Editing Phoenix Program (section)

===Assassination Teams===
The PRUs were elite, small-unit teams created by the CIA to conduct high-risk operations against the VCI, which included VC political cadres, tax collectors, recruiters, and other non-combatant supporters embedded in South Vietnamese villages. The goal was to “neutralize” these individuals through capture, defection, or elimination.

Each PRU typically consisted of 15–20 operatives, organized at the provincial level under the oversight of CIA advisors, South Vietnamese provincial authorities, and, later, the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV). By 1969, there were approximately 4,000 PRU operatives across South Vietnam’s 44 provinces.

Initially called “Counter Terror” teams, the name was changed to PRUs in 1967 to avoid negative connotations, but their mission remained focused on disrupting the VCI through aggressive, targeted actions.