Because the book is based on the conduct of World War II occupying forces (Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union), most of its contents are politically and technically no longer applicable to the early 21st century.

Some of von Dach's instructions remain relevant, however, to current conflicts, such as about how to sabotage infrastructure, construct roadblocks, make and use incendiary devices or hide weapons and ammunition.

In 1974, the Chief of the General Staff vetoed the publication of Total Resistance as an army manual, partly because of concerns that it advocated conduct that violated the laws of war.

When the Swiss Army did establish a secret stay-behind organization, P-26, in the 1970s, it was conceived as a top-down, cadre-led structure rather than the broad, decentralized civilian resistance movement envisioned by von Dach.

[1] Nonetheless, the book remains part of the curriculum of the Swiss Army Military Academy at the ETH Zurich as one of the "classics of the history of strategy and the theory of war.

In 1965, U.S. special forces published an unauthorized translation entitled Total Resistance – Swiss Army Guide to Guerilla Warfare and Underground Operations.

According to Swiss and European police reports of the time, it was widely disseminated in left-wing militant circles, and its tactics were used in bomb attacks in Southern Tyrol, New York and Frankfurt, as well as in unrests in Paris.