At the beginning of his command of MACV, Harkins and his staff had repeatedly expressed optimism about the course of the war. Members of the U.S. press nicknamed him "General Blimp" (after the cartoon character Colonel Blimp) because of their belief that he inflated the success of U.S and South Vietnamese military activities. As violence continued to escalate, many reporters began to perceive that what they were seeing in the field and being told confidentially by officers such as Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann did not match the information released by Harkins and his staff and they concluded that Harkins was being misinformed by his staff or untruthful. The Battle of Ap Bac in particular seriously affected many of the reporters' view of Harkins' credibility. When details of the battle emerged that differed from the Army's official version, it became a very serious matter, and press reports of it embarrassed the Kennedy administration.