McClintock, Michael. Instruments of Statecraft: U.S. Guerrilla Warfare, Counterinsurgency, and Counterterrorism, 1940-1990. New York: Pantheon Books, 1992. 604 pages.

Michael McClintock spent 16 years as a human rights monitor, traveling extensively in Latin America, Thailand, and the Philippines. With 122 pages of end notes, this is something of an academic tome, and it functions as a counterweight to the fascination that some academics have demonstrated for elitist military doctrine. McClintock is always aware that "counterterrorism" is too often another name for torture and assassination, and despite such fancy terms as "psychological warfare," "counterinsurgency," "unconventional warfare," and "low intensity conflict," when you take away the rhetoric there seems to be a problem. For one thing, U.S. special warfare has always been cast in an anti-Communist mode, regardless of whether the "Communist" insurgents had the support of the local population. The techniques have emphasized "fighting fire with fire," with much more emphasis on winning respect out of fear than soliciting popular support out of enlightened self-interest.

McClintock's numerous quotes from military manuals and experts begin to drag after a few hundred pages, but his material on Edward Lansdale, and on President Kennedy's love affair with Special Forces, are almost worth the effort it takes to wade through them.
ISBN 0-394-55945-2

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