Phoenix.

This is coolbert:

Once more on the topic of "what worked" in Vietnam.

And my memory has been stimulated, and a recall made of the Phoenix Program.

Counter-insurgency program of the Vietnam War. As proposed and designed by the American Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] and implemented primarily by pseudo-forces of the South Vietnamese central government in Saigon.

Pseudo-forces, those Vietnamese loyal to the central government of the South Vietnamese in Saigon, wearing the uniform [black pajamas and rubber tire sandals] of the mobile Viet Cong guerrilla military units, impostors able to successfully infiltrate areas, strongholds, and villages under RED control.

Identify and target for detention and assassination those persons part and parcel of what was called the Viet Cong infrastructure [VCI].

VCI NOT military combatants but rather what is sometimes called "support" forces. Red commissars, and that civilian apparatus and personnel providing a wide range of "services" to the armed communist insurgents.

"The VCI, unlike the armed component of the Viet Cong, was tasked with support activities including recruiting, political indoctrination, psychological operations, intelligence collection, and logistical support"

Phoenix and the use of pseudo-forces controversial and SUCCESSFUL! It is alleged that large number of persons as belonging to the VCI were "unmasked" and either detained for killed! Losses that the communists post-war [1975] admit were crippling and a severe cause for concern.

"By 1972, Phoenix operatives had neutralized 81,740 suspected NLF supporters, of whom 26,369 were killed"

Those Phoenix pseudo-force "impostors" fighting a dirty war with dirty methods, fire being used to fight fire, etc.  Methods, means, tactics and techniques as used by the communists being used against them - - and the insurgents NOT liking it.

And it can be reasonably be inferred that Phoenix is a program that did "work"? If it was not so successful, the forces of the world-wide "internationale" would not have been mustered so strongly and vociferously to condemn the program and seek the cessation of what was causing a "big hurt" to the communist cause?

That list of things that "worked during the Vietnam War now to include:

* ACAV [armored cavalry].
* Riverine task force.
* AC gunships [AC-47/AC-119/AC-130].
* Phoenix.

coolbert.