The Phoenix Program

"Between 1967 and 1973, the United States undertook the most ambitious and fareaching operation of the Vietnam War. Coordinated by the CIA, staffed by American and Republic of Vietnam soldiers and police officers, and implemented by notorious 'counterterror' and 'hunter-killer' teams, Phoenix was the final solution to the problem posed by those Vietnamese civilians who supported the armed Vietcong insurgents. In the end, hundreds of thousands of Vietcong sympathizers were apprehended by Phoenix teams and sent to secret police interrogation centers throughout South Vietnam; an estimated forty…