«Defeating Communist Insurgency» Sir Robert Thompson

First published in the mid-60s, this book is still the one by which all other counterinsurgency books are judged.

Based on the author's successful experience in Malaya, and his subsequent advisory work for the Americans in Vietnam, his keys to victory and success have not changed with time:"It is a persistently methodical approach and steady pressure which will gradually wear the insurgent down.

The government must not allow itself to be diverted either by countermoves on the part of the insurgent or by the critics on its own side who will be seeking a simpler and quicker solution. There are no shortcuts or gimmicks."