Hearts and Minds: A People's History of Counterinsurgency (New Press People's History)

The first book of its kind, __Hearts and Minds__ is a scathing response to the grand narrative of U.S. counterinsurgency, in which warfare is defined not by military might alone but by winning the "hearts and minds" of civilians. Dormant as a tactic since the days of the Vietnam War, in 2006 the U.S. Army drafted a new field manual heralding the resurrection of counterinsurgency as a primary military engagement strategy; counterinsurgency campaigns followed in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the fact that counterinsurgency had utterly failed to account for the actual lived experiences of the people whose hearts and minds America had sought to win.Drawing on leading thinkers in the field and using key examples from Malaya, the Philippines, Vietnam, El Salvador, Iraq, and Afghanistan, __Hearts and Minds__ brings a long-overdue focus on the many civilians caught up in these conflicts. Both urgent and timely, this important book challenges the idea of a neat divide between insurgents and the populations from which they emerge—and should be required reading for anyone engaged in the most important contemporary debates over U.S. military policy. "The first book of its kind, "Hearts and Minds" is a scathing response to the grand narrative of U.S. counterinsurgency, in which warfare is defined not by military might alone but by winning the "hearts and minds" of civilians. Dormant as a tactic since the days of the Vietnam War, in 2006 the U.S. Army drafted a new field manual heralding the resurrection of counterinsurgency as a primary military engagement strategy; counterinsurgency campaigns followed in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the fact that counterinsurgency had utterly failed to account for the actual lived experiences of the people whose hearts and minds America had sought to win. Drawing on leading thinkers in the field and using key examples from Malaya, the Philippines, Vietnam, El Salvador, Iraq, and Afghanistan, "Hearts and Minds" brings a long-overdue focus on the many civilians caught up in these conflicts. Both urgent and timely, this important book challenges the idea of a neat divide between insurgents and the populations from which they emerge--and should be required reading for anyone engaged in the most important contemporary debates over U.S. military policy."--Page 4 de la couverture Malaya-between two terrors : "people's history" and the Malayan Emergency / Karl Hack The Philippines-"engendering" counterinsurgency : the battle to win the hearts and minds of women during the Huk rebellion in the Philippines / Vina A. Lanzona Vietnam-uprooting the revolution : counterinsurgency in Vietnam / Hannah Gurman El Salvador-the creation of the internal enemy : pondering the legacies of U.S anticommunism, counterinsurgency, and authoritarianism in El Salvador (1952-81) / Joaquin M. Chavez Iraq, part I-counterinsurgency in Iraq / Rick Rowley Iraq, part II-February 2006-December 2012 : new allies, old tactics / David Enders Afghanistan, part I-"you have to not mind killing innocents" : American COIN operations in Afghanistan and the violence of empire / Jeremy Kuzmarov Afghanistan, part II-counterinsurgency in Afghanistan : myth or reality? / Jean MacKenzie.