September 15, 2006

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

By John A. Nagl

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.

More from CNAS

  • Podcast
    • November 18, 2018
    Loren DeJonge Schulman on The Smell of Victory Podcast

    On The Smell of Victory Podcast, Bob Hein and Phil Walter sat down with Loren DeJonge Schulman of the Center for a New American Security to discuss the draft. Listen to the f...

    By Loren DeJonge Schulman

  • Commentary
    • The Atlantic
    • November 15, 2018
    Trump Gets NATO Backwards

    Returning from the World War I armistice commemoration in Paris, President Trump reemphasized his view of America’s European allies. “We pay for large portions of other countr...

    By Richard Fontaine

  • Video
    • November 13, 2018
    Amb. Nuland on N. Korea: The U.S. 'needs to get back into real diplomacy'

    Amb. Victoria Nuland, CEO of the Center for a New American Security and former Assistant Secretary of State, joins Ali Velshi to discuss reports that North Korea is moving ahe...

    By Victoria Nuland

  • Commentary
    • The Australian Financial Review
    • November 8, 2018
    US midterm elections 2018: Democrats abroad in the Indo-Pacific

    A partial "blue wave" crested over the US House of Representatives this week, ushering in a Democratic majority there for the first time in eight years. With Republicans stren...

    By Richard Fontaine

View All Reports View All Articles & Multimedia