United States Marine Corps

Small Wars Manual

United States Marine Corps

The Small Wars Manual is a manual on tactics and strategies for engaging in certain types of military operations created by the United States Marine Corps. The purpose of this work is sharing experience and preserving the achievements of tactics and organization of small wars, or different military operations of the United States in countries where government is «unstable, inadequate, or unsatisfactory for the preservation of life and of such interests as are determined by the foreign policy» of the United States. The book starts with the definition of the term «small war» and continues into more than 500 pages on tactics, personnel structure, communication chain, transportation and logistics, military-civil relationship, psychological side of war, training, and support of native armed organizations and much more. The book is extremely interesting as a manual on tactics, whether it is used for a military operation or any other sort of massive campaign involving a large part of population, like elections. For example, it contains a chapter telling how to plan and organize legally the disarmament of local population. It tells what laws should be issued and what organizations form, what sort of personnel should be involved and what should be their roles. A reader will find guidelines on how to distribute and spare resources needed for a campaign, and how to properly cross a river in a dangerous area. Given the book's organization, structure and abundance of important information, covering different aspects of civil and military campaigns, this volume is a must-read for any person engaged in a state service or a student considering career in serving their country.