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Body count
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===Vietnam War=== {{main |Vietnam War body count controversy}} Since the goal of the United States in the [[Vietnam War]] was not to conquer [[North Vietnam]] but rather to ensure the survival of the South Vietnamese government, measuring progress was difficult. All the contested territory was theoretically "held" already. Instead, the U.S. Army used body counts to show that the U.S. was winning the war, leading to falsified and inflated enemy body count numbers. The Army's theory was that eventually, the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army would lose after the [[attrition warfare]]. Historian [[Christian Appy]] states "[[search and destroy]] was the principal tactic; and the enemy body count was the primary measure of progress" in the US strategy of [[attrition warfare|attrition]]. Search and destroy was a term to describe operations aimed at flushing the Viet Cong out of hiding, while body count was the measuring stick for operation success. Appy claims that American commanders exaggerated body counts by 100 percent.<ref>{{cite book|author=Appy, Christian G.|title=Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|year=2000|pages=153β56}}</ref> This method was controversial, due to two issues. The first is regarding the counting of unarmed civilians killed in actions as enemy combatants in [[free-fire zone]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Lewy|first=Guenter|title=America in Vietnam|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1978|isbn=9780199874231|pages=450β1}}</ref> as it was estimated that around 220,000 civilians killed by US/ARVN battle operations were miscounted as "enemy KIA".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=spc4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA34|title=East Asia's Other Miracle: Explaining the Decline of Mass Atrocities|last=Bellamy|first=Alex J.|date=29 September 2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780191083785|pages=33β34|language=en}}</ref> Another issue is inflation<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-31-mn-442-story.html| title = Archives - Los Angeles Times| website = [[Los Angeles Times]]| date = 31 January 1991}} </ref><ref name=Sorley>{{cite book|last=Sorley|first=Lewis|title=A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam|publisher=Harvest|year=2007|isbn=9780156013093|pages=21β2}}</ref> and fabrication of body count in after-action reports, which is reported to have given false and inaccurate casualty figures for enemy dead.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nm-ov7lIe_AC|title=The Rise and Fall of an American Army|last=Stanton|first=Shelby L.|date=2003|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|isbn=9780891418276|pages=xvi-xvii|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/the-on-going-battle-for-the-soul-of-the-army|title=The On-Going Battle for the Soul of the Army {{!}} Small Wars Journal|website=smallwarsjournal.com|language=en|access-date=31 May 2018}}</ref>
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