politicians and generals, the evidenced probabilities and their professional mandate. President Johnson sought popular support for the Vietnam War. He spoke of the struggle's necessity, and assured the American people that the nation would prevail. Always he welcomed news of the progress of American arms, specifically, news of a steady decline in the number of enemy combatants, which fit the established politico-military narrative toward victory. For several years the Army released falling numbers suggesting such progress, based on the attrition strategy. Starting in early 1966, however, the CIA, as well as some analysts at military intelligence, began discussing evidence indicating that the number of enemy combatants was much larger than earlier thought. The American military takes its orders from the civilian administration, specifically from the President as Commander-in-Chief, who may act through the Secretary of Defense. The administration also influences military's strategy, operations, officer assignments, and (along with Congress) the military's budget. A harmony of interests between the President and the Joint Chiefs of Staff serves the nation. In the extreme, the success or failure of a President's foreign policy can depend on the military's victory or defeat in war. In Vietnam the Army generals encountered unexpected difficulties, e.g., because the local politics of the struggle seemed to favor the native communists and because of the unexpected ability of VC to avoid detection and escape engagement. Eventually, as the war continued, American domestic political support began to erode. During this period the Charter of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) gave the agency two major intelligence tasks: (i) production of intelligence for the President and his administration, its primary consumers; and, (ii) coordinating the other intelligence agencies of the federal government in order to produce coherent intelligence findings. The largest component of the American intelligence community, however, was the several military intelligence services. The task of coordinating the intelligence community would result in a yearly National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). Regarding the first task, the CIA had been for years providing the President with intelligence reports that were generally pessimistic on the Vietnam War, often with the assent of military intelligence. President Johnson, however, had chosen to disregard much of the CIA's negative assessments. Recounting the Viet Cong The O/B here concerns not only the VC, but the VC combined with the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) who had begun infiltrating from the north. Combined they formed the overall communist fighting forces