| ID | 142771 |
| Title Proper | War by numbers |
| Other Title Information | another quantitative revolution |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Barnes, Trevor |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | The Vietnam War, and its denouement, the fall of Saigon, was many things, but one, I will contend, was war by numbers. The American military in Vietnam based their strategies and campaigns in part on the collection and analysis of massive amounts of quantitative data. It was a war of big data before that term was coined. Necessarily, substantial use was made of that then recently invented machine par excellence of big data numerical calculation, the computer. IBM’s “Big Blue went to war” too.1 Paul Edwards2 maintains that the Vietnam War was the first to be fought on an “electronic battleground”. Von Clausewitz’s “fog of war” would lift, and the American military would see everything with perfect clarity from within their electronic “information panopticon”.3 How could America lose? But it did. In the end the numbers never added up. |
| `In' analytical Note | Geopolitics Vol. 20, No.4; 2015: p.736-740 |
| Journal Source | Geopolitics Vol: 20 No 4 |
| Key Words | War ; Vietnam War ; Numbers ; Quantitative Revolution ; Military Affairs in Vietnam |