ABSTRACT
The second series of anti-colonial liberation campaigns, fought from the mid-1960s to 1980, differed from the earlier conflicts in that governments lost and insurgents secured permanent control over specific areas of the territories affected. Four weapons in particular helped turn the scales in favour of the insurgents in the field: anti-personnel mines, the sturdy Russian-designed Kalashnikov AK-47 self-loading rifle, the Soviet rocket-propelled manual grenade launcher RPG-7 and the Soviet SAM-7 manual antiaircraft, anti-helicopter missile, the two last giving artillery support to the insurgent (for details of these weapons, see Appendix: Technical Note). The growing strengths and successes of the insurgency movements combined with other external pressures accordingly forced governments to realize that total military defeat, sooner rather than later, was inevitable. Insurgency movements were therefore able to set the pace for political change when circumstances occasioned the opening of negotiations.
