Insurgencies, especially in the form of guerrilla warfare, continue to erupt across many parts of the globe. Most of these rebellions fail. In this publication, the author analyzes four twentieth-century conflicts in which the insurgents' success permanently altered the global political arena: the Maoists in China against Chiang Kai-shek and the Japanese in the 1930s and 1940s; the Viet Minh in French Indochina from 1945 to 1954; Castro's followers against Batista in Cuba from 1956 to 1959; and the mujahideen in Soviet Afghanistan from 1980 to 1989. He identifies patterns of failed counterinsurgencies and pinpoints the military and political blunders made by counterinsurgent forces that cost them victory, while considering the critical and often decisive influence of the international setting.

Introduction: who cares about yesterday's wars? -- China : the long war, 1929-1949 -- French Vietnam : a war of illusions -- Cuba : the house of cards -- Afghanistan : end of the Red Empire -- Lessons learned -- or not.