The Phoenix Program was the US military and intelligence program designed to identify and dismantle Viet Cong political infrastructure during the Vietnam War.
Created in 1967 and formally developed in 1968, Phoenix combined CIA support, South Vietnamese security forces, US military advisers, intelligence databases, interrogation, arrests, and targeted operations. Its goal was not simply to fight uniformed troops, but to locate the clandestine political networks that organized taxation, recruitment, intelligence, and administration in villages.
The program operated under the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support framework, known as CORDS. Intelligence officers attempted to identify members of the Viet Cong Infrastructure and classify them as killed, captured, defected, or still active. This made Phoenix an early example of a campaign built around intelligence fusion and population control.
Phoenix remains highly controversial. Critics documented torture, wrongful arrests, civilian deaths, and unreliable classifications. Supporters argued that it weakened the Viet Cong’s local organization. It is often confused with Operation Ranch Hand, which used herbicides, or Operation Rolling Thunder, the bombing campaign against North Vietnam; neither was the name of the pacification program targeting Viet Cong infrastructure.