C.I.A. AIDES ASSAIL ASIA DRUG CHARGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74B00415R000600090006-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 8, 2002
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: July 22, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW YORK TIMES
dence linking the C.I.A. to the
drug traffic in Southeast Asia.
One well-informed Government
official directly responsible for
monitoring the illegal flow of
narcotics complained in an in-
terview that many of Mr. Mc-
Coy's charges "are out of date."
"Go back three or four years,"
he said, "and no one was con-
A~SjTed For Release Zn2/01/2
'C.I.A. AIDES
flSIA DRUG CllRV.
Agency Fights Reports That
It Ignored Heroin Traffic
Among Allies of U.S.
By SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Sprclal to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, July 21 The Central Intelligence Agency
has begun a public battle
against accusations that it !cerned about this. It wasn't
knew of but failed to stem until our own troops started
the heroin traffic of United 6
to et addicted 9 t that anyone, was laws eg" of
States allies in Southeast Asia. the narcotics problems in South-
In recent weeks, high-ranking east Asia.
officials of the C.I.A. have This official said that in the
signed letters for publication eyes of the C.I.A., the charges
were unfair He said of the
to a newspaper and magazine, C P +h,yr,k the ,'rA a
granted a rare on-the-record.inLhe heat for being un-!
,interview at the agency's head-1 aware
quarters in McLean, Va., and
--- most significantly - per-
suaded the publishers of a
forthcoming expose on the
C.I.A. and the drug ' traffic
to permit it to review the
manuscript prior to publica-
The target of all these meas-l with past and present officials
top-
ures has been the recent writ, the C.I.A. He said that top-
level South Vietnamese officials,
ings and Congressional test i-, , including nr- Nguyen
mony of Alfred W. McCoy, a :Van Thieu and Premier Iran
26-year-old Yale graduate stu- Van Khiem, were specifically
dent who spent 18 months in- involved.
vestigating the narcotics opera- In July, 1971, Representative
Robert H. Steele, Republican
itions in Southeast Asia. His I I of Connecticut, said during a
book, "The Politics of Heroin', House Foreign Affairs subcom-
mittee hearing that the United
uTed to be public ie iby Ilar-per
& Row in mid-September-bar-
ring delays caused by the in.
telligence agency's review.
In his book, Mr. McCoy al-
leged that both C.I.A and
State Department officiahaye
provided political and military
c ese allies activg?.
engaged
in the drug traffic, , ave con-1
sciiousi e ? d u e;
se.ves in narcotic tra A
o aid they had
reason to believe that Mr. Mc-
Coy's book contained many un- chapter of his book published
warranted, unproven and falla- in this month's Harper's Maga-
cious accusations. They ac- zine; Mr. McCoy further
knowledged that the public charged that in 1967 the in-
etance in opposition to such famous "Golden Triangle"
allegations was a departure an opium-producing area em-
from. the usual "low profile" bracing parts of northeastern
the agency, but they in-
d that there was i9-p
anmpthing +hat c^~a _po.
ing on two or three years
ago11
B ased on 250 Interviews
During two Congressional ap-
pearances last month, Mr. Mc-
Coy testified that his accusa-
States Government possessed
"hard intelligence" linking a
number of high-ranking South-
east Asian officials, including
Maj. Gen. Ngo Dzu, then com-
mander of the South Viet-
namese II Corps, with involve-
ment in the narcotics trade.
Mr. Steele's accusations were
denied and mostly ignored.
Mr. McCoy also alleged that
Corsican and American syndi.
cate gangsters had become in-
volved in the narcotics trade.
He said that such information
was known to the C.I.A. In a
PAGE
northern ? Taos-was producing
about 1,000 tons of raw opium
annually, then about 70 per
cent of the world's supply.
The bulk of Mr. McCoy's
accusations-both in the maga-
zine and during the Congres-
sional hearings-failed to gain
much national attention. None-
theless, the C.I.A. began _itO
unusual pu lc. a ense a er
tun, ana none is based on
convincing evidence." A copy
of the letter was made avail-
Mr.McCoy, in an Interview,
said that the book had been
commissioned by Harper &
Row and carefully and totally
reviewed by its attorneys with
ALI1 noks Thomas, vice presi-
dent and general counsel of
an interview in New York,
"We don't have na
doubt
y
s
sition. 'I just believe that the
Ameri ca, a charter airline that 191A. should have the chance
flie
mi
fo
i
th
CIA i
ss
ons
r
e
s
n
... A. review it.? If Mr. McCoy
Rnntheac. Acia Rnth rateanric._
ally denied the allegations ink-- ulu 1OU aslcv, Lln auucu, Lzarper
rprsonne to any' & Row would not publish the
in g C.I.A
.
book.
ww ger'o ,? r ; " IC In a subsequent Interview,
th
e
f th
Ai
of
o
e
on
ssociat t%111Grica11
for publication to the publisher Publishers, Inc., said that his
that the letter would be pub-I I""? "'A1 - llla,lU]V Bernstein
as er?? - --;t,,o In general," Mr. stei
o
i
b
urion
n
e
The C.I.A. began its approach Oulu
(that we wouldopnot publish +n Har
_ _ pa
er R. Ro ar A. earl
p
y
e
arentl
I'll app
y "`L
` """"b anybody working for the C.I.A.
of Mr. McCoys appearance be- or an other Government agency.
fore the Senate subcommittee. Short of that, we_would pub-
concernand informally asked "" er offi" ?`
? ,,,,? ,
,....,......,.>.,.,. of present and former official
f
f th
or
o
e
for review prior to publication. e -%L
smuggling and looking
tt the oth-
On Jul
5 a fo
mal l
e
y
r
e
r"hoh
, er way was common trug-
makingrthDrequest, signedQ by out Southeast Asia during the
to Harper & Row. 1 strong steps to curb such prac-
not based onenational +security, One official, who spent many
tions concerning involvement of
don't believe that agency
th U S G t i d
e US
r
overnmen [n ug "tffl dli
..sa personne wereeang
traffic] or the participation 01
American citizens should be
made only if based, on hard
evidence."
The letter continued: "It is
our belief that no reputable
publishing house would wish
to publish such allegations with-
out being assured that the sup-
porting evidence was valid."
If the manuscript were handed
llsurma, norinern -inaiiana anal liey~Aw
ed For Release 2002101/23 : l.ll2bP4
nst
0,8b
in opium. But if you're talking!
about Air America g_ _Th el
stuff m y ;
net my
bottom dollar that they were'
in it.? 1
Another former C.I.A. agent
described Mr. McCoy's pub-
lished. writings as "1 per cent
tender 'ous-arid 90 per cent of
t most valuable contribution