In US military doctrine, unconventional warfare (UW) is one of the core activities of irregular warfare. Unconventional warfare is essentially support provided by the military to a foreign insurgency or resistance. The legal definition of UW is:
Unconventional Warfare consists of activities conducted to enable a resistance movement or insurgency to coerce, disrupt or overthrow an occupying power or government by operating through or with an underground, auxiliary or guerrilla force in a denied area.
U.S. Department of Defense UW mission UW was the first mission assigned to United States Army Special Forces when they were formed in 1952; they now have additional missions, including foreign internal defense (FID). In the United States, "special forces" refers specifically to the United States Army Special Forces (SF), as opposed to the usage in most other countries, where "special forces" refers to the range of unit types that the U.S. calls "special operations forces" controlled by the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). SF units are tasked with seven primary missions:
unconventional warfare (United States Department of Defense doctrine) (UW) foreign internal defense (FID) special reconnaissance (SR) direct action (DA) counterterrorism (CT) counter-proliferation (CP) psychological operations (United States) (PSYOP) information operations (IO) SF may be given other missions including warfare and support, combat search and rescue (CSAR), security assistance, peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, humanitarian demining and counter-drug operations; other USSOCOM units or other U.S. government activities may be the specialists in these secondary areas. The UW mission assumes that U.S. forces will work with troops in another country and possibly with other allies and is always multinational. Depending on the particular situation, their role may vary from pure training to leading a joint force in combat. Over more than fifty years, roles and missions have continued to evolve, based on the history of operations.
History The idea of UW came from Second World War resistance movements assisted by U.S. personnel, especially against the Empire of Japan's invasion of the Philippines as well as numerous European national resistance against the invasion by Nazi Germany. The main strength of these movements came not from U.S., but local personnel. U.S. "behind the lines" units such as Merrill's Marauders, in modern doctrine, were not conducting UW but DA and SR. The idea extended to resistance against an expected Soviet invasion of Europe following World War II. Rarely, however, did the U.S. create a guerrilla force. Far more often, the U.S. supported an existing national organization.
World War II A variety of organizations, including United States personnel, conducted UW missions. Many of the operations in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) were multinational, such as Jedburgh teams, which usually were composed of three soldiers, one from the U.S., one from the U.K., and one from France. The earliest US soldiers involved in UW were in the Philippines, soon allied with Filipino forces, and who declined to follow Japanese orders to surrender, such as Wendell Fertig. While not trained in UW, Fertig, along with other U.S. and Filipino leaders, eventually created guerrilla forces fighting the Japanese, forces that numbered in the tens of thousands. A few experienced soldiers' ability to train and lead a quite large resistance was a guiding principle of the formation of United States Army Special Forces in 1952.
1950s model of resistance to invasion of Europe After World War II, the original SF mission of UW, as shown in the first SF deployment of the 10th Special Forces Group to Europe, was in expectation of a Soviet attack on Western Europe. SF would help organize, train, and lead resistance movements to such an invasion. A 1951 doctrine for UW, still called guerrilla warfare at that point, was:
Guerilla Warfare is defined. As operations carried out by small independent forces, generally in the rear of the enemy, with the objective of harassing, delaying, and disrupting the enemy's military operations. The term is sometimes limited to the military operations and tactics of small forces whose objective is to inflict casualties and damage on the enemy rather than seize or defend terrain; these operations are characterized by the extensive use of surprise and the emphasis on the avoidance of casualties. The term ... includes organized and directed passive resistance, espionage, assassination, sabotage and propaganda, and, in some cases, ordinary combat. Guerilla warfare is normally carried on by irregular, or partisan forces; however, regular forces that have been cut off behind enemy lines or infiltrated into the enemy rear areas may use guerilla tactics.
1960s model of dealing with wars of national liberation When American advisors were sent to Laos and South Vietnam in the fifties and early sixties, the major problem was not to create guerrilla units, but to fight existing Laotian and Vietnamese guerrilla forces. To them it seemed logical that soldiers trained to be guerrillas would have a deep understanding of how to fight guerrillas, so Special Forces were given that mission. The White Star mission in Laos was initially covert, and used Special Forces and other personnel under Central Intelligence Agency control. Whether the mission is called counterguerrilla, counterinsurgency, or foreign internal defense, it involves assisting a friendly government—the "foreign" in FID—to defend against guerrillas acting inside its borders. FID can also involve training a foreign government to deal with a future internal guerrilla threat. Later in Southeast Asia, SF personnel, often assigned to the Studies and Observation Group, carried out SR missions against infiltrators from the North, directing air strikes and assessing damage.
1970s and 1980s In the 1970s, until the NCA withdrew them as part of its "tilt" to Iraq, SF supported Kurdish resistance to Iraq under Saddam Hussein. In the 1980s, SF worked with the Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviets, but in a role of supporting rather than leading the local personnel. They did not need to create an underground and an auxiliary, and often supported the guerrillas from outside the area of operations. Parts of the Afghan resistance, supported by SF and CIA elements, later became hostile to the U.S.
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