FACT: CIA ALLIANCE WITH THE DRUG TRAFFIC

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100010016-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 24, 2000
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: September 24, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

C
CPYRGHT
IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, by
Alfred W. McCoy (Iforper
Row, $I0.95).
By Keyes Beech
HEROIN didn't always have
a bad name. Around the tug
of the century it was hailed a
a "miracle drug" and ap
proved by the AMA for genera
use. In fact, it didn't eveil have
a name until Germany's Bayer
chemical combine invented
"Heroin" as a brand name an
put It on the market as
cough medicine,
But this fascinating bit of
drug lore is only incidental to
the central theme of this dev-
astating book: that because of
Its commitment' to contain
communism in Southeast Asia,
the U.S. government helped
create a generation of junkies.
SOUTHEAST Asia's "Golden
Triangle" -- where Laos, Thai-
land and Burma meet.-- has
CPYRGHT.
been an opium-growing area
for centuries. But what McCoy
and his fellow authors are con-
cerned about Is how within the
last .20 years the "triangle"
has expanded its production
until today It accounts for 70
per cent of the world's illicit
supply of heroin.
For this the authors hold the
U n I t e d States responsible.
They specifically charge that
I n 't h e I r clandestine war
against the Communists, U.S.
agencies, notably the CIA, al-
lied themselves with elements
known to be engaged in the.
drug traffic; ignored and even
covered up the activities of
known drug traffickers, and
allowed American military air-
craft to be used to transport
drugs.
.The charges are difficult to
refute because, in the main,
they happen to be true. McCoy
has done his homework. Cri--
ics may quarrel with some of
his facts and dispute many rif
his judgments, but he con-
A GI snorts heroin in?Vietnani.
vincingly demonstrates, for ex-
ample, that the G.I. heroin epi-
de 'mic in South Vietnam could
not have happened without the
active participation of greedy
generals and government offi-
cials who owed their jobs to
the United States.
U.S. Involvement in the drug,
MY' CPYRGH
traffic was, as the authors con-
t e n d , an "inevitable con-
sequence" of our involvement
I n Southeast Asia, where
opium was a way of life. But It
did not become an "American
problem" until It touched
American lives.
THE BOOK Is not quite the
scholarly work that it pretends
to be. It is as much an in-
dictment of the Vietnam war
as it is a documentation of the
drug traffic. The- authors sug-
gest that all will be well if
President Nixon is defeated
and the United States pulls out
of Southeast Asia lock, stock-
and barrel.
Maybe so. But the sad thing
is that the book's chief victims
area handful of dedicated CIA
men who went to Southeast
Asia to do a job. That job was
to fight communism, not re-
form a society.
Keyes Beech is The Daily'
News' , correspondent in
Asia. ,
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
COMPANY MANj by Joe MMeb-
gio (Putnam, g6.95).
By George Harmon
I HE late Allen Dulles, quar-
terback of our World War II
spies and later chief of the CIA,
scoffed at the notion of the
American diplomat or spy
being a closed-mind blunderer
too cynical to play by any
rules but his own. He criti-
cized such novels as Graham
Greene's "The Quiet Ameri-
can" and Burdick and Lode-
rei''s "The Ugly American"
for promoting "mischief'-creat-
ing prejudices."
Dulles wrote that lie pre-
ferred "taking the raw mate-
rial which we find in America
-- naive, home-grown, even
homespun - and training such
a man to be a good intelligence
officer, however long the pro-
cess lasts." Those homespun
,CPYRGHT
boys, if we are to believe re-
cent news accounts, are trav-
eling much farther afield than
Dulles seemed willing to send
them.
THE BACKBONE of CIA ac-
tivity apparently remains the
clandestine listening posts and
purloined letters -which Dulles
so loved. But now the charge
is often made that the CIA
tries to foment change rather
than merely report it; in
Uganda, for example; in Chile,
in Laos.
So much is being written
about the CIA, in fact, that its
argot is creeping into Ameri-
can slang: a spy is a spook, to
kill is to."terminate with ex-
treme prejudice."
Now, arrives Joe Maggio, a
mercenary-turned-writer, who
says he worked off and on for
the CIA In places like Africa
and Laos.
His novel tells of Nick MIar-
tin, a sort of comic book super-
hero and former Green Beret
A "home-grown" boy whom
Dulles would have liked, lie is
recruited off a Florida campus
by "the Company" (in-group
slang for the CIA), and works
part time, training Bay of
Pigs invaders and shooting
up Africa and the Tonkin Gulf.
There Is enough bad writing to
fill three pulp. magazines
("steel split the air over-
head").
BUT MAGGIO'S book has an
aura of authenticity about it,
and few readers know enough
about the CIA to dispute him
- even though the question al-
ready has been raised: Is Joe
Maggio the Clifford Irving of
the barracks set?
W. E. Colby, executive direc-
tor of the CIA, disputes the
publisher's contention that
"Company Man" Is "a novel of
'facts," proclaiming it a "taw-
CPYRGHT.
e
dry fabrication" filled with
"lurid writing and innate con-
tradictions." Ile denies that
the CIA ever has carried out
assassinations or has traf-
ficked in drugs, as Maggio as-
serts.
Colby also says Maggio was
"terminated for cause" during
a six-month CIA training pro-
gram and never went overseas
for the CIA or undertook any
of the "assignments". Maggio
says he performed.. But Mag-
gio has obtained a government
letter quoting the CIA as say-
ing that lie worked for the
agency on contract:
In any event, Maggio writes
enough like a soldier to con-
vince the reader lie has been
one. He has produced an un-
professional but good example
of thriller fiction.
George Harmon is a Daily
News editor and writer.
ma U,