Even today few Americans understand the strategy, doctrine, and tactics of communist guerrilla warfare. Back in the early 1950s, the Rand Corporation conducted com· puter·simulated war games focused on Southeast Asia. The French agony in Indochina had attracted the attention of a few Rand researchers who had begun to wonder whether other wars might occur in this area and how the United States might fight if it became involved. The Rand scenarios ranged from atomic war to guerrilla conflict. WhUe a professor at the California Institute of Technology, I was asked to comment on some of these...