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Care must be taken here, or we may face some amount of criticism. First, I agree that Kerry and his ilk lied blatantly at that hearing, and did little but pass on BS heard over beers.

Second, however, Operation Phoenix was an operation to effect what could not be done on the ground. The Communist infrastructure in South Vietnam was solid and was systematically elimating leadership in the towns outside of US control. General Abrams established the Phoenix program to take out the agents, including double agents, that could not otherwise be handled by the regular military. And while it certainly included assassinations, all the baloney about torture, exotic executions, etc, were simply the figment of alcohol clouded imaginations, not the methodology tolerated by the program. Operations were generally conducted by South Vietnamese while under the guidance of US military volunteers.

The program was reasonably successful until 1969, when Special Forces within the Phoenix program killed a double agent named Thai Khac Chuyen. Khac was working for the CIA, but at the same time, was passing on information to the North concerning operations conducted by MACV Studies and Observations Group, resulting in the deaths of a number of SF soldiers.

After a complaint was filed, an investigation ensued, resulting in the relief of command of the 5th Special Forces Commander, Colonel Robert Rheault, followed by his arrest and the arrest of seven other Special Forces soldiers.

Rheault was eventually freed, but this episode pretty much put an end to the Special Forces efforts in this kind of program, though other cross border operations continued outside of official recognition up until the end of the war.

To be sure, Phoenix was involved in numerous kinds of operations, occasionally in conjunction with other SOG units, including even attempts to free captured Americans, but with all due respect to Captain O'Daniel, while his involvement may have been exactly as he has very eloqently described, teaching English was not the purpose of the program established out of frustration by General Abrams.

I agree completely with O'Daniel that Kerry's absurd lies need to be publicized and challenged. But I simply give Freepers here another view of Phoenix, because not only was it all over the papers in August of 1969, including two of FR's favorites: The Los Angeles Times, and Newsweek, but all Kerry needs is a couple of examples to discredit otherwise fine reports by people like O'Daniel.

Finally, a war should be fought to win, regardless of rules written by those never under hostile fire. You must play by the enemies rules, or lose.