As US political leaders look to end the longest war in its history, there will be a lot of reflection on how the military organizations executed its counter-insurgency operations. Many of these lessons learned will be captured and codified in future counter-insurgency doctrine. Of the many lessons learned from these conflicts, the two fundamental lessons learned by the US Army while combating insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan are that no two insurgencies are the same and that the support of the population is necessary for success. The success of Mao and the CCP during their Revolutionary War further demonstrates the importance of the population support. Mao and the CCP were very successful in gaining the support of the population through their influence activities and these lessons are transportable to future United States counterinsurgency efforts.