Editing Strategic Hamlet Program (section)

==Operation Sunrise==
[[Operation Sunrise (Vietnam War)|Operation Sunrise]] began on 19 March 1962 in [[Bình Dương Province]], bordering the city of [[Saigon]] on the North.  The province was heavily influenced by the Viet Cong, especially in the [[Iron Triangle (Vietnam)|Iron Triangle]], a Viet Cong stronghold. The selection of Binh Duong was contrary to Thompson's advice to choose a more secure area for the initial phase of the Strategic Hamlet Program. The United States [[Agency for International Development]] provided $21 per family to compensate farmers for their loss of property when forced to move into a strategic hamlet. Of the first 210 families relocated, 140 were reported to have been moved at gunpoint.  South Vietnamese soldiers burned their former villages. By May, South Vietnam's government-owned newspaper reported that only 7 percent of 38,000 rural dwellers in the target area had been relocated either voluntarily or by force.<ref>Krepinevich, Jr., pp. 67–68; Latham, p. 36</ref>