Customer Rating: 
Summary: Query
Comment: I happened on this book but haven't read it. My brother's name was mentioned in the book and I would like to hear from those who might have known him and what part he played: Mebane G. Stafford, who had 3 tours in VN, retired as a Col, now deceased.
Marian Stafford
mariana600@yahoo.com
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent; the truth
Comment: This is the real truth about the Phoenix Program. The anti-war left has tried for years, with some success, to discredit it with disinformation. This is a well-written, accurate history of what really happened and is convincingly documented. And real -- I know, I was there (June 1968-June 1969)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: changing attitudes
Comment: That is the title of chapter 25. Moyar tries to create the impression that loss of support for the viet cong ipso facto meant increased support for the government of South Vietnam by the peasants in the villages. I don't buy it. The peasants in many areas were fed up with the war and wanted little or nothing to do with either side. They would have been happy to have seen a coalition government that would have stopped the fighting. But the last thing in the world that Thieu would agree to was something like that. In many areas the armed viet forces on both sides reached accomodations. To some this might have looked like the Government of Vietnam was coming out on top but the people in the area knew otherwise. When Diem was in power he brought about much the same situation in the countryside where for several years he with seeming ease rounded up most of the communists, to the point where the Americans believed the communist problem was solved. But it wasn't.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Big Thumbs Up
Comment: This book contains an unbelievable amount of facts about the Phoenix Program. The author was able to interview many participants, including Vietnamese. Since some are now dead, including William Colby, and others will be soon, this is likely to be the last history of Phoenix to draw on first hand accounts. Also very interesting was the author's use of captured Viet Cong documents, which indicate that Phoenix was highly effective. The author has a keen understanding of the people on the Vietnamese side, both participants and bystanders, which is refreshing after you read the hundreds of books in which the Vietnamese are treated as minor actors in the drama- with the possible exception of the Viet Cong. In addition, a lot of the antiwar dogma concerning Phoenix is systematically destroyed. I hope that Moyar and other historical pioneers like B.G. Burkett (Stolen Valor) and Samuel Zaffiri (Westmoreland) write some more books on Vietnam.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An honest and accurate book about the Phoenix program
Comment: I'm glad to see someone has finally written an accurate, dispassionate account of the Phoenix program and the Vietnam war. As a Phoenix advisor in late 1967 and 1968, I can say from personal experience that Mr. Moyar gets just about everything right in his account of that period. I can only assume from the extent of his research that the rest of the information is just as correct. His descriptions of the attitudes and motivations of the Vietnamese civilians, government officials and military validate many of my own observations and confirm many of my suspicions. I just wish I had known then what I know now.Reading this book and the reviews about it prompted me to hunt down a copy of Douglas Valentine's book about Phoenix for comparison. I shouldn't have bothered. Clearly Mr. Valentine hasn't heard that old joke about the difference between a fairy tale and a war story. Phoenix and the Birds of Prey does a much better job of presenting the facts.
If I have any criticism of Phoenix and the Birds of Prey, it is that I felt Mr. Moyar applied some of his conclusions about the Phoenix program a little too broadly to all participants. Every district operation was different in some ways depending on the tactical situation, the capabilities of the advisor, and the involvement of the Vietnamese counterparts. But I suppose that is to be expected because he is taking a broad look at the overall program.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is a serious student of the Vietnam war or guerrilla conflicts in general. It should be required reading for all of our military Special Ops people. I would especially recommend the book to all my fellow Vietnam veterans.
As for the anti-war types who have been yelling about the Phoenix program for the last 30 years, they're going to have to find a new horse to ride because that one won't run anymore.
