to Smith, 11 Apr. 1933, and Smith tcr Miller, respclnse to questionnaire, n.d,, Smith Papers, box 28, folder 33/2, 35, Smith to Miller; Smith Papers, box 28, folder 3312. 36. Not to be confused with E. B, Milleu; who was assistant commandant of the schcmts. 37. UonaXd Bittner, "RusselI, John Henry;" in inhe War of 28913 and U.S. laterventions, 1898-7934, ed. Benjamin Beede (New York: Garland Publishing, 19941, p. 472,
230
From Niearnglin to trlte Small Wars Manual
38. John Russell, The E3i~Eltof I 1 1 ~FMF, n.d., John Russell Papers, box 3, folder 3, Marine Carps Historical Center, Personal Papers Sedion, Washington, DC (hereafter cited as Rrxssell Papers). 39. Commandant to Chief of Naval Operations, Memo Regarding Expeditionary Fryrce, 17 Aug. 1933, Russet1 Papers, box 3, folder 3. 40. Ibid. 41. John Russetl, Tke Birth of the FMF, n.d,, Russell 13apers,box 3, folder 3, 42. 'Trc~ceedingsfor Conference Held at the MC khuols, Quantico, on Jan. 9, 1934, for the Purpax of Bixussing, Approving' or Commenting on the Variaw Headings and Sub-headings of the Tentative Z,andlng Operations Manual, Prepared by the MC Schools,;,"p. 11, file 41, HAF box 1. 43. Ibid. 44, School Memorandum, 3 June 1931, "Marine Corps Landing Operations: Tentative Text, Status of, 2 Mar,-28 Oct. 1931,'" box l, file 43, HAF (no number). The inclusion of small wars in the manual explains the presence of del Valle, a highly experienced small wars officer who had served in all three Caribbean intexlrentions: Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. 45, "handing Operations, Part 111: General introduction," Graves Erskine Papers, ~ C I X6, Marine Corps Historical Center, Persc)nal Papers "ctiction, Washington, DC. 46. Gen. Victor Bleadale, p. 220, Brat History CcXIection, Marine Corps Historical Center, Washington, DC (hewafter cited as Bleasdale, Oral History). 47- Marine Corps Schools, Illafrualfar Srrzall Wars 0~1err;rtiolzs (wit11Utz&ted Revisi~~rzs) (Quantico, VA: Marine Corps Schoctls, 11935). Hereafter cited as Stnnll Wars &kyerr;rtim.zs, 1935, to distinguish i"rfrom the more we11 known Sntaill Wars M a ~ u n l , which it fater became in 1940 and which is hereafter cited as Small Wars Manzml, 1940. 48. Bleadale, Bra1 History p. 220. 49. Cf. Bleasdale, Oral History; Henry Larsen to Smith, 28 Oct. 1934, Smith Papers, box 29, fcdder 3418. At least one of the officers assigned to write a chapter was not above seeking shortcuts. Larsen wrote Smith, asking him to help with the task of writing a chapter on the organization, trainiing, and so forth of a constabulary*The chapter was suppc~sedto be general, not country specific. tarsen" idea of help was for Smith to type forty to fifty pages and submit it to Larsen, who in turn only would have had to revise it. Smith declined, disingenuously cfairning that he had already written one history on Nicaragua and did not know anything of Haiti or the Dominican Republic (in both of which he had serlred). He suggested instead that Larsen find Smith's history, find someone t z r t - r ~had tzrritten on the topic of Haiti and Santo Dt~mingo,and then combine the written works. Tn reply, Larsen indicated he might not even go that far but might simply write the chapter based on Smith's history, iinifierting the other two items later if he could get them, See the fc3llouving in Smith Papers: tarsen to Smith, 28 Oct. 1934, box 29, folder 34/8; Smith to Larsen, 30 Oct. 1934, box 29, falder 3418; Larsen to Smith, 12 Nov. 1934, box 29, fcjjder 34/63. 50. Jon Hoffman, ""Salf Wars Manual," h The War of 1898 nlzd U.S.InteruenCions, 1898-2934, ed-.Benjamin Beede (New Yc.rk: Garland Publishl ng, 19"34), p. 515; Bleasdale, Oral History p, 220,
From Nicar~gzdnto trlte Small Wars Manual 51. Small Wars Qperaibns, 1935, paras. 12.1,12.2. 52, Ibid., paras. 13.2, 43,14,13.46, 53. Ibid., chap. 29, gara. 23.18. 54, Ibid., paras. 10.27,15,8,15.44, 45.13-45.46. 55- Ibid., para. 15-14. 56. Callwell, Srnnll Wars, pp. 94,135. 57. Srrzalf Wars Operntio~zs,1935, chap. 13, paras. 14.14,23.10, 58. Ibid., para. 13.2. 59, bid., chaps, 23/24, paras. 11,14,11,8,11.12,15,10,15.11, 15,13,16.17, 60. Ibid., chaps. 17 (particularly para. 17.6),25, garas. 11.6,23.15 124.38,24.39. 61, Capt. H. Denny Campbetl, "Aviation in Guerrilla Warfare," Mnn"ne Corps CazeCfe, vol. 15, no. 4 (Feb. 193l), pp. 3740, 71-75; vol. 16, no. 1 (May 19311, pp, 4931), pp. 33-40. 3542; vol. 16, no. 3 (NC~V* 62. Srrzall Wars Opemtions, 1935, chap. 1C;, sec, 4. 63. Ibid., paras. 24,93, 26,88. One subsection fell under the discussictn of infantry patrols, and the other under river operations, one of the few instance of duplicated effort in the manual. 64. Ibid., para. 24.74, 65. Bid., paras. 4.2, '7.2. 66. Ibid., chap. 7, sec, 6. 67. Colonel C. J. Miller [not to be confued with the assistant whooXs commandant], "The Education and Training of Young Officers,'," Marr'lze Corps Ccazetfe;vol. 20, no. 1 (Feb. 19361, p. 13, 68, Lt. Anthony A. Frances, ""History of the Marine Corps %hc?ols,',"MS, Dec. 1945, p- 46, Marine Corps Research Cater, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA. 69. Memo from Office of Commanding General,""Eaminations for Officers,'" Fleet Marine Force, 13 %pt. 1934, Adolph Miller Papers, box 14, Marine Corps Historical Centel; Personal Papers Section, Wshington, DC. Naval Examining Board Memo Regarding Texts and Publications Recommended for Study by Marine Officers in Preparation f o x Professional Examination for Promation, 26 Apr. 1935, Watson 13apers,folder 1935. 70,Jr. School Syllabus, 193G1937, Marine Corps Schools, Marine Corps Research Centeu; Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA. 72. The extra two hours were spent on pack transportation, Senior Course Master Schedule, 193G1937, Marine Corps khooXti, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA (hereafter cited as %nlor Courx Master Schedule). 72, S n i c ~Course r Master ghedufe, 193G1937;h p Problem S: Pzrcrfo Rico Prublenz, 1936-1 937, Marine Corps Schools, Marine Corps Research Centeu; Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA; Map Brobleln 5, Colo1rzbi;n Problem, 1936-1937, Marhe Carps Schools, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA, Hereafter, may problems are cited by country and year. '73. This i s compared to similar map prc3blems that dealt almost exclusively with landing operations; cf. Caplure of St. Croix, 193G1937.
232
From Niearnglin to trlte Small Wars Manual
'711. Again, what remains unknown is how much small wars-related material permeated other courses, such as military law pack transportation, mounted patmXs, and so on. 75. S n i o r Course Master Schedule, 1937-11i338, 76, S n i o r Course Master Schedule, 2 939-1940, 77. %nic~rCourse Master Schedule, 1940. 78. Puerto Rieo Problenz, 193&1937; Colombr'n Pmblem, 19361937. 79. Its categories of analysis were unique in that most were never used again: location, history and governmen&population, strategically and tactical value, description of the area, climate, hydrography and miscellaneous. It read atmost like an intelligence repc~rtrather than an operations analysis. 80. Puerlo R tco hblfetn, 1936-1 937; Cofombi;RProblem, 3936-3 937. Civil measures were almost rmifcjrmly ignored, except for minor discussi~)ns on legal issues during the intervention. Intelligence issues were also ignored, probably because there already was a separate course m that topic. On the other hand, garrisoning was featured prominently along with offensive patrolling operations by small combat units. Most of these patrols, however, bear greater resemblance to the mobile patrols of Edson and Puller than they d o to the squad patrols based in bush garrisons. This is probably because the solution set did not envision garrisoning outside the towns. All patrols had tcr operate fmm the towns, so they wouId have done so for longer periods and ower greater distances. Thus they looked more like Edson" and Puller's patrols. Meanwhile, the brigade commander tvas supposed to maintain a centrally located mobile reserve ready for immediate deployment (as had been done in Haiti but not Nicaragua), Along with garrisons and patrols, constabulary forces were featured prominently, and officers had to w e them in the parts of the prcjblems on organizing patrots, supply; and so fo~rth.Interestingly, the constabulary" existence was assumed in the Puerto Rico problem. The student officer was not required to think of creating a Cztardia of his c>wn,indicating how entrenched this measure was in Marine Corps interventionist doctrine. In the Colombia problem, by contrast, students had to organize and train the Gunrdi~themselves. They also had to establish air operations tvorking in conjunction with their land forces. Finally, the problems discussed certain idiosyncratic measures, such as river operations (reflecting Edson's experiences in Nicaragua) and destruction of mountain forts (refiecting predominantly the Caco experience). 81. Puerto Rieo Pmblenz, 2937-1938. In this year" version, several detailed subproblems were brc3ken out from the o>verarchingprc~blem.One of them involved organizing districts to ""deal with insurgents that have taken to the hills." The solution suggested that officers would have to garrison the districts, o>ccupykey towns, and institute "vigomus patrolling and offensive operatiom against the insurgents" with explicit instructions ""t capture or destroy any bodies of insurgents encountered." This sc~lutiionsegued into that provided for the subproblem on patrolling districts. Here, the commander had additional responsibilities beyond just vigorous patrc3XIing and offensive operations. He had to cooperate with local and civil authorities to reassure noncombatants of their security. To do so, he did not have to estabtish a constabulary but he was encouraged to obtain the services of natives tvham he tvas free to arm (as long as they operated under Marine
From Nicar~gzdato trlte Small Wars Manual
233
command and c=mtrc)X).Patrol commanders also had to know garrison defense and be able to liaise with air elements. For the first time, the intelligence issue war; addressed in terms of providing recmnaissance sketches and infc~rmationreports to the district headquarZers on a regular basis, Training was also addressed in this subproblem in terms of expecting commanders to school their garrison in antiguerrilla tactics and to do m with automatic weapom. Finally, the wizure of mountain forts formed a separate subproblem, as did aviation. Fur the latter, the commander had to develop and implement plans fcx undertaking daily reconnaissance, patrol and garrison cantact, artillery and command missions, and air transport. With few exceptions, this is one of the few grc>blernsets that completely captured the eswnce of air operations as they had been developed up to and during the Nicaragua intervention. 82, Rlcrlo Rico Problem, 1940-1%1, 83. U.S. Navy, 'The Lnrzdi~lg-ForceManual, 3938, with Cl~an~qes to 2943 (Washington, DC: Government fihtisrg Office, 1944). 84, b i d . , p. 3, 85. U.S. Marine Corps, Marir-zc Corps M ~ ~ z u a1940, l , zoilfh C11cl;rzgcs:to 1944 (Mrashington, DC: G w e m m n t Printing Office, 1944). 86. Major General Commandant to Cot. WiXXiarn Rupertus, Regarding ""Board to Revise Manual for Small Wars," 7 Apr. 1939, Ecisan Papers, cmtainer 4. 87. Hoffman, "Edsc)n, Merritt Austin,""~The War of 1898 and U.S. Interventions, 1898-1934, ed. Benjamin Beede (New York: Garland Publishing, 4941, p, 474. 88. SrrzalE Wars Manual, 1940. 89. Ibid., chap. 9. 90. Ibid., chap. 3, sec, 3, 91. "Commentary on Chapter 26: River Operations, by Maj. Merritt A. Edsc>nff' p. 7, Edson Papers, container 22. 92. Small Wars Manual, 3940, chap. 2, sec. 3. 93. Stnall Wars Oper~thns,1935, para 7.4; S m l l Wars m ~ ~ z l n1940, f , para, 4.1.
This page intentionally left blank
Concluding Thoughts
As is evident from the precedhg chapters, the Marine Corps engaged in a particular type of warfare in Haiti, the Dominican &public, and Nicaragua; dttring the process they dcvctoped a common set of responses to the insurgents. The common responses suggest that the Corps w a g e d in learning. If so, what innuaces shaped the final doctrit~eembodied in the Marine Corps's Small Wars Ma~ztlal?
Did Stimuli External to the Institution Shape the Final Product? the technological, geogralphic-tarai~~, rt?some, and international s p ternic structure explmations discussed in Chapter 1, none dominate (and most are irrelevant for) the cases here. The two key technological chrrnges during this period were the use of machine guns and aviation. The former had no impact on the stratee;y of the cmpaigns and no discernible impact on the tactics either. The use of aviation had its largest impact on the loghtical element of the campaigns, freeing up troops from guard% supply lines and trains for fieldwork. Uf(in?&e:ly it djd not change the nature of the measures the Marhes had to use to suppress the insurgents. Timhg may have played a role: The next insurgency might have seen more unique or better ways of using aviation. If Vieban? is any indication, however, aviation has its rough h i t s in small wars, and they were already understood by the end of the Nicaragua campaigns. 'The international systemic structure argumernt fails here largely because it is irrelevant: The structure of power betwcm states may explain why the United States intervened in the countries it did, but it does not explain the strategy and associated doctrine developed to counter the insurgencies. Equally irrelevant is the resource argummt. Competition for =sources played no di~erniblerole in how the Marines deweloped their counterinsurgency rnenszlrcs or in their institutionalization of those meaC)f
sures. Indeed, somewhat the opposite may be true: A competition for resources may explah (in part) why the Corps ultimate@ embraced arnphibious warfart- over small wars as its primary mission (i.e., so that it codd lay claim to more resources). In this case, the explmatory power of the resource argument has more relevance for determining which doctrine the institution dtimtely chose than for &ternin% zuhy the doctrine looked the way it did and honr it was produced. The one stimulus external to the institution that has some explanatory power is the nature of the terrain and associated style of warfare. Cmsistently, the same style of hsurgent hvarfare eventudly elicited the same military countermeasures.Garrisoning, for instance, was reyuired in part to place troops closest to likely trouble spots because of h a m p e ~ dmobility caused by the lack of roads and the presence of mom-rtainousand jmgle terrain, Night operations we= required to circumvent insartgent intetlfli;ena-gathering. Small unit combat patrolling was needed because large colrxlnns mow$ too s10kvly over Che rough terrain and made too much noise doing so. Thus, even though some military measures may have been individualized or invented by isolated commanders, most were recoglnizable to, and recogl-rized by; many other ofiicers as herel-rt in the nahrse of the smaI1 wars mission. The fact that garrisonhg, small unit combat patrofling, constabulary building, and the like were t ~ a t e d inboth small wars mmuals is Che~fornnaharal, 'The writers were capturh g the basic essence of mission requirements, just as they had in the course curriculum, the practical map exercises, and, before that, the lessons-learned articles m d Hle papers written by klll;ocv offkers. The fact that the authors neglected much. of the civil component is probably attri:butable to three influences: First, ciwil measwes wem an ingrained part of the U.S. government's approach to interventims; the State Department would issue orders on what to do as needed. Second, some civil m e a s u s were cclvored in the curriculrlrn cm military law. Third, civil measures were not as comprehensive a part of the Nicaragum experience as they had bem in the prior two cases, but the Nicaragua experience is what was freshest on the mill& of small wars veterans wl1m they wrote the two editions. In the final analysis, the insurgent style of warfare and local terrain probably offer the strongest arglament for external influences on the formation of srnall wars doctrine, The Marines were problern-solving, developing similar responses to similar problems in a difficult, but c m mm, form of terrain, fndeed, the problem-solving argument is p s e n i : in the military literature on doctrine more so than h the civilian. literature.1 Because this argument has resonance, more work could be done to integrate the notion of prt,blem-solving within the titmature. on doctrine formation.
Did Stimuli Internal to the Institution Shape the Final Product?
Of the nrgalzizutiorzal interest, organizafione;tlstructzrre, anci orpnizutionnl culture approaches discussed i,n Chapter 1, only the organizat-iond structuralists provide a potmtial explanation for how m a l l wars doctrine was inlititutionatized. None of the explanations provided by the organizational interest proponents-infl~~ence, mission, and resources-are atl that persuasive in the cases here, None of the al-chival records even hint at answering the "Influence fnr L\lhat'~uestion~ 'I'he principal authors o f Strrall Wars Mantlal seem to have been motivated by notbing morc3 than a desirct, to set down their expertise for generations of officers to follow.. Consequentb, suggesting fie small w a s expeds wanted infiuence "for fa17ds, prestige, c m e r opportunities, [or] simply the satisfaction oE winnhg" is nothing morc than pure conjecture."e codd argue that the Corps sought to assurne the small wars mission from the Army in part to justify its existence. That, hocvever, does not explain why the product and process looked as it did; neither does it explain the counterintuitive fact that the :Marines openly borrowed from Army doctrine not just for their early manuals but also for Strrall Wurs Ma~lzral."f the Corps W= trying to differentiate itself from the ArmyI borrowkg that institution's dorrtrine does not seem the ideal way to do it. fnstead, borrowing doctrine only opened the Corps up to the criticism that it and its missions shorlld be incorporated within the Army. As such, the mission argument better explains why the Marines turned away horn small wars than why it was able to produce a doctrine on it. Fi,natty, the resource explanation does not resonate with these cases either. Earlier it was noted that resources did not play a role in cltetermining the process and production of the small wars doctrine. Here, the opposite was equally true: Small wars doctrine was not a means for securing more resources. There was not much money to be had wagjng small wars. On fie contrary, once agaitl this argment better explains why the Marines moved away from fighting small wars. The organizational structure explanaticm depends upcm the fact that the smatl w r s theorists required the intervcl~tionof service leadersthat is, an hdividual (or more) with overarchhg decisio ity-to produce a final doctrine. In this case, the theorists found their protectors in the form of Schook ComanCfant Berkeleyr then Breckenridge, and Assistant Schvois Commandant Miller. Where the structuralist approach breakrj down is in explaining why, a d what happened, when debate broke out at the top of the service hierarchy, particularly when the topmost leiade mmandant Russell-was dedicated to promoting a ccmlpeting vision. Is it simply suffiicient for any leader with &cisionmaking authmity to promote a set of ideas, or is the hierarchy re-
ally that importmt in the military? If hierarchy is importme then why did this doctrine dtirnatdy reach fjnal production? If hierarchy is mort. slippery or rdative, then bow do we begin to measurc. wiel-rout ex-postwho does and does not cvield arnt-horitym o n g the hiheto ratio~~alizjng erarchy? Usle mi&t hypothesie that since Russell appointed Edsm to head a board revising the Small Wars Manuul, the Commandant had come around to accepting the doctrine's existence: Perhaps he felt that landhg operations were no longer thrt.at@nedby the small wars adhemts. It's a good gues".but on@that. Unfortunately, there is nothhg in Russell's papers to s~tggestthis was the case, i,ncl~~d"zng in his unpublished mennnirs. T;kaIly$the structuralist explanation does not account for the disc~pancy between producing the cltoctrine and teaching it. 'f'he fact is, by the time the first edition of the Sllzlrll Wars Manual was written, Marrington, Utley, Edson, Del bile, and others had been teacbing the prirrcipIes of small wars for some years in both the Junior and Senior Schools. They apparently had needed no higher authority to teach ofiicialty what they knew versus writing officially what they h e w . The organizational culture approach discussed in Chapter 1 is too morphous to pmvidc insight here on the production of small wars &ctrine. Certainly by 1935 there was a "tradit.im'3n the Corps of fighting small wars, so one could say that at least the expeditionary units of the Corps were ""susceptible to incorporating'" small wars doctrine rapidly once it emesgcd. But it is difficult to point exactly to where specific traditions influenced the djmction that small wars doctrine took. Perhaps one might highlight the emphasis in Earrington" and Utley's sworks on amphibious landings and seizure of towns in the small wars context. That would show links bctween tradition and infonml doctrine in this case. Mowever, they were not highlighted later in. thefomal doctrine, C)ne might also be tempted to point to the offensive nature of patrolling instilled during Marine training (both officer and enlistecl)."he fact that this type of patrolling has been recognized by other military writers both foreign and donrestir: as necessary to the successful conduct of srnalf wars, though, w u l d suggest that offenshe patrollfng was inherent in mission success, not Marine traditions.5 In the opposite vein, many of the parts of the doctrine that highlighted unique experiences (F,dr;onfsriverhe operations and his long-rmge patrds) or interests (Utley's fascination with personnel mtters) were morc ~Rectiveof personaliv than of tradition. Ehally the wbole questim of what evicience one uses to support the argument for internal s t h u l i shaphg doctrine is problelxatic h the dactrina1 process psesented here. As is evident horn the pseceding discussion, following internal stirnuli would have led the institution to her production of amphibious over s d l wars doctrine, which in p a t it did,
This gives one the opportu~~ity to ask a pohted question: Might focusing on the role of internal stimXi in shaping doctrine better explain which one of a set of compefing ideas is chosen rather than explain vvhy and how a doctrine i s created de novo? If ultimately individuals are the link between external and internal stirnuXi, peshaps then they pay attmtion to one over the other depeneiing u p m the circumstmces they face..fn other words, perhaps it is easier to be logical,-and thus favor external cues over internal ones-in the absence of choice, But with choice, politics (and thus internal cues) can predomfnate in the decisio We see that proposition here in terms of external stimuli, dsmhating over internal ones in the development small wars doctrine. However, in the choice between that doctrine and that of mphibious wadart?, iz~ternal cues domhated, particularly shce the Marhes during this period were basicdy hypothesizing about the type of future warfare they would wage. They hadn't =ally experienced it yet.
Did Individuals Shape the Final Product? It &odd by now be evident t-hat most of thc indjvidllals jnvolved jn Ihe production of the m a l l wars doctrine do not fall readjly into m e of the four "great man'kategories discussed in Chapter 1. There were no civilians who intervcncd to force production of the Small Wuvs manual or determine its content, O f : course, to the extmt that the Marines relied upon the State Department for its orders with ~ s p e c to t implementation of civil measttres, as opposed to those elements cavered withh the course track on military law, tben they were relying upon civilian-made doctrhe altogether. It may be a fine distinction to some, pdcularly since cowterinsurgencks are a uniqzte form of warfare in which civil measures are cmmonly considered crucial h success, but fnllowing orders km another liepartment (and not fmplctmenting them on one's w n initiative, as oceufrtld in Nicaragua) is different from civilians delermining the content of a military docrtrine. Whether one cmsiders any of the principal proponents and authcrrs of the smdl wars dcxtrine to be a military leader in the o~anizationalstructuralist vein is a tough categorization. Certainly a key benefactor of the doctrine-Breckenridgefits the mold simply because he seems to have had the authority to follow through on his vision contrary to the Cornmandant". Qr at least he got away with it. Whether others like Harrington, tTtleyr and Edson fit the mold is more difficult to answer. This key trio certaivlly had decisionmaking authority with respect ta what was taugfnt in the classroom, although we do not know to what extent overall the small wars curricula were constrained by higher authority or other necessity during this time. Besides, any decisionmaking authority was
trumped by the Commandant's desirc to focus on q h j b i o u s warfare and also seemed to have been weak mough to require Breckenridge's cover to proceed. Yet they each wercl. majors or tieutmant colonels when they p d u c c d their works and headed departments in d i f f e ~ n Marine t Corps schools, That would have put them relatively near the top of a very small institution during this t h e : roughly in the top 211 percent (-5.5 percent) of: the institution durimg &is peritzd,.Whether that classifies them as leaders with dccisimmaking authurity for a Corps-wide doctrine, however, is doubtful. There were no military mavericks here, unless one considers Berkeley's and Breckmridge" debate vis-8-vis Russell particularly risky career fact, becaux most all of the theorists held teaching posts a d behwior. 11% later weld on to successful commands during tZrorld War 11, one would not suggest any of these men were into bucking the system, None of them went outside their chain of command (Breckenridge being in the chain of command of the first drafters) to influence productim of the doctrine. None of them took any risks, such as publishing their work outside the Corps, that would indicate anything other than officers engaged in impartmt intellectual purst~its. By the same token, one would be equally had-pressed to call these men "geniuses." They did m t invent a new way of waging warfare. Neither did they envision or invent new hvays of waging small wars, as Ellis did for waging amphibious landings. fnstead, they wcrc preoccupied with setting down their personal expc~riences,experiences that they felt codd be conveyed to s m e extent on paper and thrctu* the classroom to gcrnerations of officers to follow. This is evidenced.by the fact that there is no m4or novel task descri:bed in either edition of the Snzull Wnrs ivluszzuzl. It had all been donc before..Shilarly, &ere is almost nothing they left out in terms of militaq measures, and the experiences discussed in the manuals reflected the differing reatities faced principally in Nicaragua but also in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Even so, individual small wars veterans left the inrprint of their own thoughts cm both editions of the Sr~zullWars Manzuzl. Some of these imprints covered cvhoe crhapters that disclnssed topics clearly of personal hterest to individual authors, whereas other imprints involved additions or subtractions to the text where an author clearly imposed his own view over that- of others. In the 1935 edition, for example, several chapters indicate the direct impact of Utley" ppersnal ideas. Three in particular covered the organization of staff functions; the defense, attack, and occupation of tow-rs; and riverine operations. Treatment of personnel organization d e c k e d UtXey" prior intellectual pursuits, The entire third part of his monograph-published just over a year before headjng the manual board-outlined his thoughts on how m a l l wars
staffs should be organized, and clearly he was in a position to incarporate those thoughts and more into the final product.7 The Manual" t ~ a t ment of town attack and defense again mirrored tJtley"s interest in tbe s~tb~ect, as indicated both in kis earlier letters to Edson (request.ing information on the defense of Poteca) and in his later manuscript."t also reflected to a lesser extent Harrington" earlier work incorporating landing operalims into hjs final lecture notes and Gazette artic1es.Y Finally, Utley clearly drew from his experiences overseeing Edson" Coco Patrol to write the chapter m river operations. Them had been no such operations in Haiti or the Dominican Republic; neither had there been anywhere else in Nicarapa save where (and. when) Utley commanded. Utley wen signaied his intentic,n to write about them before he headed the board*lO When the Edson board revised the Sirllitrll W ~ rMnntial s and elimhated the historical appen&ices, it eliminated another Utley influence. This time, several chapters werc reorganized in ways that made Edson's M u ence come to the fore. The chapters on riverine aperatiosls and infantv tactics in particular bore Edson" imprint. The discussion of riverine operations was not only highly revised hut also greatly expanded to explain in more detail how to organize river operations a d how to '%occupy"' a river. In Edson" view, riverine operatims would be cmducted mcl-r Eke patrols on la,nd.ll 'The discussim of typical axnbushes wiChin that chapter was a generic version of a foiled ambush, on E d s d s own patrof, for which he was hter awarcled a :Navy Cross. Suzy>risingly,all the references to types of boats (called pitpans) used specifically in Nicaragua were removed and the discussion of boats made more generic. However, the discussion of boat pmpulsi~nwas given far greater weigbt, particufarly the desire not to use outboard motors, which Edson alone believed were not useful an the upper reaches of river. The chapter on infantry tactics was also expanded to include new (or, in some instances, revised) discussions on infantry weapons, march considerations, and patrol outposts-discussions that wershadowed R l e a ~ dale's contribution to the prior edition and bare the irnprint of Edson's expcrienees i,n Nicaragua, For example, Edson objected to the tactic of reconnaissance by fire (by firing Thompson sub-machine guns into the bush at likely ambush spots).lZ "Volume of fire can seldom =place accuracy of dire in a small war," m d so he arbitrarily rclstrieted the nurnber of also did not like infantry automatic weapuns carried by patrols.l"dson carrying shotgms and so eliminated them altogether from the discussion of infantry weapons.l" The extmt of discussion on chemical weapons in the first edition and on patrolling in both editions demonstrates an ideatization of lessons supposediy learned that highljghts the role of individ,u,als. As discussed
in Chapter 6, no chemicai weapons had bee11 used in any of the three cases, The discussion of them here clearly shows the hfluence of Major tinsert m m than any other explanatim, Sidlafly, the chapters on patmlling minimized the disclnssion of columnar operations so prevalent- i,n all three cases. What this skows is that individuais wcre currently interpreting h a t succeeded against the insurgents versus what dicin't. 'They wcre likely reacting to environmental cues, but they had to interpret them correctly to get that part of the doctrine right, Another particular aspect about the production of the small wars doctrine is so unique for this period that it highlights both directly and indirectly the role of indkiduals: the inclusion of foreign doctrine, For example, key forltip writers were referenced outright in the manuals. In addition to CallwelX, there was extensive quotation from Fjienneker in the first edition, partj.cularly his ideas m supply for columns operating in the fietd.1" 'This is not so surprising, as both Callwell and Hcnneker wex among the few sources titley noted in the bibli.ography for his doctrinal monugraph, Perhaps a bit more surprising is the fact that the Edson board kept some of the refewnces while deleting the historical appendices, U'nder Edson, thoughI only Callwellfs influwce survived the =vision process.16 For example, Ca)lwelI%influence can be seen in the discussion of blockhouse garrisoning that appears in Edson's versi,on of the manual, As discussed prevj,ously, this form of"garrisonhg was used by neither the Army nor Marine Corps, but it was sugge"ed by CaIlwell as being one of the better forms of garrisoni~~g that could have been used in the Boer Wilre'7 His influence can also be seen in the emphasis Edson puts on supply of patrols (a deep concern fnr Callwell) and in tbe emphasis that "smail wars are generafly wars of transportation for regular farces. . . . An efficient system of supply and transportation is a paramount consideration, the installation of which involvrs difficufties not encountered in highly developed civilized countries."lg This guidi,ng thought undcrlay an extensive portion of" Callwell" work, Still, one should not overstate CaZlwelI" influence on Marine doctrine. Save for the discussion on blocfiouses, Callwell's conlribution in the end probably was more one of organizationd style (i.e., the use of historical examples in the first edition) and of confiT111ing for Marine experts the more universal nature cJf the problems faced and tasks required to wage small wars. Given the direct and indirect hauence of individuals in the promulgation of the small wars doctrine, it seems nah;lral to ask wbrther anyone could have produced it if they had been involved in the doctrinal process itself. In o t k r words, did the process here matter more than the hdivid, broad base of experience, with almost a third of the uals? In t h e o ~the
officer corps participating i,n each of the three small wars, would suggest that another g r w p of officers could bave produced a qualitatively similar product. Hwever, those dicers would have had to have the same intellectual drive to produce a small wars doctrine that was evinced by Warrington, Utley, and Edson (and even, to an extent, Smith).These men actively seemed to have sought to bring together in one place the experiences of m m y meir community of experience ""ledto the rise of role models who [became] recot;nized as authorizd experts who were asked for to turn their knowledge into bureaucratic knowledgc..'"~Warril^lgton, example, was recognized by Commmdmt Z,ejeune, who first requested copies of his monograph be distri'l?uted to the oSficer corps and several years later brought him to Qumtico to head the Tactics Department and teach what he h e w on small wars. In, turn, the timhg of Harringtonfs tenure suggests he was in a position to influence the hirhg of other officers to teach like UtIey and Edson (the former at (.luantico, the latter in Philadelphia). Finally, Kreckenridge's tenure i,n Nicaragua and then as Commandant of the schools may have gi:ven hinr exposure to Utley, his ideas, or both such that the latter made a nah;lral choice to head prtlduction of the first S~nallWars Manual, Thus, the question of how the institution got the right people in the right place might be answered by recopition of talent and networking. Harrington m d Utley each were recog~~ized co~~tributors to a body of hhrmal small wars doctrine that made them natural selections for positions of teaching leadership. h between, networks of either personal relationships or mutuat admiration betwee11 inteilectuai peers helped expand the presence of small wars experts on the teaching st& of the Marine Corps Schools and contributed-through the personages of Del Wlle and Rleasdale, for example-to the writing of the first editjon of"Che Small Wars Marrunl. That, of course, raises the concomitant question of how the schools assigned gooci people to teach and write small wars matcriai. Was it: that the leaderstrjp c m d enough about teacfning to assign h o d e d g e able hdivjbuals, or was it serendipity? Unfortunate@ key pieces oi infor~ gorder to make a more concrete assessment. There mation are m i s s ~ in I that h~dicatewhy certah people were seare no melnos still ~ Iexistence lected for certain positions, and.the military orders remaining from the period do not indicate intmt or who fnnuenced decisions to briltg cerbin hdividuals to manlico. e)ne codd conjecture t-hat since :L,ejeune was the bi.gge&proponent of the schools witt.lin the Marine leadership, he activeiy sou@t out bright people Iike Warrington, or chose Commandmts Miho wotx2d do that for him. Nevertheless, in the absence of a better hformatim trail, the idea that serendipity played a role calvlot be discounted. htuitively however, a significant number of talented people wound up at
critieal nodes of the doc.lrinal and trahing process, suggesting that- foxes more thoughthl than serendipiv pIayed at least some important role. Some Cernfiming Observations from the Literature on Corporate Learning The doctrbal process, particularly the hstitutionalization of lessons, has analogs in the corporate world. Co:pomtions, like all org learn in order to survive in their competitive wrlds. Indeed, the past decade or so has wibessed a substmtive hcrease in the bushess hvctrld's d e m d for a better undewtanding of corporate learning and the institutionalization of lessons that will help the corporation compete and succeed, rise of organizationd lemjng speialists bas evidenred by a co~~contitmt m s h g on corgoratjons and a concodtmt rise in U7e business literatart. devoted to this topir. Much of tbis t i t e r a m is fwused m prcrviding prescriptive advice for corporations, but t k r c is a base of analytical c h e w that sheds some light on the role of individuals in organjzationd learning. Among the organizational Learning tkclrists, there are those who maintain that learning is conditiarral upon the environment, whether simply by prhlcm-soivin.g reactions or vlfluenehg how individuals react within organizatic,ns,2~l"he majority of tkctrists, however, hoid to s o m versjon of the notion that organizations are po:[ities and thus learning has to be understood within, and.is high@ vlfluenced by the context of political acceptmce within a hierarchy21 A subset of the htter believes that one has to urlclcrstand the ""culturt." ol an organization to under.stand its learning habits or prcferences.22 ental and 0 r g ~ Despite the focus in the past decaLje or so on e m zatimal cxplmations 'or leamirxg, there is a growin preciation for the role of in.divjduals in orglrnjzational lea g. The indhidual in this literature does not occupy the s m e cenkality he did in the literabre of the 1971)s; neither dnes the literahnre borrow as hewily hlm the field of psychology that tended., in one author" words, to "mthropromo~hiz[e]the legal entity called the corporation."z3 most of the writers ~ c o p i z e an important mLe for indjvid iscern for the reader what exactly that role is, or they to placing the individual back inthe pdiw of tJle orgmization. They certainly cm identify the prclblem: Individual practitioners [are] centrally important to organizational learning, because it is their thinking and ading that inRuence the acquisition af capability far prc>ductivelearning at the ol-ganlzationatlevel.
... Many saciobgical oriented researchers who see arganizakional Learning as an intra-o~.ganlzatic)nalphenomenon avoid the difficulties of bridging be-
Ween individual and organizational phenomenon by consistently treating agents and processes aE learning at a relatively high level of social aggregation. . . . We insist on the emtrary, that a theory af organizatimal learning must take account of the interptay beh-een the actions and interactions of individuals and the actions and interactions of higher-level organizational entities.24 Organizations learn only through individuals who 1earn.u
Although ~ c o p i z i n the g problem, most of the writers fail to discern the links between organizatims and individuals that expain the learning at an organi.zational level. Put anuther way, once they admit that individuals do the initial Icaming, they then fail to explain h w the teaming is assimilated within the organizatio11.26 .A key exception is an article by Daniel E m at the MXT Learning Lahorator?/ that focuses p r e c i ~ l yon trying to discern the transfer mechanism between individual and orgmizationai learning*K'tm focuses on how indkidual learning becomes embedded in an organization" memory and struch;lre." Bmowing Peter &ngefs concept of the ""mmtal model,'" Kim argues that mental models probride lhkage between individuals and organi.zati0ns.B Mental models ""are deeply hefd internal, images of how the wcrrld works, which has a powerful influence an what we do because they also affect what we see.'QTut mother way; we all have intellectual hameworks for how the world works around us that we have learned through various means that in turn affect how we see (or ""f1term")he world around us." $Since an organizatjnn is a collective of individuals, it can draw from a set of individual intelfectuat, frameworks to develop its own collective mental model af how the world works, 11%a classic feedback process, the organization's mental model in turn can exert an influence on how the organi7,"ati.m" inindividuals view the world around them. K i d s approach, howevm, egualfr leaves open the possibility for return .feedback into the organjzdion. XI: there are chmges in the enviro external to the organization, individuals may see this. If they get others in the organization to accept their new view, this can precipitate changes in the way the organization writ large ~riewsthe external envimnment (i.e., it changes the organization" mmtal model). An image, or idea, can spread by various means to a gmwing nurnber of individuals LW down in the organizationalhierarchy who accept it and propagak it to the leadership-bottom-up change-or it can be accepted. by those at the top who decide to propagate the idea further-top-down change. Focusing on the concept of the mental model not only helps explain the indivihal-organizational link but also helps explain the role of external stknuli in learning. Individuals become the interpreters of the external emvi,ronment for l.he organizatinn. They become the link betwee11 tht.
organization m d the envimnrnent by forming or chanl;ing their mental model of their envir ent and transmitting that model toltbrough the organization. 'This ~lationshipis quite dif'ferent from that implied in the organizational, approach, wherein. the orgmization itself is the l h k behnieen individuals m d the environment. It's sot that the latter relationship is wrong-it's just incomplete because it assurnes that individuals will not or cannot interpret the environment for themelves. The prrzsence of military '"mavericksf' and "genhses" "suggests that the opposite c m be true. The mental model concept also helps reconeie some other compiemmtary aspects of corgosate learning theory while shedding some light on the process of creating the srnali wars doctrine, For example, one need not focus solely on militay leaders, mavericks, and geniuses, because other individuals withirt an organization can be agenteself-designated or otherwise-to "kern forf'the organization," Smilarly, one can ( s m e say should) have champions for ler-arnhgat atl levels of an organization, in recognition of the reality that even in a relatively hierarchical setting like a ccnporation change is not alwitys top-down.32 Were, the idea of clnampians s~ggestswhy simple "experts" were able to play the role they did in the creation of the small wars doctrine." Moreover, those experts were not all necessarily near the pinnacle of the hierarchy, part.j,cmlarlythe writers of informal doctrine-Harington, HEs, and U'tley, to n a m just a few. Even production of the Small Wars Nfantlnl involved midlevel officers like Major Linsert, and the earlier (1931) attempt at a combined landing operations-small wars manual, included Capt. Del Va.lle. Another concept that apy>liesto the role of the small wars experts is that of personal networks providix-tga locus of innovation." h ~ v e l nthough the small wars experts were of the same institution-the Marine Corpsthe notion of networks helps explain why small wars lessons were accumulated despite the geographic dispersion. (e.g., Edson in Philadelphia and Utley at &antico) and temporal dispersion (e.g., Flarrington/Ellis and UtleyiEdson) of given intfividuats. Note that the networks need not even have been person& The networks could have inchded exte~~sions of individuals through their writings inthe professional journals and student papers in the Quantico files. Closety related to that thought, the business literature also accepts that one can learn from others or borrow learnhg from others and. incorporate it into m e % own organization.35 'Thus, wbile not necessarily ct,mmon, borrowhg Army doctrine, rdyjng on foreign small wars experts' writings, and studying examplfs of foreign carmpaips are acceptable prartices in the learning organization and thus should not be ipored in doctrine-making (as the theoretical literature on doctrhe-makhg tezzds to do).
Implia""-tions for Today The more normative titeraturt? on corporate leaming highliffhtssome reasons why the Corps s~~ccessfully produced a comprehensive doctrine, and that wodd seem to have equal applicability today. The most commonly cited criteria for organizational learning artl cornpetmy, experimentation, dedication to continuing education, learning from other sources, multiple champions of change, and.trmferring the knowledge througl~outthe organization (instibtionalization).36Other less commcm but htuitive criteria are a clilnate of inte%tectualopenness With easy access to information and recognizing and =warding those involved, in the changes associated with learnhg.37 Each of these applies to the Corps during this period. h significant portion of the officers had acquired a core competmcy in wagixrg small wars that was reflected accurately in t-he final doctrine. 'l'he Marine Schcrols instructors used that howledge to develop map and terrain proble~asthat promoted experimentation with small wars concepts, mrough the Correspondence, Junior Officers" and Smior Officers' Schools the Corps mply demonstrated its cornmitmnt to providing verlues for continued educatim for all of its officers. The influence of Army doctf-ine, Cdlwell, and others noted in the bibliographies of Marine wrikrs documents we11 their ability to scan outside their institution for lessons that applied to the problem at hand. mere certainly were multiple champions for a small wars doctrine, not simply near the apex of the Corps leadership but also spread &roughout the lower and middle ranfts, as evidenced by the authors oi Gazette articles and the key monographs and fjnd products, Finally, these same indi\liduals were respcmsible, together, for ensuring that what they had learned got passed on. to new generations of Marine officers hthe near term and farther into the future. None of the carporatre learning scholars posits tbat all oE the above criteria need be present for )earning to occw succe~sfu11y.However, there are two striking criteria that eznerge from the cases in this study. One is the creation of some form of ""slack"within an organjzation, so that learnhg can be institutionalized b e y o ~ ~simple d trahirtg. The other is allowing individual specialization to occur within an organization to incubate difiercsnt ideas until they are discarded or bwome mabre mough to introduce to the rest of the orgmiaation. The c ~ a t i o nof slack is simple enough in theory and perhaps in execution, but during the period of this study the C q s took a radical approach to creating it not once but twice. While krkeley was %hods Cwmandant be bad tried to have the combined landing operations-small wars manual drafted. He appointed. several members to head a board, but the key idea (see Chapter Q) was that jnstructors would be assjgned to draft
248
Concluding 73oughts
doctrinal materials covering areas they taught in the schools. It was a logical path to follow. However, classroom preparation alone took so much of the instructors' time that they did not have the time to devote to writing doctrine. Thus, the attempt to write the manual failed twice. Russell's dramatic move to achieve the same end was to eliminate the time consumed by teaching. He did so by shutting down the entire school system at Quantico. To get what he wanted he temporarily eliminated all missions (critical though they were) of the organization so he could get it to focus on one key mission that would change the Corps. Following Russell's example, Breckenridge executed nearly the same move when he shut down the small wars courses and devoted its staff to producing the 1935 Small Wars Operations. These were dramatic moves from an organizational point of view, but they worked, demonstrating the actual validity of such a strategy despite its practical drawbacks. The strategy of specialization was less dramatic than that mating organizational slack, if only because it did not result from a conscious decision of the Corps. Specialization here was the by-product of experience and ongoing debate. However, there are some instructive insights that can be gleaned from that happenstance. For example, one of the surprising pictures that emerges from both the cases and the doctrinal process herein is an organization-the Corps-intellectually strong enough to tolerate, even protect, competing views over what its mission should be. As evidenced by Russell's plea for a mission and the responses to it, the Corps was split during this period between those who would fight the nation's small wars essentially separated from the Navy and those who would seek to tie the Corps tighter to the Navy by promoting the Advanced Base concept that evolved into the amphibious warfare concept. To cope, the Corps essentially undertook organizational specialization, allowing officers to focus (to a degree) on either small wars or landing operations (which comprised the Advanced Base concept). In the early years, the small wars adherents dominated de facto, for they were the ones called to expeditionary duty. Even so, the Corps practiced Advanced Base tasks at Oahu and Vieques as early as the 192Os.38 Later, after Nicaragua, as the landing operations adherents rose to prominence, the subculture of small wars adherents was protected and ultimately given a quasi-equal status by producing their own doctrinal manual. The reasons for doing so may have stemmed from a realistic appraisal that to date only they had been called to war, and it was possible they might be called again.." We really do not know. But what one can see is that the Marine Corps leadership of the 1930s-not knowing whether the future held more of the past or something entirely newwas able intellectually to hedge by encouraging and protecting two competing subcultures.
The lesscm of the Carps is equally applicable to today; Generally; one does not tend to think of the services as tolerating, in this case even protecting, those who focus on fighting a cclmpktely different style of warfare, much less advocating a difkrent mission than service leaders choose to adertake, hdeed, this is a core tmet of Andrew KrepinevicWs thesis: A r q Leaders could not tolerate developing the ercpertise to fight a style of warfam different from that it felt m t irnpmtant to the nation's overall. security."Klearlyf however, as biased as Russell was toward landing operations, he had the intellectual tolerance (albeit with some prodding from Berkeley and Krerkemridge) to allnw his small wars experts to pmduce their own doctrine, Was this intellwtual tolerance unique to the Marine Corps, to this period of h t s t o ~or , to the persmalities in~rolved?There is no evidence to support any single answer. But what if the mswes is it wasdt unique to the period? What might that portend for the future? One can envision snme point in thc future (nemer os farther out in tirne) when the style of warfare is (or key compments of i h r e ) likely to undergo significant change. tlisturical changes in technologies, doctrine, and/or organizations suggest this couXd be so. Witness the in?paets on warfare of gunpowder, popular (Napoleonic) armies, rifles, blitzkrieg, carrier aviation, and nuclear weapons. ?The continued development of weapons based on necv pkysical principles (the airborne laser, for jnstance), the development of naval shore fire concepts like the arsenal ship a d ring of fire, and the creation of u anned aerial vehicle s p d r c m s fl.o name a few) 1ike:Ly will not fill sqzlare pegs in the ways the services current@ wage warfare. Instead, they are likelyr separately or jo.lMlJ.; to contribute to changes in warfarc. This is where speciafization can play a role-wilh a twist. In the case of the Marines, the inst..itutio~~ protected those who were focused on the mission of the past white slowly focushg greater effort on t-he l m d h g operations that might make upj4tzkl.e warfare. In the case of ft~turewarfare, each oE the services has the opportunity to mahtain its instiktional focus m the czlrrent (maybe past) style of warfare while allowkg some its rnemtoers to experiment withfikt~rrconcepts of hvarCare. In fact, the 1997 Qzadrennid Defense Reviekv gave the services some bureaucratic cover to do so by dficjally recognizing that they need to hedge s a i n s t strategic surprise by preparing for potential changes in future warfare. Speciaiization helps provide that hedge, just as itdid hreverse for the Marines, That specialization can go beyond just war-gamhg and shdies to embrace active experirnentatim. 'Ib the degrw each of the services already has undertaken some experimentation, this looks like a step forward.. One question is whether such experimentation has lasting power if it looks Like it might fundamentally change the nature of the service (e.g., mamed versus unmanned 'light) or if it is con-
fhed only to a subset of practitioners"Another question is whether such experhentation risks getting watered down to assuage the interests of those entrusted with the current respmsibility for waging war. Perhaps specialization offers a form of organizational protection so that those questions are not answered. the wrong way and too late, Otherwise, in the absmce of same form of vecialization, the temptation during this period of strategic pause (perhaps a form of slark?) and a r m d drawd.own could be to make evcvone "the s a m " wiihin each servicethat is, focused m fightiw war only the currentty approved way, particularly if thcre are failures dwring experimentation. Pehaps a more sanguine way to look at it is that the services now, more so than any other time in the past half-century have the opporh;lnity- to allow fnr internal differe~zccsand to cross-fertilize intellectually between those with the responsibility to fight now and those thinklng and practjcixrg how to fight in a hypothetical futurt?. Zndeed, this is a fhal lesson to elBerge from the Tvfahze conduct of small was. The protected minority of smdl wars experts proved to have gained critical skills, such as in combat leadership and jungle tactics, that sewed the instihtion and the nation well in the Pacific during world War II. Edson, for example, not anly put his izngrirnatur on the Ssrfall Wars n/lanziat; he put hit; small wars trairring to work-and not just by forming one of the Raider battalions, for which he rightly has achieved his place h history. Edsm did so in a more ixnportant way that was paralleled by his fellow small wars veterans of the Corps. He and a gmeratim of Marhe ofificcrs rclccived in l.he rjelds of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua some of the best combat hadership training a y m g oiiicer could. have received durhg the pm-World War X I period. Unlike so many of their A m y peers, they had been recmtly tested by b." l e y qplied this trainjng r teUs not just in the when war in the Pacific b r o k out, and ~ e iexperienccr personal brawery that won people like Edson :Medals of Hmor but also in the fact Chat many of them becme general officers who led the Marines through Warld W r 11 and into the first decades of the Cold War.Q h the end, that specializathn and subsequmt field training may well be the most important legacy of the Tvfahzes' small wars experience, Notes I. Cf. Col, Kobert C. Cassibry, "Development of Doctrine," M i l i f ~ Review, q vol. 36, no. 2 (May 195C;), pp. 25-30; Maj. John Greenwood, 'Thoughts on Dc>ctrinef'' Mnritze Corps Gazette, vol. 47, no, I1 (Nova1963), pp. 40-43. 2. Maj. Paul Herbere "Deciding M a t Has to Be Dane: General Witliam E. BePuy and the 1976 Editicjn of FM 100-5, Operatiom," havenworth Papers, na, I6 (Fc~rt Leavenworth, K% U.S. A m y Co and and Genera1Staff College, 1988),p. 101.
3. The Army" influence can be seen in the same ways that it is seen in the Marine Corps School curricula. Army texts are overtly referenced as the sclral-ce of do>ctrinefor individual tasks that did not comprise the major military measures. For example, in the production version of the Srnnll Wars Mal~zilat(SWM, 49401, the patrol tactics wed against insurgents would be "basically the xnilitary methuds, principles, and doctrine of minor tadics, as prescribed in the manuals perZaining to the combat principles of the units concerned" " W M , 1940, para, 62). Almost all the manuals referred to were Army manuals. Another example invtAves the Eurtctions of a number of staff officers-that is, for ""special troops,'%rtilfery, air, and communicationwwhich were subordinated to their treatment in the Army's Field Mntzual 101-5 (SWMI 4940, paras. 2.24-2.29). Some aspects of small unit cornbat march fc3rmation were referenced from the Army's Field h4lnr.zunl21-45(SWM, 39-40, para, 6.50). The training of mounted detachments, used mclsdy in the Dominican Rtipublic and sporadically in Nicarapa, was left to the Army" sai~zl'nr'ng RegtiZnCit~tzs50-45.Training for animal hmbandry was left to a series of Army field and training manuals and Agriculture Department pamphlets, which made sense given that the Army had far more extensive experience with training mounted detachments (cavalry) and Xot~isticalcare of such detachments (SWM, 1940, paras. 7.42-7.43). Company training was reteg&ed to various Army training reguiatic>ns (SWM, 1940, para 4.26). Even a 1933article in the Army" lnfntztly journal was cited for practical information on building Roats fSWM, 1940, gara 6.96). 4. Marine Corps Schoclls, Manzmt fir Stnnll VVizrs Operatic>tzsfwilh Undated Revisiotzs2 (Quantico, VA: Marine Corps Schools, 1935), hereafter cited as Small Wars Op~ratiorzs,4935; U.S. Marine Corps, SrrlnII Wars Mlzual (Quantico, VA: Marine Corps Schools, 1940; reprint, Manhattan, KS: Sunflower Univ, Press, 1987), chap. 6, p. 4;", hereafter cited as Small Wnm Manual, 1940. 5, Col. C. E, Callwell, S7~a11Wars: A Tactical Textbookfor Inzperial Soldl'ers, 3rd ed. (London: HMSO, 1906; reprint, London: Greenhill Books, 1990), pp. 13&%143,359, 362,477-478; ""Appendix C: Regulatiom and Program of Instruction of the CS%, Ft. Leavenworth, Report of the Swretary of War," A~nnunlReporl cftlze W@rDepartmetzt, 1902, vol. 1 (Washingtm, DC: Government Printing Office, 1903), pp. 159-1 62, 6. Navy Department, Register of the Commissioned arzd Warra~gtC'Pic7ers of Clre d Co?.ps (Washington, DC: Government Printing OfUlzited Stnfes izia'i?~n ~ Marine fice, various years, 1915-1 940). 7, Lt. Col. Harold H. Iltfey; "An Introduction to the Tactics and Technique of Small Wars," M~rz'neCOTSGnseCfe?vol. 18, no. 3 (NCIV.1933). 8. UtLey Letter to Edson, 17 Apr. 4930, Merritt A, Edson Papers, cmtainer 20, Library of Cc>ngress,Manuscripts Division, Mshington, DC (hereafter cited as Edscln Papers); Maj. Harold W. UtZey, The Tactics and TccFtniquc of S~nallWars, vol. 1, MS, box 5, Harclld H. Utfey Papers, Marine Corps Hhtcrrical Center, Personal Papers Sction, Washington, DC, 9, Maj. Samuel S.M. Harrington, ""Strategy and Tactics of Small Wars,'" lecture notes for the Department of Mitihry Tactics Field BfficersT~ourse,15 May 1922, reprinted 15 Jan, 1926, Marine Corps Schools, Quantico, VA, Edson Fagers, container 20.
10. "Letter from H. H. Uttey; 33 Mar. 3930," Ed~dscmPapers, container 20. 14. ""1Eson to Utky 8 Apr. 1930tf," EEson Papers, cmtainer 20; Slmll Wars Maptunl, 1940, para. 10.13. 12. "Edson to U tley, 8 April l%Of"TEsonPapers, container 20. 2 3. Small Wars Manual, 2940, para. 6.24, 14. StnaEL Wars Oper~tions,1935, para. 18.15. 2 5. Ibid., chap. 10, appendix. 16. Small Wa1.s.R/lnnzral, 1940, para. 10.2, 27. Callwell, Strt~llWars, pp. 94, 135, 18. Small Wars Qperaibns, 1935, para. 2.7. 19, Anthony DiBelfa, Edwin Nevis, and janet Could, ""UnderstandingOrganizational learning Capabilityf"lournnl of Man~genfeniStudies, vol. 33, no. 3 (May 49961, p. 377. 20. Cf. Bennis Epple and Linda Argote, ""An Empirical Investigation of the Microstructure of h o w l e d g e Acquisition and Transfer Through Learning by DoResearcl?,volt. 44, no. I Uan.-Feb. 199Q),pp. 77-86; Peter M,Sc?nge, ing,'"erntions Tlze F$tk Ifisei~~line: 7 " 1 Art ~ and PmcEk of rlze Legrnhg Ocqaniznt-ion (New York: Currency Doubleday, 19%). 21. Cf. Chris Argyris and DonaXd Schbn, Orgarzizationnl Learnirzg TI: Tlieory, Method, and Practice (Reading, MA: Addiscjn-Wesleyp 311396); DiBella, Nevis, and Gould, ""Organizationat Learning Capabilityfr"amrnes Lebovic, "How Organizations Learn: U.S. Government Estimates af Foreip Military Spending," A mel-icar~ foz-lrrzal of Political Science, vol. 39, no. 4 (Nov. 2995), pp. 83S863. 22. Cf. Peter 5. DeLisi, "Lessons from the Steel Axe: Cultuw, Techology and Organizational Change," S h Mnlzgenwnt Revkw, vol. 31, no. 2 (Fall 2B0), pp. 83-93; Edwin C. Nevis, Anthony J. DiBelfa, and Janet M. Could, "Understanding Organizations as Learning Systems," S~loa~z Manage~rzentReview, vol. 36, no, 2 (Winter 1995); Edgar H. khjen, "Culture: The Missing Concept in Organization Studies," A AdministrnFizte Scietzce Q~unrferly,vol. 41 (1996)' pp. 229-248. 23. khjen, "Culture," p 2230; Daniel Kirn cites the same grc3blem in "The Idink Between Individual and Organizational Learning, ""Slolatz Marzagemenf Review, vol. 35, no. 2 (Fall 19931, p. 43, 24. Argyris and ScI-tGn, Orgairtizatio~zalLearrzing 11, pp. xxii, 190. 25. Senge, 'T1're Fqfh Discipline, p. 139. 26. Cf. Nevis, DiBeXla, and Gould, "Understanding Brganizations," p 74; Edward Blankenhagen, "Organizational Learning in the Development of Doctrine dissertation, in the U.S. Army; 19'76-1986: A Historically Based Study'' (P(T"h.P>. LennzCeorge Washingtcm tiniv., 19941, p. 24; Argyriis and Schijn, Orgar~r'mtio~zal ir-zg TI, p. '7; David Garvin, ""Building a Learning Organization,""Flarvlzrd Busizzess Rezfiew, no. 4 orrly-Aug. 19931, p. 90. 27. Km, "Individual and Organizational Learning," p. 37. 28. Although the concept of the mental model is Senge%s,Kirn modifies it slightly and uses it to demontitrate in a way Senge does not how it forms the link beween individual and organizational learning. S n g e in turn adapted his more readable idea of mental models from Argyris and Schbn's ideas of "theories-inuse." "deed, Argyris and Sthijn come close to supporting Kirn's aanalysis by identifying (but not: developing fully) the idea af organizatims as cognitive constructs. Cf. Senge, Tlze Fqfft Discipfir-zc;Peter M . Senge, "The Leader" New Work:
Building learning Organizations," Sonn Managctnenl Review, vol. 31, no. 1 (Fall 4990), p, 42. See also the discussions on ""ieories-in-us" in Argyris and Schijn, Org~nizntionalLmrning lif, especially g. 184. 29. Km, "Individual and Organizational Learning," p. 39, 30. A classic mental model is exposed by the foilowing riddle. A young child is wheeled into the surgery romm for emergency surgery. The surgeon takes one look at the child and, distraught, announces, ""Ian't operate on that child. He's my sc>n." But the surgec>nis not- the boy's father. Who is the surgeon? The surgeon is the child's smother. The mental model that trips most people up is their image of surgeons atwa ys being male, Z ~See also John P, Kc~ttel; 31. Argyris and Schbn, Organizatiotzat L I S R ? * ~11,Z ~p,E7. ""Leading Change: Why Transbrmations Efforts Fail," Hafvard Bwsinl?ss Review, no. 2 (Mar.-Apr. 1995), p. 63. 32. Nevis, DiBella, and Gouldr *'Understanding Organizations,'" p. 77;DiBella, Nevis, and Gould, ""Organizational Learning Capability," p. 373; Senge, "The Fifth Discipline," p xxviii. 33. Gamin explicitly recognizes the presence and importance of "experts" 87). (""Building a Learning Organization," pp. 34. Walter W PowelX, Kenneth W. Koput, and Laurel Smith-Doerr, ""Tterc~rganizational Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of teaming in Biotechnology" Adunirzistmtim Science Quarterly, vol. 41 (1996), p. 116. 35, Epple and Argc~te,'Tmpirical Investigation," p. 77;Blankenhagen, ""Organizational Learning," p.36; Garvin, ""Building a karning Organization," p- 80. 36. Helen Rheem, "The teaming Organization: Building Learning Capability,"" Hart7al.d Busirzess Reviewt no. 2 (Mar.-Ayr. 1995), p. 10; Garvin, "Building a %earn.ing Organization," p 882; Nevis, DiBella, and GouXd, "Understanding Organizations," p. 77; Katter, ""Leading Change," p.61; DiBella, Nevis, and Coufd, ""Organizational learning Capability," p. 371. 37. Nevis, DiBella, and Gould, ""Understanding Organizations,"". 77;Kc~ttel; ""Lading Change," p.661. 38. Vieques is a small island off southeastern Puerto Ricc~still used today by the N a v y far gunnery and assault practice. 39. Col, Ellis Miller, assistant commandant, "The Marine Corps in Support of the Fleet," MS, 1 June 1933, p. 10, box 1, file 40, Historical Amphibious Files (no number), Marine Corps Research Centes; Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantieo, VA; Gen. Victor Bteasdale, p. 220, Oral History Coltection, Marine Corps Historical Center, Washington, DC; Capt. H. Demy Campbell, "Aviation in Guerrilla Warfare," Mnrirtc Corps G~zetfe,vcll, 45, no. 4 (Feb. 15331), p. 3 8 Maj. John A. Gray, "A Plea for Revision of the FieXd 8fficers" Course," h r i l z e Corps Gnzef-le,vol. 45, no. 4 (Feb. 19341, p. 64; ""Jngle Warfare Weapons," Marine Co~psGazette, vol. 19, no. 1 (May 3934), p. 66. 40. Andrew Krepinevich, Tke Army a d Wefttnm (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 19861, pp. 7,217,260. 41. The last Army battle had occurred in 1918, over Menty-Mo years prior to the outbreak of World War II. 42. Oral histories of Gen. Victor Bleasdate Lt. Gen. Edward Cra tg, Gen. Lester Dessez, Gen. Jarnes Devereaux, Gen. Graves Erskine, Gen. Julian Smith, Gen. Rot-tert Lucky, Gen. DeWitt Peck, and Gen. l ~ w i "'Chesty" s hlPrrtler, Oral FTisto~
CoXlect.ic>n,Marine Corps Hist-orjcsal Center, Wshington, DC; biographical files on William P! tjpshur and Evans Carlsctn, Marine Corps Historical Centel; Historical Reference Section, Washington, DC. BleasdaXe served in alX three small wars-Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua-and taught at Quanticc2, VA; Craig served in aXX three; Dessez served in Haiti; Devereaux served in Nicaragua and taught small wars at Quantiico; Erskine served in all three and taught intelligence at Quantico; Smith served in a11 three, wrote the history of the Nicaraguan Gzrardin, and became director of basic training; Lucky served in Nicaragua; 13eck served in Haiti and taught at Quantico; Puller served in Haiti and Nicaragua; Upshur served in Haiti; and Cartson served in Nicaragua and fc~rmedone of the two Raider Battafisns in Mrrrrld War 11,
Bibliography
U.S. Government Recard Groups Nnfiorznlt Rrclzivcs, Wnslzinglun, DC Record group 94: Records of the Adjutant General" Office, Record grc~up12E Records of the U.S. Marine Corps. Record group 2 65: Records of the VVar Bepa&ment General and Special Staffs. Record group 395. Recurds of the U.S. Army Overseas Operations and Cornmands, 1898,1942.
Pfsrsarral Papers CaZZecfti~n~ Mal.z'neCorps HktoricaI Centez; Waslzi~zgto~z, DC Edward Banker, George Barnett, Rc>bert Blake, Victor Bleasdale, Tames Breckenridge, Dudley Brown, Wilbur Brown, Thomas Bruce, Robert Bryan, SrnedXey Butler, Evans Carlson, Edward Craig, Pedrc:, Del bile, Robert Denlg, Lester Dessez, James Devereattx, Koscc~Ellis, Graves Erskine, Walter Gaspar, Edvvin Godbold, George Gtmd, Samuel Griffith, Williarn Harding, John Hart, Giiibert Hatfield, Kctbert Hogaboorn, Samuel Jack, Louis Jctnes, Thsmas Kilcourse, Morris Murtz, William Lee, E d w h McClellan, John McQueen, Vernon Megee, Clyde Metcalf, Adolph Miller, Ivan Miller, Rafph MitchelI, Francis Mulcahy, Jarnes Noble, John Morris, Edward Ostermann, Henry Paige, Bewitt Peck, Jsseph Pendleton, Omar Pfeiffer, Cordon Prunner; Lewis Pullel; Ford Rogers, William Rogers, Joseph Rossetli, J o h Rusxll, Christian Schilt, M e w i n Silverthorn Edwin Sirnmons, Julian Smitl-i, Oliver Smith, Edward Snedeker, Vincent Stack, Homer Sterling, Gerald Thornas, Harclfd Utley, Alex Vandergrift, Clayton &>gel, L.W.T. Waller; Jr., Thomas Watson, Frank Weir, Dion Williarns, Kchard Williams, William Wilson, Frederick Wise, William Worton Mal.z'neCorps ResearcIz Center, Arc1zr'ztc.s Bra~clz,mri~zeCofps Cumbnf.Developmerzf Commnlzd, Qunndiw, kA Smedley B. Butler Papers
Library of Congress, M@l~a~c"ripts Diz~ision,Wastlizzgton, Merritt A. Edson Papers
Arm~yWar College, Milir5trry Histoy ln!~1~tit~fe, Cadisle Barrack, C~rlisle,PA Samuel B.M. Yclung Papers Tasker H. Bliss Papers
OraZ History. Collections Mal.z'ne Corps HktoricaI Centez; Waslzi~zgto~~, DC Fred Beans, Rs3bert Blake, Victor Ifleadale, Wilbur Brown, Edward Craig, Thorns Cushman, Marion Uawson, 13edro Del ValXe, Robert Denig, %ester Bessez, Jarnes Devereaux, Graves Erskjne, Walter Gaspar, Gec~rgeG o d , Samuel Griffith, Herman Hannekttn, John Hart, Charles Hayes, Samuel Jack, tauis Tones, Rusself Jordahl, Robert. Kilmartin, William Lee, Francis Lc~ornis,Rc>bertIJuckey John McQueen, Vermn Megee, Ivan Miller, h l p h Mitchell, Francis Mufcahy, Jcrhn Munn, Henry Paige, Dewitt Peck, Omar Pfeiffer, Edwin Potlock, Lewlis Puller, Bennet Puryear, Ford Rogers, Williarn Rogers, Jc~sephRossell, Christian Schiltt, Mewin Silverthorn, Jutian Smith, Oliver Smith, Edward Snedekeu;Gerald Thornas, Wiltiarn Walace, Thornas Mrol-nharn, Williarn Workon
U.S. Government. Publications, Documents, and Collections Nnzry Depart ment Register of the Comntissi"o;rzcdand Warrant Oflcers c$ Clze United States Nnzy nlzd Mari-ine Corps. Washington, K: Government Printing Office. See the Register for the years 1925-1940, (The reester year and publication date are the same.) Repad of the Major General Commandant of the U .S. Marine Corps. AplplilaI Re~ Washington, BC: Government Printing Office. Sc?e ports of the N Q UDqnrtment. the Report of the Major General Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps in Anlzual R q ~ r t far s the years 19151935, 1936-1940, (The publication date of each edition of the Annual Reports is the year after the report year; e.g., the edition of Annual Reports for"1945 was published in 1916,) War Dep~rtmentAnnual Report I?J:tlze War D ~ ~ ~ r t n z eWashington, nl. DC: Government Printing Office. See the following volumes and parts of the Annual Retjorf for the years 1899-1909. (The repc~rtyear and publication date are the same.). 1899, vol. l , pts. 1,4; 4900, u d . I, pts. 1,4,5, 7; 1901, ucd, 1, pts. 1,4, 5; 1902, vol. 1, pts. 1,9; 3903, vol. l , pts. l , 3; 1904, VOX. 1, pts. 1,3; 1905, vol. l, pts. l , 3; 2 906, vol. 1, pts. 1,s;1907, vol. I, pts. 4,3; 4908, uof. 4, pts. 1,3; 1909, vol. 1,pts. 1,s. State Dqfirtrrtent "Draft of Treaty Beh-een the United States and Haiti Concerning the Finances, Economic Development and Eanquillity of Haiti." h Papers Relatiq to trlte Foreign Relations offhe United Sf.ntes. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1924.
Bibliography
257
The Foreign Relnlions cf the Unz'f~dSfntes, 1915. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1916. ""Pc>clarnationof Occupation and Military Government." h The Foreign Rel'ntions of tFze United States, 1916. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1917. Joint Board of the A nrzy and izlai:?y Joz'zll:Oz?erse~:as E;r;?editions. Washington DC: Gc>vernment Printing Office, 1933. Mnritze Corps P.ll"slo?*icnlCcnter, Historical Referertce Secliorz, Was/ritzgtn~2,DC Geographic Files. Dominican Republic-1 916,1917,193 9-1922 Dominican Republic-Armed Forces Dominican Republic-Engagements and Casualties, 191&-19D Dominican Republic4eneral Dominican Republic-Strength and Casualties Haiti-1 915-1 916 Haiti-General Haiti.--Operations, 1915-1 934 Nicaragua-1927-4932 Nicaragua-Loctse Papers Nicaragua-News Clippings Subject Files. Marine Corps Aviation----l920 Report of Investigation, 10 Mar*1919-13 Mar, 1920 Biographical Fifes. Charles Barrett, Jarnes Breckenridge, Smedley ButXez; Evans Carlson, ELi Cole, Pedro Del Vallef Merritt Edson, Logan Febnd, Herman Elanneken, Samuel Harrington, Ernest Linsert, C. D. McDougal, Charles Miller, Ellis Miller, tyle Miller, Joseph Pendletcm, Lewis ""Chesty" Puller, John Russell, Julian Smith, William Upshur, Haruld Utley, %.W*T.Waller Jr., Dion Williarns
Manuals Mal.z'ne Corps HktoricaI Centez; Waslzi~zgto~z, DC Marine Carps Library. Manual for 5rrfnll Wars Operations (wz'lit Undated Revisions). Quantico, VA: Marine Corps Schioofs, 1935, M~rizzeCOTSM~lzual,1921. Washington, DC: Go>vernmentPrinting Office, 1922. Mnrinc Corps Mntzual, 2926, wiffz Chatlt;es fa 1930. Washington, DC: Gr>vemment Printing Office, 1930. Mnritze Corps Mntzual, 2931, wiffz Clzntqes fa 1939. Washington, DC: Government 13rintingOffice, 1939. Mnritze Corps Mntzual, 2940, wiffz Clzntqes fa 1944 Washington, DC: Government 13rintingOffice, 1944. Srrfall Wars Manual. Quantico, W: Marine Corps Schuols, 1940. Reprint, Manhattan, KS: Sunflower Univ, Press, 1987. Personal Papers Section. Gendarmerie dWa-laiti. Gendarmerie Rules. N.p. (Butler Papers),
A Review cf Elle Qrg~n;izationand Yp7emtions cf rife Gunrdi~Rincional de Nic~ragtia. Quanticc?,VA: U.S. Marine Corps, 1937. (Smith Papers). HQZ Dep~rtment T~
Tlze bndilzg-hrce and Smnll Arnzs hzslrucflions. Annapolis, MP): U.S. Naval Institute. See the X~zstructiansfor 1905, 1922, 1916, 1920; published 1905, 1912, 1916, 1921, respedively. The Larzding-Force Mntzzanl, 2927, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1927. The Lnnditlg-Force h n i i a l , 1938# zuith Cllanges to 1942, Washington, DC: Covernrnent Printing Office, 1941. Arm~yWar Coltegc, Carlisle Bamcks, Carlisle, FA Caz~nEryService Regulntiolzs, 2914 (Experime~ztnl).Washington, DC: Government Print"rng Office, 1924. Dict.ioiur?nriyof U,S, Army Terms. ""Army Regulations 320-5."Washington, DC: Department of the Army, 1958. Dict.-iorznriy of U.S.. Army Terms. ""Army Regulatiom 320-5, Change #I,"Washingtun, DC: Bepa&ment of the Army, 1963. Dictiorznry of L6.S. Army Tenns. ""Special Regulations 320-5-I."Yashington, DC: Department of the Army, 1950. Field Sewice Regulnl.io;rzs. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. See the Regulafbns for 1905,1910,1913,3914,1923. (The year of each set of regulations and. the publication date are the same.) Field Service Regzrlations, 1905,.euitfrAmertdmetzfs fo 19M. WasNngton, DC: Covernment Printing Office, 1908. ItZfnntjy Drill Regultatiorzs, 1904. Kansas City, MO: Hudson Kimberly, 4904. b?jcantty Dn'll Regmlnfz'ons,3908. Kansas City, MO: Frankfin Hudson, 1908, Itfn~ttjyDrill Regulraliorzs, 1923. Washington, DC: U.S. Infantry Association, 1923. It?jcantry Bhlt Regztla tiorans, 2 922, wit lz War Department Cl~an~qes, New b r k : Appleton, l917. I t f n n f y Drill Regulatimzs, 2912, with War Department CIzanges to 29113. New York: Sherwood, 1918. Itzfnrtty Drill Regulafiorzs, Exfendtyd Order; 1898. Kansas City MO: Hudsan Kimberty, 1898. Itzfnrtty Drill Regutafiorzs, Exfendtyd Order; 19(if2..Kansas City MO: Hudsan Kimberty, 1902. ItZfnnty Drill Regutatiorzs fPruvisiorzall, 1918. Paris: Imprimerie e, Desfc,ss&s,4918. b?jcantty Drill Regula tims (Pro~tisr'anal),2 91 9. VVashington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1919. Proposed FieM Scrzice Regzilations, Articles IT a d Ilit: T?ze Serzrice I?( Ir$~nrznfionand Oders, 1908. Fort t,eavenworth, KS: Army Sewice khools, 1W8. Stnall Wars t k ~ dPzrr?itiz?cExpeditio~ts.Vid. 2, Tactics. Fort Benning, CA: Infantry School, 1925-2 926. Troops in Campaign: Regulatiotzsfor ktw Army of tj2e United States. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1892.
Poops in Cantpaign: Regulat ions for lllp Arnly of llte United Slates, 1903. Kansas C i t ~ MO: Hudson Kimberly, 1903. Unoficial Revision I?J: Pages 1-54 irz flze 1923 Edition of the Field Service Regztl~tl'ons, West Point, NY U.S. Military Academy Printing Office, 1927, Wagner, Arthur L. Orggniz~tionand Ectics. Kansas City, MO: Hudson Kimberly. See 4th ed., 1904; 7th ed., 1906. -. The Serzrz'm of Security alzd X~$ormat.ion. Kansas City MO: Hudson Kirnberly. See 5th ed., 16196; 9th ed., 1899; 14th ed., 1903. Other, Wnslzingtorz, DC CaZfwel1, Col. C. E, Small Wars: A 'jfnctiealTci'tbookfor Imperial Soldiers, 3rd ed, ton.don: HMSO, 1906. Reprint, London: Greenhill 'Books! 1990.
Curricular Materials Mal.z'ne Corps ResearcIz Center, Arc1zr'ztc.s Branclz, &uaa tic& VA Course Schedules. Basic School Courses, 1933-1 942. Company Officers" Course Master Schedule, 1925-4926, 1(;"2&4927, 4927-1928, 19253-1 930,1930-1 931,1931-1 932, 1932-1 933 Company OffiicersTosxrse Schedule: Scouting and Patrolling, 4932-1933 Company Bfficers9chooi Schedule, 19241925 Field Officers" Course Master Schedule, 1924-1925, 4925-4926, 4926-4927, 1927-1 928, 1cf29-1930, 1930-1931,1931-1932, 1932-1933 Junior School Syllabus 1936-1 937 Senim Course Master Schedule, 1936-1 937,1937-1 938,1939-1940,1940 Map and Terrain Exercises. h/tnp Probletn 5: Colombia Probfenz, 193&37. Quantico, VA: Marine Corps Schot>ls,n.d. Map Prublenz 8: Puerto R& I"roYe;em. Quantico, VA: Marine Corps Schools, n.d. See this exercise for the years 493Cs--1937,493&1939,494@1944. Map Pro-clblcr~rt.9: Capture of St, Cmz'x, 2936-37. Quantico, VA: Marine Corps Schools, n,d. "A Marine Corps 1nfantr;lr Combat Patrol in Jmgle Warfare." Colrtpn~yOfificers" Course: Termin Exercise No. 2. Quantico, VA: Marine Corps %hools, n.d. Mnritze Corps P.ll"sto?ai~nl Ccnter, Persorzai Papers SecCiorz, Washitzgto~t,DC Craves Erskine Papers. CufzfereneeProblem, SrrzalI Wars: Occuyat-imzofa Cozrnt?y, Esli~natL.of ttw Sitzmthlz, Srnnll Wnrs, Landr'ug Operatimzs Xtluy Exercise. 16 May 1932, Map Problem 3.18 May 1932. Map Proble~rt.4: Occzapatz'on of an Aliia. Map Probknz 5.17 May 1932. julian Smith Papers. Col-respondtynceCourses, 1933-34. Library c?fCc~fzgrcrss, Ma~uscriptsDiz~ision,Merritt A. Edson Papers, Wnslzirzgton, DC
Edscm, Merritt A. "Operations of the Marine Combat Patrol on the Coco Rivex; Nicaragua in 1928." Lecture delivered at the Marine Corps Sch~ols,Quantico, W, 8 Apr. 1931. Harrington, Samuel M, "Strategy and Tactics of Small Wars." Lecture notes for the Department of Military Tactics Field Officers' Course, 25 Jan. 1926. Reprinted from 15 May 4922. Army War College, Milifaq H i s t . 0 ~I-ttstitute, Cadisle Barmcks, Carlisle, PA Arm~yWar College Course 2'12 MilirStr~Arf, 1989-1 910: Overseas Probknts 1-23.. MHI. Curricular Archives, 1906-4942. Army War College Pmblevz #32, Urtited Stntes-Japa~:Ccsnsr'deratiolzs titjon hssr'blc 10 June 1907. Curricular Archives, 190&1912. Hostilz'dr'csruifh japa~~, Military Monograph o-tz Costa Rica, Army War College Cotlme i12 Military Art, 1909-2910: Green nlzd Blue Probknz (No. 3).,Curricular Archives/ 1910-1912. Military Molrogmph on Cuba, A r f ~ l yWar College Cc~zirsein Ml'lifa~yArt, 2909-1910: Green nlzd t2llle FsrobZenz (No. 3). Curricular Archives/ 3910-1912.. Milita~yMmograpI~.opt the Dominicarz Republk, Army War Cotlegc Course in Military Art, 1903-1910: Green and Blue Probfenl (No. 3), Curricufar Archives, 191&1932. Milita~yMotes oolz RTicaragt~a,Army War College Coursc in Mifitay Art, 2909-1920: d Problem (No. 31. Curricular Archives, 1910-1912. Greea a ~ Blue Ourlinc of Course of Instntetiorz: Army Wr;3rCollege Coursc of 19Cl9-4910. Curricular Archives, 2 906--1912.
Books and Manuscripts AlIard, Kenneth. So~.rtnlinQ;t?er~tiola;rzs: Lmsons Lmmed. Washington, DC: National B e f m x Univ, 13ress, 1995. AlIix~n,Graharn T. Esse~zceof Decision: Explizi-tzi-tzgthe Cuban Missile Crisis.BOS~C)~: Little?Brown, 1971. Argyris, Chris, and Schijn, Dt~nald.Org~niuflional Learniq U:Theoq, Metlzod, and Practice. Reading; MA: Addimn-Wesley, 1996, Beckett, Xan F.W. Tlze Roots of Counter-i~zsur.geney:Arlrzr'es and Guerrilla Wafnre, 2 900-1 945.London: Blandford Press, 4%8. Beckett, Xan EW., and Pimlott, John, eds. Arrrred Forces and Cotinter-irzsurgen~y~ New York: St. Martin" Press, 1985. Bofgeu; Daniel I? Scenes f-ro~rt an Ut@~iislzedWar: Low-Intensity Conpict irz ECor.ea, 1966-69. Leavenworth Papers, no. 19. Fort Leavenwort.h, KS: Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and General Staff Colfege, 4991, ChaXiand, Gerard. Czrerrill~Sfmtegie;: An Histaricnl Anltholo~fionfklle Lotzg M a ~ h to Ajghanishrt. Berkeley: Univ, of California Prss, 1982. Clausewitz, Carl van. ONWaKEdited and translated by Michaet f-loward and Peter Paret. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1984. Corurn, jarnes S, Tke Roots of B l i t z k e : Ban von Sedt and Gertrmn Milita~yRefonrz. Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 1992.
Czega, Huba Wass de. "The Militar)~ Refc~rmDebate." Paper presented at the 20th USMA Senior Conference ("Toward a New American Approach to Warfare"), West Point, W, 1982. Doughty Maj, Robert. The Eztotutiotz of U,S, Army Tactical Doctrine, 2946-76;. Leavenwarth Papers, no. 1. Fort Leavenworth, ]MS: U.S. Army Command and Gm.era1 Staff College, 4979, Bowniep Richa rd Duncan. Learrzi~zgfrom Cozpict: The U ,S,MiEifn~yi ~ zViefnlam, El Salz~ador,and the Drzlg Wlar. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998. Bupuy, Col. R. Ernest, and Baumer, ;3Raj. Gen. Wilfiam H, Tke Little Wars of trlte U~zitedShtes. New Ybrk: Hawthorn Boc)~s,1968. Ellswarth, Capt. Harry A. Onc Hz~r?dredEigfz1.y Lrarzdings of the Ulzited Strafes Washington, DC: U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, AdjuM n r i n ~ s180&1934. ~ tant and Inspectcjrs Department, Historical Section. Reprint, Wasfiingtcjn, DC: U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, History and Museums Division, 1974 [1%4]. Evans, Ernest. Wars WiEJ~oufSplendor: Tke U.S. Military arzd Low-Lcztcf Conflicf. New York: Greewood Press, 1987. Feues; A. E. Cami5Lzt Dkry: Episodes jror~t the History of the 22nd Regz'menf, 2 866-1 905. New York: Praeger, 1992. Frances, Lt. Anthuny A. " H i s t o ~of the Marine Corps khools." MS, Dec. 1945. Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Cornbat Development Command, Quantico, VA. Fuller, Capt. Stephen M, "Marines in Haiti." Draft MS, n,d. Marine Corps Hiutorical Centeu; Historical Reference Section, Washington, BC. Fuller, Capt. Stephen M., and Cosmas, Graham A, M r i ~ z e sin the Domilzl"cnn Repzibfic, 2926-1924, Washington, DC: U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, History and. Museums Division, 1974. Gates, John M. Sclzoolbooks nud Krngs: The Uztited States Army irz the Philippines, 1898-2 902. Westport, C-P:Greenwood Press, 1973, Greene, T, N.,ed. The 6.rlcrn"lttaa~zdHow fa Fig!rf Him: SelcrcCiotzs from the Mnrine Carp Gnzel.te. New York: Praeger, 1962. Gudmundsscjn, Sruce, "Maneuver Warfare: The German Tradikic)n." In The Maneuz7er Waqare Debate, edited by Richard Hookec Novato, CA: Presidiu, 2 994. . Qn Artilkety. Westport, C-P:Praeger, 4933. Heinl, Robert Debs, Jr.. Soldiers of the Sea: The Ufzited Statcs Marilze COTS, 1775-2962,2nd ed, Baltimore: Nautical and Aviatic>nPub. Co. of America, 1991. Heinf, Robert Debs, Jr., and Heinl, Nancy. Written i ~ zBlood: T!ze Story of the Haitian Petjple, 2492-1971. Boston: Houghton Mimin, 1978. Herbert, Maj, Paul H. Deciding Wzaf Has to Be fine: Getferal WWlam E. DePuy and tlze 1976 Edilrion of FM 100-5, 0~~ernt;ions. Leavenworth Papers, no. 16. Fort Leavenworth, KS: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 4988. "The History of the Carde dFHaz'ti'"[l"he Hart Report-]. Apr.-July 1934. Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA. Hoffman, Bruce, and Taw, Jennifex: Dcfense h / i q and Low-lnfeszsify ConJict: 7"ke Der~eloprrzent of Britnit2 S "Small Wars Doctrine Dgtring trlte 3 950's. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Arroyo Center, 1991. I'
Hoffman, Bruce, Taw, Jennlfer, and AmuXd, Davici. Lessons for Conlenzporazy Counterinsurge~lcit~s: Tke Rhodesin~lExperietzce, Santa Monica, CA: RAND Arroya Center; 1991. arzd Insurgency. Santa Hosmer, Stephen. The Army's Rolc in Cou~7terinsurge~tcy Monica, CA: IXAND Arrayo Center, 19%. johnson, Lt. Col, Edtvard. Marine C o v s Rztiatiatz: The Early Years, 1922-1940. Edited b y Graham Cosmas. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1977. Kitson, Frank. tow Irttelzsity Operations: Subz?ersiou, Irtsurgeney aud Peacekeeping. London: Faber and Faber, 1971. Klare, Michael l'.,and Kormbluh, Peter, eds. Low Intensity Warf-nre:Counferi~zsurgelzcy, Proinsurgency, and Anti-ferrorisvrt in flze Eiglrties.. New York: Pantheon Basks, 19%. Krepinet~ich,Andrew. The Army and Wetnam. Baltimore: Johns f-lopkins Univ. Press, 4986. Lrangley, Lester D. Tht Bannun Wars: U,$, Intervent-ion i ~ zthe Caribbean, 2898-1934. Lexington: Univ.
Pustay John S. Gounterizzs~irgencyWafare. New York: Free Press, 1965. ""Repc~rton Marine Corps Duplication af Effort Between Army and Navy." 47 Dec. 1932. Marine Corps Research Center; Archives Branch, Marine Corps Cornbat Development Command, Quantica, V . . Rosen, Stephen P. Wi~zningthe Next War: Innoztation and the Modern Military, Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 11991. Schmidt, Hans. The Uzzz'ted States Occ~~ycntion of Haiti 2915-1934. New Brumwick, NJ: Ru tgers Unl'v. Press, 1972. Schwarz, Benjamin C. Americaz Counten'nsuqqency Dwtriliie: The Frustrations of Refomz and 1 " ) Jllusions ~ oJRiatit?n IZtil'ldiz?g.Santa M~)nXca,CA: RAND, 1991. Senge, Peter M. The F"$f\l Discz'plz'ne: The Art arzd Priactice of the Leaf-zzi~zgOrganization. New Yc3rk: Currency Doubleday, 1990. Shafer, D, Michaet. Deadly Paradigms: The Failure of U ,S,Counteri.rzszarge12cyPolicy. Princeton: Princeton Univ, Press, 1988. Shulimson, jack. The Mlarine Corps' Search for a Missiorz, 2880-1898, Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 1993. Smith, Brig.. Gen. Dale 0. U.S. Mr'litay DacCrizze: A Study a d Appraisal. Bo>ston: Little' Brawn, 2 955. Stewart., Capt. M. B., and Davis, Capt. R. C. Notes a d Suggestions on the New Tn@ntq Dril"ERegulatiorjs. Kansas Cityy,MO: FranEriiin Hudson, 11905. Taytor, Capt. John R.M. The Philipyirze hzsztwect-ion Against kke U~rifedShfes. VC&2, May 19,1898 to j24Ey 4,2902. Washingtcm, DC: Mrar Department, Bureau aE Imub r Affairs, 1906. Thampson, Sir Robert, DnalPapers Section, Washington, DC. Weigley, Russell F. History offhe United States Army. New York: Macmillan, 1967.
A&icles, Lectures#and Xndividual Research Papers Bateman, C. C. "Military Training of the Moro." Jloz-lrrzalof tlze Xblilitlaly Servim Instit~itiorzoffhe United States 33 4an.-Mar. 4904): 259-266. Baughman, Comdr, C, C, "United States Occupation of the Dominican Republic.'" U.S. N~z?nlInsl-ifuteProceedings 51, no. 12 (Dec. 1925):2306-2327. Beede, Begamin. "Constabularies in the United States Counterguerrilla Operations." In I[nw War of2898 a d U.S. Jnfervenfions,1898-1934, edited by Benjamin Beede, New York: Garland Publishing, 1994. Bleasdale, Capt. Victor E ""L Flor Engagement." Marir-zc Corps C~zelie16, no. 4 (Feb. 1932): 29-40. . ""L Flor Engagexnrtnt." MS, n.d. Marine Corps Research Centeu; Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA.
Blctcksam, Maj..Augustus F" ""A Retrospect and Prospect of Mr.'' "zdrnnl of the Militarp Se~vice1nstilutio:orzofftie United States 335 (June-Nctv.1904): 215-226, Boydon, Lt. Hayne. "'Air Mapping in Haiti." US. Nnzlal ln!nslt.it~tfe Pro~edirzgs5 5 no, 7 (July 1922): "i"93-796. Bride, Capt. Frank L. "The Gendarmerie dmaiti," Marine COTS Gazette 3, no. 4 (Dec. 4948): 295-2%. Bryan, Lt. Col. J. C,, Jr. "Concepts, Doctrine and Skdies: A Cohesive Force for lR&P>." M~rineCorps Gczzeffe 62, no. 3 (Mar. 1978): 24-25. Bullard, Lt. Col. Robert L. "%he Army in Cuba.'" forirrzalofthe MiEita~yServim Institution offhe Utrifed Sf~fes41 guly-Nc>v.1907): 152-157. . "Military Pacification." Journal of-the MiEitary Serztice Instifzktion of-the Utzited Shfes 46 0itn.-Feb. 1910): 1-24. Burkett, Lt. Cot. Jack, "Dpamie Management of U.S. Army Dc>ctrine,"Wilif~ry Review 71, no, 2 (Feb. 1991): 81%. Campbell, Capt. H, Denny. "Aviation in Guerrilla Warfare,"%ari-kril.leCorps Gazette 15, no. 4 (Feb. 1931): 37-40, 71-75; 16, no. 2 (May 1931): 35-42; 16, no. 3 (Nov. 1931): 3340. Carlson, Capt. Evans F. "The Guardia Nacional d e Nicaragua." Marine Corps Gnzetfe 21, no. 3 (Aug. 19317): 7-20. Cassibry Col. fiabert C. "Development of Doctrine." Military Reviczu 36, no. 2 (May 1956): 25-30. Coopel; Jerry M, ""TheArmy" %arch for a Mission, 1%5-1890," In Against AIl Enemies: IrzferpretationsoJMilitnry Histoqfrotrz: Colonial n n ~ e sto fhe Preselzt, edited by Kemeth J, Hagan and Wilfiam R, Roberts. New York: Greenwood Press, 2 986, Crane, Maj. C. J. "The Fighting Tactics of Filipinos." "rnal of ffze Military Service Irtstitz-ltz'o~t ofthe UtziCed Sttztes 31 (June-Nov- 1902): 496-507. . 'The Filipino's War Contribution. " puma2 of the Military Service Inst itutiorz ojffzc United States 29 Uune-Nov. 4901): 2"i70-273. Del Valte, Maj. I""cs$rc:,A. "The Use of Gas in Minor Warfare." Marilze Corps Gazette 16, no. 4 (Feb. 1931): 25-27. BeLisi, 13eter S. ""Lsmns from the Steel Axe: Culture, Technolom, and Organizaticlnal Change," Sloan hnngement Review 31, no. 1 (Fall 1990):83-93. Benig, Lt. Robert L. "Use of Chemical Agents in Guerrilla Warfare." M a r i ~ eCo~ps Gazeffe 20, no. 3 (Aug. 1936): 36-38. BiBella, Anthony, Nevis, Edwin, and Gauld, Janet. ""Undastanding Organizational learning CapabiEity.j;""wrnal ofM~nagenfenfStudies 33, nu. 3 (May 1996): 361-3B. Editorial. I~zfant~y lournnl9, no. 2 (Sept.-Oct. 1912): 257. Eciscln, Capt. Merritt A. ""Te Coco Patrol." Marifre Ci~rpsGazette 20, no, 3 (Aug. 2936): 18-23, 38-48; 20, no. 4 (Nov. 19336):$0-41, 60-72; 21, no. 2 (Feb. 1937): 35-43,5743. Ellis, Capt. Earl H. "Bush Brigades." Marine Corps Gazette 6, no, 1 (Mar. 1923): 1-35. . ""Uscussion on a Plea for a Missian and Doctrine." Mari~zeCorps Gazette 2, no. 2 (June 1916): 197.
Bibliography
265
Eppte, Dennis, and Argote, Linda. ""An Empirical Tnvestigation of the Microstructure of h o w l e d g e Acquisition and Emsfer Though Learning by Doing." Qperailions Research 44, no. 1 (Jan.-Feb. 1996): 77-86. Erickson, Lt. Cot. Hjalmar. ""P>rctrinesand Principles of War," Infatztly lourrlat 22 no. 1 (Jan. 1924): 47-49. Fellers, Capt. WiHiarn S. "A Proposed Plan for Assuming and Maintaining the Offmsive Within an Area in Small Wrs." MS, 1 June 1936, Marine Corps Research Centel; Archives Branch, Marine Corps Cambat Development Command, Quantico, VA, FeXXowes, Lt. Edward A. "Training Native Troops in Santo Domingo." Marine Corps Gazette 8, na. 4 (Dec. 4923): 215-233, Gamin, David. '3lBuiXding a Learning Organization." H~rvnrdBtisir-zess Rezjiew 4 (July-Aug. 4993): 79-93. Gates, jahn M. "Indians and Insurrectos: The U.S. Army" Experience with Insurof- the U.S. gency." In The Parameters of War: Mz'lz'tn~yHl'stury f-rorn the Ji~zsrr-zal Army War College, edited b y Lloyd J, Matthews and Dale E. Brown. Washington, DC: Pergammon-Brassey, 1987. Gray, Maj. John A. ""Bucan Carre," Marine Corps Gazette 16, no. 3 (Nov. 1931): 2&32. . "Cul de Sac." Marine Corps Gazette 16, no, 4 (Feb. 1932):44-44. . ""A FXea for Revision of the Field OfficersfCourse," Marine Corps Casetfe 15, no, 4 (Feb. 1li3SI): 64. . "The Second Nicaraguan Campaign.'" Mal.z'ne COTS Gazette 17, no, 4 (Feb. 1933): 3642. Greenwood, Maj. John. ""l"hagghts on Doctrine.'" Marine CCT~TS Gazette 47, no, 21 (Nov. 1963): 40-43. Grieb, Kenneth. ""Antiguerrilla Operations in the Dominican Republic.'" In The War ($1898 and U S . Irztc~wmtions,1896-25t34, edited by Benjamin Beede. New York: Garland Publishing, 19%. . "Civic Action in the Dt~minicanRepublic." h 'The War of 1898 and US*Inte~~?entz'o:ulzs, 1898-1934, edited by hnjarnin Beede. New York: Garland Publishing, 1994. ""The Haitian Gendarmerie." Marine Corps Gazette 41, na. 2 (June 46326): 73-81, Hale, Maj. Wayne M. "'A Critique of the Doctrine-Training Fit." MMl'lita~yReview 65, no. 6 (June 1985): 32-34. Hamilton, Lt. Louis McLane. ""JnngXe Tactics," journal I?( fhe Mill'tlzry Servie btstitulion offhe Utzitfla Slates 37 gune-Nov. 1905):2S28. Harrington, Maj. Samuel M. "The Strategy and Tactics of Small Wars."%rine Corps Gazette 6,no. 4 (Dec. 1921): 474491; 7, no. 1 (Mar. 1922): 8693. Hickman, Lt. Edwin A. "Remarks on the Last Days of the Insurrection in Southern Luzon." Jozlrrzal of trlte U.S. It$antq Association 14, no. 50 (Oct. 2 "303):300, 306. Hill, Capt. VValteu: "A Haitian Recomaissance,'" Mal.z'ne Cor~jsGazette 2, no. 1 (Mar. 1917): 31-36. ""A History of the Field OfficersYchaol." MS, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA, n,d,
Ho>bday;Capt. E. M. ""Notes on Jungle WriFare." M ~ r i n eCorps CwzeCte 2, no. 4 (Dec. 1947):332-3i12. Hc~bsc~n, Col. Victor W, Jr., and Minney Col. Oliver G. ""Keeping Pace with the Future: Development of Dctdrine at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College," MiliC~lyReviezo 37, no, 8 (Move1957):n.y. HoEfman, Jan. "Edson, Merritt Austin." In Tbc Wnr of-2 898 a ~ U. d S. Interverttiorzs, 1898-2934, edited by Benjamin Beede. New York: Garland Pkiblishing, 1994. . "'Utle~~; Harold Hickox." h Inhe W Q of~ 1898 nrzd U S . l~rfervcntions, 1898-2934, edited by Benjamin Beede. New Ymk: Garland Publishing, 1994. HoXden, Col. H. W. 'The Mission of the AAF School of Applied Tactics." Military Review 24, no. 7 (Oct. 19-44);n.p. HoXIey, Maj. Gen. 1. B. " m e Doctrinal Process: Some Suggested Steps." Military Revkw 53, no. 4 (Apr. 1979): 3-5. Horelick, Arnold L. ""Prspectives on the Study of Comparative Military Boctrine," In Comparatizte Defe~zscPolicy, edited by Frank B. Hortc~nIll, Anthany C. Ragerson, and Edward L, Warner 11%.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins biniv. 13ress, 1974. Howland, Lt. H. S. ""Field Service in Mindanao." Izfant~yfotarnal 2, no, 2 (Oct. 1905): 36-79. C. A, "Junior Marines in Minor Irregular Warfare," brine Corps J c ~ h s a nCapt.. , Gnzette 6,no. 2 (June 1921): 352-1 63. Jc~hston, Alastair 1, "T11inking About Strategic Culture." Intenzatiorzal SecirriQ 49, no. 4 (Spring 1995): 32-64. Jc~hston,Maj. E. S, "Fiield Srvice Regulations of the Future." Militnrp Review 46, no. 61 (June1936): 6-57. Johnston, Maj. Williarn H. ""En^rpyment of PhiXippine Scouts in Wac" puma[ of the Milil.lt~yServie Institution of the U ~ ~ i t States e d 38 (Jan.-Mar. 1906): 67-77, ""JnngXe Mrfare Weapons." Marine Corps Gazefie 39, no. 1 (May 19M):64-71. Kamman, Willam, ""Cuardia Nacir~nalde Nicaragua."21nTbe War of1898 and U.S. lfzlervenfio~s,1898-1 934, edited by knjamin Beede. New York: Garland PublisNng, 1994. Kier, Elizabeth, "Culture and Military Doctrine: France ktween the Wars,'" Internnfl;otzatSecran"fy 19, no. 4 (Spring 4995): 65-95. KiXmartin, 1st Lt. Rabert C. ""fdoctrination in Santo Borningo,'" Marine Carps Gazette 7,no. 4 (Dec. 1922): 377-386, Kim, Daniel H. "The Link Between Individual and Organizational Learning.'" Slonlz Managetnent Review 35, no. 1 (Fall 1993): 37-50, b o x , Comdr. Dudley W*"The Role c ~ Doctrine f in Naval Warfare,"V.S. N ~ t ~ Innl stitute f"roccedir-zgs43, no. 2 (Mar.-Apr. 1915): 325-354. Kc~tter,John P? "Leading Change: Why fiansfc3rmations Efforts Fail," ki~rvard B~-rsz'ness Review 2 (Mar.-Apr. 1995):59-45?. Lambeth, Benjamen S. ""The Scturces of $ctviet Military Dextrine," In CompnraEizle Defense Policyp edited by Frank B, Horton IZI, Anthany C. Rogerson, and Edward L. Warner 111. Baltimore: Johns FSopkins Univ. Press, 19174. Lane, Col. Rufus T, ""Civil Cavernmrtnt in Santo Borningo in the Early Bays of the Military Occupation." Marizze COTS CazeEfe'7, no. 2 Uune 1922): 127-146.
Lebc)vic, Jarnes. "How Organizations Learn: U.S. Government Estimates of Foreign Military Spending." American lournal of- Political Scie~zee39, no. 4 (Nov. 1995): 835863. tevitt, Barbara, and March, James C. "Organizational Learning." Rnr2zml Reztiew c?f Soer'nloa 14 (1988): 319-340 . tinsert, 1st Lt, E, E. ""ShcruId the Marine Corps Use Chemical Agents in Guerrilla VVarhre?" Marine Corps Gnzefte 28, no, 2 (Aug. 1933): 36-38 Livingston, Maj. Richard. ""A Critical Analysis of the ElattXe of Quilali Including March of Colum." MS, 1 June 1936. Marine Corps Research Centeu; A~hrives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantlco, VA. t o w Maj. T. H, "Dixussion an a Plea for a Mission and Doctrine." Marine Corps Gazette 1, no. 3 (Sept. 1916): 331. MacArthur, Capt. J, C. ""Jnngle Wrfare in Panama."Y~zfarzlrylourr-zal 10, no. G (May-Jme 2 914): 855-860. Maguire, T, MiHer "Guerrilla or Partisan Warfare." jourr-.ml of ftw Milifaq Servicc Irtstitution of the Utzited States 29 fJune-Nov. 1901):8692, "Marine Cctrps SclzooXs 1934-35: An Outline of the SchooXs' Courses." M~rl'ne Cor~jsGazetie 18, no. 2 (May 1934): 2 5-23, Mason, Capt. Arthur T. "The Rote of the Marine Corps Schools." Marine Corps Gazette 20, no, 2 (May 4936): n.p. McCarthy; Joseph. ""Caco Campaigns: Haiti," h Tlze War @l898 ~ n US. d Tnle~r~entiolzs, 2898-1934, edited b y Benjamin Beede. New York: Garland Publishing, 2 994. McClelIan, Maj. Edwin N. "American Marines in Nicaragua." Marine Corps Gazette 6, no. 2 Uune 1922):4M5,1M-187. . "The Nueva Segovia Expedition." Marine Corps Gnzeffc~16, no. 1 (May 1931): 21-25. . "The Saga of the Co>co." Marir-ze Gnzetfe 15, no. 3 (Nov. 1930): 14-18, 71-79, McClemand, Maj. E. J. "Our Philippine Prt,btern." "lolarnlrl of ltte Military Service Tnslifutiorz of-fheUlziled Stntes 229 Uune-Nov. 4901): 327-332. McGarr, Maj. Gen. Lionef C, "The 130wer of Thought: New Horizons." Military Review 39, no. 6 (Sept. 1959):8-IQ. Metcalf, Maj. C. H. ""A History of the Education of Marine Officers." Marine Co~ps Gazette 20, no. 2 (May 1936):4&5Q. Metcaff, Lt. Cot. C.H. "The Marine Corps and the Changing Caribbean Policy.'" n/ln;.in~C o f ~Cazef s te 21, no. 3 (Aug. 1937):27-32,68-72. Miller, Maj. C. J. "Bplomacy and Spurs in the Dominican Republic," MSf June 1923. Marine Corps Research Center; Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantica, VA. . ""T'e Education and Training of b u n g Officers,'" Marine Corps Gazette 20, no, 1 (Feb. 1936): n,p. Miller, Col. Ellis, "The Marine Corps in Support of the Fleet," MS, 1 June 1933. Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Cs>mbatDevelopment Command, Quantico, VA. Mcjore, Capt. Richard S. "Ideas and Direction: Building Amphibious Dc~ctrine*" Mri.rze Corps Gazetfe66, no. 1 (NC~CI, 4982): n.p,
Mutcahyf Capt. Francis. "Marine Corps Aviation in Second Nicaraguan Camp a i p , " ".S. Nnvral InstifufePmceedings 59, no, 8 (Aug. 1933): 4121-1132, Munro, Capt. J. N. "The Philippine Native kouts." h f ~ r z Joztrnnl2, t~ no. 1 (July. 1905): pp. 478-490. Murray, Maj. Terrence P. ""Etablishing Force Structure and Doctrine,'" Marine Corps Gazefte 67, no, 9 (%pt. 1983): 60-61. Myers, Lt. Col. John T: "Discussion on a Plea far a Mission and Doctrine," Marirze Corps Gnzetfe 1, no. 2 (June 1916): 296. Nenninger, Timothy K. "The Army Enters the 20th Century, 1904-1917." In Againsl All Enenzies: hzterprefntions of Milifay Nistolyfiont Colonial Ti~nesEo the Prcse~tt,edited b y Kemeth J, Hagan and Wiliiam R, Roberts. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986. Nevis, Edwin C., DiBella, Anthony J., and Gould, janet M, "Understanding Organizations as Learning Systems." Sonu Illnnagerrzelzt Review 36, na, 2 (Winter 1995): 73-86. Parker, Lt. Col. James. "some Random Notes on the Fighting in the 13hilippines.'" Jozlrnnl of El~eMilitary Service InstiC-trltion cf Clre United Stairs 2'7 (Nov. 1900): 317-340, Peard, Capt. Roger W Untitled art.icle-.Marir-ze Corps C~zedfe 15, no. 2 (June 1930): page numbers unavailable, Pierce, Capt. P. E. "The Squad Fcyrmation: Its Advantages as Illustrated by an Infantry Company in the Philippines." jara?-rzal of the Mifz'ta~yServim Insfifutiorz of trlte Ulzr'fedStakes 330 Uan.-Mar, 1902):409-417, in the I-rzterwar Period, edited by Posen, Barry R, Review of Milifaty Itztzomfi~~t Williamson Murray and Allan Millcstt, Stmtegic Review 25, no. 1 (Winter 1997): 62-6. Powefl, Col. James VV; "The Utilization of Native Troops in Our Foreign 130ssesslisns." "rnaf of Clze MiliIaq Service Przstz'tulion c$ the Urziiod States 30 (Jan. 1902): 23-41, Pc>wetl,Walter W, Koput, Kenneth W., and Smith-Doerr, Laurel. ""lterc~rganizational Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of Learning in Biotechnal~y."Ad~rzirzisdmtiveScience Quarterly 41 (Mar. 1996): 116-145. d'H_f-iwifi," In The War of 2898 and U.S. Rauxh, Jane M, ""Cnrde dd'Haili/Gerld~rme~*ie frz ferventious, 2898-4 934, edited by Benjamin Beede. New York: Garland I"&lishing, 1994. Reisinger, Col. H. C, "hPalabra Del Gringo!" '.S. N~zralInstitzite Proeeedilfgs 61, no. 2 (Feb. 1935): 215-221. Report on Marine Corps Dtipliwdio:orzof Eflorl Between Army alzd M G ~ 17, Dec. 1932, Marine Corps Research Center, Archives Branch, Marine Corps Ccsmbat Development Command, Quantico, V . . Rheem, Helen. """fe Learning Organization: Building karning Capability.'Warw r d Business Rezticzn?2 (Mar.-Apr. 1395): 10, Rhcwtes, Capt. Charles B. 'The Utilization of Native Troops in Our Foreip 130ssessions." "lnrnnf c$ the MiJilay Senlice Tnslifufionof tile United Slates 30 (Jan. 1"382):1-21.
Rosen, Stephen P. ""Milita~Effectiveness: Why Scsdeq Matters." hfer~~ntionnl Secllrily 19, no. 4 (Spring 1995): 1-34.
Rowelf, Maj. Ross. "The Air Service in Minor Warfare." U S . Naval lizstitrrte Procec.dz'~g"5, no, 1Q(1929): 871-877. Russeil, Maj. John H. "A Plea for a Mission." Marir-zc Corps Gczsefte 1, no. 2 (June 1916): 112-116. Russell, W. H, ""The Genesis of FMF Doctrine: Part V-1 900-1935." Mari~zeCo~ps Gazette 39, no, 11 (NCIV.44955): n.p, Schien, Edgar H, "Culture: The Missing Concept in Organizatim Studies." "Admirzistmtizv Seierzce Q~arEerly41 (June 1996): 229-240. Senge, Peter M. '*The Leader's New Work: Building Learning Organizations,'" SIoQnMana~tnenlReview 31, no. 1 (Fall 1990): 7-23. Sibert Capt.. W. L. "Military Occupation of Northern Luzon.""our~lat of ltzc Military Serz~iceInslilufion oftlze Utzited Shfes 30 (Jan.-Mar. 1902): 406408. SuZlivan, Gen. Gordon R, "Doctrine: A Guide to the Future," Mz'liln~yRcviz'ezo7 2 , no. 2 (Feb. 1992): 4-9. Thorpe, Col. Gecjrge C. "&]minican Srvice." m r i n e Corps Gazette 4, no. 4 (Dec. 1"329): 315326. Thrasher, Maj. Thomas E. "The Taking of Fort Riviere," Marine COTSGnztfe 15, no. 4 (Feb. 1931): 31-33,64, Trainor, Lt. Col. B, E, "SchooX f o x Dc~ctrine."Marine Corps Gczsetfe 51, no. 11 (Nctv. 1967): 62-68. Traub, Capt. Peter E. "The Island. of Sarnar and the Capture of ZJukban.""rnal of the Mz'lifnq Service lnstittrtiotz of the United Slates 33 Uune-Nova1903): 369-381. U.S. Marhe Corps. ProeeedilzgsJar. Cotzfe~neeHeld nf fjte MC Scizools, Quantz'co, on Inn. 9, 1934$fir ktw Pzrrpuse of Discllssing, Appruvitzg, or Commc~ttiz~g orz the VariPreous Headirzgs and Szib-hmdirzgs of the Tentative Landilzg Opemfions M~~ttlal, p~redby flze MC Selluols. Marine Corps Research Centex; Archives Branch, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, VA, U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, Division of Operations and Training. ""Combat Reports of Operations in Nicaragua." mri.rze Corps Gazette 13, no, 4 (Dec. 1928): 242-2417; 14, no. 1 (Mar. 1929): 16-30; 14, no. 2 (June 1929): 81-94. Uphhur, M ~ JWilliam . P! "A Marine Corps Drill Book." Marine Corps Gazefle 4, no. 2 (June 1919): 174-181. . "The Waziristan Campaign, 1919-1";"20,"WarirzeCorps Gazette 18, no. 3 (Move1933): 5659. Utley, Maj. Harc3ld H. ""An Introduction t c ~the Tactics and Technique of Small VVars." 'rine (Ilo~psGazette 16, no, 1 (May 1931): 5&53; 18, no. 3 (Nov, 1933): 43-36. Viotti, Paul R, "htroduction: Military Dr>ctrine," In Cornparalive Defe~tsePolicy, edited by Frank B. H o ~ o n111, A n t h n y C. Rogerson, and Edward L. Warner If I. Baltimore: Jnhns Elcjpkins Univ, Press, 1974, Walravtzn, Lt. J. G. ""T'ypical Combat Patrols in Nicaragua," Mari~zeCorps Gazette 14, no. 4 (Dec. 4929): 243-253. Gazette s WiXliams, Maj. Charles F, "La Cuadia Naciotzal Bomr'nica~ck."M a r i ~ eC c ~ f ~ 3, no. 3 (Sept. 1918): 195-199. WiXliams, Brig. Gen. Dian. "The Nicaraguan Situation." Mari~zeCorps Gnzetfe 15, no. 3 (New. 1%3Q): 19-23.
Wig, Maj. Hugh D. ""Notes on Field Sewice in S a r n a ~ "hZf:arzrzlyJournal 4, no. 1 (July 1907):3-55. Zabecki, David T. jf"13tler; Srnedley Darlington." In Tlze War of 1898 nnd U.S. Inletve~ztio~ts, 1898-2934, edited by Benjamin Beede. New York: Garland PublisNng, 2 994,
Avant, Deborah D. "The Institutional Sclurces af Military Dadrine: The United Skates in Vietnam and Britain in the Boer War and Malaya.'" Univ. of Califarnia-San Diego, 1991. Btankehagen, Edward. "Organizational Learning in the Development of Doctrine in the U.S. Arm5 19%-1986: A Historically Based Studyy;"Teorge Washington Univ., 1994. Herbert, Paul. "Toward the Best Available Thought: The Witing of Field Manual 100-5, "erations" by the United States Army, 1917S76," Ohio State Univ., 1985. Sheehan, Mevin I-? ""Peparing for an Imagnary War? Examining Peacetime Fmctic~nsand Changes af Army Dc9ctrine." Warvard Univ., 1988.
Index Adminislr~tion,46 Advanced Base ghool, 52 Advanced Base, 52-52,5'7,140,190, 205,211,248 Aguinaldo, Emilio, 29-30,36,62(&9), 73,157 Aids to ScorrEilzg, 58 Air medical evacuation, 177, 2 99(n94) Air Squadron, 127,1(;Rf198(n89) ALbert, Jean Jacques, 90 AZtarnirano, Pedro, 172 Army Machine Gun School, 53 Army Schools Arkif lery Sehoc~l,56 Chemical Warfare %hoof, 56 Judge Advocate Generals School, 56 Signal Corps School, 56 Army Training Reglilntiotzs, 486 Army War College, 46 Barrett, C, D., 208,212,228Qn19) Base DeEense Weapc~nsClass, 220 Basic School, 56,139,18&189,207, 214,220,226 Bates Agreemat, 31,35 Batraville) Benuit, 73,88,9Q, 107 Batwn, M. A, 37 Beft, John, 39,112, 45, 100 Berkeley, Randctlph, 208,213,237,240, 247 Blandon, Pedro, 163 Bleasdate, Victor; 167,214, 241,243, 254Cn42) Boba, Rosalvo, 69 Boucar?.Carr4,84
Breckenridge, Jarnes, 117,146(n25), 206,213-214,22S(n47), 237-240, 243,248 Butler, Smediey, 57, 75, 82-83,84-87, 95-97,100,229(n25) Butler, William, 99 Callwell, C. E,, 104,133, 435,183,207# 216,226,242,246 Capertc~n,WiIliarn B., 7"3 CarXsan, Evans, 182,20Cif254(n42) Cavalry Drill Regulafl'ons, 50 Cazjailry Jclumnl, 63(n49), 2 83 Cavalry %hooX, 46 Chinandega, 1% Clzrwnicl'e c$ llze Arvrly War College, 46 Cibao, pmvince of, 108 Civl'cos, 171,209 Civil Guardia, in the Dominican Republic, 128-1 19 CXausewitz, Car1 von, 27 Coco Patrol, 172, 2 74,176,192,207, 241 Cole, Eli, 89,96 Company M, 173, 176. See also Puller, Lewis Company Officer 'S School, 56, 2 28, 139-141,489-490,211,220,226 Coolidge, Calvin, 155 Cordon operations, 125-1 26 Corretipondence School, 57,289,247 C o ~ ~ e79 e, Court-rnarZials, 39,79 Cralg, Edward, 254(;n42) Cuban Pacificatim, 33-42
del Valle#Pedrc:, A., 2QIJf224(n19),238, 243,246 Bessez, %ester,254(n42) Devereaux, Jameg 2541n42) Bewey, George, 29,50 Division of 0peratic)ns and Training, 210 Doctrine debate over; 2-3 definition of, 4 infc~rmal,5 responsibility for, 16-17 role of culture, 12 rcde of geography, 8 role of individual, 12-14 rcde of international state structure, 9 role of organizational structure, 9-1 1 role of resources, 8-11 rcde of teclurt>logy 8 Dos Rios, 109 Eaton, Harry A., 137 Edson, Merritt "Red Mike," 360, 169, 172-176,485,20&207,24&247, 224,227-228,238-241,243,246, 250 Edson Board, 224-226,241-242 El Chipo:,te, 158,171,180,21 '7 Elinor, 90 Elljs, Earl, 3, 130, 135, 142, 161, 185, 206,240,246 Erskine, Graves, 254(n42) Estel i,166 FeXand, Lc~giiin,155-1 5(if167,193(n1) Fellowes, E., 138 Field A r t i l l e ~School, 53 Field garrison schaols, 57 Fkld Mafiual301-5,218,225,251 Qn3) Field Manual 21-1(l, 21 5 Fkld Manual 22-45, 251(n3) Field Manual 245,22 7 Field Nlnnual840,245 Field Officer" %hoof, 56, 128, 134, 139--140,486,190-192,214,220
Field Service Regulations, 2,4849, 143, 153(n134) Filipino Army style of warfare, 29-30 First Marine air-ground operation, 90 First Year Class, 220 Fkrl b r t d i ~ z gMn~zual,143 Fleet Marine Force (FMF), 57; 205, 212 Fart Libertk, 880 Fort Riviere, 86,89,1QO Fuller, Ben, 188,208 Funston, Frederick, 62(d9), 73 Garde BfP-laiti,119, 216. Sce also Gendarmerie Gendarmerie, 75,78,83-84, &87; 92, 95,97, 112, 129, 167,216, 224, 229(n19) offidal responsibiiiities, 83 See also Garde dwaiti Gendanrzeri Rzales, 97 General Staff and Selvice College, 46 Guardia Mrrnjdpat 170-1 72 Guardia Nacianal d e Nicaragua, 156-1 5 7 16@478,182,209-250, 21G Guardia Nacianal Dominicans, 117-120,1212,129. Sec also Policia Nacional Dorninicana Hanneken, Herman, 73,8&99, 163, 173 Marrington, Samuel, 433-137; 142,144, 150(n91), 156,161,167,1417,180, 183-1 85,188,195(n37), 2Q6,215, 238-241,243,246 Menneker, 105,137 242
Infiztztly Drill Regzrtlaliorzs, 48-45lt 58, 97, 141,153(n134) jrr(fant?yJclumnl, 2, 5/46, 53, 63(n49), 183,254 (n3) infantry School, 46,56,13'7 jrrfantty Tactics, 58 Intellectual tolerance, 249 Internal Disauders, 137
Jicaro, 159, 167 Jinotega, 166, 463,173,178 Jiron, Manuel Maria, 163 J c h s a n , G, A,, 432 Joint Army-Narry Board, 208 loz'nl.0 ~ ~ ~ r sExpeditit?ctns, eas 208 jvzrr~laiof the Milifay S~el-zlicrt lnstitrsfiorz of tlze United Sfnfcs, 44 Junic~rSchoc~l,220,221,238, 247 Kim, Daniel, 245 Knapp, Harry S,, 108 Knox, Dudley W., 2 Krepinevich, Andrew, 249 Lnndi~lgForce alzd Stnnll Arms Instructi~ns,58 Landirzg Force Manunl, 54,91,95-98, 116,123,138,141-143,154(n134), 206,215,1219,224 "Landing Operations and Small ttlars," 208 Lnndi~lgOperatiorzs Ma~nal,249 %asTrencheras, 110 Lee, Harry 119 tejeune, John, 54,243 Leon, 166 tinsert, E. E,, 225,242,246 Lucky, Iliobert, 254(n42)
Macabebe Scout?;,37,62(n29) MacArt-hur, Arthur, 30,3743,115 Magomn, Charlles E,, 81 Managua, 168 Mntzunl of Intel-ior Gunrd D~ity,95, 153(n1M) Map problems, 221--223,232(nn 80,81) Marct>rigSan Pedrc~de, province of, 110, 117 Mnritze Corps Gazette, 2, 5, bJ(n49), 93-94,129-130,133-134,179-185, 206-209,215,1218,241,246 development of, 53 M~rz'zzeGOIFSM~nurnl,58, 142-143, 205-206,224 Marine Corps Schoofs, 55 evolution of, 50
Marine Officer" sbool, 53 Marine School of Application, 51 Matagalpa, 158,166,169 McDougal, D. C., 164,1946n25) Medal of Honor, 86,89,99-100,141, 153(n133), 173,199(n94) Mental model, 245-246 Miller, C. J., 133, 150Cn90) Mileu; Ellis, 208-22&229(n25), 237 Miller, Lyle EL, 208,228(n19) Minor warhse, 50 MXT Learning Laboratory, 245 Moneada, jose, 155,165 Monte Cristi, 108 Moroa 31,72,110,121,217 style of warfare, 31-32 Musketry, 95 Naval Aviation School, 56 Ri~z?nlGo~ir is nnd Bonrds, 21 5 Nnzral Irtstitute Prcrceeckitzgs, 5, 53, 63(n49), 179-182 Naval War College, 56 Nueva Segavia, 155,158,160,166-1 67, 17'4,488
Qcotal, 157-158,467-468,177-180 Qrg~nz'zaibnand Tactics, 49 Ortez, Miguel h g e l , 163 Ostermann, Edward, 89 13eck, Bettlitt, 254(n42) Pendletcm, Joseph, 107-114,144(n4), 228fn19) 13erautt,Charlemagne, 72-73,87-90, 92,99,107 PhiXippine Commission, 3 7 81,91 13hilippineConstabulary, 37 Platt Amendment, 33 PoXicia Nacionat Dominicans, 119 1301k, Frank, 14 Port-au-Prince, 69-70,73, 79, 88,90, 94-95,131 Poteca, 173,176,207,241 Puertc~Cabezas, 173 Puertc~Plata, 408
Pulfer, tewis "Chesty" 16'7,172-174, 196(n57),211,216,254(~42) Questionnaires, 210 Quilali, 159, 167 Raider battalion% 250 Reg~dlafions for Miliitzry I;3oEicef 153fn134) R~7z~iew of-f t z ~Orpnizaliorz and Operatiorzs of f he Guardia Nnciotzat de Micnragw, 201) Roosevelt, Thcodore, 52 Roc)sevelt Corollary 52,63 Root, El-ihu,37; 46,119 Russell, John, 2,54,211-214,224, 237-240,248-249 Salgado, Carlos, 463 Sarnana, province of, 122 Sarnar, 38, "7,93 Sandino, Augttsta, 455-482,209,218 Santiago, 108-112, 117 188 Santo Domjngo City 107,112,117-118, 131,137 Santo Domjngo. See Dominican Republic Schilt, Christian, 199(n44) School of the tine of the Army GcsneraX Staff College, 56 Scazrting n ~ Patrolli~g, d 95, 140 Second Year Class, 220 Seibo, province of, 117-12 8 Senate hearings and investigations, 121,432 Senge, Peter, 245 Senior &hool, 220-221,238,247 Sef-zlicc-.of Ssczirify and Inforrr~afio:orz,48 Slack, creation of, 1247-248 S~nnllA rvrls Firing RegzlZnt ions, 46 S~nnllWt~rsManzml, X, 214-221, 224-227,236-242,243,246,248, 250,251 (n3) S~nnllW ~ r alzd s P~inii.;i-rle Expelitioions, 184,206
Smith, Jacob H., 39 Smith, Julian, 167;195(n36), 209-21 1, 243,254(n42) S o m z a , Anastosio, 4 78 Specialization, 248 State Department, 81-82,91, 114, 118, 156,216,227,236,239 Stimso)n, Henry 155 Studies in Minor T~ctics,58 Tactics and Technique of Small Wars, 183,206 Tactics alzd file Seeurify uJ: lrfomzntion, 58 Taft, Williarn Hc>ward,33, 36 Tayfor, J.R.M., 45 TeIpaneca, 457'-459,167-168,488 Te'rlzkativeh n i l a l opt tandi~lgOper~tiorzs, 213 TR 20@5, Seozitirzg and Pntmll'r'rzg, 217 Training centers, 157-138 Tra2'1-zingRegulations 5045,251f n3) Trenches, 29,172. Troup"in Cnmpigt2,4849 United States Army Dictionary of Terms, 3 United States-Haitian Treaty 78,91-92 Upshur, Wilitiam, 84,141,153(n433), 191,254(n42) Upton, Emory, 58 Utfey, Marold, 135, 2 4Q,153(n125), 172-173,183-185,191-2 9Zf 2Q6-2QISt214-21 6,225243,246 Wagner, Arthur L., 4&43,58 Waller, titlleton, W. T'., 33, 33,69-70, 75,80-81,87,%, 98,125 Wi1XiamsYD-ion, 2 22,148(n50) Wilson, Wood row-, 53 administration, 78, 114 'u'ali, 178 b u n g , Samuel, 30