In 1968, Carl Wieburg was sent to Viet Nam as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, Infantry. However, upon arriving in Viet Nam, his orders were changed and he was assigned to work as an Intelligence Officer in charge of a squad of specially trained mercenaries in a secret, CIA run operation that the U.S. Government called, "The PHOENIX Program." He was placed in Tuy An District and was told that he was to set up an information gathering agency. He was given money to pay informants, whose job it was to go out through the District and gather information on the Communist elements working within its boundaries. These Communist elements were called VCI by the CIA. After he had gathered sufficient information in regard to specific VCI he was to send the mercenaries out into the jungle to eliminate or neutralize them. The problem with this program was that these VCI were mostly civilians, not military. So, Lieutenant Wieburg, an Army officer, was told he was to order mercenary soldiers to eliminate or neutralize civilians. This book chronicles his struggles, his achievements, and his failures, during, "A Year of Trying to Help."