"Bing" West Jr. (born May 2, 1940) is an American author, Marine combat veteran and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs during the Reagan Administration.

[3] Later, he led a Combined Action Platoon (CAP) that protected Binh Nghia village in Quảng Trị province.

[4]: 336  He was also a member of the Marine Force Reconnaissance team that initiated "Operation Stingray": small unit attacks behind enemy lines.

This doctrinal innovation was directly opposed by Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV), which favored the Army's concept of Air-Mobility "Fire and Thunder Operations".

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Infantry Order of St. Crispin, he appears frequently on C-SPAN and The News Hour on PBS.

His 2019 collaboration with Marine General Jim Mattis, entitled Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, was the #1 New York Times Bestseller.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars presented West with their National Media Award in 2005, after he wrote the book No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah.

In The Strongest Tribe about counterinsurgency lessons, West argued that the doctrine of nation-building and winning hearts and minds by economic development was based on Western liberal theory rather than the realities of battle.