Phoenix Program

The Phoenix Program was a program designed and coordinated by CIA during the Vietnam War, which involved cooperation between American, South Vietnamese and Australian militaries to identify and destroy the Viet Cong (VC) via infiltration, torture, capture, counter-terrorism, interrogation, and assassination. Methods of reported torture detailed by author Douglas Valentine that were used at the interrogation centers included: Rape, gang rape, rape using eels, snakes, or hard objects, and rape followed by murder; electric shock rendered by attaching wires to the genitals or other sensitive parts of the body, like the tongue; the 'water treatment'; the 'airplane' in which the prisoner's arms were tied behind the back, and the rope looped over a hook on the ceiling, suspending the prisoner in midair, after which he or she was beaten; beatings with rubber hoses and whips; the use of police dogs to maul prisoners.