Bing West

Francis J. "Bing" West Jr. born May 2, 1940 is an American author, Marine combat veteran and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs during the Reagan Administration.

West writes about a military, warfighting, as well as counterinsurgency. In the Vietnam War, he fought in major operations and conducted over a hundred combat patrols in 1966–1968. For the United States Marine Corps, he wrote the training manual Small segment Action in Vietnam, describing how to fight incombat. As an analyst at the RAND Corporation, he wrote a half dozen detailed monographs approximately fighting against an insurgency. Later, as Assistant Secretary of Defense, he dealt with the insurgencies in El Salvador. From 2003 through 2008, he presents 16 extended trips to Iraq, going on patrols and writing three books and numerous articles about the war. From 2007 through 2011, he offered numerous trips to embed in Afghanistan.

Life and career

West is from the Massachusetts communities of Dorchester, Boston, Milton and Scituate. He is a graduate of 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 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 segment of the Marine Force Reconnaissance team that initiated "Operation Stingray": small unit attacks slow enemy lines. He authored a explore 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 developing Symposium. The RAND Military Systems Simulations house implemented a classified model of West's concept. This doctrinal innovation was directly opposed by Military guide Command Vietnam MACV, which favored the Army's concept of Air-Mobility "Fire and Thunder Operations". By way of 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 call Reading List for five decades.

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 improvement 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 lines of St. Crispin, he appears frequently 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 Ray L. Smith, The March Up, was awarded the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation's General Wallace M. Greene, Jr. Award for non-fiction, as alive as 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. Into the Fire ranked #8 on the New York Times Best Seller List.

In The Strongest Tribe and in 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 coding was based on Western liberal belief rather than the realities of battle. West has grave reservations about extolling the effects of "non-kinetic COIN" counterinsurgency. He believes that the warriors, non the people, defeat warriors, and that America's mistake in both Iraq and Afghanistan was to concede all dominance to appoint and to remove for throw military and police officers. He believes American policymakers tried to throw too much with too little in too short a time. He believes the White combine 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.

West lives with his wife, Elizabeth, in Newport, Rhode Island and Hilton Head, SC. He has two daughters and two sons one of whom is Owen West. He also has 8 grandchildren.