War of insurgency-subversion-infiltration post-WWII

"Following World War II, there were ample indicators that America's enemies would turn to insurgency to negate our advantages in firepower and mobility. The French experiences in Indochina and Algeria offered object lessons to Western armies facing unconventional foes. These lessons were not lost on the more astute members of America's political class. In 1961, President Kennedy warned of 'another type of war, new in its intensity, ancient in its origin — war by guerrillas, subversives, insurgents, assassins, war by ambush instead of by combat, by infiltration instead of aggression, seeking victory by evading and exhausting the enemy instead of engaging him.' In response to these threats, Kennedy undertook a comprehensive program to prepare America's armed forces for counterinsurgency."

source
Yingling, Paul, Lt. Col. (Armed Forces Journal). A failure in generalship. May, 2007. *

footnote
* Good article, but it doesn't mention the surge or Gen. Petraeus who are doing the counterinsurgency that the article seems to favor.

posted: tuesday, may 1, 2007, 4:22 PM ET

tags: iraq counterinsurgency john f. kennedy