over the numbers, of the more likely probability of higher numbers. Accordingly, an SNIE that stated lower numbers for the VC, all things considered, would not be misinforming the President. Helms, too, considered that the Army was doing the fighting, the killing and the dying; it was their call to make. Additionally, Helms did not want to alienate military intelligence because he wanted their cooperation on an issue currently outstanding: the bombing of North Vietnam, which the CIA from the start generally considered as a poor, ineffective tactic, one that should be halted. Helms, consequently, considered the advisability of weighing his decision in terms of bureaucratic issues that transcended the O/B issues at stake. Saigon conference: Carver MACV stuck with its lower numbers. The issue became the subject of extensive negotiations, chiefly between the MACV and the CIA, which dragged on all summer and attracted an unwanted notoriety. Although many military analysts had earlier concurred with the higher numbers proposed by CIA, many later fell silent. The lower numbers were pushed. MACV defended its "command position" stance, imposed by military leaders in Vietnam, due to political and strategic considerations sourced in Washington. Late in 1967, a conference was called to be held in Saigon. It was intended to finally bring to an end the long-standing controversy. The CIA was represented by George Carver, the DCI's Special Assistant for Vietnam Affairs (SAVA). Here negotiations were renewed with the military regarding the VC and PAVN combatant figures for the CIA's 1967 SNIE. DCI Helms then allowed or instructed Carver to agree to MACV's lower numbers. Dissent by analyst Adams Adams responded with an internal memorandum calling the CIA agreement with MACV "a monument of deceit." He sketched out a point of view which related the agreement to a conspiracy between the Washington institutions, both civilian and military, which compromised the integrity of the intelligence, for the sake of a hidden agenda driven by politics. Adams, frustrated with a perversion of intelligence to meet political objectives, struggled to get levers pulled by those above him at CIA. Ultimately, his challenge to DCI Helms failed. He retained a strong belief that political pressures by the military or by those who directed the military resulted in the 1967 SNIE's depiction of the PAVN and VC as weaker than they actually were. Tet: winners & losers A smaller VC force could not have mounted Tet Offensive.