Rationality, performance measures and representations of reality: planning, programming and budgeting and the Vietnam war

This paper examines the role Planning, Programming and Budgeting played in changing visibilities in the Department of Defense in such a way that the U.S. leaders believed that the Vietnam War could be won through the proper management of resources. It also demonstrates how this representation of the war clashed with the U.S. soldiers’ experience of combat, creating contradictions that contributed to the downfall of the U.S. command in Vietnam. As such, the paper shows that while accounting has played a role in disciplining labor and productive processes in capitalist organizations by constructing new ways of being, it has not succeeded in imposing rational control on the turmoil of war. Further, when accounting is used to measure performance in situations for which it is ill suited, unintended consequences can result.