Frank Kitson
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So, General Kitson is dead, notorious for bringing the lessons of Empire to Northern Ireland his Telegraph obituarist says: “He fought the Mau Mau in Kenya and the Communists in Malaya and was appointed CBE for gallantry in Northern Ireland” and “lauded for his counter-insurgency skills” or as the Belsfast telegraph puts it: “Kitson was an expert in counter insurgency operations and his controversial methods led to him becoming a hate figure for republicans.” Including “He promoted the use of ‘counter gangs’ to tackle terrorism, and helped develop psychological operations, propaganda, subversion and undercover units.” (that’s death squads to you or me).
This is a longer account of his influence : “Writing about this campaign, Kitson borrowed tactics from Mao Zedong and learned from his own experience with the Mau Mau, describing the relationship between army and insurgents as like that between a fisherman and fish: “If a fish has got to be destroyed it can be attacked directly by rod or net… But if rod and net cannot succeed by themselves it may be necessary to do something to the water.” In theory, he said, this could include “polluting the water”.”
HIs book Low intensity operations can be found online, and is probably worth a read alongside Declassified’s article on the Home desk and it’s subversion of internal UK dissent.
The opening lines of his book tell a story that you don’t often hear: “During the 25 years which elapsed between 1945-70 the British Army took part in a large number of operations of one sort or another. Julian Paget mentions 34 in a book which he wrote on this subject, and now there are one or two more to add to this list which only goes up to 1966, Anguilla and Northern Ireland being cases in point. Of all the operations he quotes, only four could be described as Limited War, i.e. Korea, Suez, the move into Kuwait in 1961 and the Indonesian confrontation. All the rest were concerned with countering subversion or insurgency, or with peace-keeping operations.” How many more ‘operations’ since he wrote those words?
As expected, his book is quite clear sighted:
“Whether or not there is more discontent in the world than was formerly the case, there is no doubt whatsoever that the means of fanning it and exploiting it are infinitely greater than they used to be, because of the increase in literacy and the introduction of wireless and television sets in large numbers.
“Although the same channels of communication are available to those involved in protecting the existing order, they seldom manipulate them as skillfully as their opponents.”
This is from 1972, the lesson has been learned, and propaganda control has been learned very ferociously, up to and including Israel’s apparent targeting of journalists as a war strategy.
“Countries are obliged to fight where their interests demand they should, and this is not necessarily along their geographical frontiers.”
This is a killer quote, Britain has worldwide interests, and it will use force to protect and advance them.
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