Ewell, whose relentless pressure for more enemy deaths earned him a reputation as the “butcher of the Delta,” boasted that within a period of six months the Ninth Infantry Division had slain more than 10,000 soldiers, and that its “kill ratio” was the highest in the war theater. Some of these deaths were the result of ground operations. But most were the consequence of indiscriminate artillery fire and air strikes—a total of 3,381 strikes by fighter-bombers, many concentrated on the single province of Kien Hoa.32 “Death is our business and business is good,” was a slogan painted on one
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