Reply #110: The PHOENIX Program

[Octafish]

Something missing from too many history books and American memories:

Documents from the Phoenix Program

supplied and introduced by Douglas Valentine
author of The Phoenix Program

>>> Created by the CIA in Saigon in 1967, Phoenix was a program aimed at "neutralizing"—through assassination, kidnapping, and systematic torture—the civilian infrastructure that supported the Viet Cong insurgency in South Vietnam. It was a terrifying "final solution" that violated the Geneva Conventions and traditional American ideas of human morality. (For a full introduction to Phoenix, see below.)

While researching the Phoenix Program for my book on the subject, I conducted over a hundred interviews and collected boxes full of documents from individuals, as well as from the State Department and Department of Defense. The most important documents provided by any one individual came from retired CIA officer Nelson Brickham, the man most responsibile for the creation of the Phoenix Program.

Luckily for history, Brickham kept copies of the documents he wrote while with the CIA; otherwise, there would be no documentary evidence of how Phoenix was actually created. During the evacuation of Saigon in April 1975, the CIA destroyed most of the documents it had about its assassination program, and none of what it kept at Langley headquarters can be obtained through Freedom of Information Act
requests. This is no accident, for Phoenix is the model for the equally terrifying US homeland security aparatus.

Documents

Attack Against VC Infrastructure

A Concept for Organization for Attack on VC Infrastructure

Personal Observations

A Proposal for the Coordination and Management of Intelligence Programs and Attack on VC Infrastructure and Local Irregular Forces

MACV Directive 381-41

Action Program for Attack on VC Infrastructure, 1967-1968

Carver memo, 7 August 1967 (re: Attack on the Viet Cong Infrastructure)

Program Guidance--Mount Attack on VC Infrastructure

ICEX Briefing, August 1967

MACV Joint Messageform DTG 06 0910Z

MACV Directive 381-43

Evaluation Report: Processing of Viet Cong Suspects

Directive of the Prime Minister on the Neutralization of the VCI

Phung Hoang Advisor Handbook

Internal Security in South Vietnam - Phoenix



The Phoenix Project and Its Creator, Nelson Brickham

by Douglas Valentine

Nelson Brickham joined the CIA in 1949, serving first in the sedate Directorate of Intelligence, then transferring in 1955 to the Operations Division, where he served in the high-profile Soviet-Russia Division. Brickham gained a wide range of experience, from running black propaganda and false-flag recruitments, to gathering information on Soviet missile silos. Over the years he developed his own "systems approach" to spookery that he later employed when developing the Phoenix Program.

CONTINUED w/ EXCELLENT LINKS and SOURCES...

http://www.thememoryhole.org/phoenix/

Most importantly: You're welcome, XanaDUer. I know the above is old hat to you, but to newer DUers, guests and visitors it is news. Thanks also for giving a damn.