I only talk about the ‘Hearts and Minds’ approach to warfare because it’s shown itself to be supremely important in conflict. We’ve talked before about how your neighbors are your greatest counterintelligence (CI) threat, whether you live in the jungles of Bolivia, eastern Ukraine, or the panhandle of Idaho. Che learned the hard way in Bolivia that if he didn’t gain the trust and cooperation of the populace, then they’d be turned against him. Ultimately, he failed to gain the hearts and minds of the populace he expected to enable him, and he was ratted out and killed. It’s very hard to establish yourself as an outsider, and that’s another reason why Che failed. If you live in a place where you don’t have the trust and support of your neighbors, then your life is going to be difficult because these people will not aid you. You’ll be lucky if you’re just shunned; otherwise they’ll be actively working against you so you’ll leave their community. No one wants a trouble maker in their community.
Che wrote in his diary (ref: the Bolivian populace):
Talking to these peasants is like talking to statues. They do not give us any help. Worse still, many of them are turning into informants.
We’ve distinguished between the popular support for the cause and popular support for the cause’s tactics. There can be support for one, yet not the other.
