phoenix program declassified

PHOENIX PROGRAM Subject: PHOENIX PROGRAM Keywords: No Objection to Declassification in Full 2010/05/13: LOC-HAK-331-4-20-7 PHOENIX PROGRAM ? Designed to destroy the Vietcong infrastructure and ostensibly run by the South Vietnamese government, the Phoenix Program--in fact directed by the United States--developed a variety of counterinsurgency activities including, at its worst, torture and assassination. And so began my 10-month tour of duty with the Tay Ninh PRU. Since the province chief and his key subordinates and US advisers met almost daily, this requirement never really was an impediment to successful use of the PRU. Be the first one … All Rights Reserved. best method depends on your personal situation. From 1965 to 1972, Phoenix was involved in the kidnapping, torture, and murder of thousands upon thousands of … Of course, I was clueless about all of the above in July 1969, when, as a Marine infantry officer in command of G Company of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines in South Vietnam, I first came in contact with the PRU program. The Phoenix Program is a grim history of one of the darkest episodes of the Vietnam War, the CIA's civilian torture and assassination program called Phoenix. Another component of CORDS was the Phoenix Program.2 Although Phoenix was run and ostensibly controlled by the Saigon government, CIA funded and administered it. Of particular value were the many VC who rallied to the South Vietnamese government as part of the Chieu Hoi ("Open Arms") Program. He reported that there were only six local VC cadre left in the province to manage the province's affairs. plus-circle Add Review. From September 1969 to June 1970, the Tay Ninh PRU killed 31 VCI and captured 64--at a cost of only two PRU members killed and two wounded. Everything from local agent reports to national-level intelligence could in theory be funneled to them via the system of District Intelligence and Operations Coordination Centers (DIOCCs). In practice, however, few operational leads were shared with the PRU for a host of reasons. It is the story of a single operational unit that was part of the larger, country-wide action element of the Phoenix program--the Provincial Reconnaissance Units (PRUs). In addition, these maps would often contain the names of family members who were VCI members or sympathetic to the communists. My orders included a provision that I take an Air America flight from Da Nang, something few Marines ever did. After successful attempts to bury this book, e.g. Le système Phoenix OS x86 fonctionne avec les processeurs Intel série x86. In part, this was a product of their training, which was unsystematic and erratic. Most of the PRU's troops were members of the Cao Dai religion, but a few were Roman Catholic, and even two or three ethnic Cambodians were assigned. Yes there is declassified written information, and oral accounts but there is still much information that has been either destroyed, or people who have been directly told not to say a word about the events that happened during the time period of the Phoenix Program. From 1954 to 1964, the only intelligence offered by CIA efforts came in the form of a Hamlet Informant Program, which paid for information from untrained informants. I was then half way through my second tour in the country. In garrison at their district headquarters, the men wore civilian clothes; in the field they wore tiger-stripe camouflage uniforms or black pajamas. That figure lies on the high end of estimates, all of which were dependent on statistics of varying reliability. provide, including your identity, and our interactions with you will be respectful and That is, the teams did not maneuver well under fire, and they were not proficient in calling for and adjusting supporting arms, generally artillery fire. Recruiting will contact applicants within 45 days if their qualifications meet our needs. Our response will occur via a secure method. Colonel in the Vietnamese Army, he spoke good English and proved to be a capable, confident, and well-respected leader. They receive full access to pertinent targeting intelligence through some form of interagency coordinating group, like the South Vietnamese DIOCCs. Sadly, US civilian advisers were reluctant to share intelligence with the PRU even when they were specifically directed to do so by the US Embassy in Saigon--and many of them even refused to share their intelligence with other US agencies for fear of others getting a share of the credit. I finished Viet Cong at 0200. The Phoenix Program is a grim history of one of the darkest episodes of the Vietnam War, the CIA's civilian torture and assassination program called Phoenix. Phoenix was a program headed by the CIA, in conjunction with US Special Forces and Australian and South Vietnamese commandos, during the Vietnam War. Learn how the CIA is organized into directorates and key offices, responsible for securing our nation. Title: Phoenix Program. Date unknown. After landing at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon and reporting to the liaison office, I was told to go to the Duc Hotel, register, and await instructions. First called ICEX. The commander of the city team also served as the Tay Ninh PRU's deputy commander. I would find them to be brave and experienced troops. The following are pertinent excerpts from William Colby's nomination testimony July 2, 1973 on the Phoenix Program: -- The Phoenix program was developed in order to bring some order into the fight between the subversion of the North Vietnamese … And although this was a military unit, their targets weren’t military, but civilian. Because of safety concerns for the prospective applicant, as well as security and After a few hours, a Vietnamese officer wearing dark sunglasses, a tiger-striped camouflage uniform, and a grim smile met me in the hotel lobby. When the police unit arrived, I greeted its commander, a US military officer dressed in black pajamas and armed with an assortment of unusual weapons, including a Chinese AK-47 assault rifle and a Browning 9-mm automatic pistol. Unfortunately, there have been few objective analyses of Phoenix, and it still is looked upon with a great deal of suspicion and misunderstanding by many who study the Vietnam War. professional. Phoenix was a program headed by the CIA, in conjunction with US Special Forces and Australian and South Vietnamese commandos, during the Vietnam War. Phoenix Program In an attempt to cripple or eliminate South Vietnamese communist guerilla resistance (the Vietcong) to both United States forces and the U.S.-backed government of South Vietnam, the Phoenix program was allegedly designed to conduct arrest and assassination operations against suspected Vietcong and Vietcong sympathizers. Colby believed the United States must rid the south of the existing communist parallel government in the villages and eradicate the Viet Cong Infrastructure (VCI) in the countryside. In addition to the options below, individuals contact CIA in a variety of creative ways. Yes there is declassified written information, and oral accounts but there is still much information that has been either destroyed, or people who have been directly told not to say a word about the events that happened during the time period of the Phoenix Program. The Phoenix Program was one of our nation's dirty secrets that still has not been fully uncovered. The Phoenix Program was first published twenty four years ago, fourteen years after the Congressional investigations that exposed and swiftly washed it from public memory. see review. From 1965 to 1972, Phoenix was involved in the kidnapping, torture, and murder of thousands upon thousands of … Be the first one … Halted in 1953, most likely due to limited progress and the success of other projects. Retrieved 16:12, December 28, 2020, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/9879.html. Until then, my perceptions of the Viet Cong had been shaped by the broad strokes and generalities of the Western press. At the end of the operation, he suggested that I extend my tour of duty in Vietnam and apply for a position with the PRU program, to which he was then assigned. We reply first to messages of greater interest By far, the most prolific source of intelligence for the PRU was the PRU's own intelligence system. What the CIA did in the Vietnam War He told me he wanted to interview me for "an important job fighting the Viet Cong." Installed as a "commander" of the PRU in September, I became an "advisor after November 1969. Tracing the provenance and evolution of the Phoenix Program from these early operations, they identify the program's three elements and assess its overall success. MACV claimed that Phoenix and the US military's response to the Tet Offensive, along with other rural security, and militia programs, had eliminated upwards of 80,000 VCI through defection, detention, or death. Most PRU members were highly experienced combat veterans, who had survived many years in elite combat units before coming to the PRU, but a few had received only rudimentary field training or had served in noncombat units. The above stated quote is a direct definition of the Central Intelligence Agencies "Phoenix Program". Search. ... Continue reading this essay I believe they can if the following conditions are met: 1. The Tay Ninh PRU was successful primarily because it was a locally recruited outfit whose members had an intimate knowledge of their province, its people, and the enemy. In late 1967, the prime minister of South Vietnam decreed that all of his government's anti-VCI activities be integrated into a program he dubbed Phung Hoang, after a mythical bird endowed with extraordinary powers. In late August 1969, the invitation came, and I was ordered to Saigon to report to MACV's Marine Liaison Office for instructions. This he did to avoid the possibility that US personnel might involve themselves in actions that could be construed as violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. They were special paramilitary forces that were originally developed in 1964 by the government of South Vietnam and CIA. Many Americans believe that this was wrong killing civilians and that it was against the Geneva Conventions but it was a necessary operation. I obtained the information about the status of the VCI in Tay Ninh Province after I left Vietnam from an interview with two former Tay Ninh PRU members who resettled in the United States in 1985. In some cases, the Tay Ninh PRU was actually successful in infiltrating the VCI. Purpose: truth drugs The project attempted to identify agents useful during interrogation. These Hoi Chanhs (returnees) were screened after they surrendered to the South Vietnamese government and then interrogated at the PIC, where they often volunteered to guide PRU teams into highly contested areas to capture VCI. They knew if they got into difficulty, without Americans they would be unable to receive prompt medical evacuation, supporting arms fire, or emergency extraction by US helicopters. The South Vietnamese had a resounding lack of interest and investment in this part of the conflict. In most cases, the information was dated or difficult to exploit because of the inaccessibility or the death or capture of the communist sympathizer, but in some notable cases important mid-level VCI cadre were arrested or killed as a result of information on the Census Grievance maps. Most, however, were executed or died in squalid camps. Most agents were paid for their information in a piecework fashion, and this led to the manufacture of a large volume of worthless reports. While the PRU program was a national organization under CORDS on the American side and the Ministry of Interior on the Vietnamese side, it was much more a provincial "action arm." (1969, December 31). He said I should continue to serve as a company commander until III Marine Amphibious Force (MAF) headquarters in Da Nang told me I had been invited to travel to Saigon for an interview. In-Person: Outside the U.S., go to a U.S. Embassy or Consulate and inform a U.S. The units' US advisers were similarly outfitted and armed. We go to great lengths to keep these channels secure, but any communication via the internet poses some risk. When you return permanently to the US (not on vacation or leave), please visit the, To verify an employee's employment, please contact the, Biographic details, such as a photograph of yourself, and a copy of the biographic page MegaEssays.com, (December 31, 1969). The PRU's strong suits lay in its intimate and complete knowledge of the people and terrain of Tay Ninh Province. As early as December 1968, it was apparent to the Tay Ninh PRU that most of the senior VCI cadre had been either killed or captured in the months after Tet or had been driven into neighboring Cambodia. If you know of an imminent threat to a location inside the U.S., immediately contact Office of Public Affairs You can find people who help each other, smile at each other, inspire each other, and most importantly, they do this without expecting something in return. Once the name, rank, and location of each individual VCI member became known, CIA paramilitary or South Vietnamese police or military forces interrogated these individuals for further intelligence on the communist structure and its operations. Search . The units also possessed PRC-25 radios, 7-by-50 binoculars, medical kits, 4-by-4 Toyota -ton trucks, and Honda motorcycles. The project included (But was not limted to) Anabasis aphylla (an alkaloid), scopolamine and mescaline. I had begun to think I had been dropped off at the wrong airfield when I spotted a green Toyota Land Cruiser with US Embassy tags approaching me from the far end of the airfield. Various US Government produced primary sources regarding the CIA managed Phoenix Program during the Vietnam War. When the Project Stargate documents were declassified, it was revealed that Geller had been involved with the CIA in the 1970s as part of the SRI program. phoenix program ( declassified release) Posted by Non- Traditional security expert at 5:41 PM. If you feel it is safe, consider providing these details with your submission: We cannot guarantee a response to every message. They are equipped and trained to a high level of professionalism. The Tay Ninh Provincial Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) and Its Role in the Phoenix Program, 1969-70 Thanks to the introduction of systems associated with CORDS, the Tay Ninh PRU in theory had a wide array of intelligence sources available to it. The program was controversial because the antiwar movement and critical scholars in the United States and elsewhere portrayed it as an unlawful and immoral assassination program targeting civilians. The Phoenix Program can be called a resounding failure. The lists were sent to various Phoenix field forces, which included the Vietnamese national police, US Navy Seal teams and US Army special operations groups, and Provincial Reconnaissance Units such as the one in Tay Ninh. He told me to read it that night and be prepared to discuss it in detail the following morning at 0800.3 I then was driven back to the Duc Hotel where I immediately began reading. Introductory material is drawn mainly from the most reliable accounts of the Phoenix program that include: Thomas L. Ahern Jr., CIA and Rural Pacification in South Vietnam (Washington, DC: CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence, 2001; declassified 2006), chapters 10 and 11; Dale Andradé, Ashes to Ashes: The Phoenix Program and the Vietnam War (Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1990); and Mark Moyar, Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: The CIA's Secret Campaign to Destroy the Viet Cong (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1997). The Tay Ninh PRU was forced to develop its own source of operational leads because of the aforementioned reluctance of other agencies to share information on VCI targets. Nov 30, 2018 Pamela rated it did not like it. MegaEssays, "Phoenix program.," MegaEssays.com, https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/9879.html (accessed December 28, 2020). Though reading did not help me through my interview, the knowledge would help me in the months to follow in Tay Ninh. Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest. THE PHOENIX PROGRAM by Douglas Valentine. The PRU relied heavily on the Americans who accompanied them on dangerous missions to provide radio contact with US supporting units, especially medevac helicopters and artillery units. Il peut fonctionner sur un disque dur sans affecter le système documentaire original Sources regarding the CIA it! As Phoenix but was not limted to ) Anabasis aphylla ( an alkaloid,. A village for VC political cadre and although this phoenix program declassified a product of their training, which unsystematic. Without orders from a competent legal authority from 1959 to 1962 and chief! Neutralized by SVN forces PhoenixProgramDocuments Identifier-ark ark: /13960/t6d258528 Ocr ABBYY FineReader 9.0 Ppi 400 Scanner Archive. ) Posted by Non- Traditional security expert at 5:41 PM developed by US.. North Vietnamese Army 's 5th, 7th, and well-respected leader in April 1975, when the Program was of! 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