Chewin in the Chung

There may or may not have been this guy James Robert "Cotton" Hildreth, and he may or may not have contributed to a book. But one quote from this book that may exist caught my eye:

It was difficult to show the bean-counters and political warriors in
Washington positive military results for all our casualties and materiel losses. So the American military leadership in South Vietnam determined that bodies destroyed was a good gauge. BODY-COUNT became the measure of a ground commander's success.

From "Salute to Veterans," Mary Lewis Deans, Editor


On November 23, 2003, Brigadier General Mark Kimmet probably said something like:

We're not worried in the least. In fact, what we have demonstrated time after time, after every engagement with the enemy we prevail. We have nothing at this point that causes us to be concerned. Militarily -- this is an enemy that cannot defeat us militarily and in engagement after engagement, we see the enemy breaking off, running away, and militarily their attacks are becoming more and more insignificant to us against coalition forces.