Phoenix Mistress

Book excerpt: It is 1969 and America is divided over the war that rages in Vietnam. The American public is unaware of a covert CIA operation called the Phoenix Program, designed to neutralize the Viet Cong Infrastructure. In this historical novel, a computer scientist in the defense industry accepts a position as senior intelligence analyst for an American computer company under contract with the US Army in Saigon. Tasked with investigating the effectiveness of Phoenix, he is shocked by the targeting and torture of innocent civilians. When his protests go unheeded, he is faced with the moral dilemma of how far to take his objections. But when he unwittingly meets the seductive Phoenix Mistress, he is drawn into a maelstrom of Vietnamese student anti-war protesters who are being arrested and tortured, complicating his life even further. The author was a senior intelligence analyst at Headquarters, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), during the years 1969-1971. He was directly involved in the Pacification program headed by William Colby who became CIA Director after the war.