The
Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade
by Alfred W. McCoy
Synopsis
This is a revised edition
of The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (BRD 1972, 1973). The
author argues "that 40 years of CIA protection of Asian drug traffickers
and active participation in the transport of opium and heroin have undermined
U.S. anti-drug efforts." (Libr J) Index.
Reviews
From Library Journal
It seems that the American
government has learned nothing from its war on drugs. In 1972, the CIA
attempted to suppress McCoy's classic work, The Politics of Heroin
in Southeast Asia ( LJ 11/15/72 ), which charged CIA complicity in the
narcotics trade as part of its cold war tactics. Now, this revised and
expanded edition, incorporating 20 years of research, discusses in almost
overwhelming detail how U.S. drug policies and actions in the Third World
has created "America's heroin plague." McCoy notes that every attempt at
interdiction has only resulted in the expansion of both the production
and consumption of drugs. He also charges that 40 years of CIA protection
of Asian drug traffickers and active participation in the transport of
opium and heroin has undermined U.S. anti-drug efforts. A massive work
that raises serious questions. For larger public and academic libraries.
- Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
From Steve Hogan - Small
Press
{This book sheds} light on
a particularly murky aspect of the CIA's Cold War era fight against communism:
the agency's relationship with and all-too-frequent support of drug traders
when they happened also to be anti-communist . . . {Although it does not
advance} a program for reforming, redirecting, or reregulating the CIA,
{it offers} convincing evidence of the tragic consequences of allowing
the CIA to be a law unto itself. In the light of the fall of Soviet communism
. . . {the book} will continue to provide students of government and foreign
policy with invaluable background information and insights.
From Kirkus Reviews , June 15, 1991
A greatly revised and expanded edition of
McCoy's Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (1972 - not reviewed).
Though he devotes much of his narrative to a history of modern commerce
in narcotics, rather than, as the subtitle indicates, CIA complicity in
the drug trade, McCoy tells a fascinating story. He shows that in the "Golden
Triangle" of Laos, Thailand, and Burma, opium was big business and, often,
the only viable form of currency. McCoy argues that, in their efforts to
expand their own power in Southeast Asia, American intelligence agents
permitted allies of the US (the Hmong tribe in Southeast Asia, for instance,
which was vital to the CIA's secret war in Laos and which sold heroin to
American GIs) to expand their lucrative drug trade. In the wake of the
Vietnam War, McCoy contends, a similar relationship developed between American
authorities and the Contras of Central America. Drug-enforcement agencies
sought the arrest of drug merchants often associated with the Contras,
while the CIA, viewing the Contras as indispensable ideological allies
in the war against Communism, did their best to thwart the vaunted "war
on drugs." The author produces considerable disturbing evidence that US
authorities are guilty at least of complicity in the global drug trade,
and argues convincingly that the drug problem at home will not end until
a fundamental change is made in American policy. McCoy exposés basic
hypocrisy in American policymaking, and demonstrates that, as long as powerful
government bureaucracies work at cross-purposes, America's drug problem
will not be easily solved. - Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates,
LP. All rights reserved.
Customer Comments
A reader from Albany NY,
November 12, 1998
McCoy's book is thoroughly interesting,
and informative.
Zack Schwartz 11/12/98 U.S. Drug Policy:
Book Review
The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity
in the Global Drug Trade by Alfred McCoy is a volume obviously devoted
to opiates, more specifically heroin. This version is a combination of
two of McCoy's earlier works (The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia
and Drug Traffic). Also there is further research incorporated into
the book concerning Central America and Southern Asia. The main focus of
the book is how the goals and operations of the CIA and its predecessors
(e.g. OSS) basically take precedence over most if not all other interests.
McCoy also delves into the world of American/ Sicilian organized crime
in the context of the global heroin trade. However, the important points
McCoy makes concern anti-Communist interests that became intertwined with
the illicit opiates trade. McCoy accuses the CIA of aligning itself with
local cartel leaders who command the opium crop.
Furthermore, the CIA seems to be indifferent
to, if not encouraging of, abuse of the transport of funds by operatives.
In supplying weapons for its allies, the CIA, claims McCoy, does not especially
care if the load that is returned is one of cocaine or opium, so long as
they make their money. On occasion, the Agency might need a local to run
a little shakedown action in case the locals feel like asserting themselves,
or if they show any measure of discontent with how they were being treated.
These native bosses could be refinery managers, traffickers, racketeers,
etc. Amazingly enough, McCoy does point out, briefly it ought to be remembered,
that the Agency's foreign counterparts such as MI-6 and the French Surete
have similar track records in such illicit affairs in the area. McCoy also
includes a number of corrupt local officials like police agencies. Toward
the end of the book, McCoy makes a rather haphazard attempt at advocating
limited legalization of heroin in this country.
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