across South Vietnam. Their Tet Offensive surprised South Vietnamese and American military forces, and only after heavy fighting were they able to defeat the attackers. Although eventually a major military victory for the US and its allies, in the end it proved to be a great political victory for the communist cause. Shortly after, President Lyndon Johnson withdrew from reelection to the Presidency. The war became increasingly unpopular with American voters after their surprise and shock at the magnitude and intensity of the VC offensive. As a result of Tet, the American intelligence community significantly adjusted the O/B to reflect the CIA's higher numbers. The O/B controversy then quietly lost much of its importance. The issues, however, resurfaced in 1982 because of a CBS television documentary followed by a civil trial for libel, Westmoreland v. CBS. Order of battle controversy At its foundation, the American O/B controversy derived from the appraisal by analysts of a foreign enemy's ability to field combatants. Its wider effect involved a host of issues: the entire war in Southeast Asia and domestic public opinion, the politics of military intelligence and the utility of combat/support formations, presidential electioneering confronting an intelligence estimate suggested by the CIA. Magnifying its importance in the mid-1960s was the metrics of the American strategy of attrition in South Vietnam. Complicating its resolution were the conflicting perspectives of the institutional players, in the year before the U.S. presidential election. The O/B controversy came to an unexpected denouement, however, as a result of a failed military offensive by the VC that nonetheless reaped their cause significant political rewards. Attrition strategy, cross-over The Johnson Administration and the US Army, particularly Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), in consultation arrived at their chosen Vietnam strategy, basically a war of attrition. In early 1966 this strategy was made explicit in a writing to General William Westmoreland, then commander of American forces in Vietnam. A narrative derived from the strategy worked to coordinate both the military's explanation of the war, and the President's special care to maintain voter support for it. Instead of territory taken as shown on a map, or a series of enemy retreats or surrenders, the attrition narrative demonstrated progress in the war by the steady destruction of enemy forces. In a war of attrition a grim victory went to the army that more quickly reduced the size of its opponent. Hence, the importance of