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Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam
 
 
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Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam (Paperback)

by John A. Nagl (Author) "There is substantial disagreement over what spurs military innovation ..." (more)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 280 pages
  • Publisher: Chicago University Press; New edition edition (4 Oct 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0226567702
  • ISBN-13: 978-0226567709
  • Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 19,972 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #1 in  Books > History > Countries & Regions > Africa > South Indian Ocean Islands
    #1 in  Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > South East Asia > Malaysia
    #5 in  Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > South East Asia > Vietnam

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Product Description

Review

"Nagl's study is especially relevant today, and one that military leaders and interested citizens at all levels should read. It suggests how to encourage the spirit of innovation - a spirit that helped the British Army succeed in Malaya and that is currently transforming America's Army in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and around the globe." - From the Foreword by General Peter J. Schoomaker "Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife has become must reading for high-level officers in Iraq because its lessons seem so directly applicable to the situation there." - National Review Online"


Product Description

Invariably, armies are accused of preparing to fight the previous war. In "Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife", Lieutenant Colonel John A. Nagl - a veteran of both Operation Desert Storm and the current conflict in Iraq - considers the now-crucial question of how armies adapt to changing circumstances during the course of conflicts for which they are initially unprepared. Through the use of archival sources and interviews with participants in both engagements, Nagl compares the development of counterinsurgency doctrine and practice in the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960 with what developed in the Vietnam War from 1950 to 1975. In examining these two events, Nagl - the subject of a recent New York Times Magazine cover story by Peter Maass - argues that organizational culture is key to the ability to learn from unanticipated conditions, a variable which explains why the British army successfully conducted counterinsurgency in Malaya but why the American army failed to do so in Vietnam, treating the war instead as a conventional conflict. Nagl concludes that the British army, because of its role as a colonial police force and the organizational characteristics created by its history and national culture, was better able to quickly learn and apply the lessons of counterinsurgency during the course of the Malayan Emergency. With a new preface reflecting on the author's combat experience in Iraq, "Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife" is a timely examination of the lessons of previous counterinsurgency campaigns that will be hailed by both military leaders and interested civilians.
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There is substantial disagreement over what spurs military innovation. Read the first page
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Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not What I Expected, 20 Jul 2007
This review is from: Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counter Insurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam (Hardcover)
This book has received a number of 'must read' reviews in a number of publications - several of them military in-house magazines. I think some of those reviews are overstated now that I have had the benefit of reading the book. In particular the subtitle 'Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam' is misleading.

Once I opened the book and understood that the main thrust was a study of organisational behaviour then it became clear to me that the author had researched the subject well and presented his arguments effectively and most impressively, as a serving US Army officer, made some critical statements regarding his employer.

For anybody seeking an in-depth analysis of the Malayan Emergency or the Vietnam War, or even a primer on counter-insurgency, this is not the book for you. If, however, you have slightly more than a passing knowledge of both the British and US Armies and the two conflicts, then this book offers well-argued and courageous insights and I recommend it on this basis.

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The Malayan Emergency (1948-1960), 24 Dec 2007
By L. Comber (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Colonel Nagl's book is an excellent study though inevitably is bears traces of its original existence as a Oxford University doctoral study.
I have no problem with the Vietnam section but in regard to what Colonel Nagl has written about the Malayan Emergency, the argument is advanced that the army was running the intelligence behind the counterinsurgency
operations. However, the supreme intelligence agency was the Malayan Police Special Branch which was responsibile for political, security and
operational intelligence. The army did not run its own agents and General Templer, the British High Commissioner and Director of Operations, made it quite clear on several occasions that the Special Branch was the supreme intelligence organisation. Although indeed some 30 or so military intelligence officers were eventually (around 1952) attached to the Special Branch, they were not in charge of intelligence, and they acted under the direction of the senior Special Branch officer to whom they were attached. Their role was limited to passing on operational intelligence obtained by the Special Branch to the army in a form that the army could readily understand. The reader should therefore bear this important qualification in mind in reading Colonel Nagl's otherwise commendable contribution to counterinsurgency warfare.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A well written and intelligent book, 19 Jun 2006
By W. Meddings (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife is a well written book by an author who has a good deal of experience in field on which he writes. The book itself sometimes reads as you might expect a university thesis to. To some this might seem distracting, but actually accentuates the amount of excellent research carried out by John Nagl. It is, in fact, a very readable book which those who read it will find intellectually stimulating as well as interesting. For those in the armed forces whose jobs relate to counter-insurgency this book is well worth the time spent reading it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Open mindedness
It took 60000 corpses in the seventies for an american lieutnant-colonel and the USA to understand (did they?) how the British did it in Malaya. And to put it in writing. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jose G. Almeida

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Contribution to COIN Literature
A well written contribution to the rapidly expanding stockpile of Counter-Insurgency literature available today. Read more
Published 10 months ago by K. R. Brew

5.0 out of 5 stars Counterinsurgency, a reference guide.
I was lucky enough to meet Col Nagle earlier in the year and following on from conversations i had with him i was keen to read this work. Read more
Published 11 months ago by D

4.0 out of 5 stars A Must for those Heading to the Sand Pit
John Nagl's book is simply a must for those heading to the sand pit and includes a great deal of insights into the workings of the British and American army's. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mr. Na Mazzei

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