US Army Special Forces Principal Tasks History Research Paper

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Doctrine Paper
Introduction
The history of the United States Army dates back to 1775 when militia groups were organized to form the legendary Continental Army that took part in the war of independence ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"glUJlfy7","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Carp)","plainCitation":"(Carp)","dontUpdate":true,"noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":269,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/RXJ3HBM6"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/RXJ3HBM6"],"itemData":{"id":269,"type":"chapter","container-title":"Revolutions in the Western World 1775–1825","page":"364–392","publisher":"Routledge","source":"Google Scholar","title":"The Origins of the Nationalist Movement of 1780–1783: Congressional Administration and the Continental Army","title-short":"The Origins of the Nationalist Movement of 1780–1783","author":[{"family":"Carp","given":"E. Wayne"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Carp 364). The Continental Army evolved as time went by, participating in numerous civil wars including the famous World War I and World War II. As the military forces took a bigger stage of participating in wars all over the world, the army underwent some reorganization into sub-commands, the air force, ground forces, and the navy for efficient management. The sub-commands remain to date and countries in most parts of the world emulates the same criteria. The army has grown exponentially ever since and it has seen numerous advancements in terms of technology, armory, and tactics of war, among others. As people around the world became more civilized and educated, the idea of psychological warfare came to being and the US Army formulated the Psychological Warfare Division(PWD) during the World War II(WWII) and thereafter let to the formation of the US Special Forces(SF) unit in the early 1950s ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"XWtSGKGW","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(DoD)","plainCitation":"(DoD)","dontUpdate":true,"noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":266,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/GAFRZKNZ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/GAFRZKNZ"],"itemData":{"id":266,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"Department of the Army (May)","source":"Google Scholar","title":"FM 3–18: Special Forces Operations","title-short":"FM 3–18","author":[{"family":"DoD","given":"U. S."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2014"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (DoD 1-1). The Special Forces is a small-unit operation team composed of well equipped, highly trained, and organized military personnel whose primary objective is to conduct special operations. The special operations are characterized by time sensitivity, low visibility, generally high risk, require regional expertise, surreptitiousness, and often need the aid of indigenous forces ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"QkKSqOBW","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Feickert)","plainCitation":"(Feickert)","dontUpdate":true,"noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":276,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/YEEMNAMX"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/YEEMNAMX"],"itemData":{"id":276,"type":"book","publisher":"DIANE Publishing","source":"Google Scholar","title":"US Special Operations Forces (SOF): Background and Issues for Congress","title-short":"US Special Operations Forces (SOF)","author":[{"family":"Feickert","given":"Andrew"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2010"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Feickert 1). Most of the time these operations are conducted with illegitimate access to the subject territories.
SF adopted the Green Beret as a mark of identity and to differentiate them from the conventional army (DoD 1). There are other additional unique purposes, functions, and features of the SF that distinguishes them from the ordinary US army. The SF is primarily mandated to undertake a total of nine missions commonly termed as the SF principal tasks; Unconventional Warfare (UW), Foreign Internal Defence (FID), Direct Action (DA), Counterinsurgency (COIN), Special Reconnaissance (SR), Counterterrorism (CT), Preparation of the Environment, Counterproliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (CP), and Security force Assistance (SFA) (DoD 3-4). The tasks can be categorized into special warfare and surgical strike missions as per the US Army Special Operation Command (USASOC). This paper purposes to describe in detail the nine SF principal tasks and possibly give examples where the SF has carried out the aforementioned tasks.
SF Nine Principal Tasks
Unconventional Warfare (UW)
This is a term used in the military to denote any activities that are undertaken by an illegitimate force to aid a party in the rebellion or even overthrowing a reigning authority (DoD 3-4). This is the core task of the special forces. UW roots can be traced back to WWII when the German territories faced rapid resistances as a result of other European territories and the Soviets providing infiltrators and trainers to the local resistant movements ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"tNjmvNBr","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Kilcullen)","plainCitation":"(Kilcullen)","dontUpdate":true,"noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":274,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/3BKF7DFB"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/3BKF7DFB"],"itemData":{"id":274,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies","issue":"1","note":"publisher: Scandinavian Military Studies","source":"Google Scholar","title":"The Evolution of Unconventional Warfare","volume":"2","author":[{"family":"Kilcullen","given":"David"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Kilcullen par.4). Ever since WWII, different countries have adopted different techniques to carry out UW but there a few consistent tactics; espionage, political warfare, guerrilla warfare and sabotage ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"di6NHG24","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Kilcullen)","plainCitation":"(Kilcullen)","dontUpdate":true,"noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":274,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/3BKF7DFB"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/3BKF7DFB"],"itemData":{"id":274,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies","issue":"1","note":"publisher: Scandinavian Military Studies","source":"Google Scholar","title":"The Evolution of Unconventional Warfare","volume":"2","author":[{"family":"Kilcullen","given":"David"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Kilcullen par.4). Although the implementation of the various instances of UW varies accordingly, there are noticeable phases that UW must pass through; preparation, initial contact, infiltration, organization, build-up, employment, and transition (DOD 3-5). The US SP forces most commonly employ the guerrilla warfare tactic for UW missions and are generally discreet. Also, interagency sometimes necessitates the success of this kind of mission, leveraging on the skills of other agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
One of the longest ever engagements of the US Special Forces in UW was during the Vietnam War. Vietnam had been divided into two: the communists to the North and democrats to the south. ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"RccSmYmS","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Wiest and McNab)","plainCitation":"(Wiest and McNab)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":296,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/VL4HDC4B"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/VL4HDC4B"],"itemData":{"id":296,"type":"book","publisher":"Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC","source":"Google Scholar","title":"The Vietnam War","author":[{"family":"Wiest","given":"Andrew"},{"family":"McNab","given":"Chris"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Wiest and McNab 3). The communist Vietnamese craved to adopt emulate the Chinese and the Soviet Union by establishing a common communist nation, and as a result, war broke out between the two partitions. Through the intervention of the then US president, John F. Kennedy, the US SF provided aide to their allies, the South Vietnamese government in the fight against the North Vietnam government ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"RccSmYmS","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Wiest and McNab)","plainCitation":"(Wiest and McNab)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":296,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/VL4HDC4B"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/VL4HDC4B"],"itemData":{"id":296,"type":"book","publisher":"Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC","source":"Google Scholar","title":"The Vietnam War","author":[{"family":"Wiest","given":"Andrew"},{"family":"McNab","given":"Chris"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Wiest and McNab 3). The SF major role in the aide of South Vietnamese was to train, advice, and support. The special forces were later withdrawn in 1971 when the communist proved persistence in the fight and most of the SF had lost their lives.
Foreign Internal Defence (FID)
When the civilians or military personnel take part in the protection or liberation of a foreign government from security issues such as subversion, insurgency, terrorism, and other threat to the security of the nation while not interfering with existing tactics, the act is termed as Foreign Internal Defence (DoD 3-7). FID is somehow the opposite of UW. The execution of FID can be of three forms; implementation as a program, as an operation, or both a program and an operation. FID programs are majorly those activities carried out by interagency teams while being coordinated by the embassy in the Host Nation (HN). FID operations are implemented in the form of trainings to the military personals of the HN or taking part in military operations. The US SF carries out counterinsurgency mainly through advisory and training roles.
An example where US SF took part in FID operations was in El Salvador ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"8hruVjIO","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Ladwig III)","plainCitation":"(Ladwig III)","dontUpdate":true,"noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":280,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/UT95BS62"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/UT95BS62"],"itemData":{"id":280,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"International Security","issue":"1","note":"publisher: MIT Press","page":"99–146","source":"Google Scholar","title":"Influencing Clients in Counterinsurgency: US Involvement in El Salvador's Civil War, 1979–92","title-short":"Influencing Clients in Counterinsurgency","volume":"41","author":[{"family":"Ladwig III","given":"Walter C."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Ladwig III 104). The US government aided the government of El Salvador in the fight against the insurgent Marxist-Leninist, popularly referred to as Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) that were aided by other foreign governments including Nicaragua and Cuba by providing a small unit that acted as a special advisory force ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"5o2qwMT1","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Votel et al.)","plainCitation":"(Votel et al.)","dontUpdate":true,"noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":272,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/3RIA6TUC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/IBolxqVE/items/3RIA6TUC"],"itemData":{"id":272,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"Joint Forces Quarterly","issue":"1","page":"101–109","source":"Google Scholar","title":"Unconventional warfare in the gray zone","volume":"80","author":[{"family":"Votel","given":"Joseph L."},{"family":"Cleveland","given":"Charles T."},{"family":"Connett","given":"Charles T."},{"family":"Irwin","given":"Will"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citatio...