ABSTRACT
The 1933–1934 academic year is probably the most important pre-war year in the history of the Marine Corps Schools. A simmering tension between two cultures—the small wars specialists and the Advanced Base adherents—broke into open debate at the uppermost levels of the Corps. Many officers with an intellectual interest in the debate saw the need for the Corps to develop its own doctrine. The production of Small Wars Operations was the climax of formal counterinsurgency doctrine production within the Marine Corps at the same time that it marked the continuation of three years of heightened small wars training within the Corps. As the Small Wars manual was nearing distribution, at least one high-ranking officer could not resist one last plug for small wars. In 1939, the Corps Commandant himself, Maj. Gen. Russell, decided to have the Manual on Small Wars Operations updated and published fully as a whole manual rather than, maintain it as a collection of pamphlets.
