ABSTRACT
The mobilization of Montagnard communities for self-defense built on precedents from the First Indochina War. American assistance to the newly independent Philippines against communist guerrillas from 1945 to 1960 provided other precedents, known to Special Forces soldiers and other Americans, for countering insurgents. Taken together, these continuities provided a context for cooperation, experimentation, and adaptation. Who were these highlanders andAmericans? Beginning with the visit of a combat medic to a few isolated communities, Montagnards and US Army Special Forces teams together began a village-based, self-defense program that protected scores of hamlets and villages within a year’s time. What was it about the US Army Special Forces – trained to incite and sustain resistance forces and partisan warfare – that enabled them to create the first successful counterinsurgency program while much of the rest of the American military struggled with definitions? Were there historical precedents for successful mobilization and techniques and principles to counter an insurgency?
