BIG REWARDS OFFERED FOR VIET CONG 'BOSSES'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01720R001100060023-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 7, 2004
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: August 2, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

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D Y Daniel Setlc`l erlnnd
Strfr correspondent of
The Christian Science Monitor
The Saigon government's failure td cap-
ture many high-level members of the Viet
Con; political underground is one of the
main reasons for a new high-rewards sys-
tem being set up here.
Rewards systems have existed here in
the past, but none has matched this one.
The payoff could now go as high as the
piaster equivalent of nearly $11,000 for in-
formation leading to the capture o,` a given
high-ranking member of the Viet Cons "in-
frastructure."
The new rewards project will be part of
the Saigon government's Phung Hoang, or
"Phoenix," program which is aimed at
destroying the Viet Cong political and ad-
ministrative apparatus. The controversial
Phoenix program has strong U.S. backing,
and it is understood that funds for the new
"high-value rewards" program are to come
from the U.S. Department of Defense.
The new program is expected to start
within the next few weeks, with pilot proj-
ects in One province in each of South Viet-
nam's four military regions. If successful on
this basis, it will be expanded nationwide
to all 44 provinces.
`PiT~i.tcns ~g'oves'I~`,i(e t9
Lists of the "most wanted" members of,
the Viet Cong "phantom government" in
the four selected provinces have already
been drawn up for approval by Saigon. Only
10 high-ranking Viet Cong political cadre
are to be "targeted" in each province.
The rewards have to be high, officials say,
because a person who gives information
leading to the arrest of a high-level Viet
Con; cadre might be forced to leave his
home and reestablish himself and his family
at another location because of possible re-
prisals from the Viet Cong. The rewards will
range from one n i':lion to three million
piasters ($3,036 to $10,609).
W)6606-5
Phoenix operations have been a disap-
pointment to many o,`ncials and military
men because they have failed thus far to
result in the capture of anything more than
a very small percentage of the highest-level
members of the Viet Cong political under-
ground. '
But officials here resent the charge which
has been leveled by several U.S. congress-
men that Phoenix is an "assassination pro-
grain" directed at Civilians. They say that.
niost mOmoers of the Viet Cong "infrastruc-
ture," such as administrative cadre or tax
collectors, while classified as civilians be-
cause of their functions, usually carry weap-
ons. But the o cials say that such persons
are much more valuable to the government
if they are captured, not killed.
otm ;ties to
-w:( \ is 14
Under the new rewards system, bounties
paid to military or police units for the
capture of an individual are to be increased,
and the amount to be paid for the capture of
a man is to be twice that paid for a "kill."
"When they target a man, they always
try to capture him because of the informa-
tion he might have," said one of:cial.
Ambassador William E. Colby, former
head of the U.S. side of the "pacification"
program in South Vietnam, recently told, a
congressional subcommittee that 65,932 per-
sons had been counted as killed, captured,
or defecting to the Saigon government in
:Phoenix operations from 1983 to May of this
year. The figure includes 20,587 listed as
killed.
But Mr. Colby maintained that assassina-
tion is not an aim of the program.
"In the course of normal military opera-
tions or police actions to apprehend them.
however, members of the infrastructure
have been killed as members of military
units or while fighting off arrests," Mr.
.Colby said.
According to a news report from Washing-
top., a still-classifies] General Accounting
Office report says that $80 million in U.S.
funds have been devoted to the Phoenix
program in the past . three years, mostly
from the Defense Department and the Cen-
tral Intelligence. Agency: Several hundred
American military personnel are engaged
as advisers to the program, but the num-
ber is decreasing,
`i
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Approved For Release 2004/10/28 : CIA-RDP80R01720R001100060023-5