Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: The CIA's Secret Campaign to Destroy the Viet Cong

(Naval Institute Press, 1997; new ed. University of Nebraska Press, 2007)

"A groundbreaking piece of revisionist history on the war." - James Webb, Wall Street Journal

"Phoenix and the Birds of Prey is the definitive work on the Phoenix program to date, and will remain so for a long time." - Periscope

"There are as yet only a few nonfiction works dealing with the Vietnam War that are worth the reader's time.... we can happily add Mark Moyar's Phoenix and the Birds of Prey to this short list of 'required reading.'" - John D. Waghelstein, Journal of Political and Military Sociology

"[Moyar] succeeds admirably. His work could be a textbook for the do's and don'ts of counterinsurgency warfare." - William Nester, Asian Thought and Society

"This is a fine effort. Moyar does not seek to moralize or rationalize, only to explain. No one should speak or write about the Phoenix Program without first consulting this work." - Douglas Pike, Indochina Chronology

"a remarkable book that challenges what has become the 'Jane Fonda' interpretation of the Vietnam War.... The story he tells, though balanced, does not exculpate any of the participants. But it does correct the popular record." - Hayden Peake, History

"The book does not gloss over bloody happenings. CIA advisers in the field often averted their eyes when the South Vietnamese allies roughed up, tortured and even killed Viet Cong captives. Mr. Moyar does not moralize; war as he describes it is brutish and occasionally gruesome.... Mr. Moyar ably demonstrates that young persons can emerge from Harvard with their senses intact, provided they keep their minds open. This is a fine war read." - Joseph C. Goulden, Washington Times

"Filled with new revelations and corrections of existing accounts, Phoenix and the Birds of Prey sets the record straight about one of the last remaining secrets of the Vietnam War and offers poignant lessons for dealing with future Third World insurgencies." - Robert A. Lynn, Military

"Mark Moyar's thoroughly researched, balanced persepctive, and fascinating new study, which draws heavily upon interviews with more than 100 American and Vietnamese participants, becomes the premier work on this topic." - Joe P. Dunn, Infantry

"An impartial, credible observer, Mark Moyar deserves a laurel for bringing the facts of the Phoenix Program to light. His book is recommended reading for all soldiers, but particularly for those interested in a greater understanding of the Vietnam conflict and the intelligence functions conducted during the war." - Robert B. Adolph Jr., Special Warfare

"Unexpectedly, an evenhanded account of the Phoenix campaign- refreshingly different from the propaganda by the likes of Dan Rather interviewing a demented veteran claiming he was trained to skin infants alive." - Association of Former Intelligence Officers Intelligence Notes