Joes, Victorious Insurgencies - Four Rebellions That Shaped Our World

Abstract

     Apples and oranges might result in an appetizing fruit basket, but seeking to draw lessons from four dissimilar twentieth-century "insurgencies" makes for a less successful mixture. Victorious Insurgencies does little to distinguish differences among rebellions, insurgencies, and revolutions (much less among varieties of revolution), and so in examining this potpourri of upheavals we are led to believe those differences are insignificant. Nevertheless, the revolutions in China (1929-49), a civil war-cum-societal revolution, Vietnam (1945-54), an anti-colonial revolution, and Cuba (1956-59), a rebellion against an old-style caudillo, and the rebellion in Afghanistan (1980-88), an insurgency to keep out communism and Soviet influence, can, indeed, teach us something (e.g., about the problems of fighting a war based on the mistakes of previous conflicts and about successful and unsuccessful counterinsurgencies), but only if readers are prepared to do some of their own mental editing and reorganizing. Without Joes saying so explicitly, his primary concern is with developing a counterinsurgency doctrine. If this serves the goals of a course, then teachers will profit from reading his book- but a fair amount of prior knowledge is expected on the part of readers (e.g., in regard to people referenced), which would likely be a problem for students.