Mike, since this country never had an empire (other than what it acquired as a result of the Spanish-American War), we had no tradition of working with "native" troops. And the whole guerrilla warfare concept was not looked upon with much favor by the military establishment. The OSS, working behind the lines with resistance groups in both Europe and Asia, was regarded as very much of an oddball organization. It really wasn't until President Kennedy lent his strong support that the Special Operations community (Green Berets, SEALs, etc) gained much respect within the overall military structure. The British and the French, with their histories of colonial empires, learned the lesson of the value of native troops long before we did. Given the wars we're fighting now, we haven't much choice but to train and rely on the natives. But that was certainly an area in which we had little experience back in WWII.
