Which End Does the Thermometer Go? Application of Military Medicine in Counterinsurgency

<p>Counterinsurgency is the most common conflict that America engages in. From the Mexican-American War to the Philippine Insurrection and small wars of the early 1900s the U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD) focused on sanitation hygiene programs and infrastructure engineering to help alienate insurgents and bolster the local government's claims of legitimacy. Such programs provided continuity and a unity of effort that was consistent with counterinsurgent principles. Vietnam was the first concerted effort to use direct patient care to aid a counterinsurgency. These programs irrespective of the name or acronym placed uniformed U.S. medical personnel into the rural countryside to provide direct care to the indigenous population. From their inception in 1962 to current operations in Afghanistan these activities were lauded as legitimate. Unfortunately when these programs are evaluated with measures of effectiveness that are in keeping with the principles of counterinsurgency they are shown invalid and a detriment to such operations. In the absence of clear guidance or doctrine altruism circumvented pragmatism with hundreds of millions of dollars expended. U.S. planners attempted no significant change in this concept which persisted with as much vigor during the first five years of the Afghanistan campaign as during Vietnam.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>