— In political terms, any rhetoric linking the Afghan conflict and the
Vietnam War is usually meant to be poisonous — like the charge that
But for the Marines in this former Taliban stronghold in southern
“The Village,” by Bing West, first published in
1972, is the story of 15 Marines who spend two years in the remote
hamlet of Binh Nghia, protecting villagers and joining with local
security forces in trying to thwart a violent insurgency. Seven of the
15 were killed in action.
Although the geopolitical ramifications may be
widely different, the missions given those long-ago Marines and the
Marines assigned here are roughly similar: Live amid the populace,
partner with local forces and together drive a wedge between the
populace and the enemy.
Marine Gen.
in 2003 and now heads the U.S. Joint Forces Command, says “The Village”
is a must-read for troops “to understand the role of the small unit in
the sort of war we’re fighting in
“Cohesive small units, well trained in more than
fire and maneuver, and living among the people, are fundamental to
victory,” Mattis said. “Today’s Marines saw how fast they were able to
shatter an enemy in
“The Village” is on the reading list issued annually by Marine Commandant Gen.
Dog-eared copies are common in the living quarters
at Marine outposts spread among the farming communities of Helmand
province. One company named several of its outposts after the Marines
killed protecting Binh Nghia.
Until the
lived side by side. The outpost was near a village that had been
controlled by Taliban fighters until the Marines arrived in the summer.
Schippert asked his officers and senior enlisted Marines to read the book in preparation for the counterinsurgency mission.
“It helps you get out of the mind-set of
conventional war,” he said. “In a conflict like this, the center of
gravity is the people. When you’re neighbors with someone, their
problems become your problems.”
“The Village” does not underestimate the difficulty
of counterinsurgency. In the book, written in novelistic style, the
Marines are often suspicious of their Vietnamese partners. One squad
member goes berserk and tries to kill villagers.
The Marines become complacent and lose several
members in an ambush; top brass is too quick to declare victory and
move on. “The Village” preaches the principles of constant awareness,
persistence, respecting but not fearing the enemy.
The Marines at Binh Nghia faced some of the same
challenges Marines encounter in Helmand: corruption and shifting
loyalties among local forces, an enemy that can move undetected among
the populace, and villagers afraid that the Americans will desert them.
In the book, the villagers slowly begin to trust the
Marines and side with them against the Viet Cong, much as today’s
Marine command wants rural Afghans to turn against the Taliban.
“There was no awe of the unknown in the villagers’
dealing with the Marines,” West has written. “They were not the
anonymous giants of the tanks, jets and helicopters. These Americans
lived in their village, ate their food, worked with their men, died in
their paddies.”
Generals and other visitors have come to Helmand to
evaluate the Marines’ success. Among the visitors was West, who as a
Marine captain in
was sent to evaluate efforts at Binh Nghia. A former assistant
secretary of Defense, West has written three books about Marines in
On the verge of a return trip to the front lines in
West said recently that when he wrote “The Village” he thought that “no
one would read — or care — about what we had accomplished.”
“It’s gratifying to know that grunts in faraway hamlets today have ‘The Village’ in their rucksacks.”
—
(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.
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