Use and Effectiveness of Sabotage as a Means of Unconventional Warfare - An Historical Perspective from World War I through Viet Nam

摘要

The purpose of this research was to determine the effectiveness of sabotage as a means of unconventional warfare by historically analyzing previous conflicts to determine the role and impact sabotage played. In order to accomplish this research, answers to the following questions had to be found: 1) What is the definition of sabotage. 2) What is the definition of unconventional warfare. 3) What form has sabotage taken previously (e.g., bombings, tamperings). 4) What were the targets in previous acts of sabotage (e.g., power stations, transportation, communications facilities). 5) How much did forces rely on sabotage (i.e., was sabotage their main instrument of force, used seldomly, etc.). 6) Is there a correlation between the type of force committing the sabotage, the manner in which sabotage was attempted, and the target picked. 7) How reliable were the acts of sabotage (e.g., the number of successful acts of sabotage compared to the total number attempted). 8) How effective were any countermeasures encountered by saboteurs in preventing the sabotage. What remained was to determine its effectiveness based on its usage in history.