THE PHOENIX MURDERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100190001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 8, 2011
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 1, 1975
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

,STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/08: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100190001-2
B (. J~~fSE:i l-l r. t r.l.., S I
: --?;,v~-.,,s?_.??-....-tx...~~::5~"-.a?;.u.. 'z--T!`rw.trd:me~+~!~ne?iis
t
DtC]i-,_P"? 197 5
and villages of V etnam, Proeriix Via`.
bumbling. slipshod operation. poorly
oervised and controlled, shot tr rough
corruption and ineptness-a tragically
that operation 17. which tens e. ihou,ar
of ordinary South Vietnamese civilia
were murdered. swept into prisons.ai
often, horribly tort;red... In the end, oboet
failed completely to even dent the
called Viet Cong Infrastructure (VCI) -t
political apparatus whose members
now governing Communist Saigon.
Nothing worked the way the planners
Phoenix had hoped. Precise intelligence tL,VJV l ,c,r a ?~ .. --__....
on the Viet Cong"s political leaders never by Green Berets. established a chain of
surfaced; most ^ the data was sketchy ,ors for frontier security and sent Squads
and inaccurate. At best Phoenix "target- on forays into Laos and Cambodia.
ed?? low-ranking Communist functionaries; Later, the agency created --Counter-Ter,
at worst the victims were the political or . ror' teams that tried to systematically re-
social enemies of the local Saigon gov= turn the violence the Viet Cor?g had visited
ernment province chief. President Nguyen upon Saigon government offi ^ials, and
charges he used it to dampen the spirits of
would-be rivals). but many of his subordi-
came the fifty-nine-man Rural Develop-
ment or "RD Cadre" units that were as-
did not ?n the ranks of Operation signed to every province to dig wells, bol-li:
_1_ %
s
nts
h
into pete
_
Phoenix were layered wit
a few counter local guerrillas.
tl
t
y no
-
and -castoffs arid. appaien
sadists. i To tackle these assignments and Phoe-
d
i
l
i
ve
nvo
es
" = None of the various agenc
missinn of collecting intelligence,
ti/:1 In rnurhlx-ic Jl u, a? ;,,c ..... -- - - - -
ing to share its best information. South the CIA put beheen 400 and 600 agents
.-...?.~?~ - - .. _ .. - -'- -'--? ..-..,. ..A1....,~ 1~ ec! in me
into Viet
rt
-- -r
-,;n Vietnamese agents pravvu W Vc when
~d ? I While it has ever fielded in a single country.
While it has ever fielded in a single country.
\ilfy .-i r__t ` .0~'r-I
,- i able and failed to r,.?.,.t,ae e p Y.
the big-nosed. white-skinned Americans Agents were plucked from posts all over
- the world and dozens of soldiers of fortune
lt
M
ean
:
=_ Y'= could not operate covertly at a
too.
were hired on contract to heip out
-+
?
,
e
t
while. Viet Cong =g nzs wormed _heirway
of the ,~teran clock-and-dargef
,vase amen.. r
the; military` e.~er'Jo' yi +_ ew. arty came as a result of any kind of planned dentJohnson
rr ,n~ ~+, t:t t'~a:Vim ^ `fin niriinrntV::na ;nrnii;hen^e efinn r nnrrlinatari with a States effort in Vietnam should not be
;~Qtj tCl i 4.
:ti~ opie. =* By all accounts. only a small percent- and head of the America
'lt!ic.f Uit`.i l{G r: a{tv -x-r.:.u.u.v:e~ut.-?r:?t-:,~: Well. Josurprls__ . `;UJW i.?:V u!c v.ec vv.y e--? _- -_ --
nabla every oaJ, t. ; cZ .ale 3o