Members of the Fulbright Committee were naturally curious about how many members of the VCI had been killed. Colby replied that during 1969, a total of 6,187 had perished, approximately one-third of the number of the VCI who had been “neutralized.” But if there were no assassinations, how did all these people die? According to Colby, many were slain during military firefights. This was peculiar, since the Phoenix program was supposed to target individuals who were part of the civilian infrastructure, not soldiers. Why then were people dying in firefights, and not just a handful of people but
...more
