Things through the intelligence looking glass are rarely as they seem //

One of the stories he used to tell us, over and over, was about unintended consequences. During one of his tours in RVN, his base camp’s airstrip was periodically targeted by a Viet Cong sniper. The guy was an annoyance but never hit anything. Every time the camp got a new commander, he’d want to send out a patrol and kill the guy. But he was always talked out of it based on the fact that the current sniper never hit anything and if they killed him, the NVA command might send a replacement who could shoot. In fact, after each shooting by the sniper the communications element would make an in-the-clear broadcast about an aircraft damaged and friendlies killed or wounded knowing that the it would be intercepted. This made the current sniper look good to his bosses and reduced the likelihood of him being replaced.