Phoenix and the Birds of Prey

This study explodes prevailing myths about the Phoenix Program, the CIA's top-secret effort to destroy the Viet Cong by neutralizing its "civilian" leaders. Drawing on recently declassified documents and interviews with American, South Vietnamese, and North Vietnamese sources, Mark Moyar examines the attempts to eradicate the Viet Cong infrastructure and analyzes their effectiveness. He addresses misconceptions about these efforts and provides an accurate, complete picture of the allies' decapitation of the Viet Cong shadow government. Combining social and political history with a study of military operations, Moyar offers a fresh interpretation of the crucial role the shadow government played in the Viet Cong's ascent. Detailed accounts of intelligence operations provide an insider's view of their development and reveal what really happened in the safe havens of the Viet Cong. Filled with new information, Moyar's study sets the record straight about one of the last secrets of the Vietnam War and offers poignant lessons for dealing with future Third World insurgencies. This Bison Books edition includes a new preface and chapter by the author.

Mark Moyar is an associate professor at the U.S. Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia, and the author of Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965. Harry G. Summers Jr. (1932–99) served in both the Korean War and the Vietnam War and was an instructor and distinguished fellow at the Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War College.

Preface to the Bison Books Edition	p. V
Foreword	p. XI
Preface	p. XV
Acknowledgments	p. XXI
Origins
Vietnam at War: Before Phoenix	p. 3
The Shadow Government and the Viet Cong	p. 9
The Shadow Government and the People	p. 18
The War against the Shadow Government: Before Phoenix	p. 35
The New Attack on the Shadow Government	p. 47
Intelligence
Targets	p. 59
Informants and Agents	p. 64
Prisoners: Interrogation, Torture, and Execution	p. 86
Ralliers, Documents, and Photographs	p. 108
Misinformation	p. 114
Coordination
The Challenge: Phoenix Centers	p. 127
Attempts to Make Phoenix and Phung Hoang Work	p. 133
Other Intelligence and Operations Coordination	p. 142
Operations
The Nature of Operations	p. 149
The Birds of Prey	p. 158
The South Vietnamese	p. 175
The Americans	p. 189
Neutralization of Non-Communist Civilians	p. 202
Assassinations	p. 224
Damage Inflicted on the Shadow Government
Neutralization Statistics	p. 235
Actual Viet Cong Cadre Losses	p. 242
Additional Setbacks for the Shadow Government	p. 255
The Shadow Government in Decline	p. 271
Villager Attitudes
Abuse of the Population	p. 281
Changing Attitudes	p. 298
The Impact of the New Attitudes	p. 319
Postlude
Theories of Revolutionary Warfare	p. 333
Reflections	p. 346
Lessons Learned	p. 366
Glossary	p. 399
Notes	p. 405
Selected Bibliography	p. 431
Index	p. 439
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Phoenix and the Birds of Prey

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials