The War of the Flea: A Study of Guerilla Warfare Theory and Practice

164 Pages·1970·5.914 MB·English

by  Robert Taber

Digitized by the Internet Archive
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Robert Taber was born in Illinois and raised in Tennessee. He
began work as a farmhand at fourteen and has been a merchant
seaman, tugboat fireman, and railroad worker. As a reporter,
Taber has covered revolutions in Central America, North Africa,
and the Caribbean. He was the first journalist to conduct a
television interview with Fidel Castro, in the Sierra Maestra
early in 1957, when the fidelista forces numbered fewer than one
hundred armed men.
After Castro came to power Robert Taber worked at the United
Nations as a correspondent for El Mundo, Habana, and then in
Cuba for El Mundo and Revolucion. He fought with defending
forces at the Bay of Pigs and was wounded at Playa Giron
during the final hours of the battle, subsequently spending five
months in hospital. Taber is also the author of M-26:
Biography of a Revolution.

Robert Taber
War of the Flea
A Study of Guerrilla Warfare
Theory and Practice
The Citadel Press, New York
First paperbound edition, 1970
Published by Citadel Press, Inc.
A subsidiary of Lyle Stuart, Inc.
222 Park Avenue South, New York 10003
@
Copyright by Robert Taber 1963,1969
Manufactured in the United States of America
ISBN 0-8063-0223-8
In Memory Of An Old Fashioned American
George A. Thurston
33
Contents
Introduction 11
1 The wind of revolution. Popular will as the key to
strategy. The confrontation of the haves and the have-
nots. Fallacies of counter-insurgency. Guerrilla war as
an extension of politics. Cracks in the armour of the
modem state. 14
2 The war of the flea. Political and military objectives.
Creating ‘the climate of collapse’. Organization of in¬
surgent forces. Guevara on guerrilla war: the base. 27
3 Inception and evolution of an insurgency. Transition to
civil war. Alternative solutions. The Cuban example. 34
4 Protracted war. Popular forces versus regular armies.
The guerrilla as missionary. Mao Tse-tung on the war of
the flea. The lessons of China. 45
5 Colonial war and the French experience. Strategy and
tactics of Vo Nguyen Giap. How the Vietminh won in
Indo-China. 59
6 The political character of the Second Indo-China War.
The American role. Expansion of the war. 73
7 Wars of national liberation and their cost. The Irish
‘troubles’ and the role of the Black and Tans. Terrorism
in Israel. Rebellion in North Africa. 90
8 General Grivas on guerrilla war in Cyprus. The political
uses of terrorism. Errors of British strategy. 106
9 Failures in the war of the flea. Magsaysay and the Huks
in the Philippines. The price of British victory in
Malaya. Why the communists lost in Greece. 120
10 Sun Tzu on The Art of War. Principles of guerrilla
strategy and tactics. Terrain as a determining factor.
Guerrilla war in urban areas. The character of the
guerrilla. 131
11 Guerrilla movements in the Third World. The revolu¬
tionary base. Outlook for the United States. 150