People's war
Date Conflict State Rebel group Revolutionary base area Deaths Result
1 August 1927 - 7 August 1950 Chinese Civil War China Communist Party of China Chinese Workers ' and Peasants ' Red Army ( 1927-1937 ) People 's Liberation Army ( 1946-1950 ) Communist-controlled China cca . 8 million Communist victory
1 November 1955 - 30 April 1975 Vietnam War South Vietnam Viet Cong People 's Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam Memot District ( 1966-72 ) Lộc Ninh ( 1972-75 ) 1,326,494-4,249,494 Communist victory
23 May 1959 - 2 December 1975 Laotian Civil War Laos Lao People 's Party Pathet Lao Xam Neua 20,000-62,000 killed Communist victory
17 January 1968 - 17 April 1975 Cambodian Civil War Cambodia Communist Party of Kampuchea Khmer Rouge Ratanakiri Province 275,000-310,000 killed Communist victory
18 May 1967 - present Naxalite-Maoist insurgency India Communist Party of India ( Maoist ) People 's Liberation Guerrilla Army Red corridor cca . 14,000 Ongoing
29 March 1969 - present CPP-NPA-NDF rebellion Philippines Communist Party of the Philippines New People 's Army Samar more than 40,000 Ongoing
12 September 1972 - present Maoist insurgency in Turkey Turkey Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey Tunceli Province 500+ maoists killed Ongoing
17 May 1980 - present Internal conflict in Peru Peru Communist Party of Peru-Shining Path People 's Guerilla Army Ayacucho Region 70,000+ killed Ongoing
13 February 1996 - 21 November 2006 Nepalese Civil War Nepal Communist Party of Nepal ( Maoist ) People 's Liberation Army , Nepal Rapti Zone 17,800 killed overall Comprehensive Peace Accord
1965-1983 Communist insurgency in Thailand Thailand Communist Party of Thailand People 's Liberation Army of Thailand Nakhon Phanom Province 1,450+ soldiers , police , and officials killed Government victory
2 April 1948 - 21 September 1988 Communist insurgency in Myanmar Myanmar Communist Party of Burma People 's Army of Burma Shan State 3,000+ killed Government victory
c. December 1962 - 3 November 1990 Communist insurgency in Sarawak Malaysia North Kalimantan Communist Party North Kalimantan People 's Army Sarawak 400-500 killed Government victory
26 March 1971 - 16 December 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War Bangladesh Provisional Government of Bangladesh Mukti Bahini Mujibnagar , Kushtia cca . 3 Million Victory of Armed Forces and Freedom Fighters of Bangladesh
List of People 's Wars
Conflicts in the following list are labelled the People 's War by the Maoists
People's war, also called protracted people's war, is a Maoist military strategy. First developed by the Chinese communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong (1893-1976), the basic concept behind People's War is to maintain the support of the population and draw the enemy deep into the countryside (stretching their supply lines) where the population will bleed them dry through a mix of mobile warfare and guerrilla warfare. It was used by the Chinese communists against the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II, and by the Chinese Soviet Republic in the Chinese Civil War. The term is used by Maoists for their strategy of long-term armed revolutionary struggle. After the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979, Deng Xiaoping abandoned People's War for People's War under Modern Conditions, which moved away from reliance on troops over technology. With the adoption of socialism with Chinese characteristics, economic reforms fueled military and technological investment. Troop numbers were also reduced and professionalisation encouraged. The strategy of people's war was used heavily by the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War. However protracted war should not be confused with the foco theory employed by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro in the Cuban Revolution of 1959.