Behind the Phoenix Program

"In late December 1967, the government of South Vietnam announced a reorganization of its war effort against the country's Communist insurgency," writes Ed Miller in USA Today Op-Ed.

Effective immediately, all South Vietnamese counterinsurgency activities became part of a new program known as Phuong Hoang, a reference to a magical bird associated with royalty and power in Vietnamese and Chinese cultural traditions. In response to the South Vietnamese move, American officials in Vietnam began referring to their own counterinsurgency coordination efforts by the name that they deemed the closest Western analogue to the mythical creature: Phoenix. (full story)