Paul Haygood

Paul Haygood (July 14, 1889 - June 18, 1941) was an American soldier and military thinker who helped develop ideas on counterinsurgency warfare. He began his career an officer in the United States Army, before retiring and joining the facluty of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, where he taught until dying in a car accident.
Early life
Born on July 14, 1889, Haygood attended the Virginia Military Institute, graduating in 1910. He joined the United States Army immediately after graduation, was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and sent to join the 12th Infantry in the Philippines.
Haygood served in the Philippines for three years until July 1913, seeing action in only a few isolated skirmishes. He then attended law school at the University of Virginia, graduating in 1916. After graduating from law school, Haygood briefly served with the War Department, but in December 1916, he became a tactics instructor at VMI. Haygood remained at VMI for only one semester as he received new orders with the US entry into World War One.
World War One
Because he spoke Greek, Haygood was sent to serve as a military attaché in Greece in July 1917. He spent much of his time in Greece away from the front, but in September 1918 he joined in the Battle of Doiran with British and Greek forces. During the battle, Haygood took command of a Greek company whose captain had been killed and played a key role in the capture of a Bulgarian machine gun post. He was recognized for his valor with an honorary medal from the Greek government awarded in October.
After the Battle of Doiran, Haygood returned to service with the Greek government and attended the signing of the Armistice of Thessalonica, which ended Bulgarian involvement in the first World War. Shortly after the signing of the armistice, Haygood was seriously injured in an accident, and in mid-October he left Greece for France to recover from his injuries.
Haygood was still in France recovering when the Allies signed the Armistice with Germany. He soon returned home to the United States.
Post-War
Haygood spent most of 1919 on medical leave at his home in Patrick County, before returning to active duty with the rank of . In late 1919, he reported to Fort Leavenworth to study at the Army's Command and General Staff School. In 1920, he was sent back to the Philippines where he served for two years commanding a company.
After his service in the Philippines, Haygood found his opportunities for promotion and advancement severely limited due to the small size of the peacetime army and seriously considered resigning from the Army. He spent a year in a staff position in the War Department, then in 1923 he took advantage of an unusual opportunity to become a military observer attached to the British Indian Army in the Northwest Frontier Province. From 1923 to 1926, Haygood observed and participated in British operations including the brief Pink's War, an aerial campaign in 1925.
In 1926, Haygood was promoted to the rank of Major and sent to the U.S. Army War College, completing the course in 1927. Haygood then rejoined his old regiment, the 12th Infantry, serving as the executive officer of the 2nd Battalion. In 1930, Haygood again left the regiment to serve as an aide de camp to Assistant Secretary of War Frederick Huff Payne. In April 1932, Haygood was promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel and returned to the 12th Infantry as a battalion commander. He was with the regiment in June 1932 when it was ordered to disperse the Bonus Army, an action about which he felt morally uneasy.
In June 1934, Haygood left the 12th Regiment again for a teaching post at West Point. He spent the next two years teaching at West Point and developing his theories on counterinsurgency. Haygood's focus on counterinsurgency and "small wars", however, was not well received within the Army establishment and in the spring of 1937, he was told that he would be moved from West Point to another assignment, clearly a punishment for his focus on counterinsurgency. As a result, Haygood retired from the Army at the conclusion of West Point's spring semester.
Marine Corps Command and Staff College
After his retirement from the Army, Haygood joined the faculty of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College as a civilian, though many of his colleagues addressed him as Col. Haygood out of courtesy. The Marine Corps, unlike the Army, had a long history of focusing on small wars and counterinsurgency and was more receptive to Haygood's ideas. Over a space of four years from May 1937 to June 1941, Haygood lectured and led seminars to help establish Marine Corps counterinsurgency doctrine.
During his time at the Staff College, Haygood was also given the time and resources to travel frequently from 1937 to 1939. As a result, he visited the Northwest Frontier again to observe British strategy and tactics. He also spent six weeks in Spain, observing operations in the Spanish Civil War and observed some of the hostilities in China, while traveling to Burma to observe the operations of the British Army there.
In September 1939, with the outbreak of World War II, interest in counterinsurgency doctrine waned as military thinkers and officers focused on preparing for major war once again. The Marine Corps, however, continued to provide a home for Haygood, who continued to develop counterinsurgency ideas. Following the German occupation of France, however, Haygood shifted his emphasis and began to apply his thought and knowledge not to counterinsurgency but insurgency itself developing tactical and strategic advise for the French resistance and other European resistance groups. After US entry into the war, many of his ideas formed the basis for a pamphlet translated into French and widely distributed among members of the resistance.
Death and legacy
Haygood was killed in an automobile accident on June 18, 1941 at age 51. After US entry into World War Two, many of his ideas lay dormant and the early years of the Cold War provided no reason for the study of counterinsurgency either. During the Vietnam War, however, many of Haygood's concepts were rediscovered. Unfortunately, Haygood never published a book on his ideas, although a rough manuscript was found at the time of his death, but notes taken on his lectures at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College as well as short essays and memorandums he had prepared for the Marine Corps were gathered and studied by a number of young scholars of counterinsurgency. Haygood's ideas were widely discussed during the Vietnam War, particularly his conclusion, partially drawn from his experience during Pink's War, that air power was utterly ineffective against an insurgency.
After Vietnam, Haygood's idea were again largely shelved, but when American interest in counterinsurgency grew again due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan many of his ideas were uncovered, helping to shape the thought of John Nagl and David Petraeus. Some regard the influence of Haygood on Petraeus and Nagl as unfortunate, as some of his concepts are controversial.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu