The Phoenix Program was designed to identify and neutralize the infrastructure of the National Liberation Front of Vietnam. By 1972, Phoenix operatives had neutralized 81,740 suspected NLF operatives, informants and supporters, of whom between 26,000 and 41,000 were killed. The Studies and Observation Group was the largest project of its kind and its personnel were engaged in all aspects of the war. It had its critics, military and civilian, who felt its people were "undisciplined, wild-eyed Army Special Forces people”…who believed that the whole of Southeast Asia could be conquered by a handful of Green Berets.