The Politics of heroin in southeast asia
Alfred McCoy with Cathleen B. Read and Leonard P. Adams III
Original 1972 edition
This legendary tome is probably the single most important book written on the global heroin trade. Originally published in 1972, it has since been released in several newer editions. The original 1972 edition contains noteworthy material that was left out of subsequent versions.
McCoy et. al were among the first to publicly document the relationship between the US military/intelligence apparatus and the global drug trade–in this case, heroin.
McCoy suffered tremendously as a result of the controversial nature of his research, but his work has withstood the test of time and remains as relevant now as it was when it was first published in the early 1970s.
From the inside cover of the 1972 edition:
“The fabled Golden Triangle, where Laos, Thailand, and Burma [Myanmar] meet, long a traditional opium-growing area, now provides 70 percent of the world’s illicit supply of heroin. And many elements in the governments of these countries, and in the government of South Vietnam–most of which are supported by the U.S. military and financial aid–are deeply (and lucratively) involved in the growing, processing, transport, and distribution of narcotics.
How has this situation come about?
Basing their narrative on firsthand research in Asia and Europe, the authors trace the whole story since the end of World War II. They demonstrate that during the First Indochina War (1946-1954) the security of Saigon and its environs and the loyalty of the hill tribes depended on profits from and some protection for the opium traffic Similarly, it became necessary for the United States, when it took over the French commitment in 1954, to look the other way in the matter of the involvement in the drug traffic of succeeding Vietnamese regimes. After Diem’s downfall in 1963 it became apparent that money from the rackets–especially narcotics–was vital to any regime’s survival.
The authors found that in Laos, opium crops found their way from the hill villages into a secret base at Long Tieng; in Burma [Myanmar], the CIA financed remnants of Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist Army, which later became self-supporting by taking over 90 percent of the opium shipments from the rebel Shan States of Burma; that in Thailand, shaky regimes relied on American support and opium money to help bolster their stability. They also found that the Mafia, working through Corsican criminal syndicates from Marseille, had established outposts in Southeast Asia for its international narcotics smuggling operations during the French occupation.
In spite of recent well-publicized seizures of massive amounts of heroin from Southeast Asia, heroin continues to flood the country, spreading into every level of this society and shredding the fabric of everyday life. U.S. government estimates of the number of [regular users] has leaped from 315,000 in 1969 to over 560,000 in 1972. This book puts all the pieces of this ghastly puzzle together, and then maps the possible avenues out of the horror, suggesting that America may have to choose between our commitments in Southeast Asia and getting heroin out of our high schools.”
Contents:
Acknowledgements
1. Sicily: Home of the Mafia
2. Marseille: America’s Heroin Laboratory
3. The Colonial Legacy: Opium for the Natives
4. Cold War Opium Boom
5. South Vietnam: Narcotics in the Nation’s Service
6. Hong Kong: Heir to the Heroin Traffic
7. The Golden Triangle: Heroin Is Our Most Important Product
8. What Can Be Done?
Appendix
Notes
Glossary
Index
464 pages.
Published in 1972.
Lightly used copy.
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