Out of the ashes of WWII and into the heat of the Cold War was born an agency without limits or bounds. Based on the critically acclaimed book The Agency, by John Ranelagh, CIA: The Secret Files exposes some of the unwritten rules that have governed this vast organization. From interviews with past CIA directors to the CIA dissidents who came in from the cold, uncover here the secret wars, arranged coups, and plotted assassinations executed by America's most cloak-and-dagger arm of government. CIA: The Secret Files would be useful for classes on World History, Foreign Affairs, Political Science, History of Science and Technology, Cold War Culture. It is appropriate for high school and college.

Part II: Phoenix Rising

Phoenix Rising focuses on the CIA's attempts to sidestep domestic policy and secure a democratic South Vietnam through its own highly unorthodox methods. Starting in the mid 1950s, it examines the Agency's unconventional reform programs, which were designed to exterminate the Communist control structure in the South. It also exposes the controversial Phoenix Program, which, for some, became a byword for corruption, torture, and assassination. Could the CIA have won the war? The answer is found here among the agents and Hanoi itself, who maintain that Phoenix was the single most effective tactic waged against the North.

• acquiesce
• adversaries
• appalled
• apparatus
• cadre
• covert
• delusion
• exacting
• extract
• facilitated
• guerrilla
• heinous
• infiltrate
• infrastructure
• interrogated
• pacification
• paradox
• provincial
• retribution
• vendetta

1. What is meant by the title and the term "Phoenix Rising?"

2. Although the CIA is a government agency, the methods it sometimes employs could be construed as unethical. Does the existence of the CIA go against American law and American principles?

3. The Phoenix Program took place during the Vietnam War. Many Americans question the validity of American involvement in the war. Was Vietnam a "just war?"

4. The Phoenix Program was aimed at fighting guerrilla warfare with guerrilla tactics. What is the difference between guerrilla warfare and conventional warfare?

5. Was the CIA justified in using the Phoenix Program?

6. The culture of Vietnam is very different from the culture of America. How did the CIA manipulate Vietnamese cultural and family traditions to aid the Phoenix Program?

7. Was the conduct of the United States Army and government honorable during the fall of Saigon?

1. Construct a timeline chronicling the major events of the Vietnam war.

2. Locate the major sites of the war on a map of Vietnam. These would include Hanoi, Saigon, Hue, DaNang and other important areas.

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