The Phoenix Program

A CIA operation, the Phoenix Program aimed at destroying the Vietcong infrastructure. Former Phoenix and CIA director William Colby contended in his book Lost Victory that the program's reputation for brutality is undeserved. Valentine ( The Hotel Tacloban ) counters that claim in this shocking expose of the origins, rationale, methods and results of a program that was responsible for the execution of some 40,000 Vietnamese and the death, torture and imprisonment of countless civilians. The author describes how entire families and whole villages were wiped out in the cause of ``Vietnamization.'' He explores the question of how Americans, from a nation ruled by laws and the ethic of fair play, could have created a campaign of such systematic savagery. No book published to date conveys the hideousness of the Vietnam War as thoroughly as this one. Photos. (Oct.)