terminate with extreme prejudice

1960s, US military intelligence and CIA, used publicly in 1969, in news coverage of Green Beret Case, further popularized in 1979 movie Apocalypse Now.^[1] Play on the term “terminate with prejudice” when an employee’s employment is terminated,^[2] meaning “will not rehire employee to same position in future” (i.e., prejudiced against rehiring), hence “terminate definitively, i.e., kill”.

terminate with extreme prejudice (third-person singular simple present terminates with extreme prejudice, present participle terminating with extreme prejudice, simple past and past participle terminated with extreme prejudice)

1. (euphemistic, US) To murder; to assassinate.

   The government ordered the spies to be terminated with extreme prejudice: they did not want them to expose what they knew in a public trial.

   • 1969 August 14, Terence Smith, “Details of Green Beret Case Are Reported in Saigon”, in The New York Times:

     ...suggested that he either be isolated or ‘terminated with extreme prejudice.’ This term is said to be an intelligence euphemism for execution.

   • 1979, Apocalypse Now:

     Colonel Lucas: ... When you find the Colonel, infiltrate his team by whatever means available and terminate the Colonel's command.
     Willard: Terminate the Colonel?
     ...
     Civilian: Terminate with extreme prejudice.

• tweep
• extreme prejudice

• with prejudice
• without prejudice

• wet work
• assassination

• Douglas Valentine, The Phoenix Program, 1990
• Jeff Stein, A Murder in Wartime