Counterinsurgency and the United States Marine Corps

From the turn of the 20th century until the end of World War II, the United States Marine Corps fought a series of “small wars,” starting in the Philippines in 1899, and ending in the islands of the southwest Pacific in 1945. Through this experience, the Marines perfected the prosecution of such wars in its famed Small Wars Manual, written for Marine Corps schools in the late 1930s. The present volume is a chronological examination of the various Marine expeditions in the Pacific, West Indies and Central America from 1899 through 1945, and of the lessons learned.

Leo J. Daugherty III is the Senior Command Historian for the United States Army Cadet Command in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Leo J. Daugherty III
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 412
Bibliographic Info: 67 photos, 11 maps, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2015
pISBN: 978-0-7864-9698-3
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1803-6
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Small Wars: A Diplomatic Background, 1899–1933 3
2. To Sunny Tropic Scenes: The Marine Corps and Expeditionary Warfare, 1899–1916 20
3. Fighting Insurgents in Haiti and the Lessons of Small Wars, 1919–1929 64
4. Intervention in the Dominican Republic, 1916–1924 99
5. Bush Warriors: Marines, Soldiers and Small Unit Training and Leadership, 1919–1933 115
6. Counterinsurgency from the Air: Marine Aviation in Small Wars (Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua), 1919–1933 139
7. An Expedition Beyond the Sea: China, the Marines and Peacekeeping, 1923–1937 154
8. In Every Clime and Place: The U.S. Marines in Nicaragua, 1925–1933 211
9. The Lessons of Small Wars: The End of the Nicaraguan Campaign,
1929–1933 252
10. Gung Ho: Marine Corps and U.S. Navy Special Units During World War II, 1940–1945 286
11. The U.S. Marine Corps and the First Counterinsurgency Era, 1899–1945: A Summary 334
Appendices
A. A Creditable Position: James Carson Breckinridge and the Development of the Marine Corps Schools, by Troy R. Elkins 339
B. After-Action Report on 2nd Raider Battalion in Operations Against the Enemy (August–December 1942) (Enclosure A) and Reply of the Commandant of the Marine Corps (March 1943) 357
Chapter Notes 362
Bibliography 387
Index 393

“Dougherty has authored an excellent tour de force of the evolutionary development of the Marine Corps’ counterinsurgency doctrine in the first half of the 20th century…extensively researched and skillfully presented…a wonderful historic reference”—Naval History; “this is an exceptional book that examines the Marine Corps COIN from 1899 to 1945. The labor of care the author demonstrates is apparent; he offers context that takes the reader to the time and place of events he describes.”—H-Net Reviews.