Computing Counterinsurgency: The Hamlet Evaluation System (HES) and Databasing During the Vietnam War

In 1967, the U.S. military in South Vietnam launched the Hamlet Evaluation System (HES), a new type of data-processing system comprising a demographic database and monthly surveys for monitoring the progress of its counterinsurgency effort. Already highly controversial at the time, the HES had a considerable impact on strategic and political decisions. A close examination of its conception and practices of data collection, processing, and analysis reveals that the system could not adequately capture the dynamics of war, especially refugee movements. Although several revisions steadily refined the system, policymakers and the military only embraced highly aggregated results. The quantified representation of the political and military situation in Vietnam even promoted and legitimized profound interventions in the social fabric of rural South Vietnam.