Victorious Insurgencies
Four Rebellions that Shaped our World
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The author of Resisting Rebellion examines four of the twentieth century’s most consequential rebellions—in China, Cuba, Afghanistan, and French Indochina.
While insurgencies continue to erupt across the globe, most of them fail to meet their intended aims. But in Four Rebellions that Shaped Our World, Anthony James Joes analyzes four successful rebellions which permanently altered the global political arena: the Maoists in China against Chiang Kai-shek and the Japanese in the 1930s and 1940s; the Viet Minh in French Indochina from 1945 to 1954; Castro's followers against Batista in Cuba from 1956 to 1959; and the mujahideen in Soviet Afghanistan from 1980 to 1989.
Joes illuminates patterns of failed counterinsurgencies, highlighting their avoidable political and military blunders as well as the critical influence of the international setting. Offering provocative insights that are applicable to twenty-first century geopolitics, this comprehensive study will be of great interest to policy-makers and concerned citizens alike.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Joes (Urban Guerrilla Warfare) looks at the causes, effects, and circumstances of 20th-century rebellions in China, where Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist forces were routed by Mao Tse-tung's troops; Vietnam, where the French were booted out by Ho Chi Min and General Vo Nugyen Giap; Cuba, where Castro overthrew the government of Fulgencio Batista; and Afghanistan, where freedom fighters defeated Soviet might. Joes adds a final chapter on the unlearned lessons of these insurgencies, with an eye towards the United States' current military situation. Underestimating the enemy, especially in military leadership, is a common thread. Another is the belief that entrenched powers fail to offer a peaceful road to change. While Joes is thorough in retelling the histories and raising salient points, he fails to establish a strong rationale for why he focused on these insurgencies and ignored others. All rebellions were inspired by the Russian communist revolution; perhaps because the domino theory has been discredited, Joes plays down the original motivator: the communist manifesto.
