HE ALMOST JOINED THEM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74B00415R000300230010-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 4, 2005
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: August 25, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/01/27 : CIA-RDP74B00415R000300230010-9
NEW YORK, N.Y.
POST
EVENING -- 623,245
WEEK 6G 2.5 X19(2 fi --
Daily Closeup
ball, wrestling and rowing. He was
the freshman crew at Columbia, majored
in Japanese and European history, and
learned about anti-war politics .first-
hand in 1968 when SDS closed dov.wft the
HE ALMOST JOINED THEM university.
Asked about his involvement in the
Ibr the fiat 1; see the book prior to publication. Oyer Columbia dispute, McCoy- offers a slnii-
years of his well- McCoy's objections, the publishers ac- ing "no comment" but he insis`s that his
bred, accomplished ceded, but were unconvinced by the reporting on his current book was "un-
life, Alfred McCoy CIA's charges that portions of the study prejudiced" by his own- political viet~ of
was an eager re- were "totally false" and "distorted be- the war.
McCoy, who speaks "fair" Japanese
cruit for the mill- yond recognition." The book was )-b-
and "reasonable" French, got his anas-
tazy establishment, lished with no changes, Harper & Row B rk ley ;.2
"MS?v fondest dream," he now recalls with tee's in Asian studies from
said.
irony, "was to 40 to West Point. But I Harper & Row also released a state- 1969 and then went on to Ya}c.
had bad eyes." ment noting that McCoy "has su i lied He is currently living in a 170-is se
The' eyes are now encased in wire- us with documentation for everyIlea- apartment in Iwi Haven (he is Read
rims, and Al McCoy is slumped in a terial allegation of a controversial na.- rated from his ~vifc, Cat rche I. React,
chair in his publisher's office after a tune" and that the book had also been who was one oo two for tin
hard day on the talk-show circuit. The "read by independent authorities in the book) and working on a so Ph.D. i
boy who wanted to be a cadet is today held. As a result, we are convinced that Southeast Asian history. Research for
the author of "The Politics of Heroin In the work is scholarly and documented to she es, a andtollee him away from his
Southeast Asia," and the military estab- an exceptional degree." - studies Y says, left himi000in
lishment is not pleased. Alfred William McCoy was himself the debt.
McCoy's book-based on first-hand re. son of a career Army officer, the late involved great deal of McCoy's investigation
search
in the Golden Triangle where Alfred Mudge McCoy Jr., who was later ment. vee id iews with Asian
officials, some of whom, lie govern-
re-
Laos, Burma and Thailand converge, director of the Defense. Communications marks drily, "have tortured more people
and where 70 per cent of the world's Satellite Program, and the author feels In their lifetime than I've Slilken hands
opium crop is ,.armed--concludes, among his research was aided by the fact that with." H? also went into remote villages
other things, that the American-sup- "I get on really well with military peo- in the Golden Triangle, interviewed vii-
ported governments of Southeast. Asia ple. That's my upbringing." He came to lagers, and on one occasion ,va.s fired on
"are deeply and lucratively involved in Southeast Asia with "excellent contacts". by troops.
the growing, processing, transport and and his interviews were conducted on
'distribution of narcotics." Ile also ac- the basis that he was doing h a book On one occasion, he 'nai
sttai'ts, the
cused the CIA of supporting such de- about "politics" or "corruption." Only CIA had maneuvered to cut Off rice su.p-
ments and charged that American' air- after talking for a while would he raise plies to an opium-growing village in
craft have been "knowingly" used for the subject of drugs. . Laos that was "terribly embittered to-
?the transport of narcotics. Born in Concird, Mass. on June 8, ward the. Americans" because of the
1945, McCoy came from a family that combat deaths of its young rnen. The
As long as tile U. S. continues to prop had distinguished itself in several fields. village had declined to send more men
up these governments, he warns, there His mother, Margarita Piel McCoy into battle, and, according to McCoy,
will be no pressure to end the drug ("You know Piel's Beer? That's the fam- was being starved out:
. trafficking; addicted GIs will continue to ily") is 'row an urban planner with the "They were in that distended-stomach
bring their habits home and Mafia syn- University of Southern California and, phase. Appalled, McCoy went. to the
dicates who work hand-in-hand with the recently published a study showing that' media and "after all kinds of denials by
Asians will continue to flourish. "Indeed, residents of Los Angeles' Watts ghetto officials, 1000 pounds of rice ;vere flown
in the final analysis," says the last sen- pay proportionally more taxes than in."
tence in the book, "the American people their more affluent suburban neighbors. McCoy, who Is also the co-editor of
will have to choose between supporting His sister, Margarita, is now a second- another book, "Laos: War and Revolu-
dogoedly anti-Communist governments year law student at Harvard and an ac- tion," (Also Harper & Row) has testi-p
in Southeast Asia or getting heroin out tivist in women's liberation. Tied in Washington about his findings
of their high schools" McCoy attended the prestigious Kent and plans to return to Southeast Asia+
Earlier this summer, the CIA con- School in Connecticut, where "I was a after he receives his degree. "It's a cite
#act d Ialpe ,:Sx:Z~oyv, c;dTa?3d 5ltto }c' vjijnjt g: v;ipiV.., jettelrs tips; ppt- .nantja?,part of.. the w etch" he explains.
Approved For Release 2005/01/27 : CIA-RDP74B00415R000300230010-9