CPLS COURSE TEST PAPER ANSWERS AND
QUESTIONS SET A+
✔✔Banana Wars - ✔✔During the Banana Wars in Latin America, many Marines
became fluent in Spanish or Creole French to gain assistance from the local population.
These experiences in Haiti, Cuba, Panama, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and
Nicaragua resulted in the publication of the Marine Corps Small Wars Manual.
✔✔Huk Rebellion - ✔✔Marines successfully assisted the Philippine government by
working alongside Filipino security forces to end the Huk Rebellion (1946-1954), a
communist-led insurgency. Their success was due in part to the unconventional
methods employed through the Filipino-American partnership. The counterinsurgency
used Marines and Filipino security forces to distribute relief goods and other forms of
aid to outlying, provincial communities. This fostered support against the insurgents.
✔✔Combined Action Program - ✔✔Building on their early 20th century
counterinsurgency experiences in Haiti, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic, the
Marine Corps implemented an innovative program in South Vietnam called the
Combined Action Program (CAP).
•The CAP paired teams of about 14 Marines and a single corpsman led by an NCO with
approximately 20 host-nation security personnel.
•These CAP platoons earned the trust of villagers by living among them while helping
villagers defend themselves. Marines trained and led the local defense forces, and
learned the villagers' customs and languages.
✔✔Anbar Awakening - ✔✔The Al-Anbar Awakening is an example of opportunity
cultivated and seized by leaders that challenged assumptions and sought a better
alternative:
•Ultimately, Iraqis and Americans came to work together in an unlikely alliance of former
adversaries, for the stabilization and redevelopment of Al-Anbar province.
•Success demanded acute cultural awareness that allowed Marines to identify fissures
within Anbari society and use effective applications of population-centric
counterinsurgency doctrine that aimed to neutralize the enemy's influence over the local
inhabitants.
, •Unfortunately, this awareness was only gained after years of exposure to the local
population. Violence in Al-Anbar escalated after the withdrawal of U.S. troops, resulting
in violent conflict with the central government and sectarian violence among Iraq's
religious groups.
✔✔Lioness Program - ✔✔The Lioness program was a team of female Marines initially
used in Iraq to search female Iraqis for concealed weapons and contraband items
during a wide variety of missions. Cultural norms in Muslim nations often restrict direct
interaction of adult men and women, reducing the ability of coalition forces to directly
communicate with women and consequently focusing military interaction almost
exclusively on the male population.
•Lioness teams increased security measures by addressing the female population that
was previously unapproachable due to cultural sensitivities.
•These teams have evolved into Female Engagement Teams in Afghanistan which were
used to interact with the Afghan women to build relationships, collect information
regarding village atmospherics. Their efforts created an accepting environment between
the Marines and the local Afghan population.
✔✔Future - ✔✔In the coming decades, Marines can expect to deploy to countries
throughout the globe to conduct missions across the military spectrum. These
operations will demand continuous improvements in the skills needed for dealing with
foreign populations.
•Mission success will require Marines to be able to recognize and leverage the cultural
factors in their environment.
•Developing skills in applying operational culture—ranging from tactics, techniques, and
procedures (TTPs) to key leader engagements planning—is as essential to mission
success as marksmanship.
✔✔DEFINE CULTURE - ✔✔Culture is defined as the shared world view and social
structure of a group of people that influence a person's and a group's actions and
choices.
•This definition emphasizes that cultural beliefs and social structures influence people's
actions and choices.
•By focusing on the outcome of cultural beliefs and structures—the actions that people
take—this definition provides Marines with an observable behavior, rather than an
unobservable belief system, that can be incorporated into operational planning.
The word "culture" not only refers to the meanings and beliefs that people hold, but
sometimes to a specific group of people. To distinguish this meaning, we need to define
a culture group. A culture group is a group of people whose common world view unites
them in a system of social structures and shared behaviors.
✔✔OPERATIONAL CULTURE - ✔✔The Marine Corps defines operational culture as
the aspects of culture that influence the outcome of a military operation and conversely,
the military actions that influence the culture within an area of operations, or AO.
Operational culture can be used by Marines to better understand an AO and to plan and
QUESTIONS SET A+
✔✔Banana Wars - ✔✔During the Banana Wars in Latin America, many Marines
became fluent in Spanish or Creole French to gain assistance from the local population.
These experiences in Haiti, Cuba, Panama, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and
Nicaragua resulted in the publication of the Marine Corps Small Wars Manual.
✔✔Huk Rebellion - ✔✔Marines successfully assisted the Philippine government by
working alongside Filipino security forces to end the Huk Rebellion (1946-1954), a
communist-led insurgency. Their success was due in part to the unconventional
methods employed through the Filipino-American partnership. The counterinsurgency
used Marines and Filipino security forces to distribute relief goods and other forms of
aid to outlying, provincial communities. This fostered support against the insurgents.
✔✔Combined Action Program - ✔✔Building on their early 20th century
counterinsurgency experiences in Haiti, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic, the
Marine Corps implemented an innovative program in South Vietnam called the
Combined Action Program (CAP).
•The CAP paired teams of about 14 Marines and a single corpsman led by an NCO with
approximately 20 host-nation security personnel.
•These CAP platoons earned the trust of villagers by living among them while helping
villagers defend themselves. Marines trained and led the local defense forces, and
learned the villagers' customs and languages.
✔✔Anbar Awakening - ✔✔The Al-Anbar Awakening is an example of opportunity
cultivated and seized by leaders that challenged assumptions and sought a better
alternative:
•Ultimately, Iraqis and Americans came to work together in an unlikely alliance of former
adversaries, for the stabilization and redevelopment of Al-Anbar province.
•Success demanded acute cultural awareness that allowed Marines to identify fissures
within Anbari society and use effective applications of population-centric
counterinsurgency doctrine that aimed to neutralize the enemy's influence over the local
inhabitants.
, •Unfortunately, this awareness was only gained after years of exposure to the local
population. Violence in Al-Anbar escalated after the withdrawal of U.S. troops, resulting
in violent conflict with the central government and sectarian violence among Iraq's
religious groups.
✔✔Lioness Program - ✔✔The Lioness program was a team of female Marines initially
used in Iraq to search female Iraqis for concealed weapons and contraband items
during a wide variety of missions. Cultural norms in Muslim nations often restrict direct
interaction of adult men and women, reducing the ability of coalition forces to directly
communicate with women and consequently focusing military interaction almost
exclusively on the male population.
•Lioness teams increased security measures by addressing the female population that
was previously unapproachable due to cultural sensitivities.
•These teams have evolved into Female Engagement Teams in Afghanistan which were
used to interact with the Afghan women to build relationships, collect information
regarding village atmospherics. Their efforts created an accepting environment between
the Marines and the local Afghan population.
✔✔Future - ✔✔In the coming decades, Marines can expect to deploy to countries
throughout the globe to conduct missions across the military spectrum. These
operations will demand continuous improvements in the skills needed for dealing with
foreign populations.
•Mission success will require Marines to be able to recognize and leverage the cultural
factors in their environment.
•Developing skills in applying operational culture—ranging from tactics, techniques, and
procedures (TTPs) to key leader engagements planning—is as essential to mission
success as marksmanship.
✔✔DEFINE CULTURE - ✔✔Culture is defined as the shared world view and social
structure of a group of people that influence a person's and a group's actions and
choices.
•This definition emphasizes that cultural beliefs and social structures influence people's
actions and choices.
•By focusing on the outcome of cultural beliefs and structures—the actions that people
take—this definition provides Marines with an observable behavior, rather than an
unobservable belief system, that can be incorporated into operational planning.
The word "culture" not only refers to the meanings and beliefs that people hold, but
sometimes to a specific group of people. To distinguish this meaning, we need to define
a culture group. A culture group is a group of people whose common world view unites
them in a system of social structures and shared behaviors.
✔✔OPERATIONAL CULTURE - ✔✔The Marine Corps defines operational culture as
the aspects of culture that influence the outcome of a military operation and conversely,
the military actions that influence the culture within an area of operations, or AO.
Operational culture can be used by Marines to better understand an AO and to plan and
