Bing West

Francis J. "Bing" West Jr. is an American author, Marine combat veteran, and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs during the Reagan Administration. West writes about the military, warfighting, and counterinsurgency. He fought in significant operations in the Vietnam War and conducted over a hundred combat patrols from 1966 to 1968.

For the United States Marine Corps, he wrote the training manual Small Unit Action in Vietnam, describing how to fight in close combat. As an analyst at the RAND Corporation, he wrote a half dozen detailed monographs about fighting against an insurgency. Later, as Assistant Secretary of Defense, he dealt with the revolutions in El Salvador. From 2003 through 2008, he made 16 extended trips to Iraq, going on patrols and writing three books and numerous articles about the war. From 2007 through 2011, he made innumerable trips to embed in Afghanistan.

West is from the Massachusetts communities of Dorchester, Boston, Milton, and Scituate. He graduated from Georgetown University (BA) and Princeton University (MA), where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. West was an infantry officer in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. He led the mortar platoon of the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines. Later, he served with a Combined Action Platoon that fought for 485 days in a remote village.

He was also a member of the Marine Forces Reconnaissance team that initiated "Operation Stingray": small unit attacks behind enemy lines. He authored a study at the RAND Corporation entitled "The Strike Teams: Tactical Performance and Strategic Potential." This paper was the featured event at the 1970 Department of Defense Counterinsurgency Research and Development Symposium. The RAND Military Systems Simulations Group implemented a classified model of West's concept. This doctrinal innovation was directly opposed by Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV), which favored the Army's concept of Air-Mobility "Fire and Thunder Operations."

In rebuttal, West wrote The Village, chronicling the daily lives of 15 Marines who protected Vietnamese villagers by living among them in their hamlets. The book became a classic of practical counterinsurgency and has been on the Marine Corps Commandant's Required Reading List for five decades. In addition, West served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in the Ronald Reagan administration and chaired the United States Security Commissions with El Salvador, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, South Korea, and Japan.

Among other awards, West is the recipient of the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal, the Department of the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, and Tunisia's Medaille de Liberté. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Infantry Order of St. Crispin, he frequently appears on C-SPAN and The News Hour on PBS.

West is the author of a dozen books. His latest is The Last Platoon: A Novel of the Afghanistan War, Bombardier Press, 2020. His 2019 collaboration with Marine General Jim Mattis, entitled Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, was the #1 New York Times Bestseller. An introductory book, written by retired Marine Major General Ray L. Smith, The March Up, was awarded the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation's General Wallace M. Greene, Jr. Award for non-fiction and the William E. Colby Award for military history.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars presented West with their National Media Award in 2005 after he wrote the book No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah. His book The Strongest Tribe is a history of the Iraq War that was a New York Times Best Seller and was ranked by Foreign Affairs magazine as #7 among the top foreign policy books of 2009. In addition, the Fire ranked #8 on the New York Times Best Seller List.

In The Strongest Tribe and a subsequent article in Military Review about counterinsurgency lessons, West argued that the current doctrine of nation-building and winning hearts and minds by economic development was based on Western liberal theory rather than the realities of battle. West has grave reservations about extolling the effects of "non-kinetic COIN" (counterinsurgency).

He believes that the warriors, not the people, defeat warriors and that America's mistake in Iraq and Afghanistan was to concede all authority to appoint and remove for cause military and police officers. He believes American policymakers tried to do too much with too little in too short a time. As a result, he believes the White House has devolved into a kingdom of courtiers, disconnected from a populace that must be united to emerge victorious from wars, large or small.

His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Review, and The Washington Post. He is the recipient of the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal (twice), the Marine Corps Heritage Award (thrice), the Goodpaster Prize for Military Scholarship, the Father Clyde E. Leonard Award, the Free Press Award, the Marine Corps Correspondents' Distinguished Performance Award, the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Media Award and the Marine Corps Russell Award for Leadership.