View source for Small Wars Manual

{{Short description|US Marine Corps manual}}
{{Italic title}}
[[Image:Small Wars Manual.jpg|thumb|Small Wars Manual cover]]
The '''''Small Wars Manual''''' is a [[United States Marine Corps]] manual on tactics and strategies for engaging in certain types of military operations.

The Marine Corps' role in small wars has a long and complex history. During the early years of the 20th century, the Corps was widely viewed as the nation's overseas police and initial response force. Moreover, the actual execution of these roles were a natural adjunct of the Corps' officially directed mission of sea-based power projection, in turn buttressed by its fundamental expeditionary operational character; i.e., the availability for "sudden and immediate call".

As a result of this "natural fit" and the experience of a series of [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla wars]] and military interventions in [[Central America]] and the [[Caribbean]] from the late 1890s through the early 1930s, loosely known as the [[Banana Wars]], the Marine Corps began to systematically analyze the character and requirements of operations short of war proper, or "Small Wars". Major [[Samuel M. Harrington]] of the Marine Corps Schools delivered a formal report ''The Strategy and Tactics of Small Wars'' in 1921. In addition, Major C. J. Miller wrote a 154-page report on the 2nd Marine Brigade's operations in the [[Dominican Republic]] titled ''Diplomacy and Spurs in the Dominican Republic'' in 1923. Versions of these and other reports were serialized in ''[[Marine Corps Association|The Marine Corps Gazette]]'' and additional articles on the subject appeared in
''The Marine Corps Gazette'' and the ''[[Proceedings (magazine)|Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute]]''.

The results of these efforts were encapsulated in the manual ''Small Wars Operations'' in 1935. For the 1940 revision, it was renamed The ''Small Wars Manual'' (SWM). A classic of military science, based upon experience, not theory, it remains relevant today as the foundation of much current thinking and doctrine.<ref name="nwc.navy.mil/Reviews/Small">{{cite web |last1=Parker |first1=Major Timothy M. |title=Book Review: The Small Wars Manual: Fleet Marine Force Reference Publication 12-25. |url=http://www.nwc.navy.mil/jmo/nopc/Book%20Reviews/Small%20Wars%20Manual%20-%20Parker.htm |website=[[Naval War College]] |access-date=30 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060726130623/http://www.nwc.navy.mil/jmo/nopc/Book%20Reviews/Small%20Wars%20Manual%20-%20Parker.htm |archive-date=2006-07-26 |quote=The key value to the continued relevance of this manual is that it is based primarily upon experience, not theory.}}</ref> General [[James Mattis]] encouraged the troops of the [[1st Marine Division (United States)|1st Marine Division]] to read it in preparation for the Corps's return to the [[Iraq War]] as an occupation force.<ref name="SWM fortitudine">{{cite journal|last=Schlosser|first=Dr. Nicholas J.|date=March 2010|title=The Marine Corps' Small Wars Manual: An Old Solution to a New Challenge?|journal=Fortitudine|publisher=[[United States Marine Corps History Division]]|location=[[Marine Corps Base Quantico]]|volume= 35|issue= 1|pages=4–9|url=http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/HD/PDF_Files/Pubs/Fortitudine/Fortitudine%20Vol%2035%20No%201.pdf}}</ref>

==Chapters==

I. Introduction<br />
II. Organization<br />
III. Logistics<br />
IV. Training<br />
V. Initial operations<br />
VI. Infantry patrols<br />
VII. Mounted detachments<br />
VIII. Convoys and convoy escorts<br />
IX. Aviation<br />
X. River operations<br />
XI. Disarmament of population<br />
XII. Armed native organizations<br />
XIII. Military government<br />
XIV. Supervision of elections<br />
XV. Withdrawal

==See also==
* [[Charles Edward Callwell]]

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |author1=[[United States Marine Corps]] |title=Small Wars Manual |date=1940 |publisher=[[U.S. Government Printing Office]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cECPk8EwB4oC |via=[[Google Books]] |language=en}}{{open access}} 
* {{cite book |author1=[[United States Marine Corps]] |title=Small Wars Manual (REPRINT) |date=1990 |publisher=[[U.S. Government Printing Office]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aBKHtqUUizwC |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}{{open access}}
* {{cite book |author1=[[United States Marine Corps]] |title=Small Wars Manual (REPRINT) |date=1990 |publisher=[[U.S. Government Printing Office]] |url=https://archive.org/details/UsmcSmallWarsManual1940Reprinted1990 |language=en |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}{{open access}}
* Bickel, Keith B. ''Mars Learning: The Marine Corps' Development of Small Wars Doctrine, 1915-1940'', Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2001.
* Green, Lt. Col. T. N., ''The Guerrilla and How to Fight Him: Selections from the Marine Corps Gazette'', ed. for the ''Marine Corps Gazette'', New York: Praeger, 1962.
*{{cite book |last1=Callwell |first1=Sir Charles Edward |author1-link=Charles Edward Callwell |title=Small Wars: Their Principles and Practice |date=1906 |publisher=[[His Majesty's Stationery Office]] |isbn=978-0-8476-6064-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P9E1AQAAMAAJ |language=en}}{{open access}}<ref name="history.navy.mil/CE-small">{{cite web |last1=Callwell |first1=Sir Charles Edward |author1-link=Charles Edward Callwell |title=Small Wars: Their Principles and Practice (1914) |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/s/small-wars-their-principles-and-practice.html |website=The Navy Department Library |publisher=[[U.S. Navy]] |access-date=30 September 2022 |date=November 2, 2017}}</ref>

==References==
{{Marine Corps}}
{{Reflist}}
{{Refbegin}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
* [http://smallwarsjournal.com/ Small Wars Journal]

{{US Marine Corps navbox}}

[[Category:Banana Wars]]
[[Category:Military strategy books]]
[[Category:Non-fiction books about the United States Marine Corps]]
[[Category:United States Marine Corps in the 20th century]]
[[Category:1921 books]]
[[Category:1935 books]]
[[Category:1940 books]]
[[Category:American imperialism]]