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NASHUA TELEGRAPH, NASHUA, N. H, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 196?Operation Aims At Rooting Out Communist Shadow GovernmentPhoenix' Hopes To Nab 12,000 Members This YearBy WILLIAM BEECHER I ind captured him *t pistol point niw York Tim*# itrvtu |for nearly 12 hours they quesTHUDUC, Soulh Vietnam—For three weeks/based on t tip from an informer, the undercover agents had developed a complete rundown on the habits of a suspected leader of a local Vietcong sapper team.they found out where he usu* ally slept, where he liked to drink at night* when he was likely to be moving around with an armed squad, and when not. After they had their man pretty well figured out they set a trap, on a Sunday afternoon,tidned him. Finally at IM a.m. he admitted who he was and agreed to help them capiurc some even more Important men in the Vietcong infrastructure.He told his captors that three men had shown up in a nearby hamlet the previous night. While he didn’t know precisely who they were, he understood they were from ,4R” the Vietcong code letter designating the headquarters for all Vietcong activity In South Vietnam, reputedly based In Taynlnh Province.Less than four hour# later* an It-man regional force intelligence squad and a il-man provincial recbnnaissunct unit had been gathered and briefed. Then, with the captive as guide* the force staged a dawn raid that turned up a senior colonel, a captain and a lieutenant who was chief of Vietcong intelligence In a neighboring district.Operation 'Phoenix*The men who carried out thisefficient capture were part of what until now had been a high-Jy classified operation called units.This CommunistPhoenix; tt represents an ambitious attempt to coordinate all intelligence, police and military security resources in a drive to root out the Communist shadow government, or infrastructure, from thousands of hamlets, villages, district and provinceis could well happen — there [is considerable concern hirethat as the only cohesive, nationwide political organisation they might be able to elect enough friendly candidates to eventually dominate the legal political structure,Thus Phoenix was conceivedabout a year ago as an effort to undermine the enemy’# military effort and to reduce hiscapitals.Ranking South Vietnamese po^ar political prospects and American officials agree j Hopes to Capture that this effort* over the longi fori. Tran Thien Khiem, who run, may prove at least as 1m- as the South Vietnamese interiorportent as the highly publicized baltles between Conventionalinfrastructure is comprised of dedicated, hard-core Communist party members who number somewhere between 60,000 and 100,- six months of the year, he said. 000 persons. They constitute the; “These men, particularly thosepolitical apparatus that controls local guerrilla bands, collects taxes, orders assassinations of pro-government officials, sets up front organizations, disseminates propaganda, collects intelligence, recruits soldiers, and provides guides for large North•nd even to move North Vietnamese officlils into certain key posts. The northerners are frequently not well received in such Jobs, he said.According to sources close to th# program, American intelligence officials grew concernedlast summer when it becameevident that a lot of good intelligence information was not being acted on while It was fresh because separate agencies were sending their material from the field to Saigon rather th#n circulating it at the local level.261 Key DistrictsThe answer, they felt, was to or kill about 12,000 members of establish special intelligence co-the Vietcong infrastructure this ordination centers in about 200 year. About half that number(key districts around the conn-were rooted out during the first try-Working under the South Vietnamese district chief, usually an army major they would establish a “most wanted'1 list of 15 years,” he said, once elimi- Vietcong officials in their area, nated, are very hard to re- would work up detailed dossierson each man, would assign individual agents to get on the trail of key officials, and above all would coordinate ail theirminister is chairman of the Phoenix program, said in an interview that he hopes to capturewho have been working for the Communist party for 5, 10 orreconnaissance units; the Military Security Service; iht Census Grievance Cadre of the Revolutionary Develop m e n t Program, and armed propaganda teams, comprised of former Vietcong who have come over to the Salgun side.'Representatives from each of these agencies work together oneach of more than 200 district teams.On# such team is here In Thuduc, a much fought-over district on the northern outskirts of Saigon.for capturing 92 numbers of the infrastructure.In one operation, he said, they rounded up an entire five-man tax collecting and finance celt 1 whose members livid in Cholon,Lt. Robert p. Cozart, an-lho Chinese section of Sajgun, American military intelligence I but who gathered taxes fromofficer, said that since January,!collectors in outlying districts,the center has been responsible1 including Thuduc.place.”Ambassador Robert W. Ko-mer, cliief American adviser to FlVTISi„ ............khe pacification program and a.Vietnamese units bent on stag- leading proponent of the Pboe* activities at the district level. jn* an attack in their area. :nix effort, agrees. In sonie in-! Pooling their efforts In theAnd if the war is settled stances, he said, the Commu-; Phoenix program are the follosv-peacefully under a formula thatjnists have beer, forced, by in- ing agencies: allows these men to participateiroads in their infrastructure, to. The National Police; the Po-freely in the elective process—= double up district headquarters I lice Special Branch; provincial^ automotive design material. The completelyNew Style Taxi Servicelwiovuri II, an experimental prototype taxi- operative vehicle Is being shown to the Batten's tab, dramatizes the versatility of steel as ah auto makers by Its developer, U.S. Steel
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Nashua Telegraph
Nashua, New Hampshire, US
Wed, Aug 07, 1968
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USA 06 Mar 2022
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