text: Foundations of Counterinsurgency
  The Strategic Hamlet Program
  Successful clear-hold build operations (CORDS program and Tal Afar) are discussed in FM 3-24. This
  vignette highlights the challenges of executing a clear-hold-build operation properly.
  In 1962, the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) launched the Strategic Hamlet Program
  to compliment its advisory efforts with the Republic of Vietnam’s military. The Strategic Hamlet Program
  was an extremely ambitious program designed to build fortified hamlets, relocate the population to the
  hamlets, and train paramilitary forces, known as the Regional or Provincial Forces, across South Vietnam.
  Together this would increase security and quality of life for the population. With the goal of fortifying half
  the country’s hamlets in only 18 months, the program struggled with providing governance and solving
  bureaucratic issues, ensuring security for all the villages, and limiting corruption. Additionally, the program
  met resistance from locals, who felt an ancestral connection to their original hamlets.
  Although the program was abandoned in 1964, after the war, the North Vietnamese Army acknowledged
  that the well-run hamlets forced their guerrilla forces to relocate to other, insurgent controlled areas. The
  South Vietnamese Strategic Hamlet program failed to meet all five prerequisites for a clear-hold-build
  operation, especially obtaining an adequate number of troops, securing sufficient resources, and providing
  a local government up to the task.
  Section V—OTHER MAJOR COIN TACTICAL OPERATIONS
  Major counterinsurgency tactical operations include Strike operations and Populace and Resource Control
  operations. Strike operations are operations to find, fix and finish insurgent forces in areas under insurgent
  control where the counterinsurgent does not want to maintain a permanent presence afterwards. Population
  and resources control operations are government operations to control the populace, deny insurgents access to
  the populace and resources, and reestablish law order.
  STRIKE OPERATIONS
  3-147. Strike operations are short duration (generally one day to several weeks) offensive, tactical
  operations conducted in contested or insurgent controlled urban or rural areas to find, fix and destroy
  insurgent forces. Small, highly mobile combat forces operate in dispersed formations to locate and fix the
  insurgents. Upon locating the insurgents, commanders direct their forces to attack, pursue, and destroy
  them. If contact is lost, the units resume aggressive patrolling to reestablish contact and destroy insurgent
  forces before they can rest, reorganize, and resume operations. Strike operations seek to destroy insurgent
  forces and base areas, isolate insurgent forces from their support, and interdict insurgent infiltration routes
  and lines of communications (LOCs). Strike forces are organized as self-sufficient task forces capable
  of operating in areas remote from logistical bases. Ground or water borne means of entry may be used,
  as well as air assault or parachute deliveries. Strike operations use offensive tactics such as raids,
  reconnaissance in force, cordons and attacks, hasty or deliberate attacks, and pursuits. It is often a
  complementary operation to a clear-hold-build operation.
  3-148. Speed and surprise are important in strike operations. The sudden and unexpected delivery
  of combat forces into an insurgent-held or contested area provides significant advantages to the forces
  conducting these operations. Speed and surprise can be achieved by using air assaults to insert the first
  forces into the area of operations. Subsequent forces can be delivered on later airlifts or by other modes
  of transportation. Fires can also be used to block escape routes or areas that are not secured by
  ground forces.
  3-149. A strike on an insurgent force normally requires superior combat power. COIN forces attempt
  to immediately engage and destroy insurgents before they can disperse. Depending on the situation, hasty
  or deliberate attacks are made on bases that contain fortifications. After a successful attack on insurgent
  forces, troops thoroughly search the area for insurgent personnel, supplies, equipment, and documents. All