Air Force Colonel Edward Caton was the Chief of the MACV Joint

Hawkins had briefed Westmoreland about a report — the RITZ study — that showed that the number of Viet Cong guerrilla and irregular forces in South Vietnam was significantly higher than the numbers carried in the monthly order of battle figures. He personally did not consider the fact that the RITZ study showed that the under-count might be as much as 100,000 was significant — he termed the study as being simply a re-evaluation of the irregular force strength question. He believed that only about ten per cent of the irregular forces were armed.