Counter-Guerrilla Operations

This volume in the Praeger Security International (PSI) series Classics of the Counterinsurgency Era by two officers-one from the Philippines and the other from America-who fought as guerrillas against the Japanese occupation and went on to defeat the Huk rebellion after World War II. Unlike many other accounts of counterinsurgency operations that focus on theoretical principles and their tactical applications, the authors examine the means to assess the strengths and weaknesses of insurgencies. An enduring contribution of this book is its emphasis on the importance of intelligence in combating insurgent movements. With a new foreword prepared by Kalev Sepp.

VALERIANO D. NAPOLEAN was among the most highly regarded counterinsurgency experts in the Philippine army. During his career he was a key aide to President Ramon Magsaysay and the chief of police in Manila and of the Philippine Constabulary. Colonel Valeriano also was an advisor on security matters in Vietnam with his colleague Charles Bohannan. Subsequently, he was appointed a Philippine representative to the U.N. Security Council. He retired to the United States where he joined government-sponsored threat assessment teams in Guatemala and Colombia, and helped to train Cuban paramilitary forces

CHARLES T.R. BOHANNAN was an American officer who survived the Bataan Death March and then became adept in irregular warfare while fighting the Japanese behind-the-lines. Trained as an anthropologist and geologist, he conducted operations after World War II against the communist guerrillas in the hinterland of the Philippines. He is the coauthor with Napoleon Valeriano of Counter-Guerrilla Operations: The Philippine Experience. Colonel Bohannan also served as an advisor in South Vietnam under Edward Lansdale, and later teamed with Valeriano to train anti-Castro forces in the Florida swamps.