Tuy An

In 1968 I was sent to Viet Nam as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Infantry. Upon landing in Cam Rahn Bay, my orders were changed and I was placed in a program that was being run by the CIA. At the time it was a secret program and was only know by the name of the PHOENIX Program.
I was placed in Tuy An District. There I was to set up an information gathering agency. I was given money to pay informants who were to go out through the District and gather information on Communist elements working within its boundaries. They were know as VCI or Viet Cong Infrastructure.
Then I was given a mercenary squad of 20 men and I was to assign these men the task of "eliminating" or "neutralizing" these Communist elements.
The problem with this program was that these VCI were mostly civilians, not military