CIA's Phoenix Program Killed 20,000 Civilians - Dark History Exposed

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Did you know the CIA once ran an assassination program that killed over 20,000 civilians? It was called the Phoenix program and it turned murder into paperwork. In 1967, the CIA launched what they called neutralization operations across South Vietnam. They recruited local Vietnamese into provincial reconnaissance units, gave them target lists, and sent them to kill. The targets weren't soldiers. They were teachers, village leaders, anyone suspected of supporting the Viet Cong.

[00:00:27]No trials, no evidence required, just a name on a list. CIA operatives created quotas for kills. They tracked murders like sales figures, filed reports that called assassination administrative detention. The psychological profiles of recruited killers revealed men who could compartmentalize extreme violence. They were paid per kill, rewarded for efficiency. By 1971, over 20,000 Vietnamese civilians were dead. William Colby, the CIA director, later admitted to Congress that Phoenix had exceeded its authority. That was the official term for state-sponsored terrorism, [music] the program that turned mass murder into American foreign policy, hidden behind bureaucratic language that made killing sound like filing.