Small Wars Manual: FMFRP 12-15 (Formerly available as NAVMC 2890)

Fleet Marine Force Reference Publication (FMFRP) 12-15, Small Wars Manual, is published to ensure the retention and dissemination of useful information which is not intended to become doctrine or to be published in Fleet Marine Force manuals.Formerly available as NAVMC 2890, Small Wars Manual, was originally printed in 1940. It is one of the best books on military peacekeeping and counterinsurgency operations published before World War II. It still can help Marines prepare for low-intensity conflicts which in the 1930's were referred to as small wars.The term "Small War" is often a vague name for any one of a great variety of military operations. As applied to the United States, small wars are operations undertaken under executive authority, wherein military force is combined with diplomatic pressure in the internal or external affairs of another state whose government is unstable, inadequate, or unsatisfactory for the preservation of life and of such interests as are determined by the foreign policy of our Nation. As herein used the term is understood in its most comprehensive sense, and all the successive steps taken in the development of a small war and the varying degrees of force applied under various situations are presented. Read more