The Marines, Counterinsurgency, and Strategic Culture

Acknowledgments
I owe an enormous debt to Beatrice Heuser for her contributions, advice,
and steering throughout my research process. I must also extend thanks
to Kerry Kartchner for setting me on the path of strategic culture and Jeff
Larsen for corralling these efforts into our first book. As they well know, this
changed the course of my academic life, and I have appreciated their continued
support throughout. The scholar who sealed my devotion to the topic of
strategic culture was, without equal, Colin S. Gray. He may be thanked for
inspiring my current career track and for continuing to surprise and delight
me with strategic insights.
Generating the foundational methodology of this work, cultural topography,
was only possible through the determined and enthusiastic support
of Matthew T. Berrett in the Office of Near East and South Asian Analysis
at the Central Intelligence Agency. His ability to clear a pioneering pathway
for experimentation with a cultural method and his genius in arranging its
original architecture are the reasons it is currently in play today. My academic
department heads in the Political Science Department at Utah State
University have been exceptionally supportive. In this vein I would like to
thank Randy T. Simmons, Roberta Herzberg, Michael Lyons, and Tony Peacock,
as well as my dean, John Allen.
The United States Marine Corps is an inexhaustibly fascinating topic,
made all the more interesting by the insights, timely advice, and contributions
from many of its members. In particular I would like to thank all
of the Marines who patiently answered my questions and generously dedicated
their time and thoughts to this product. The Marines of the Combined
Action Platoon (CAP) program stand apart as an exceptional group and
have my thanks both for their national service and for their gracious hosting
of an academic in their midst. Their generously supplied oral histories and
interviews will register as treasures in our national research repositories.
CAP Marine Tim Duffie, with a heart of gold, will forever stand out as one
of my heroes. I would also like to make special mention of Roch Thornton
for his insights and thoughtful analysis of his own service. I am deeply
indebted to retired general Jim Mattis for his patient and always thorough
responses to my lists of never- ending questions and to Lt. Col. William Curtis
for providing a sound scrubbing of the manuscript in its first drafts. Jeffery
Davis, Jason Spitaletta, Joseph Mariani, Jake Falcon, and Ivan Cherry