Vietnam Veterans Against The War - Kansas City Meeting

Kansas City Meeting

During a four day series of meetings in Kansas City, Missouri on November 12–15, 1971, Scott Camil, a radical VVAW southern coordinator, proposed the assassination of the most conservative members of United States Congress, and other powerful opponents of the antiwar movement.

According to interviews with VVAW members who were present at the Kansas City meetings, Camil suggested something he called "The Phoenix Project," named after the original Phoenix Program operations during the Vietnam War used by the CIA to assassinate the Viet Cong. Originally conceived as an option during the protest march in Washington, Camil's Phoenix Project plan was to execute the Southern senatorial leadership that was backing the war, including John Tower, Strom Thurmond, and John Stennis. In Camil's words:

I did not think it was terrible at the time. My plan was that, on the last day we would go into the offices we would schedule the most hardcore hawks for last — and we would shoot them all...I was serious. I felt that I spent two years killing women and children in their own fucking homes. These are the guys that fucking made the policy, and these were the guys that were responsible for it, and these were the guys that were voting to continue the fucking war when the public was against it. I felt that if we really believed in what we were doing, and if we were willing to put our lives on the line for the country over there, we should be willing to put our lives on the line for the country over here."

The proposed assassinations were to be executed during the Senate Christmas recess. The plan was voted down, although there's a "difference of opinion" as to how close the vote was. It is unclear whether 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry was present for this meeting. His campaign indicated he was not there and had resigned from the organization by then.