In 1967 the so-called "Phoenix Program" was initiated. This "pacification" program was intended to eliminate the NLF leadership (or anyone identified as such without corroboration) through assassination.

Something of the nature of the war in these years can be captured by statistics. Although South Vietnam was presumably a friendly country the Americans had come to aid, US forces had dropped 1,388,000 tons of bombs on it by 1969. Ground ammunition expended amounted to 1,374,000 tons during the same period; and in the first nine months of 1967, alone, varieties of highly toxic crop defoliants (most of it Agent Orange) were sprayed on 965,006 acres of land.

Overall, American troops expended 500 times the quantity of ammunition used by the NLF; and if the bombing of the north is added to the tonnage dropped on the south, the total is a stunning 4.5 million tons (1965-1969) or 500 pounds of explosives for every Vietnamese man, woman, and child.

US Government Documents and maps

History of Vietnam War with links to key issues and individuals-