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LEARNING TO EAT SOUP WITH A KNIFE
By: John A. Nagl
Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam
University Of Chicago Press
August 2007
On Sale: September 15, 2005
280 pages
ISBN: 0226567702
EAN: 9780226567709
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Invariably, armies are accused of preparing to fight the previous war. In Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife, Lieutenant Colonel John A. Naglβa veteran of both Operation Desert Storm and the current conflict in Iraqβconsiders 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, Naglβthe subject of a recent New York Times Magazine cover story by Peter Maassβargues 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.
 Media BuzzFresh Air - NPR - July 22, 2008
Talk of the Nation - February 21, 2008
Daily Show with Jon Stewart - August 23, 2007
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