Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 05:35 PM 7/16/03 -0600, Greg J. Lorenzo wrote: >"arguably the most brilliant guerilla leader of the 20th >century"?? Now that's funny, I don't think anyone who reads world >history could argue that and keep a straight face! > >Mao Tse-Tung was unquestionably, by any measure, the most brilliant and >successful guerilla leader of the last century. He defeated a US backed >army of 4 million men and ruled a country of one billion people until >his death. Which just happens to be the largest country by population >and third largest country by size on the planet. > >Of course Nguyen Tat Thanh (aka Ho Chi Minh) was no slouch either, he >defeats another US backed army (the French) in 1954, becomes President >of North Vietnam and puts in motion in 1959 an ultimately successful >second war against both (the US backed) South Vietnamese and large scale >direct US involvement. > >Then there's Lenin, Tito, Castro, Guevara..... Lenin was no guerilla leader. Why don't YOU read some history? He wasn't even a decent military commander; Trotsky was the commander of the Red Army who won the Russian Civil War. The others fought against divided and inconclusive governments which were more concerned with running away with their accumulated loot than in fighting. Collins was up against a British polity which felt affronted that the Irish would ever argue about the benefits of English rule and accepted this as a moral reality -- and, to be fair, Ireland from 1801 until 1922 was benignly ruled with the tacit acceptance of most of the populace. Collins managed to wage war on the English and their lackies, to obtain the hearts and minds of his countryman, and all of this without resorting to the sort of force against those striving to remain neutral as displayed so viciously by the likes of Mao, Ho, and Guevara. All modern concepts of guerilla warfare flow from the Big Man, from organization of cells (studied and adopted by the Soviets in their insurgency school attended later by Ho and Mao) to penetration of the existing government and the logistics of rebellion. Marc msmall@infionline.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir! - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html