SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: The Phoenix Program deserves its own reckoning. Because it is not taught in American schools.

The Phoenix Program deserves its own reckoning. Because it is not taught in American schools. Because it does not appear in most American War movies. Because the people who ran it went on to long, decorated careers in intelligence and government and were never once called to account for what they did. Phoenix was a CIA program. Officially called Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support. Its goal was to identify and eliminate the Viet Cong infrastructure, meaning anyone suspected of supporting or sympathizing with the National Liberation Front. Between 1965 and 1972, it reportedly killed between 20,000 and 40,000 Vietnamese civilians. Tortured tens of thousands more. In interrogation centers built by American money, staffed by American-trained personnel, overseen by American advisors. The methods were not subtle. Electric shock. Waterboarding. Rape. Mutilation. The tiger cages of Con Son Island, cramped stone boxes where prisoners were kept folded for weeks, were built with American funding and American approval. A CIA officer who ran the program, William Colby, later became Director of the CIA. He testified before Congress about Phoenix. He was never charged. He wrote a book. He became a respected member of the foreign policy establishment. And now his grandson, Elbridge Colby, sits at the center of U.S. defense policy. This is not ancient history. The logic of Phoenix, identify, isolate, eliminate civilian support networks, was used in Iraq. In Afghanistan. In other places whose names we don't know yet. The institution that built Phoenix still exists. The men it trained trained other men. The program ends. The program never ends. Vietnam showed it could be resisted. Vietnam showed it could be survived. Vietnam is still here.

12:08 AM · Apr 14, 2026