Strategist in Unconventional Combat Methods Whom the Pentagon Should Examine Currently
Bernard Fall and the Theory of Revolutionary Warfare
Bernard Fall, a former French Resistance fighter and Howard University professor, made significant contributions to the understanding of the Vietnam War. Born in Vienna in 1926, Fall emigrated to France in 1938 and joined the Resistance after his family was affected by the Holocaust. In 1952, he moved to the United States as one of the first International Fulbright Scholars and earned a master's degree in political science at Syracuse University.
In 1961, Fall published his book "Street Without Joy," which shaped the emerging US counterinsurgency strategy during the Vietnam War. He argued that revolutionary warfare was not just a conventional military conflict but a political and sociological struggle rooted in nationalist and revolutionary motivations.
Fall's theory emphasized that insurgencies, like the one in Vietnam, were fundamentally political and sociological struggles. He believed that revolutionary warfare fighters seek "primarily to establish a rival regime via the system of hierarchies paralleles." This involved a prolonged political struggle to win the population's support, not just battlefield victories, making it a war of mobilization and political control over the countryside and populace.
In the context of the Vietnam War, Fall observed that the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces used guerrilla tactics combined with political indoctrination and organizing to undermine the South Vietnamese government and gain the loyalty of rural populations. He stressed that American military efforts focused too heavily on conventional operations and firepower, neglecting the need to address the political and social dimensions that sustained the insurgency.
Fall's perspective aligned with the shifting US counterinsurgency strategy, which aimed to secure and gain the allegiance of civilians rather than merely targeting enemy combatants. However, the US often struggled to fully implement these lessons in practice.
In 1966, these political disagreements culminated in the televised Vietnam hearings. High-ranking politicians, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman J. William Fulbright, turned to Fall for insights on Vietnamese history and Sino-Vietnamese communist relations. Fall's scholarship influenced Fulbright's views, leading to his disagreements with President Lyndon B. Johnson's war policies.
Tragically, Fall died in February 1967 while on patrol with US Marines in Thua Thien province, near Hue, Vietnam. After the war, Fall worked as a translator during the early stages of the Nuremberg trials and continued to work for the War Crimes Commission.
In 1961, Bernard Fall's scholarship on irregular warfare was acknowledged by committed practitioners. US Army special warfare courses, including "Problems of Development and Internal Defense" and "Counterinsurgency in Indochina," relied heavily on Fall's writings. In 2019, a RAND study revealed a pattern of failed campaigns reflecting a wavering emphasis on the will to fight in military doctrine, echoing Fall's beliefs about the importance of political and social factors in counterinsurgency.
David Ucko has explained that the Irregular Warfare Annex to the 2018 National Defense Strategy is insufficient for the reform and change that must take place in irregular warfare. This suggests that Fall's theories, although developed over half a century ago, remain relevant today in understanding and combating insurgencies.
In 1963, Fall published "The Two Viet-Nams: A Political and Military Analysis," explaining why France, the United States, and their allies in the Republic of Vietnam had such difficulty countering Vietnamese revolutionary warfare. In an article published in 1965, Fall described revolutionary warfare as a formula: RW = G + P, where G is guerrilla warfare and P is politics. These insights continue to inform our understanding of revolutionary warfare today.
[1] For more detailed information, refer to the original sources and further scholarly works on Bernard Fall and the theory of revolutionary warfare.
- Bernard Fall's theory of revolutionary warfare, emphasizing the political and sociological aspects of insurgencies, was influential in shaping the US counterinsurgency strategy during the Vietnam War.
- Fall argued that revolutionary warfare fighters seek to establish a rival regime via the system of hierarchies paralleles, indicating a focus on political struggle and population support, rather than just battlefield victories.
- In the 21st century, the relevance of Fall's theories continues to be evident, as demonstrated by the pattern of failed campaigns and the need for reform in irregular warfare, as suggested by David Ucko.
- The insights gained from Fall's works, such as the formula RW = G + P, describing revolutionary warfare as a combination of guerrilla warfare and politics, remain crucial in our understanding of revolutionary warfare today.
