It wasn't. Using a body count to determine success only led to inflated body counts in order to make it look like an operation was more successful then it actually was. This of course leads to situation where commanders believe that a situation is better then it actually is. When it comes to light that the situation was nowhere near as good as it has been made out to be, this inevitably leads to a great deal of backlash against the military and those responsible for reporting the military situation. This is exactly what happens in 1968 before the Tet Offensive. For months, the military had been reporting that the situation in South Vietnam was good and that the high enemy body counts reported by fields commanders indicated that the enemy was running out of manpower. The reality was completely different and when the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive the US military was left extremely red faced a subject to increased criticism from the US public who had been hearing about how good the situation was for months.