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Article: INSIDE THE RING.(Nation)(Inside The Ring)
- Article from:
- The Washington Times (Washington, DC)
- Article date:
- December 23, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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NUMBERS GAME
During the Vietnam War 30 years ago, the Pentagon counted dead enemy bodies as a measure of progress toward victory. During the "5 o'clock follies" in Saigon, as the daily U.S. military news briefings were then known, the public was treated to "body count" tallies, and the daily, weekly and monthly trends therein.
The bigger the number, the closer to victory, the thinking went then.
But there was one big problem with this method of charting battlefield success. While the U.S. military counted bodies, the North Vietnamese army and Viet Cong didn't. Taking or inflicting casualties wasn't their strategy - it was a means of ...