USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The measure of success adopted was to count bodies, both of those killed and those taken captive, and to count the number of arms seized from the communists after each battle, and not the number of villagers who supported the government. Units earned prizes, decorations, and vacation if they presented high body counts.

Detailed explanation-2: -They settled on a simple metric, “net body count”. This is a count of the total number of enemy casualties less US casualties. The joy of this number was that it appears to be a reasonable measure of success, and importantly it could be tracked and understood.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Strategy The U.S. would wage a war of attrition, a military tactic through which a long series of small-scale attacks gradually wears down the enemy. The goal was to inflict heavy damage on North Vietnam and the Viet Cong, so much damage in fact, that it would be impossible for them to recover and keep fighting.

Detailed explanation-4: -Vietnam War 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. The Army’s theory was that eventually, the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army would lose after the attrition warfare.

Detailed explanation-5: -What was the main purpose of introducing the body count? To persuade Americans that a Vietcong surrender was imminent. Upon hearing of this April 1970, U.S. college students went on the first general student strike on the nation’s history.