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Fact check

Is it true: Phoenix Program: CIA assassination/interrogation campaign in Vietnam (1965-72)?

Confirmed5% confidence

Yes — this is confirmed.

William Colby's 1971 congressional testimony confirmed approximately 20,587 VCI killed through Phoenix. South Vietnamese figures placed the total at approximately 40,994 neutralisations. Declassified records confirm torture at Provincial Interrogation Centers and quota-driven killing. The programme's scale and methods were systematically obscured from the American public during the war.

The claim

The Phoenix Program (Phung Hoang) was a joint CIA-South Vietnamese intelligence operation running from roughly 1965 to 1972, targeting the Viet Cong Infrastructure (VCI) through capture, interrogation

Key evidence

William Colby congressional testimony confirming ~20,587 kills (1971)

Colby characterisation as lawful intelligence operation

Read the full evidence file

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