AIR AMERICA: FLYING FOR U.S. AND PROFIT IN ASIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R001000050001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 147
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 6, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 13, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

? STATINTL WASEINGTON 'STAR
a r13.&
Approved For Release 2.opitp3/".. %.,[A-rw-rso-o1
menca eig
"n
? :
By JOHN BURGESS
Special to The Star-News
S BANGKOK ? "The flying is
en-on-military; in other words,
' 'civilian flying. You are flying
jor ? the U.S. government, that
Is government agencies such
as USOM, USAID, USIS, etc.
While these agencies may be
, under CIA direction, you don't
i.know and you don't care. The
'government agencies direct
,the routings and schedulings,
your company provides the
technical know-how and you
fly the airplane."
e? Thus an unnamed American
,!.pilot describes civilian
? .flying" in Southeast, Asia ? for
;Air America and the lesser
f. known Continental Air Serv-
ices ? both private companies
; on contract to the U.S. govern-
!;nient. The pilot's comments
are part of a confidential,
:,?16-page 'brochure available at
? certain Air Force personnel of-
fires. It is shown to Air Force
.;pilots interested in flying for
one of the companies upon
completing their military serv-
ice.
The brochure lists no author
,or publisher, hut it offers an
:illuminating view into the in-
'' qernal operations of Air Amer-
eica, which has played a ern-
7eia1 role in the Indochina war
'theater since the 1950s. Air
?i:America, along with the other
conipanic s, has airlifted
'troops, refugees, CIA agents,
'American politicians, war ma-
- ??,terial, food and occasionally
. 'prisoners all over Southeast
:Asia.
Extravagant Salaries
? The brochure, dated June 29,
1972, boasts that Air America
'ranked as one of the most
'profitable corporation in the
United States in 1969, a year
when most of the world's air-
-lines lost heavily. Air Ameri-
ca's customer is the U.S.
government. .
It employs about 436
according to the parripblet, of
which 384 are working in
. Southeast Asia. The center of
Air America's operation is
. Laos, where the presence of
? military or military-related
'personnel is prohibited by the
Much-abused Geneva Confer-
ence of 1962.
Air America's profits are
high despite the somewhat ex-
travagant salaries it pay's for
' flying personnel. According to
the report, a pilot with 11 ?
years eftiotrOveilat rF
UH-34D hetictpter based at
Udorn air base in Thailand an
average of 100 hours monthly, -
will take home $51 525. All sal-
aries are tax free.
A newly hired pilot flying a
C-7 Caribou transport based in
-Vientiane, averaging 100 hours
flying time monthly, would
earn a minimum $29,442. The
U.S. commercial pilot average
is $24,000.
Also available to Air Ameri-
ca personnel, in addition to a
liberal expense account, is life
and medical insurance, two-
weeks leave, tickets on other ?
airlines at 20 percent normal
cost, -PX and government
mailing privileges and educa-
tional allowances for depend-
ents. Many Air America pilots
are retired military men re-
ceiving military pensions.'
s`Good' Investment
Americans can also become '
"air freight specialists", com-
monly called kickers.. Their
job is to push cargo out over
drop zones. S a la r y is '
$100-91,800 per month. Quali-
fications: American citizen-
ship, air borne training, expe-
rience with the U.S. Air Force.
preferred.
Air America, Inc., is owned
by a private aviation invest-
ment concern called the Pacif- ?
ic Corp. Dunn' and Brad-
street's investment directory ..
places its assets in the $10-$50
million category, and rates it !
"good" as an investment risk.
Air America itself employs al-
together about 8,000 persons,
ranking in size just below Na-
tional 'Airlines and above most
of the smaller U.S. domestic
airlines.
Formerly called C-zhil Air
Transport (CAT), Air America
was organized after World
War II by General Claire
Chennault, commander of the
American fighter squadrons in
Burma and China known as
the Flying Tigers. CAT played
a major role in post-war China
supplying Nationalist troops.
CAT also supplied, the French
daring their phase of the war
in Indochina.
Air America is commonly
considered an arm of the CIA. \
In Laos, the CIA for the past
10 year or more has' main-
tained an army of -hill tribe-
men, mainly Thai ad Lao
mercenaries. Most ? of the air
supply and transport needs for
this army have been handled
by Air America.
Mil itary_ Assista n cc
Wg
Re19 gi99n1494#04o;sC
not mention opium explicitly,
it hints at the subject of con-
traband:,
"Although flights mainly
serve U.S. official personnel
movement and native officials
and civilians, you sometimes
engage in the movement of
friendly troops, or of enemy
captives; or in the transport of
cargo much more potent than
rice and beans! There's a war
going on. Use your imagina-
tion!"
Air America works hand-
in-hand with the U.S. Air
Force. At Udorn air base in
Thailand, Air Force mechan-
ics repair the airline's trans-
ports and helicopters, many of
them unmarked. The Air
Force has reportedly leased
giant C130 transports when the
planes were needed for opera-
tions in Laos. In the section on
Air America's benefits, the
brochure lists in 'addition to
normal home and sick leave:
"Military leave will be grant-
ed appropriately" an appar-
ent acknowledgement that
there . are military people
working directly with AM
America.
One should not conclude,
'however, that the?salaries, ex-
citement and tax -advantages
mean that Air America pilots
hope the war will continue. As
the brochure's author notes in
a typed postscript:
"Foreign aid situation un-
clear pending outcome mili-
tary situation in RVN (Repub-
lic of Vietnam), but it looks as
if we'll finish the war (and
peace terms favorable for our
side); if so, it is expected that
'a boom among contract opera-
tors will result when imple-
mented, due to inevitable re-
habilitation and reconstruction
'aid in wartorn areas.... Job
market highly competitive and
you'll' need all the help you
can get." -
According to Pacific News
Service, the following men sit
on the Air America board of
directors:
Samuel Randolph Walker ?
chairman of the board of Wm.
JC. Walker's Son, New York;
director of Equitable Life As-
surance Society; member of
Federal City 'Council, Wash-
ington, D.C.; member of Ac-
tion Cbuneil for Better Cities,
'Urban America, Inc., and life
trustee, Columbia University.
William A. Reed ? chair-
man of the board of Simpson
Timber Co.; chairman of the
'Seattle First 'National 'Bank;
director of General Insurance
_ 'Co.; director of Boeing Co.;
director of Pacific Car Found- I
ry CO.; direcior of Nornem
Pacific Railroad; director of
Stanford Research. Institute.
Arthur Berry Riehard.san ?
foreign service officer in Rus-
sia, China and England from
1914 to 1935; chairman of the
board of Cheeeeborough
'Ponds, Inc. from 1955 to 1231;
director of United Hospital
Fund, New York; trustee of
Lenox Hill Hospital.
? James Barr Ames -- law'
partner in Ropes & Gray, Bos-
ton; director of Air Asia Co.,
Ltd.., director of International
'Student Association; member,
Cambridge Civic . Association
and trustee of Mt. Auburn'
Hospital.
STATINTL
IlAaRpP81 1 - ;11000050001-8
co.; irector t_irowe. ?
son Timber Co.e director of
BOSTON Aoproved For Release 2001/03/015TtlikiRDP80-
,
HERALD TRAVELER &
RECORD? IMERI 9 AN
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D &S ? CIRC. N?A
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4tug /4 1,4 ??rad +,4 L.,47
By HARRY KELLY
Herald Trir rec.,rcl American
Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON ? The, Gen-
eral Accounting Office has
reported to Congress that a
jurisdictional conflict between
Justice and Treasury Dept.
agencies has impeded efforts
to curb the mholesale smug-
gling of heroin into the United
States.
Treasury's Customs BUreau
and Justice's Bureau of Nar-
cotics and Dangerous Drues
.(BNDD), r the GAO noted,
accused ea0i other of failing
to cooperate or to share
intelligence information.
"Customs Is charged with
the control of smuggling,
BNDD with the control ? of
narcotics," observed the GAO.
"The interface of the two
elements 7--? smuggled nar-
cotics ? is a source . of
conflict between the two
agencies."
The inter-agency battle,
which has continued on and
off for years, reached the
point, the GAO found, that the ?
White House stepped in to ;
recommend guidelines and a
0 ff 01
r tr. I 7'i r:r n 1;111
k
incea-,age ? involving
the White House, State Dept.,
Central .Intelligence Agency,
and Treasury and ?justice
Depts. ? was issued last July
28 noting that the two agency
heads "had agreed on the
fullest possible cooperation."
The BNDD cited the follow-
ing case as the kind of
problem its agents have had
with Customs:
A BNDD undercover agent
arranged to act as a middle-
man in receiving a package of
narcotics from a seaman
aboard a foreign ship in New
York drydock for delivery to
three other traffickers.
The BNDD asked Customs
to clear its personnel away
from the dock area so that
the deal could go through and
narcotics agents would be
able to arrest the three
r r,
t,??t, bt ?,_,A1 .allizational slill., Le
rugged, uncontrollable. region '=?Inin''Ild `I :1?5/;:-1-7.6un Pri-' ,Srait Value of :';-.-.!-?17 million. 'the Ilsillg-L'-n iS 1:aPDY and the
\cher, til.,?, ,full i,_,: 1,,,,,.., .,;,,.:illg_ vate. army thiit controls tli,-; old of 1 II -cii LA ;
oui,-..is eztr.l&. frOil) Burma. ?Pillin 1:1:01v0rE ;11.e haPP2'''''
intik, route , from the . pop?i7y ,, _ _, . But Lot qolte. At any given
0112 iti it -,-,t'.01' it.;l:11,11'V and ,ijeids 0..,.1101.;.?,.0 i iii 1 iu the. ,i'n:, DON I (1.....?. ...a. ilic. ,70,..itint in u:tot:r Burma there
., ? . , ...? , 77 - ..,.,- lilt -,- I ??? ,
opium i 5 i'; ay 0 i: I ik' ? r ,., c
:i.i.111,t ..o.,_1 .1 1,.? ,. it ip. I. ncinlc, . ? ;,-tre. at least Lail a dozen 1'I" '1 Aro:Tie:al narcotl,:s gencies under way. When the
agents i.eis the first hill,: in ? lc"- inn 4''11.1 l'" (011ie.' ti.t
._, . , )7111 trilies aren't fighting the
the devious drug cliain that. bc- 1 Imn '1'2-I.'? . " Iii 111-6ill1)`.!. kise
furpate, ilrrily or the CorrInill-
,
gin s in the ponpy firlds oi the ter the el\l'orl- 111,11'-'?:et...
nists. they're fighting each
coldc,n Tri.23..,A, The, III 4,,r : ,. los youtier brother runs 1
,.;t:eaches of iThrille., . o other,
rkihind ; The 'Iachiloli end f the I
stiff is corning through Thai-
land," said a Bartjkok banker,
"because. Thailnad is a natural
conduit. And we don't deny
that we have some crooked oT
licials who are in on the
..and Laos -- and ends on rhe ?PeratiOn.
' streets Of New York. purc-i and simple," said a CIA
. only major trafficker, La Ilas 1 .
, ; agent, "and the Way it works
LTIIOUGII his operations ; p.,-oved I:..... -it perhaps the
racket.
"But that doesn't mean that
all of us are crool..s. And after
VI-hat I've read your Nev.;
ork City? police forc:;?, c:o:ft
think you Americans are in a
position to moralize. You're
asking us to control the drug
traffic 7:?,-11.:m you cim't
control if yourselves.
"We're tired of being picked
on by visiting congressmen
and 511 iii
Why don't you ever
Burma, is luau is where most
of the stuff is coming from?"
"IT'S AVAIII.ORD politics
? - Although by no means the
are won 1111),,-.-ii, the elui,ive Lo . rims) determined and resource- ;
? the system. is self-perpetuat-
, ! .
has reiraincd F.0:1.1,:?tlitir! Cl n ful. Last yoar it. took him six ! .' "Without the opium, the
015 501 to both narcotics i months CO :nove about 70,1 00 I ,' warlords woulc.ln.'t be able to
oc,:ilicr., Pounds of opium down fron1 ;
gents and tile CIA, ,,,,hieli lizts
. the poppy fields to Trtchilek. ' l buy g-dOs. .kni.-1 it 101 the
/thrown its iT.1172.-...nce i guns they wouldn't be able to
; maintain their private armies.
ts:ixon's .:ili,i1,e1 v,..ir on tbe lidor- ,,a,,:linst hij:.,,c3:ers, co:nrmi.. . ; .:11(1. withent. t"-,e ..t.r.:7ies they
nation.11 thug tr.:e. ' nist insur,:en;s and i.onietirne ) wouldn't be. ablo. to protect
But Lo is no mystery to his the Burn.e.se army. At one : the.ir turf."
I
former ScIleolt-vacilr, JimillY point he maile a deal with th?.. ,-
ing re.`,1-11.ce2 inte Proniciii. "He Was fi;ihting all thci way
,Yang, a Shots cru:11 up-,7er Bur- Burmose fOrueS
fltia who 1Uan1ig?es Rincome agaiusi.tli com1m1,1l.?ts :
.1`17fote1, 1.1.111 tent for some trucks to replace ?
THEANSWER to that ques-
tion is that it (1oesn't do any .
01A-RDP86101501 R001000050001-8
ana he is not recentive to out- 1
I-side advice, there is very little)
) Burma's ``;ironn-ronii" 7-1111-7-
?
'his 51)1110 111110 c(""'111":11(Is a his :nide trill. on i,otta 1nnid
? Os Sid eApproydd r?riReteat1;2001110VO4 t
s VIII)Amenc??
NEVI: It not on most
irtop3 but facl7ilck is 'Where
the opium comes from.
,
vi
STATINTL
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CHICAGQ ILI:.
NE" A'pproved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601
E ? 434,349
OCT \f-1, 197a
o Li
Second in Cl series
era 0 171
-11 cry".
.By Keyes Beech
.Daily News Foreign Service
CHI I;.:NG MA I. Northern
Thailand ? No long ago a vis-
iting American congressman
asked a U.S. narcotics agent in
Bangkok if tie hill tribesmen
of Southeast Asi, had any idea
of the havoc their product, re-
'fined to heroin, was creating in
the streets of Nev., York.
For a momnt the agent was
.speechless at the question.
Then taking a deep breath, he -
.replied: "Sir, they never beard
of New 'Yu i-",;:"
They never heard of Bang-
kok, either.
- The question is indicative of
the wall of ignorance that sep-
arates most Americans from
the history am realities of the
drug traffic M Southeast Asia.
FOR FOUR centuries, begin-
- n i 11 g with the aggressive
prodding of greedy European
colonialists, -ians have been
cultivating the poppy that
yields the camni that yields
- the morphin, that yields the
-heroin that c now finding its
way into the [Anted States.
Up through World War II
and beyond, every Southeast
Asian government had its
opium monopoly. !Everywhere
it was a ma or source of reve-
nue, like whey government
monopolies including salt and
tobacco.
In the middl2 in the last cen-
tury the British fought a war
to win the 1.12.t-,I? to sell opium
to the unwillin7, Chinese. Bong
. Kong - had its own opium
"farm," Awl not until I9-4(3 did
the llritkn outaw the drug
-traffic in Bong Long.
FOR THE ASIANS opium
was, and so:I is, an escape
' front the pAm.; of 'reality just
as alcohol is an escape for so
many American. Some Asians
become add4Js ? a growing
number, in fact ? just as
some American,: become alco-
holics.
Opium AppromegLFer Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R001000050001-8
STATI NTL
more ways 11.i-m one. An Amer-
ican woman may sv:allow a
pill to ease the pain of her
menstrual r?riod. The hill
tribe wmei-m of Southeast
Asia's golt!.e.t triangle -- the
upper reaches Of Burma,. Thai-
land and Lao ? will smoke a'
pipe or tu Of opium.
Opium happens to be
the only casa crop of the bill
tribe people. ;_ileir only means
of acquirin..-A some of the on nor
luxuries of doe outside world.
Their eeoporr, is as dependent
on opium as the lowlanders
are on rice.
DURING all those earlier
years, to ,1..00ericans opium
was an Asian affair. But two
years ago, wan heroin addic-
tion hit enidomic proportions
among American GIs in South
Vietnam, tho .-`,sian narcotics
traffic. suclor.lv became Amer-
ica's business.
Now the GI market almost
has vanished with the with-
drawal of American troops
from Vietnaro. But the drug
problem liffi:crs on ? a legacy
of the Vietn.,.m War as the. her-
oin trafficker,' seek new out-
lets in the Unite(1 States to re-
place their lk:st. Cl market.
At the salon time President
Nixon has declared global war
on the internaoonal drug traf-
fic. As a resuit, stopping drugs
has become almost as impor-
tant as storing communism
a in on g L.S. objectives in
Southeast Asia..
IN AT LEAST three coun-
tries ? Thailand. Laos and
South Vietnom ? all the re-
sources of L.S. embassies
have been thrown into the
campaign to choke off the flow
of heroin to the United States.
_
tNow then, how to get the
. bok in the public eye? What
? better way than to demand
censorship rights over the
riAMuseript. That would raise
a?-?-guaranteed hue and cry
? tWO.ss the political spectrum
because nothing?thank God?
iseso sacrosanct in American
sWety as the rights of a free
? press. '
?
"Fanciful you say? Not near-
/W?So fanciful as half of the
4ns Alfred McCoy accuses the
;VIA' of in his book'. And look
..,at the results. The prepubliea-
cenSorship was so weak
Ithe publisher said .that he
was "underwhelmed" by the
'.TIA comments) that reported-
.4-not a word was. changed in
Alle'rnanuseript. The news of
:VC:censorship was leaked to
? 'Abe:press and sparked editori-
1,114,in the New York Times,
Washington Post, and
A brand you can trust?
rsits of CIA harassment?an
;article marred only by the ac-
If you are naturally suSpi
? -companying editorial cartoon
-Da showed the Pentagon
grabbing an author's typewrit-
or-But I suppose that the
_Pentagon is better identified
-in the public mind than Lang-
leY where the CIA really
_hangs its hat.
?The CIA, in effect, worked a
clotible blessing. It insured
r'high-le.vel attention and pub-
licity on McCoy's book, which
is being faithfully reviewed by
most of the major publica-
tions, and they focus public
_ attention on the evils of
government censorship. The
taxpayers got their money's
p . As James Markham point-
. .
, e e s er v c
as well. According to James , When only the "heathen Chi- .
Markham in the New York a/ nese" smoked opium, the U.S.
Times, "a former CIA agent" was singularly uninterested in
told Seymour Hersh that Mc- the problem.
Coy's assertions are "10 per
cent tendentious and 9() per Read McCoy's "90 per Cent
v
cent of the most valuable con-
; aluable contribution" that
demanding that the United
.States act as the policeman of
the world in the Golden Trian-
gle in Southeast Asia (how
many divisions would it take
to subdue the Shan States in
-Burma that neither the Brit- -
WI nor the present Burmese
Government could police and
Control?)
' . Disregard the sometimes ju-
,venile writing style---"In
'Xing Mongut (played by Yul
Brynner in the King and
'bowed to . British pressure."
That's like writing "At Get-
tysburg, Abraham Lincoln
(played by Raymond Massey)
said . . ." McCoy also notes
."a brutal Chinese pacifica-
tion campaign (in South
China) rather similar to the
one launched by the U.S.
Seventh Cavalry against the
Great Plains Indians." Why ?
"7th Cavalry"? All they dis-
tinguished themselves for was
getting massacred at the Lit-
tle Big Horn. It's racist of e
to Mc-
Coy ignore the all-black
, . ?
10th Cavalry which played a
much more important role in
the pacification of the West.
Disregard all that, for the
:book does give valuable in-
-sights into the mechanics of
? the heroin trade. McCoy's ex-
-amination of the depth and
scope of the Asian opium
trade is particularly timely
since this aspect was ignored
until our own ox was gored.
tribution I can think of. He's a . the CIA was kind enough to
very liberal kid, and he'd like ?bring to your attention, but do
to nail the establishment. Bu not be mislead by his conclu-
t . sion. It is a con-out to say that "in the final analysisthe
-
program think that his re-
some leading intelligence offi-
?
cers inside the Government's - American people will have to
search is great." ?
.
choose between supporting
-
e doggedly anti-Communist
Not only that, but McCoy's
book, which purports to attack
the CIA, actually credits the
agency with being 10 feet tall,
of h
aving history-bending
governments in Southeast
Asia or getting heroin out of
their high schools." It is not
that simple.
Let me hasten to add that I
claim no inside information on
this caper. Maybe the CIA
was just ham-handed enough
to d in a n d re- ublication
p p
censorship without malice of
forethought ... but I'd rather
.scountles-A
believe that our highest level
0or newsprers.
they were merely stupid.
n the ?Book Section on the
:The Sta or-Rdf rweat
k/apiMp
powers, of saving (Godfather ed out in his New 'York Times
forgive us) the Mafia from ex-
tinction after World War II.
Disregard the "tendentious
10 per cote?the rather puer-
ile political judgements where
McCoy wavers between con
-
derailing the CIA for being the
policeman of the world, and
IA-RDP80-01601ROV
review, "American addicts
- need only 60 to 100 tons of
'opium a year to feed their
habits . :. This amount of opi-
? urn can be grown on five to 10
square miles of arable, upland
country land?in Burma, in
; India, in Turkey, in Mexico,
0000600(618 .
?continued
SAN FRAliCISCO, CA
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? 640,004
SEP 241$7
PAGE 38
Age:. her-ik608g2g6iiioNotigAt
the evil of Communism and to
fight: . . you must have money
In these mountains the only
Irhe 1)olirxs
Of Heroin
-n
ap ed
Reviewed by
Thomas Lask
THE POLITICS. OF HEROIN IN SOUTH-
EAST ASIA. By Alfred W. McCoy, with
Cathleen- 13. Reed and Leonard P. Adams if.,
Harper & Row; 464 pp.; $10.95.
? ALTHOUGH "The Politics of Southeast
Asia" is packed with information, some
of it of considerable convexity. its 'charges
(for that is what its conclusions are) are sim-
ple enough to be spelled out in a school pri-
mer.
Seventy per cent of the world's supply of
heroin, the book asserts, has its origin in
.Southeast Asia in an area of northeast Burma,
North Laos and North Thailand known as the
."Golden Triangle."
It is transported in the planes, vehicles and
.other conveyances supplied by the United
States. The profit from the trade has been
'going into the 'pockets of some of our best
friends in Southeast Asia.
The charge concludes with the statement
that the traffic is being carried on with the
:Indifference if not the closed-eye compliance
of some American officials and there is no
likelihood of its being shut down in the fore-
seeable future.
- Quick Controversy
These conchi
s o have een drawiL bv a
Approlved ForRelease 2001/03/04 : CIA-RDP80-01601R001000050001-8 continued
money is opium
?A Taiwan gen
yo.ung Ph.D. Scholar from Yale who st
the subject for 18 nionths and who has ah
' been embroiled with the Central Intelligence
Agency over them.
?
-? Before publication, his book was attacked.
by the CIA for what it said were unjust accu-
sations that the agency knew of hut failed to
stem that heroin traffic. After reading the gal-
leys (which the publisher had made available)
and sending off a critique to Harper's, the CIA
took no further action.
.if is difficult for ?anyone not close to the
field to assess the accuracy of McCoy's mate-
rial. But it must be said that his book is a
serious, sober, headline-shunning study with
-
? 63 pages of supporting notes, referring to a
large number of personal interviews, newspa-
per accounts, previously published .1) 00k S.
Congressional committee hearings, govern-
ment reports and United Nations documents.
'It is so filled with information that it vill take
a great deal more than mere dislike of its
7, contents to demolish it.
?_ Official Aanowledgement
Perhaps the greatest guarantee of its'accu-
- 'racy is a cabinet-level report prepared by offi-
cials ofj_CIA. the State Department and the
Defense DeTT:iiiiMiir that confirms the main
findings of the McCoy book. The report. dated
Feb. 21, 1972. said that "-there is no prospect"
of stemming the smuggling of drugs by air
and sea in Southeast Asia and cited as one
reason the fact that "the governments in the
region are unable. or in some cases unwilling"
to make a truly effective effort to curb the
traffic.
That drug smuggling is not a probleinre-
mote from us can be seen from the fact that a
shipment of the Double U-0 Globe brand, a
'bulk heroin manufactured in the Golden
Triangle, was seized in an amount estimated
by the police to be worth $3.5 million in the
Lexington hotel in New York City last Novem-
ber and another shipment worth by police esti-
mates to be $2.25 million was taken in Miami.
The politics of heroin ? and in this book
the emphasis is on the politics ? is an artful
one. McCoy cites the case of Ngo Dinh Mu,
brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South
Vietnam, later murdered by his colleagues.
. During his brother's regime, Nhu was head
of the secret police and had set up a close
STATI NTL
Approved For Release 2E:F1/100t740
?,. .
ei.
gifjifockoIll
New and Recommended
THE POLITICS OF HEROIN IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, by Alfred W.
McCoy, with Cathleen B. Read and Leonard' P. Adams If. (Harper &
Row, $10.95.) A. history of the post-World War II drug traffic in
Southeast Asia that brilliantly unsnarls its tangled intrigues.
_
STATI NTL
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4k) ?
- STATINTL
CHICAGO DAILY NEWS
VA/1044e IA9RD P80 -0 160
athloance with the .drivg
WE POLITICS OF NEROIN
IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, by
Alfred W. McCoy (Harper &
Row, $10.95).
By Keyes Beech,
HEROIN didn't 'always have
-a bad name. Around the turn
of the century it was hailed as
a "miracle drug" and ap-
proved by the AMA for general
use. In fact, it didn't eveii have
-4 name until Germany's Bayer
chemical combine invented
"Heroin" as a brand name and
put it on the market as a
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, Thal-
land and Burma meet.? has
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
United States responsible.
They specifically charee that
In 1 heir 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
'mown 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. Crit-
ics may quarrel with some of
his facts and dispute many of
his judgments, but he con-
A GI snorts heroin in-Vietnam.
vincingly demonstrates, for ex-
ample, that the G.I. heroin epi-.
deride 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,
FICH021: C71=00A MUM'S
- COMPANY MAN by Joe Mag-
gio (Putnam, $6.95).
By George Harmon
JIBE late Allen Dulles, quar-
terback of our World War II
spies and later chief of the CIA,
scoffed at the nation 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 Lede-
rer's "The Ugly American"
for promoting "mischief-creat-
ing prejudices."
Dulles wrote that he pres
'erred "taking the raw mate-
rial which we find in America
? naive, home-grown, even
honiespun ? and training such
a man to he a good intelligence
_officer, however leag the pro-
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 spool:, to
kill is to ."terminaie 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.
?F.
a TO
UJA
tin, a sort of comic book super-
hero and former Green Beret
A "home-grown" boy whom
Dulles would have liked; he 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
cess lasts." Those homespun His novel tells of _Nick Mar-- ?facts,"_prociaiming it a "taw- News editor and writer.
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Eraniac STATINT
traffic was, as the authors con-
tend,. an "inevitable con-
sequence" of our involvement
in 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 thief victims
are a 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. .
yqt ,4,11
a- -
dry fabrication" filled with
"lurid writing and innate con-
tradictions." Ito 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" -Mageio
says he performed.. But Mag-
gio has obtained a government
letter quoting the CIA as say-
ing that he worked for the
agency on contract:
In any event, Maggio writes
enough like a soldier to con-
vince the reader he has been
one. Be has produced an un-
/Professional but good example
of thriller fiction.
George Harmon is a Daily
THE BULLETIN
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STATINTL
"LADIES and gentlemen," announced
. the genteel British diplomat, raising his
glass to offer a toast, "I give you Prince
Sopsaisana, the uplifter of Laotian
youth."
. The toast brought an appreciative
smile from the guest of honor, cheers
and applause from the luminaries of
Vientiane's diplomatic corps assembled
at the farewell banquet for the Laotian
ambassador-designate to France, Prince
Sopsaisana. A member of the royal
house of-Xieng Khouang, the Plain of
Jars region, the prince was
vice-president of the National
Assembly, chairman of the Lao Bar
Association, president of the Lao Press
Association, president of the Alliance
Francaise, and a member in good
standing of the Asian People's
Anti-Communist League. After
receiving his credentials from the king
in a private audience at the Luang
Prabang Royal Palace on April 8, 1971,
he was treated to an unprecedented
round of cocktail parties, dinners, and
banquets. For Sopsai, as his friends call
him, was not just any ambassador; the
Americans considered him an
outstanding example of a new
generation of honest, dynamic leaders.
The final send-off party at
Vientiane's Wa?tay Airport on April 23
was one of the gayest affairs of the
season. Everybody was there; the
champagne bubbled, the canapes were
flawlessly French. and Ivan Bastouil,
charge d'affaires at the French embassy,
gave the nicest speech. Only after the
plane had soared off into the clouds did
anybody notice that Sopsai had
forgotten to Alp 0010.bdieedif Wei
reception.
His arrival at Paris's Orly Airport on
By ALFRED W. McCOY
and KATHLEEN B. READ
the morning of April 25 was the
occasion for another reception. The
French ambassador to Laos, home for a
brief visit, and the entire staff of the
Laotian embassy had turned out to
welcome the new ambassador. There
were warm embraces, kissing on both
cheeks, and more effusive speeches.
Curiously, the prince insisted on waiting
for his luggage like any ordinary tourist.
and when his many suitcases finally
appeared after an unexplained delay, he
immediately noticed that a particular
one was missing. Sopsai angrily insisted
that his suitcase be delivered at once,
and French authorities promised, most
apologetically, that it would be sent to
the Laotian embassy as soon as it was
found. Sopsai departed reluctantly for
yet another reception at the embassy,
and while he drank the ceremonial
champagne with his newfound retinue
of admirers. French customs officials
were examining one of the biggest
heroin seizures in French history.
The ambassador's suitcase contained
60 kilos of high-grade Laotian heroin ?
worth $13.5 million on the streets of
New York. its probable destination. A
week later, a smiling French official
presented himself at the embassy with
the suitcase in hand. Although
Sopsaisana had been bombarding the
airport with outraged telephone calls
for several days, he suddenly realised
that accepting the suitcase was
tantamount to an admission of guilt and
erirnpriViCaeTiclikFROP8
e at y erne t tat it was is. ignoring
his declaration of innocence, the French
government refused to accept his
diplomatic credentials, and Sopsai
remained in Paris for no more than two
months before he was recalled.
DESPITE its resemblance to comic
opera, the Prince Sopsaisana affair
offered a rare glimpse into the workings
of the Laotian drug trade. That trade is
the principal business of Laos, and to a
certain extent it depends on the support
(money, guns, aircraft etc) of the CIA.
Unfortunately, the questions raised by
the prince's disgrace were never asked,
much less answered. The French
government overlooked the embarrass-
ment for diplomatic reasons, the
international press ignored the story,
and the United States embassy
demonstrated a remarkable disinterest
in the entire subject.
Over the past 50 years, Laos has
become something of a free port for
opium. The delicate opium poppy
grows abundantly at high elevations in
the northern mountains, and under a
sequence of different regimes (French,
American, Laotian), the hill tribesmen
have been encouraged to cultivate the
poppy as the principal cash crop.
Opium dens can be found in every
quarter of Vientiane, and the
whereabouts of the opium refineries are
a matter of common knowledge.
The Laotian indifference to Prince
Sopsaisana's misfortune therefore
becomes easily understandable. The
reticence of the American embassy,
however, requires a few words of
explanation. Sopsai had allegedly
received his 60 kilos of heroin through
the kind offices of a particularly
11331 100101r01513001Vtr
Pao. yang ao also ppens to be t
commander of the CIA secret army in
boatinued
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Cracking Down on Drug Trade
President Nixon said he would comply
fully andPromptly with the statute which
requires him to suspend aid to "any
government whose leaders participate in
or protect the activiiies of those who
contribute to our drug problem."
Taken literally, the statute would re-
quire him to suspend aid to South
Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, all of which
have leaders deeply involved in the drug
trade.
Formerly nearly all the heroin for
Americans came from Turkish poppy
fields via French processors and smug-
glers. In recent years the United States
has been paying Turkey to cut off opium
production and catching the French
smugglers. So the traditional Southeast
Asia opium trade has greatly expanded,
begun manufacture of heroin and gone
after customers among American sol-
diers in South Vietnam and in the world
market. Burma is part of the chain, too,
but Burma scorns U.S. aid.
If the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
were a foreign power (sometimes it acts
like one), the President would have to
cut off support for it, too. For years the
CIA. has tolerated the opium and her-
oin trade of Southeast Asia in its search
for "freedom fighters." The opium-
growing Meos of Laos are C.I.A. pro-
teges, and so, earlier, wetrIfftwifrium-
growing Chinese Nationalist exiled guer-
rillas in Burma. The chain of smugglers
who brought the opium from the interior
highlands to processing and distribution
points as heroin included Laotian and
South Vietnamese generals and officials.
Unforturfately, all this is hard to prove
in any individual case, though the gener-
al outlines are well-known.
The C.I.A. denies everything, and the
Thai, Laotian and South Vietnamese
governments do the same ? and occa-
sionally co-operate in crackdowns to
keep the White House satisfied.
Still, the President would be wise to.
keep his pledge on file and consider
actually carrying out the threat. Amer-
ica's "honor" and "face" have been
hopelessly smirched by the long, cruel .
Indochina war, but he could still salvage
a little honor by ending the whole war
(not just for Americans on the ground)
out of refusal any longer to co-operate
with those who are corrupting American
troops with heroin.
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FT. WAYNE, IND.
JOURNAL GAZETTE
SEP 2 1 197a
11. - 68,240
- 105,80
Heading Off The Drug Problem
The country's fight against foreign
'drug traffic is developing, its own ver-
.sion of a credibility gap. It was just
about a year ago the administration an-
nounced a ".significant breakthrough"
in ,:an .agreement with Turkey to start
ellininating.. opium production. Since
then, however, there has been some
new evidence 'to indicate Turkey was
only a: part of the problem,
Earlier this year, Secretary of State
William Rogers reported to a Senate
,subcommittee that the countries in
Southeast 'ASia also were cooperating
to control the drug flow; But now
there's: substantial doubt about just
how willing those countries are to aid
the I.T,S,. drive against drug importa-
tiOn: A'neW report has emerged, com-
piled by the CeRtral Intelligence
Aulacy, the State Dellritment anThthe
Mfense Department, which found the
drug business from Southeast Asia is '
vastly large,r than had been estimated,
and that, there ,is no foreseeable pros-
pect of "stopping it. The study further
blames :"cOkruption, collusion and in-
,difference" by various levels of gov-
ernment in Thailand and South Viet-
nam. '
AltImiugli administration spokesmen
immediately discounted the report, still
another investigation by the 'Strategic
Intelligence Office of the Bureau
Narcotics and Dangerous . Drugs. also
emphasized the Amount. of high-quality
heroin that is coming out of Southeast.:
Asia. That report further said there is
evidence piling up to.indicate organized
crime is involved in the trade.
There is at least enough information
to remove any doubt about the inter. '-
national scope of the hard 'drug pro.;
duction and supply netwerk., It involves
numerous countries, governmental cor-
ruption, and a. wide range. of ,smuggling
channels. It also means the hard drug .
problem isn't going to come under con-
trol with a-single approaCh.,
One alternative is to disrupt domestic
supply Channels, Sand to make it diffi-
cult for them, to do business. The ad-
ministration is more nearly on target
with its new proposal for a National
Narcotics Intelligence- 'Office to help
fight 'domestic drug, traffic, and for
more money for addict treatment and -
rehabilitation. Another part of? the
effort is to' create the kind of educa-
tional; programs that ,can help Youth's
avoid. getting , involved with drugs.
That's where the impact is the most im-
portant,' and vvhere,,all the other so.cia
complications can be avoided.
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CALIFOMZIA VOICE
,.("7.11)
WEEKLY ? 12,500
),---., :;-?
I
By Mrd-lis: lienriquer.
. Almost universally acimov.i-
/e.dged as something ailn to
the great plague itself, it is
often surprising to leorn that
heroin Was once proclaimed
to be the wonder drug of the
age. The time was shortly he
fore the turn of the centur,
and the pittce was imperil
Cermany Nvhere heroin Ind
just been developed as a are
for a more shiister addict )ri,
that of morphine. As us( of
the drug became more. vide-
spread and its disadvantages
more obvious, heroin oriekly
lost its priveleged positica and
the scientific institutims of
the day renewed their search
in other directions. -
Quantities of heron first
appeared in this cointry a-
round 1930. The priniiple im-
porters of the drug core sail-
ors and other glol;t1 trans-
/CW.5 whose artivi.les were
confined primarily to the larg-
er coastal cities. One ghettos
for the roost past ronained un-
touched.
MORPHINE
With the comitg of W W II
the situation Inclement a
radical change mci once more
the use of inoplaine was in-
volved. Standa:d procedure
adopted by tin U. S. armed
forces for the treatment of
wounds receitod in combat in-
volved immtdiate massive
injections cf the drug
to deaden tie pain- So wide-
spread was he use of mor-
phine durirg the war that
many G. k's wore issued their
own persosal drug supply
and bypath' mic needle in the
event that 3elf treatment be-
came necesary. Despite the
fact that norphine was known
to have bon donrerously ad-
dictive sone fifty years be-
fore. the cathreak of the war,
the drug had _become an in-
tegral pat of America's war-
time medcal machine.
It was with the release of
many oIthese wounded veter-
ans Iron service that the
specter of widespread drug
addictim first appeared. No
one., it f.:ems, had yrt develop.
ed a cu-e for morphine addle-
STATI NTL
1(-nn 1 '''''',- r4ri rt7', 1' - 1 l' -
(
', i ,
t I LO LI Li 1,... ...?,' Li .:_ii 4: 4:i i i ,....)I.i cLi.i' Li Li 41
li
Freedom Party and even a
fledgling Bloe'r. Panther Party
(New Fork chapter) have all
espoused this position at one
time or anoilier. \\tin:ether or
not this charge is valid in ord.
of itself, there is a substantial
body of eviileoce, to sug oert
that the United States govern-
ment has actively encouraged
large scale heroin producticit
to further its own political
ends.
The genesis of this intrigue
began shortly befere the ac-
don but heroin was a good
substitute. Sailors soon found
that they could make a lot
more money selling horain
than they could on any ship
and the rush was on to secure
the most lucrative markets
and methods of production.
FITECT
Nowhere was the effect of
heroin felt more dramatically
than in the Flack community.
Seemingly overnight scores of
young men, whose only mis-
fortune was to have served
ft"--' ? . eritratttrrosTr."ZI
('. (-'4 ?
kood 4.
their country, returned home
with only their wits between
them and what was most often
a slow agonizing death.
Five years after .the close
of W IV If the pusher was al-
ready established as the new
king of the ghetto. The post
war baby boom, the newfound
affluence of the ifties, and the
Korean conflict in which even
more Americans were intro-
duced to use of narcotics all
played a role in the rise of
smack. As a result countless
millions of young men and
women, most of them Black,
found themselves involved
with heroin before reaching
the age of twenty.
Black power advocates were
the first to allege that heroin
addiction was actually en-
couraged by this country's
federal government as a
means to further subjugate
the Black population, and
thereby avoid full scale revo-
lution in the face of 'increas-
ing repression. Stokely Char-
michel, Bap Brown, the now
defunct. SNCC, Peace and
tual introduction of American
troduction of American
ground troops in South Viet-
nam. Before the American
army could embark it was
necessary to determine the
amount of local support they
could e:Tect, Since the South
Vietnamese army was barely
on the edge of destruction and
the civilian population almost
solidly behind the Viet Cong,
or just as solidly neutral, the
search concentrated on cer-
tain jungle tribesmen who in-
habit the remote mountain
areas that border Laos and
Cambodia. It just so hap:pi-tin-
ed that these Meo (pronotoec-
ed Mao) and :ilantingotird
Isibesmen troditionally c-rott. ag-
-cti in resound eune and co,stiarin
to the Inerotive markets cf
Thialend and Viet Nam.
As they V'ere olready de-
log a booming hosiness on
their own, some incentive was
needed to pr.sh tinesel into Cad
uncertainties of war. It seems
that since these triiiesmen had
little or no contort with any
government, political appeals
were largely mc cause.
COMPRO:illfZ .
What evolved was a com-
promise. Mo?tingyard and
Meo tribes would fight and
provide intelligence for A-
merican troops it the Ameri-
cans would, in turn, help them
move greater quantities of
opium and heroin.
The details as to how this
compromise has worked have
been tile subjectof numerous
articles appearing in publica-
tions ranging from Ramparts
to TDB NEW
Air America aircrafi, a chart-
er owned and operated by the
CIA, certain aircraft belong-
ing to the USAF, and in one
case dOcninellted by CI3S, even
the personal aircraft of the
American ambassador to Sai-
gon have all been involved in
the trafficing of heroin.
That a new generation of
American soldiers becomes
addicted while serving in Viet
Nam is seemingly a small
price to pay for the oppor-
tunity of stopping the insid-
ious 'red _hoards. _
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Commentary
The CIA Loses A Boa
' STRIKE ? One thing is certain
about the, US Central Intelligence
, Agency: l\l'o one knows where it will
, strike next. Figuring out where the
cloak-and-dagger fellows will turn up
; is like guessing the number of jelly
beans in a. jar or predicting when
: they will finish the street repairs in
- front of your house or when your in-
laws will drop in for dinner the next
, time.
Of' course, there are certain events
the CIA is NOT interested in ? apple
pie bakeoffs, watermelon contests, a
Burlington Liars Club get-together, an
. apple bob, spin-the-bottle or a back-
gammon game.
When the fellows from the woodsy
V' CIA campus in Langley, Va., get inter-
ested in something they go all out.
And when they do, their policies are
right out of King Herod. It must have
'? been a CIA operative in the crowd
- who started shouting: "Give us
Barabbas."
VThe latest- example is the Central
- Intelligence Agency's ham-handed at-
tempt to stop publication of a book by
Alfred McCoy, a Yale graduate stu-
" dent, called "The Politics of Heroin
in Southeast Asia." .
McCoy's book charged the Central
Intelligence Agency has known of
Thai and South Vietnamese official
involvement in heroin traffic, has cov-
ered up their involvement and has
? participated in aspects of the traffic :
. itself.
By James Wrightson, Associate F.difor
In an exchange of letters, the gen-
eral counsel of the CIA asked to see
the book prior to publication saying:
"It is our belief that no reputable
publishing house would wish to pub-
lish such allegations without being as-
sured the Supporting evidence was
valid."
Admittedly under fire in the book,
the agency said it should have the
role as the validator.
The publisher, probably with the
Clifford Irving hoax in mind, was su-
persensitive to the axiom: A publish-
er has the ultimate responsibility .for
checking the reliability of the materi-
al he proposes to publish. So overrid-
ing the author's objections, it got the
galley proofs of "The Politics of Hero.-
in in Southeast Asia" and a courier
from the CIA headquarters went to
New York and took them back to Vir-
ginia.
Apparently after a page-by-page re-
view the CIA could not, try as it did,
demonstrate the author's evidence
did not support his assertions.
REVIEW ? In a letter to the gener-
al counsel of the CIA the publisher
said: "Based upon careful review, it is
our sincere opinion Mr. McCoy's
scholarship remains unshaken and we
do not see any reason for making any '
changes in the text." -
That would end it, except for the
fact this is neither the government's
nor the CIA's first venture into the
dangerous business of trying to im-
pose prepublication restraints on
words and ideas the citizens of this
country are to read and consider.
The memory of the Justice Depart-
ment's outcry against .the Pentagon
Papers is still green. The CIA has an
unenviable record in this regard. In
recent years the agency has tried to
use its influence on Random House,
Putnam, Harper and has gone into
court to try to dictate what the people
of this country shall read about the
CIA.
The supersecret agency just cannot
have it both ways. It cannot be a su-
persecret, never-to-be-spoken of, be-
hind-the-scenes intelligence-gathering
agency, then come storming out of
the shadows when it believes it might
be hurt by something printed about
its activities.
The CIA's action? in trying to
stop the publication of "The Politics of
Heroin in Southeast Asia" is about as
helpful to the cause of freedom of in-
formation in this country as the
Stamp Act was to King George.
( DENIED 7- The CIA, of course, has
\ denied all this. We are not concerned .
here with the pinpoint accuracy of
McCoy's book or his methods of re-
search, although the CIA could turn -
1 IR no gross errors in fact.
What is of deep concern is the way.
the CIA, a powerful and )rcstigious
yovernAppromed ForcRelease 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R001000050001-8
I to Harper & Row not to publish the
book
Approved ?For Release 20011013WVAAtiFal3i0AEIIA91R0
TiC6 7:tra sEr gt
77,7
LL,4.?"1%. trO
io.,? a
By Act:, Anderson
CueiTillag luta Dopts
Intelligence reports charge
that the Palestinian guerrillas
In Lebanon are hampering
U.S. efforts to cut off the ille-
gal flow of heroin and hashish
from the Mideast to America.
"Turkish opium and mor-
'phino base is smuggled into
Lebanon," says one report,
"direetly or through Syria."
From Lebanon, some ship-
ments .are routed to South
America, others to Rotterdam
for transshipment to the
United States.
It's difficult to stop the dope
smuggling out of Lebanon,
suggests another classified
document, because "internal
security and the presence of
about 30,000 armed guerrillas
in the country pose a major
threat to the government.
? "The police are restrained
from proceeding against the
hashish production and traf-
ficking In the Baalbeck area
as there is strong parliamen-
tary involvement in the
traffic," the report adds.
? In all fairness, the harassed
Lebanese government has
tried to control the Palestini-
ans. But William Buffum, the
American ambassador, has
pointed out that "the Le-
'banes? authorities have not
dared to set foot in any of the
'country's 15 refugee camps for
the past two years."
? As evidence of the trouble
.the guerrillas are causing in
Lebanon, the Central Intelli-
gence Agency has summarized
r ,
"
-,,
r ...i ? t
, . Y - A Li 1 i QJIJAL,, ili'V,'...J1-; cL) .
e.Y ?
the Palestinian offenses, nota--? ,
bly:
"A. Customs evasion, rion-?:.
payment of Postai and tele.'
phone dues, flouting of 7 -
des registration regulations. "
"B. The presence in refugee ?
camps of large colonies of..
alien squatters.
"C. Refusal by individuals to
comply with court orders, pay
fines or answer summonses, :
under the protection both of
the camp pollee end of their
fedayeen aliases.
"D, Seizure and occupation
of land outside the defined ?
camp boundaries,
"B. Specific incidents of ill. .
discipline."
Reports also persist that the
Palestinian terrorists are 11C-
Wally raising their- arms
money by smuggling dope.
The intelligence data hi. our -
hands, however, fails to pin
down this charge.
The United States, mean-
while, has brought quiet pres-
sure upon the Lebanese au-
thorities to crack down on the
smuggling. Although they may
be somewhat helpless to pre-
vent it, the classified docu-
ments recommend as a last re-
sort that the United States -
"expose Lebanon"--one of our
few friends in the Arab sphere ?
? "in the world press as.
source and transshipment
country for hashish and op. ,--
iates respectively."
1572. United Feature Byndleara
; ? l'74) ((M. 74r0
fL L.
Approved For Release 2001/03/04 : CIA-RDP80:01601R001000050001-8
VET YORX REVIEW OF BOOK
Approved For Release 2001/0Ep1IMR0P80-016
,
On June 1 of this year an official of the
US Central Intelligence Agency paid a visit
to the New York offices of my publisher,
parper and Row, Inc. This CIA official was
Mr. Cord. Meyer, Jr. (now the CIA's Assist-
ant Deputy Director of Plans; formerly the
CIA official in charge of providing covert
financial 'subsidies for organizations such as
the ? National Student Association, En-
-counter Magazine, and the Congress for
Ctltural freedom).' Mr. Meyer urged sex-
/era! of his old friends among Harper and
Row's senior management to provide him
, with a copy of . the galley proofs of. my
history ,of. the international narcotics tat-
,/ fie, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast
V Asia, In this. book I show the .complicity
of various US iagencies?particularly the CIA
and Ha; State Department?in organizing
? the SoUtheast Asian drug traffic since the
? early 1950s. ?
?Mr. Meyer presented one . of Harper and
Row's senior editors with some documents
giving the CIA's view on the Southeast
Asian drug traffic. His manner was grave.
said,. "You ,wouldn't want to publish a
book that would be full of inaccuracies,'
embarrass tha United ,States government, or-
et you involved in libel Suits, would
you?" .
Harper and Row's management promised
? to consider -Mr. Meyer's request and sum-
- napned me from Washington, DC, where -I
was then testifying before the Senate
Appropriations Committee on my findings
after eighteen months .of research into the
Southeast Asian drug traffic. This research
included more than 250 interviews with
heroin dealers, police officials, and intelli-
gence agents in Europe and Asia.
At a meeting in New York on the
afternoon of June 8, Harper and Row's
president, Mr. Winthrop Knowlton, and its
senior vice president,- Mr. B. Brooks
Thomas, told me that they. had decided to
provide the CIA with a copy of the galley
'proofs Prior to publication for the follow-
ing reasons:
? First, the CIA would be less likely to
seek a temporary court -injunction barring
publication of the book if the Agency were
given- a chance to persuade itself that
? national security was in no way endangered
by portions of my book; and secondly,
.Harper and Row felt that a responsible
.'publisher should have enough confidence in
the voracity ,of any of its particularly
controversial books to show them to any
??,'') 0'4
" "al
, V7721
Lij
Alfred VL McCoy
the galley proofs to the CIA could set a
dangerous precedent and ultimately weaker
First, Amendment guarantees concerning
freedom of the press. Moreover, in view of
what I had learned of the CIA's operating
methods in Southeast Asia I was convinced
that the Agency wa& capable of using
unethical means?such as coercing my
sources into retracting statements they had
made to me about US complicity in the
international narcotics traffic?in order to
induce harper and Row to withdraw the
book from publication.
After a week of negotiations, however,
harper and Row, told me that they would
not be villing to publish the book. unless I
agreed to submit the manuscript to the
CIA. Faced with what I believed would be
lengthy delays if I took the book to
another publisher and the prospect of
losing my Harper and Row editor, Elisa-
beth Jakab, with whom I had worked
closely, I capitulated. ? Thus began more
than two months of lengthy negotiations
between the CIA, Harper and Row, and
myself. Most of what happened during.
these elaborate negotiations is in the corre-
spondence reprinted beloW. I. have added
introductory notes to explain some of ,the
attending circumstances.
-Considered collectively, this. exchange of
' letters provides us with another important
reminder?perhaps the first since the Na-
tional ; Student Association scandals .of
1967?of the contempt this most clan-
destine of our governmental agencies has
for the integrity of the press and publish-
ing industry. As the CIA's letter of Jul'
28, 1972, Shows, it was unable to rebut
effectively my analysis of its role in the
international heroin traffic during the last
quarter century. Since the CIA simply had
no plausible defense against this charge, it
;tried to impose prior censorship in order to
avoid public scrutiny of its record. If it
was not already clear, if now should be
obvious to publishers that the Agency
cannot be regarded as a responsible critic
when its public image is seriously threat-
ened by what is. written about it.,
STATI NTL
and Row by stating categorically that it
could rebut all .my charges about its
complicity in the international narcotics
traffic. We were surprised, however, that
the CIA made no reference to "national
security" as one of -its concerns in.request-
ing to review the manuscript. Rather, the
Agency made its request purely on grounds
of government privilege.
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
5. July 1972
Mr. B. Brooks Thomas
Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.
Dear Mr. Thomas:
Mr. Cord Meyer has asked me to
respond to your letter to him of June 30th
in connection with the book, The Politics
of Heroin in Southeast Asia, by Alfred W.
McCoy.
As you are no doubt aware, Mr. McCoy
testified on 2. June 1972 before the
Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the
Senate Appropriations Committee. His teti-
mony included allegations concerning .sup-
- ; port of the international opium traffic by
-
? ?
1 In this letter, Written after Cord Meyer,
Jr.'s visit, Harper and Row asked the CIA.
for official confirmation of their interest in
seeing the book. Since the CIA had ?never
before been quite so willing to defend
?reputable critic for comment prior to itself publicly, neither Harper and Row nor
publication.' Approved .For Releatexnad1/03104nYCIATDRDP8040
. At first I disagreed strongly with Harper Agency.
and Row's decision, arguing that submitting
U. S. agencies, including the Central Intel-
ligence Agency, and numerous other allega-
-tions concerning participation in the opium
traffic by both Americans and local per-
sonnel in Southeast Asia.
In the light of the pernicious' nature of
the drug traffic, allegatipns concerning in-
volvement of the U. S: Government therein
(
be,leit ic' ation of American .citizens
PAN 005000443 on ? hard
, evidence., It is our belief that no reputable
.ccriatinuGcl
S8T0 0A-1116NoTiL
e mit ji III 1111111
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-R p
Headquarters
EMPLOYEE BULLETIN
#326
20 September 1972
PRESIDENTIAL COMMENTS
ABOUT THE NARCOTICS CONTROL PROGRAM
The President on 18 September 1972 addressed the International Narcotics
Control Conference about the global drug problem. His remarks about the
Agency's role in the narcotics control program were very complimentary and
are quoted below for the information of all employees:
"The men and women who operate the global heroin trade are a
menace not to Americans alone, but to all mankind. These people
are literally the slave traders of our time. They are traffickers in
living death. They must be hunted to the end of the earth. They must
be left no base in any nation for their operation. They must be per-
mitted not a single hiding place or refuge from justice anywhere in
the world and that is why we have established an aggressive interna-
tional narcotics control program in cooperation with the governments
In more than 50 countries around the world. That is why I have or-
dered the Central Intelligence Agency, early in this Administration,
to mobilize its full resources to fight the international drug trade, a
task, Incidentally, in which it has performed superbly.
Let me interject here a word for that much maligned agency.
As I have often said, in the field of intelligence we always find that
the failures are those that are publicized. Its successes, by
defini-
tion, must always be secret and in this area there are rna.ny successes
and particularly ones for which this agency can be very proud.
The key priority here is the target on the traffickers wherever
they are, to immobilize and destroy them through our law enforce-
ment and intelligence efforts and I commend all of you on the fine
initial progress which has been made in these programs."
DISTRIBUTION: ALL EMPLOYEES
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R001000050001-8
BALTIMORE FAM
Approved For Release 2001/03/04301AgRDP80-01601R
Nixiir vc
4 II
c
611 1 -11
koi
11",(J) c''''
e
Central Intelligence Agency,'
i4Aall which he said has "performed
superbly" in helping fight the
drug traffic. The agency has
been accused, mostly recently
in a book, of ignoring or ac-
tually aiding narcotics activi-
ties by some American allies
in Southeast Asia.
In the remainder of the nor-
fly A M ES S. 1MA T
WaVtington Vureazt of The Sun. ?
. ?
Washington----President Nixon cult," but he asserted that the
'threatened yesterday to cut, off administration is "beginning to
all economic and -military aid roll up some victories in co un- cotics control conference which
to governments that connive in try after country around the was organized by the. State
-
the illegal narcotics traffic to world and in the United States Department in the last 10
United States. as we days, the U.S. diplomats ?vill
the ll."
More federally financed drug hear .a series of brief speeches
---."I shall not hesitate" to in-
yoke - authority granted him treatment facilities have been by high-ranking administration
last year to take such a step, created in the past year than officials concerned with the
Ni.. Nixon told a conference of in the 50 preceding years, the , drug traffic and will exchange
ideas among themselves.
narcotics control officials from President said. Arrests of drug
the government here and from traffickers in the year ended
some 50 U.S. embassies last June 30 was double the
abroad. number three years earlier, he
Some of the sting was taken added. And he cited again the
from the President's threat reported rise in price of heroin
when he singled wit for praise on the street as evidence Po-
for the antanareoties efforts lice were squeezing supply
taken by such nations as Pam- lines.
guay, Thailand and Laos, na-
tions that have in. the past.
been -.considered laggards by
some officials.
One official cited Burma as
the only nation still regarded
as recalcitrant in the interna-
tional fight against the opium
trade, which reaches the U.S.
in the form of heroin. But
Burma receives no U.S. aid.
The authority cited by Mr.
Nixon was given him in an
amendment last year to the
legislation authorizing ship-
ment of surplus agricultural
commodities to needy nations.
Mr. Nixon spoke just a day
after, a sharp attack on his
drug program by Senator
George S. McGovern, his Dem-
ocratic rival for the presi-
dency. Senator McGovern con-
tended that the administration
has failed to deal effectively
with the narcotics problem at
home or abroad.
Diplomats summoned
Mr. Nixon's words were
aimed at an -audience larger
than the U.S. - diplomats who
were summoned to the hastily
organized conference which
A White House spokesman said concludes tomorrow.
the possible use of the provi-; Several officials who con-
1
sion had been invoked in pre.- ceded - that the meeting would
vious international discussions have little tangible result
on combatting the 1)(7?1111 argued that the diplomats who
trade. have been prodding foreign
Speaking harshly of the drug governments for more stren-
traffickers, Mr. NixOn'''called uous efforts to stem the flow
them "the slave traders of our or heroin would be armed with
time." Ile 'said the fight the President's strong words in
against drug abuse, at home exercising suasion. .
and abroad, "is - one .of the
CA
most important, the Most ur- Praised ,
gent, national priorities con- At the same time, the Com-
fronting the United States mittee for the Re-election of
today." the President tape recorded
Mr. Nixon conceded that the the President's speech at the
effort to halt the narcotics State Department yesterday
trade - is `.?clierineus:13 difii" morning and advised any jour-
nalists who may have missed
it that they would hear it by
telephoning committee head-
quarters.
The. President took pains to
All but one of the speeches
for the private sessions of the
'Conference are scheduled to
last a half-hour or less, includ-
ing time for questions. Many
of the diplomats are of high
rank, including a sprinkling of
ambassadors or their deputies.
STATI NTL
th
Approved Fdrralke1eeasie100111/0S/04 : CIA-RDP80-01601R001000050001-8
iVA6)..i.PUTUIN ivar
Approved. For Release 2001/03144S:E81-7FiDPs810A91h91R
Toni Era:deli
ra4
.kriz
_,,,,ieczasatiloiltii Li '
THE Central Intelligence
Agency is under fire again,
this time accused of engag-
ing in the heroin traffic. De-
spite our professed dedica-
tion to , fact, we Americans
arc not immune to mythol-
ogy. Where the CIA is con-.
"mad, we swallow almost
anything.
. For example, large num.-
berg of Americans still be-
lieve the CIA encompassed,
the death of John Kennedy.
The, accusation used to
make Robert Kennedy. al-
most physically ill, but he
was never able to scotch it,
.and you can still hear it
whispered by those whose
minds run to things that go
"woosh! in the night."
The myth that the CIA is
responsible for the vast
quantities of heroin which
enter this country probably
has a similar goblinlike
origin, When tragedy hits us
we search for a culprit.
Since World War II, the
CIA has been at hand:
Unlike the death-of-Ken-
nedy myth, to which no au-
thor or scholar ever gave
credence, the heroin myth
has now found respectable
upport. In a new book,
t 'The Poliiics of Heroin in
Southeast Asia," a young
Yale student and antiwar ac-
tivist named Alfred W.
- McCoy suggests that the
heroin tragedy in the :nation
is the fault of the CIA.
"AMERICAN diplomats
and secret agents have been
involved in the narcotics
traffic at three levels," he
writ es. "(1) Coincidental
complicity by allying with
groups actively engaged in
the drug traffic; (2) abetting
the traffic by covering up
for known heroin traffick-
ers; (3) active engagement
in the traffic of opium and
heroin. It is ironic," he adds,
"that America's heroin
plague is of its own mak-
ing."
If I may. adopt Mr. Mc-
Coy's style for a moment,
should like to be permitted
the following comment:
Some Americans who want
to -change the policy in 'Viet-
nam endanger their effort
on three levels: (I) They at-
tribute evil to those who are
carrying out the policy. (2)
As evidence of the evil, they
offer the policy. To say the
CIA moved certain farmers
to get them off the battle-
field and that. the farmers
were forced to raise opium
in order to cat is evidence
that the CIA, like the Amer-
ican Army, is engaged in the
war. But that's all it is. Nor
is it good enough to accuse
an agency of the U.S. gov-
ernment with importing her-
oin by ?evidence such as
"Chinese merchants report"
or "according to several
sources." (3) They thus con-
tribute to the making of a
dangerous myth.
In di,smissing Mr. McCoy's
charges it is important to
admit guilt by association.
Opium has always been a
product of Southeast Asia.
The presence of U.S. troops
has increased its value.
'Therefore it is highly likely
that the CIA, as well as the
American Army, has from
time to time gained informa-
tion Or given support to in-
dividuals or groups who
were drug traffickers. More-
over, there are times when
dealing with drug traffick-
ers may be excusable. lithe
man knows where the
enemy is hiding, you don't
refuse to learn from him be-
cause you know he beats his
children.
It is also probably true
that individuals employed
by the CIA have been guilty
of transporting heroin, just
as soldiers in the U.S. Army
have been guilty. Would Mr.
McCoy therefore conclude
that the U.S. Army is ac-
tively engaged in the trans-
'port of opium and heroin?
THE FACT is that CIA
Director Richard Helms will
.,fire anybody in? the agency,
who Is caught trafficking in
drugs, and that the use of
drugs by agency personnel
is also cause for immediate
dismissal. CIA's policy on
drugs is far ? more severe?
than that of the Army, More-
over, Helms and the 'agency
are deeply engaged in an
effort to spot the sources?
of heroin and identify the
traffickers.
But saying this will proba-
bly not satisfy the mythmak-
crs. Try citing the Warren
commission to the next man
you meet in a bar who tells
you about the CIA and John
Kennedy. "Oh," he will
smile, knowingly, "the War-
ren Commission. That's the
cover story,"
0 1972, Los AuEeles Times
STATI NTL
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NEM YORK TIMES
Approved For Release 2001/01/64gtIAADP80-01601R001
; -`
IL '17-V
rts?-;.iirog?Tr?, _ rr
t t4
By ROBERT B. SEMPLE Sr.
Speclea to The New York Vines
WASHINGTON, Sept. IS
I
? alone but to -all mankind." lenged the President to invoke
"These people are literally_ the authority of the foreign aid
President Nixon, in another
quick response to charges the slave traders of our time. 'i act end impose sanctions on
raised by his Democratic oppo-
They are traffickers in living the South Vietnamese Govern-
death, They must be huntc.d to ment.
, the end of the earth. They must! Administration officials do
be ' le-ft no base in any dispute ord on narcotics control and nation I not the fact that the
pledged to cut off aid to ihgolden -triangle" is now a ma-
for their operation," be said. .
any foreign government whose im source of supply. Bui. they
The statutory basis for Mr.
iirolle that Mr. McGovern's al-.
leaders "protect" international Nixon to suspend aid to .foreign!
legations of inaction are. out of
(Irug traffickers. governments lies in .Section 481 daLo,
- Appearing before an interna- of the Foreign . Assistance Act" force
has made
mil '11-1(iiaavilyanidnrota;sclks
.,tional narcotics control confer- of 1971. Mr. Nixon. has yet tc.4"
on drug, traffic and that the
'ence at the State Department invoke the authority grant,e.d:
Central Intelligence Agency, re-
this morning, mr. Nixon told a him, and despite his threat t.nls'versing long-standing policy, is
group of senior officers from morning, there are few officials ?nov,, - moving aggressively
United States embassies in 55 here who seriously believe that against traffickers in Indochina.
countrie.s that his year-old he would order such strong In support of his position,
."war" on drugs had shown sanctions against the thais and Mr. Nixon also said this morn-
measurable progress but that the Laotians while the war in ing- that Federal antidrug funds
"we must sic more to win this Vietnam continues, had increased elevenfold since
war and we must do it even At the same time, however, 1969, that arrests had doubled
more quickly." the Bureau of Nareotie.s and in the same period and thata
Senator George McGovern, Dangerous Drugs has helped or- recent sharp increase in heroin
the Democratic Presidential ganize and subsidize a task prices on the East Coast sug-
nominee, charged yesterday in force operating in northern usicd nit.
i t "the supply is dry-
a statement issued in West Vir- Thailand to intercept opium, in? up."
ginia that Mr. Nixon had failed morphine base and heroin that. "
to "crack down on the oar- flows southward from Burma
Treaty Change Voted
cotics trade in Laos, Thailand The bureau is now organizing
and South Vietnam" becausela second such force in Ban ? N.N,7 ASH1NGTON, Sept. 18 (AP)
Bang-
'the Administration needed "air 1 Itok. ,-," ?The Senate ratified today, 69
bases in Thailand, Laos mer-1 The President's personal re- to 0, a revision of a 90-nation
i
cenaries and Vietnamese sol- sponse to Mr. McGovern's treaty on narcotics. The ?I inter-
lange
diers to fight its war." charge fit the pattern of . Mr.. s designed to strengthen
national control of drugs.
Under the revision, the In-
ternational Narcotics Control
Board will be directed to limit
worldwide production of nar-
cotics to the quantity needed
for medical and scientific use
and to refer evidence of illicit
production and drug trafficking
to other nations and to the
United Nations General .As-
sembly.
The protocol also provides for
international extradition of
drug offenders.
i
\ ere
A CAO
on the day the present Admin-
istration took office,"
Mr. McGovern, campaigning
in Cincinnati, said that Mr.
Nixon's remarks this morning
left "decisive questions - un-
answered."
Charging that. the Saigon
iregime was riddled with drug
Iprofitecrs, Mr. McGovern chat-
Name Not Used Nixon's campaign. Mr. Nixon
and his subordinates have
ing, Mr. Nixon did not mention
In his comments this morn-
greeted nearly every McGovern
charge, involving such varied
Mr. McGovern by name, This
has become ills custom. Mr. matters as the. role of women
I government, the plight of
:Nixon also did not directly
flood victims in Pennsylvania
:respond to the South Dakota
and the broader issues of viol-
Democrat's allegations,
fare and taxes, with virtually
He listed five countries ?
instantaneous rebuttal.
Laos, Thailand, Turkey, France
and Paraguay?where United Remarks Taped for Radio
:States officials, working "in Underscoring the political
partnership" with local author- nature of the argument were
Ries, had produced "important three ether developments late
breakthroughs," including large today. The Committee or the
heroin seizures and, in the case Re-election of the President
of Turkey, a decision to eradi.- taped Mr. Nixon's remarks and
cate the opium poppy. then made them available to
? In addition, Mr. Nixon asked .radio stations.?
? the embassy officials to convey. Aleanwhile, the McGovern
a: "personal message" to the forces seized upon and distrib-
foreign authorities when they Med a statement by a former
returned overseas. l 'Member of the Administration,
."Any government," he said, John Finlator, supporting Mn
"whose leaders participate in McGovern's allegations.
or protect the activities of those 11,1r, Finlator, who retired last
who contribute to the drug January as deputy director of
problem should know that the the Burea.0 of Narcotics and
United States is required by Dangerous Drugs, said that Mr.
statute to suspend all American Nixon had allowed the "golden
economic and military assist- triangle" of Laos, Burma and
ance to such a regime, and I Thailand to be the major sup-
shall not hesitate to comply plicr of heroin to the ellicit
with that law where there are market places of this country
Mr. NixorAPPK VidifiCY04114460s19001103/04
any violatim.c " 9 ed f 1" I hnt
tional drug traffickers as "a; against drug abuse today than
menace not just, to Americans(
STATI NTL
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CHARLESTON, S.C.
POST
E 40,715
SEP 1 8197#6
;
he General's Prophecy
Retired Marine Gen. Lewis W.
Walt's prediction that American
society will be in big trouble a
decade hence if drug trafficking
and addiction are not promptly
and effectively checked war-
rants the attention of responsible
government officials and citi-
zens alike.
The general's prophetic con-
clusion was contained in a bulky,
report he made to a Senate sub-
committee which hired him to
make a worldwide study of hero-
in smuggling and use. As a for-
mer Marine Corps commandant,
Gen. Walt can properly be re-
garded as a man given neither to
snap judgments nor exaggera-
tions. It is time to listen when he
warns that if the current heroin
addict growth rate continues, the
impact on the U. S. will be of a
magnitude that defies the imagi-
nation.
Gen. Walt offered several rec-
ommendations aimed at curbing
traffic in heroin. Among them
were satellite reconnaisance of
opium crops, more U. S. funds
for international narcotics inves-
tigations, a unified federal
government structure to wage
the war against heroin, and
stronger laws. The death penalty
for heavy traffickers would be
justified, in Gen. Walt's opinion,
because they engage in "geno-
cide on a massive scale."
The legal status of capital pun- ?
ishment in the U.S. today argues
against the death penalty recom-
mendation, but senators should
give full consideration to the list
of Walt proposals.
It is disturbing that about the
same time Gen. Walt was wind-
ing up his study, an American
author was alleging in his new
book that the CIA has been in-
volved in cetirTrafficking in
Southeast Asia. The charge-:-
which the CIA denies?is not
new. We make no judgment on
its validity. Nevertheless, publi-
cation of such allegations and
the *almost simultaneous release
of the Walt findings tend to ere'
ate, the unsettling impressio
that the U. S. government is not
doing all it could or should to
clamp down on heroin suppl
lines and those who keep then
busy.
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R001000050001-8
,1
???."
18 SEP 1972
Approved For Release 2001/03/04 : CIA-RDRAAThitt
J1111111M,
0
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"Any government whose ?.
? ? ? , nrn 'file President's praise of the
Lt U
IdLi teet the' activities of those CIA role follows- claims and
who contribute to ofir drug
official denials that the ac:en-
? program should 'know that the CY'S America has helped
transport heroin in Southeast
By GARNETT D. HORNER, President of the United States
?
- ?
A '
Star?Nem Staff Writer
?
President Nixon today ? warned that he will
not hesitate to cut off all American economic and
military aid to any government whose leaders
participate in or protect the. drug traffic. .
He also praised the Central Intelligence
'Agency for its role in fighting international drug
traffic and said the agency has been "much
maligned."
? ? He said the CIA has "performed superbly' , !
in fighting the international drug trade. 'In the
field of intelligence," he added, "we always find
that the failures are those that are publicized. Its
successes by definition must always be secret. In
this area, there are many successes, and particu-
larly ones of which this agency can be very proud."
? Critics of the CIA have charged that the
Agency has aided drug traffickers in Southeast
Asia to help maintain alliances.
He spoke of "fine initial progress" in immo-
bilizing and destroying sources of drugs coming
into the United States.
? He said, "France, Paraguay, Laos, Thailand
and Turkey are just a few examples of the many
countries where the work of American officials,
from the ambassador down, in partnership with
local officials, has produced important break-
throughs ? huge heroin seizures, key arrests, or
? in Turkey's case ? the courageous decision to
eradicate the opium poppy itself."
The President said he considers keeping
dangerous drugs out of the United States "just as
important as keeping armed enemy forces from
landing in the. United States" because the drugs
can endanger the lives of youg Americans just as
much as would an invading army.
Speaking at an international conference on
drug control at the State Department. he asked
American off icials..from around the world to con-
vey to fOreign officials with whom they deal :.1Tis
persnal message" from me:
is required by statute to sus- Asia.
pend all American economicIn a book called "The Poli-
and military assistance to tics of Heroin in Southeast
such a regime.
-Asia," that was published re-
''I shall not hesitate to corn- cently, Arthur W. McCoy
ply fully and promptly with raised the question of whether
that statute." CIA operatives knowingly en-
Nixon said he has been gaged in such traffic to help
'cracking the whip" over goy- maintain alliances.
ernmcnt agencies involved in lore specifically, McCoy
dealing with dangerous drugs accused officials 'in govern- -
I
to get them to "quit fighting merits of U.S. allies in South
each other and start fighting -
the problem." cast Asia?particularly in Sai-
gon?of profiting from the
traffic.
Citing some results, he said
the number of arrests of drug
traffickers in the last fiscal
year was double the number
arrested in 1969, and the sei-
zures of heroin and other illicit
drugs are at an all-time high.
."Very sharp increases in the
prices of heroin throughout the
eastern United States indicate
that the supply is drying up
and that the pressure is on the
criminal drug trade," he said.
Nixon's statements appar-
ently were in response to a
statement yesterday by Demo-
cratic presidential candidate
Sen. George S. McGovern.
McGovern said the number
of heroin addicts in the United
States had doubled since 1968
and charged that Southeast
Asia had bemne a major
source of heroin because the
administration would not
crack down on the narcotics
trade in Laos, Thailand and
South Vietnam.
Nixon made no direct refer-
ence to MeGovcm's charges,
hut his comments appeared to
be a sharp counterattack.
STATI NTL
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R001000050001-8
THE WASHINGTON POST
Approved' For Release 2001/03104ePtlAa
STATI NTL
THE POLITICS hEROIN
IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
.'Ey Alfred W.- McCoy
With. Cathleen B. Read and
Leonard P. Adams II
Harper &Row. 464 pp. $10.95
By LAMIENCE STERN
Most profitable illicit businesses,
opium and heroin trail is heavily cano-
pied with underworld and official se-
crecy. In the Golden Triangle region of
northeastern Btirma, northern Thailand
and northern Laos, the principal Opium
growing and processing area in Southeast
Asia, the traffic is fed by highland tribes,
minor warlords and paramilitary sol
diem, and it is controlled by highranking
officials of the three countries. This
dL-
tribution system fed heroin into the veins
of American soldiers in Vietnam and into
the international heroin' stream that sur
Tog death" with which the UflInese coo-
lies escaped their wretched life cycle of
toil, poverty and disease. The French
established their own monopoly and con--
Verted the Mee poppy .harvests into an
important cash crop which was taxed
and sold to the growing addict popule,:-
tion of Indochina. By the beginning of
World 'War. Two, according to McCoy's
research, there were some 2,500 opium
dens in Indochina serving about 100,000
addicts. ?
The Viet Mi?.11 lyar of independence
_
, event nally became a major elialinge to
French political role and a drain on the
coloniid. economy, In countering their
' guerrilla movement. the French turned
to the Moo tribal peoples in the ':Laotian.
highlands and to their poppy harvc:sts,
Meo opium became an important factor
both in financing the war and in cement-
hig the loyalties of the tribal guerrillas
Lighting on the French side. b`leCoy re-
lates the case of the French li:xpedition.
say Corps' "Operation X," a top-seerct
project for the collection and transport
of Moo opium into the Saigon markets
where it was turned over to the Binh
Xuyen, an underworld secret society
which the French occupation authorities
.permitted to take over civil authority in
'Saigon. By the time American influence
replaced the French military presence,
the poppy was the main cash crop in the
Golden Triangle, the opium economy was
fully developed, and there were well-
rutted patterns for dealing with the tri-
bal mountain guerrillas who had been
e?listed by the French in the war against
the Pathet Lao and Vietnamese Commu-
nist insurgents.
Here the argument begins. McCoy as-
serts that Central Intelligence operations
became heavily involved in the opium.
heroin traffic. He says that some of .tho
Agency's chief- Asian operatives a.nd?.cli-
ents controlled it and that the CIA's con- /
tract airline, Air America, moved it to-
ward the ultimate markets.
All this has long been a matter of
conventional wisdom and. surmise in the
bars and embassies of Vientiane, where
wags spoke of Air America as ,"Air Opt-
um," but McCoy seeks to document the, ?
case with interviews (alas, sonic of the "
LA.URENCL STERN is the roving foreigi
correspondent of The Washington Post
faces terminally in the ghettos and cull.
tabs of the United Slates.
McCoy has done a sturdy and compre-
hensive reporting job. He has inter-
viewed American and Southeast Asian
sources who either played a direct role
In the opium traffic or are highly coin-
,.
petent to talk about it. It is his argument
that when the United States embarked
on the geopolitical objective of trying to
contain Chinese and North Vietnamese
power at their borders in Southeast Asia,
it slipped inexorably into the narcotics
traffic.
The international market had been
created long before by the European co-
lonial powers, chiefly Britain and France,
Great Britain in the late 18th century
took the first big step toward internation-
alization of the Asian drug traffic by
establishing a government monopoly
over India's opium harvest, helping_ fi-
.nance the regime of the Raj by taxing
the product, and beginning the massive
export of Indian opium into China. When
Chinese imperial authorities tried to stop
it, Britain, with its gunships, blasted open
the Chinese ports to European trade and
Indian opium during the Opium War of
1839 to-1.842.-
Under the forced infusions of opium
from British-ruled India the Chinese im-
ports rose from a level of 340 tons in
the first decade of the nth- century to
6,500 tons by 1880. It was in this period
that the Chinese began. a large-scale pro-
gram of domestic opium production,
much of it in the outlying provinces of
crucial .ones anonymous) and hard evi-
Sze.chwan and Yonan. By the beginning
of the 20th century China had an addict der"'
One of the most sensational allega-
Chinese migrations into Southeast Asia population of 15_ The wave of
(ions In the book is that Meo General
spread the scourge of addiction south-
Vang Pao, the roost important field corn-
ward. . 'Bander on the Royal Lao government
The French played a similar role in side' arranged for the delivery of 60
kiIos.of high grade Laotian heroin (worth
expanding and monopolizing opium pro-.
duction under colonial authority. Cell- million in New York) to Prince -
n-
Sopsaisana, ? the Laotian ambassador-
tunics before the French arrived the Meo
"ORDINARLIA"II l IS 'AGENCY does not
respond to public criticism," the CIA's
general counsel wrote the general coun-
sel of Harper & Row, publishing coin-
pany last July 5. "However in this case
we are under the strongest directive to
support the U.S. govermnent's effort
-against the international narcotics traffic
and are bending every effort to do so.
We believe we cannot stand by and see
baseless criticism designed to undermine
confidence in that effort without trying
to set the record straight. . . ."
The subject of this extraordinary letter
was The Politics of Heroin in Southeast
Asia by Alfred W.? McCoy, a doctoral
?candidate at Yale University. Harper ez
ilow provided the CIA with advance
proofs of the book and after receiving
a statement of rebuttal covering several
of lieCoy's allegations of Agency involve-
? went in opium traffic, the book was
published. ?
If the intervention had any' effect, it
has probably been to boost the sales of
McCoy's book; certainly it turned its
publication into something of a cause
colebre. Perhaps the Agency would have
.better served its own interests by follow-
ing the time-honored intelligence precept
of maintaining silence in times of adver-
sity. Public accountability has never been
strongeAtertWed Fp!' Relesetg tiosycgit-istiki
1310}101?5A 1971, sop.
?By its na e as one o wor s um, nit more as b. ceremfgrintoxican.: ? - trato'S after French
than to achieve the stupefaction of "iiv- continued.
'cf
,0 0
BIRMINGHAM, MICH.
-4 ECCENT4 ? ? rcived?F,or Release 2001/03/04 :.CIA-RDP80-0
111411.
- WEEKLY ? 32,629 STATINTL
Black .viewpoint
'The Choice links
? By JIM INGRAM
The relationship between even
"successfull" blacks and their government
is appalling, whether one views it through
the government's eyes or those of black
people.
With the U.S. government spying on
black leaders whether they be Nixon sup-
porters or not, and as moderate as Roy
Wilkens or Dr. Ralph Abernathy, creeping
paranoia is one result. Ask any black man
or woman under 30 "Who killed Malcolm
X?" and the reply will invariably the "The
CIA" {Central Intelligence Agency)
Sam Yette's book, "The Choice" strongly
raises the possibility of Anglo-American
genocide here and abroad and more and
.more black people have begun looking
closer now, rather than laughing at such
notions among black intellectuals. Many in
the inner city believe strongly that, con-
trary to newspaper headlines of recent vin-
tage which proclaimed blacks were "in con-
trol" of local drugs powerful whites have to
? have ultimate control, since blacks do not
control U.S. borders, ports of entry the
U.S. Customs department, nor the trans-
portation industry.
* * *
AND IF HARPER and Row has its;
'way, this idea may get added credence,
among growing numbers of Americans.;
The New York publishing firm is releasing.
a book on heroin and opium traffic in:
art
;fie to CI
Southeast Asia, which strongly implicates
CIA involvement in the traffic itself, with
the CIA strongly involved, also, in at--
tempts to make sure the book doesn't get
published.
Another "Pentagon Papers" fiasco? Per-
haps, but "The Politics of Heroin in South- )The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia,
east Asia" already is interesting reading would "do a disservice in the fight against
for the CIA's general counsel, Lawrence narcotics trafficking in Southeast Asia."
Houston. Houston was so interested that
he obtained a copy of the work two weeks
ago, then later penned a letter asking Har-
per and Row not to publish the book. Now,
what does the all-powerful CIA have to
hide?
*
AFTER PORING - over the CIA
"critique" of the book, Harper and Row let
it be known they would proceed with re-
lease of the book as planned. The CIA
harps that "No responsible publishing firm
would print" the book. Researcher Alfred
McCoy, author of the book, has scored CIA
agents for "harassment" of the publishers
and contends that he's been included in
such tactics as the target of "visits, phone
calls and letters."
According to McCoy, the CIA could only
criticize "Two per cent of the manuscript".
The book documents the movement of op-
ium from the Golden Triangle in Southeast
Asia with the use of CIA operatives and
equipment. McCoy said that, even with the
CIA criticism of his work, they admit that
a CIA agent was involved in heroin produc-
tion.
they are, the ranks of those "just short" of
being white radicals are swelling, too, as
confidence in the American government re-
ceives an unhealthy "downer" from these
and other observations and revelations.
The CIA actually came out and said that
* * *
McCOY WENT on to say that the
agency admitted that one of its mercenary
army commanders, General Chao La, had
kept a heroin laboratory in Northwest
Thailand between 1966 and 1971. All this
according to McCoy, with the full know-
ledge?and admission?of CIA officials.
Strong charges that bear explaining? You
bet, and the fact that the CIA now reports
that General La's heroin lab was destroyed
last year does not mitigate the seriousness
of such charges as those raised in McCoy's
book.
At Eccentric press time, the book ought
to be in area bookstores. But i' blacks are
.*
A BLACK MAN on a street corner who
had been talking with .a white youth, re-
cently summed up, I suppose much of the
black view when he said: "If you had a race
of people .that you really didn't want to be
totally free and wished to destroy them,
wouldn't YOU use some form of chemical
genocide as heroin? Where else but in
America can you find people robbing and
killing to purchase their own suicide?"
To which the white youth, supposedly
radical, added: "Yes, and when you look at
this in the context of the U.S. holdout in
signing the U.N. genocide agreement, the
hysterical detention of over 10,000 Japa-
nese-Americans during World War II, and
the current level of dope available despite
all the busts the government keeps an-
nouncing you KNOW something's awfully
wrong." Perhaps..
* * *
IT IS HARD to believe that a govern-
ment rich and powerful enough to beat the
Russians to the moon, a country so technol-
ogically advanced that is can readily trans-
fer part of its litter problem to that part of
the universe, cannot find the necessary
funds, technology or personnel to crack
down on the International drug traffic.
Who ?vill we believe?
Despite the immensity of the American
public relations and propaganda machine,
a government led by people ivho admit that
they have lied to the American public be-
fore, now has a hard time ahead in clearing
the air on this one. Further, although there
is evidence that SOME media barons were
intimidated by Spiro Agnew's repeated at-
tacks on news media, some journalists and
broadcasters have not slowed their work at
all in ferreting out and questioning our
government's real role in this and other is-
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STATINTL
Approved.for Release 2001/034441;/WORDP80-01601R0010
14 SEP 1972
- CIA "secret army" crumbles in Laos
VIENTIANE?Units of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's "se-
? eret army- of Meo tribesmen in northern Laos fled from the Plain
of Jars Wednesday after coming under heavy attack by the Lao Pa-
triotic Front forces. The four columns of "secret army- troops were
reported about 12 miles north of the big CIA base at Long Chong.
According to informed sources, the Meo tribesmen complained of
. a lack of U.S. air support and said that this justified their somewhat
hasty withdrawal. But other observers said the Meos are being af-
fected by the recent reports of CIA involvement in opium-smuggling
L, in Southeast Asia. The entire Meo tribal economy is based on opi-
um-smuggling. except for the CIA funds they receive.
Approved For Release 2001/03/04 : CIA-RDP80-01601R001000050001-8
STATI NTL
6 c
2')
STAT I NTL
A.TION
19
4 c.?1A7 P80-016
STATINTL
FREED 3. COOK - ?
Mr. Cook, a long-time contributor to The Nation, is the
author of many books, including the recently published The
Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe
MeCarthy(Random House).
-7
. .
The, most damning document to come out of the war in -
Vietnam has now struggled into the light in this election
year.' It Was indeed a struggle: the disclosures were
squelched for years by the highest arms of the American
bureaucracy; the pith of the message was ignored by the
Senate subcommittee, headed by Abraham Ribicoff, which
exposed the PX scandals; the revelations were verified by
one of Life's top journalists--Tand pushed aside in favor
of the incident on the bridge at.Chappaquiddick; the truth
?set forth was too much, for major American .publishing
houses, and in the end was published in Great Britain,
.coming to the American market on the rebound through
the David McKay Company.
This bombshell is .The Greedy War, 'a 2.78-page book
Written by the British journalist James Hamilton-Paterson
and detailing the Vietnamese experiences of Cornelius
Hawkridge, a dedicated anti-Communist who spent seven
and ,a half horrible years' in Russian and Hungarian prison
camps before escaping' to the United States. Hawkridge
and Hamilton-Paterson call the war greedy and' the con-
tents of this book fully justify the epithet. Hawkridge
was born in Transylvania, the son of a Hungarian mother
'and a British father; a. colonel in the Hungarian police
force-. His passionate hatred of communism and the Rus-
,sians led him into protests and guerrilla actions----and into
those long years in prison. He dame. to America believ;ng
all the dogmas Of the cold war and eager to aid as a
secinity offiper in vhat he considered a holy crusade.
The Dominican upheaval in 1965, in which Hawkridge
could not find the Communists President Lyndon B. John-
? son assured us we were opposing, was the first disillusion-
ment. Then Came Vietnam. Hawkridge's first day in the
field there in 1966 was a shocker. He.hadhis nose rubbed
immediately in the stinking squalor of the refugee camps
of Qui:NI-ion. More than 2,000 refugees were living in pa-
per shacks built largely of discarded American packing
cases Three contaminated wells provided the only drinking ?
water. There were no sanitary facilities. "The inmates .
defecated between the rows of paper homes and the slow'
seep of ordure crept up the pulp walls." Hawkridge asked
a 'priest what had: happened to all the USAID. "Stolen,"
the priest said simply. "It's taken by the ',Vietnamese Gov-
ernment'?
Hawkridge soon discovered that virtually everything
was being stolen. Only the smallest trickle of supplies
and war mate.riel being shipped to Vietnam in such
prodigious, multibillion-dollar amounts ever reached their
intended destinations. The Qui Nhon marketplace, an- area
Of a good-sized block next to the refugee Camp, was
stocked with "C-rations, K-rations, drink, clothing, guns,
cannons, shells,. eases of grenades, television sets, washing
machines. . the mounds seemed limitless." So Hamilton- ?
Aiwroved For Release 2001/03/04 :CIA-,RDP80-01601R001000050001-8
Paterson .writes &seri scoverie
dering what limits there were he asked a Vietnamese
siallholder whether he could buy a tank. Tanks are, a bit
difficult right now, this man admitted, but how about
sonic armored personnel carriers? Or helicopters, of. course.
Or how abont a heavy-duty truck?"
'What the hell goes' on?, Hawkridge thought. And he
? rushed to' tell American authorities what he had ..found.
They were. bland, uninterested. Washington,- in ,its holy- ,
crusade delusion, had concluded agreements with the
South Vietnamese that tied the hands of any security
agent who tried to put an end to the national-, pastime?
wholesale looting. Two provisions were critical: trucks
could be driven only by South Vietnamese drivers; and
only South Vietnamese police could make arrests. Even
if an Aniericarr security agent 'like Hawkridge trapped
hijackers. in the act, he was forbidden to lay a finger on
them; he had to call in the South Vietnamese police. And
when they arrived, they-simply collaborated in the looting.
Here, in capsule form, are some of the .things Hawk-
ridge learned and some of his experiences:
?
11South Vietnam all but sank into the sea under the
weight of the tons of black-and-white televiSion sets,
radios, spin. driers, untaxed .diamonds and other com-
modities produced by a society of conspicuous consump-
tion and -shipped off to Vietnam to win what must be
one of the most curious wars in history. -
IThe ,port of Qui. Nhon was clogged with shipping, a
fleet that spread out to the horizon. Some of the ships
waited for .Months to unload; meanwhile small boats plied
out to than in the night and' sometimes in the day; and
so, when they finally reached a pier, some 60 per cent of
their cargoes had vanished.
liThe United .States shipped enough cement into South
Vietham to pave the entire nation, but there was a chronic
shortage of cement to extend airfield runways and erect
facilities., And the Vietcong always had a superabundance
with which to build their individual bomb shelters.
1;011 one occasion a truck containing several hundred
TV sets was hijacked, tracked down in Tu Due and turned
.over to the South Vietnamese police. Hawkridge went to
reclaim this .U.S. property, but was told he would have?to-
get a ,Vietnamese driver to take the truck away. By the
time be had found a driver, the truck had been stripped
of its contents right in the police compound.
Wile night Hawkridge was following a hijacked truck,
.mystified because the Vietnamese were ripping open pack-
ages in disgust and tossing them into ditehe,s at the road-
side. Hawkridge kept stopping and picking up the
packages. They were a consignment of aircraft parts for
fighter squadrons at Bien Hoa. When Hawkridge arrived
at the air base, he was hailed almost as a savior because
,several jets had been grounded for lack of spare parts.
nother time, Hawkridge chaf-ed a hijacked truck
right into a compound belonging to the South Vietnamese
Security Police. The panicked driver sped across the com-
pound,?forgetting there was a river on the other side, and
braked to a halt at the last second with the front wheels
01
b-ontinuea
Approved For Release 2001/03/04 : CIA-RDP80-01601R601-1166M0001-8
LORAIN, OHIO
JOURNAL
SEP 9 1972
E & S 35,960
U?Se lanes Carry ISo
THE U.S. government has insisted for and Province Governors," says the report.
years that its unofficial CIA-run airline, Air
America, has not been running opium in the Another document, complete with a secret
mountain-bound Asian land of Laos. CIA map, reports unequivocally: 'Most of
the refineries in Laos operate under the pro
But now from the files of lb CIA a)ld-,teetion of the Royal Laotian Armed
other ? U.S. intellignce agencies, we lave ev- Forces Some reports suggest that a son-
idence that U.S. ground and air equipment for Royal Laotian Armed Forces officer
?if not U.S. personnel?has formed the may hold an ownership interest in a few of
backbone of the Laos opium trade, these facilities."
"SELECTED ROYAL Lao Army and
Royal Lao Air Force units, utilizing air and
ground equipment furnished by the U.S.,
provide the means for protecting, transport-
ing and processing of narcotics," reports
one intelligence summary on Laos.
? `"A broad spectrum of Lao society is in-
volved in the narcotics business, including
Generals, Princes, high-level bureaucrats
To .end narcotics running by the highest
echelons of Laotian society, the document
propose drastic action.
"An important target group will hollie
air force generals and other Royal La 6 Air
Force personnel who command and operate:
the transport aircraft involved inishipping ?
narcotics."
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WASHINGTON POST ?
Approved For Release 2001/03/049: gp4-ROP80--01601
;LT
i gton ]illrerry.Geo-ktointil
- [ - Il 11 -
i S 1--, at, e-cAl_POn,e or
I
3
By Jack Anderson
The U.S. government has in-
sisted for years that its unof-
ficial 'CIA-run airline, Air
America, has not been run-
ning opium in the mountain-
us Asian land of Laos.
But now, from the files of
the CIA and other U.S. intelli-
gence, agencies, we have evi-
dence that U.S. ground and air
equipment ? if not U.S. per-
sonnel ? has formed the back-
bone of the Laos opium trade,
"Selected Royal Lao Army
and Royal Lao Air Force
units, utilizing and ground
STATINTL
aos
/04ii
7:146-f! :430
To end narcotics running by armored car and courier in-
the highset echelons of Lao- clustry, a collection of 'small
tian society, the documents companies all over the coun-
propose drastic action, - try:
The banks would like to
"An important target group
will be the Air Force generals swallow up the industry, and
and other Royal Lao Air Force the Fed has been deliberating
personnel who command and whether to grant permission.
operate the transport aircraft Unwilling to play Jonah to
involved in shipping narcotics. the banks' whale, the armored
car and courier companies are
"Officials high end low
who are found to be involved fighting back, As part of their
in a substantial, way will have counterattack, one courier
to be removed from positions firm. hired Dun & Bradstreet
of influence," urges the memo.. to survey how good a job the
It recommends curtailment of courier companies do.
some aid to Laos. They decided to survey the
"This is aimed specifically Fed's own outlying banks, fig-
equipment furnished by the at eliminating the use of all uring that if the Fed!s own
United States provide .the U.S.-owned aircraft Operated branches liked the courier
means for protecting, trans- by the Royal Laotian .Air service, this would be convinc-
porting and processing of nar- Force or U.S.-leased aircraft, Mg argument that the inch's-
cotics,". reports one intelli- including U.S. support items, try deserved to survive.
gence summary 'on Laos. in the transport of narcotics." Dun & Bradstreet gathered
"A broad spectrum of -Lao in recent months, Ameriea's ZO interviews with Fed banks
'society is -involved in the nar- spokesmen claim ,
. a new Lao- before their bosses in Wash-
cotics business, including Gen. tian anti-heroin law is having ington got wind of the survey.
erals, Princes, high-level bu_ some effect. But, in fact, only Off. went a peremptory tele-
reaucrats 'and Province Cover. lowly opium hustlers are ar- gram. -"It appears inappro-.
nors," says the-report. rested; the generals and priate for officials of Federal
Another' dOcument coin- Princes go untouched. ' Reserve banks and branches
plete a secret CIA map, to express any opinions about
reports unequivocally: "Most. JOnah and the Whale courier services," wired Board
The Federal Reserve Board Secretary Tynan Smith, noting
is supposed to supervise that a Fed decision on the
banks, not do their dirty work, takeover was pending.
But recently the Fed aided the To make ab:solutely sure the
banks in an attempt to take courier survey was stymied,
over an entire industry. Smith added: "Please keep us
The victim of this power informed if you are contacted
play was suppoSed. to be the for such information." This so
of the refineries in Laos oper-
ate under the protection of
,the Royal Laotian Armed
Forces ? . Some reports sug-
gest that a senior Royal Lao-
tian Armed Forces officer may
'hold an ownership interest in
a few of. these facilities."
?
intimidated the regional F(...-d
officials that Iwo of them, who
had already given interviews,
tried to withdraw them. Other
officials insisted their replies
be totally anonymous.
Although the survey was
aborted, the courier services
did get some use out of it.
11,1sed? on the incomplete re-
turns, it showed the Fed banks
were generally satisfied with
the private courier services.
No Spanish Allowed
A top anti-poverty official
has scolded subordinates for
speaking Spanish at a recent
meeting that included Span-
ish-speaking officials..
"I was appalled," wrote op-
erations chief James Griffith,
"to. hear a meeting of in-house
(anti-pvoerty) people closed
with a statement in Spanish
and answered in Spanish. This
was absolutely uncalled for
and taken as a direct insult by
the persons in attendance."
Griffith's rebuke was di-
rected at migrant staff official
Pete Merilez. Asked for an ex-
planation, Griffith told us:
"We poor gringos who don't
speak Spanish sometimes get
embarrassed when we hear
others speak it. We get the
feeling they're speaking be-
hind our backs."
C?) 1972, United Feature Syndicate
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LOS ANGELES TIMES_Ai-inrri
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Nuevo Laredo
rSpetializes' in
D ;
. lugs.
Deaf 1 ,,,w of veteran Aareoties
officials become the min-
,
BY LAURENGE STERN eipal narcotics pipeline be-
'. Exoustye. So 'the Times from cause of the tightened sur-
the Washington Post
exiCan- connection"
along the 1,900-mile Texas-
-Mexican border for the
sinuggling of heroin, op-
ium. c o c.a i n e and man-
in a 11 a into. t h e :United
States. - ?
Mexico itself has in the
? NUEVO LAREDO', Mex.
? ? Oblivious to the vi-
olence, the American tour-
ists tramp though the sun--
baked early Metro-Gold-
Mayer main drag,
Guerrero Ave., pushing
their way through the ba-
zaars heaped with tax-free
.? liquor, cigarets, . cut-rate
! -jewelry and handcrafted'
?
Most of them are un-
.ware that tivd other spe-
' dallies of.this- The Grande
? border town are mutilated
corpses arkl narcotics intr.
Grande can easily be for
Mc. The relationship be- d-
?
twech. the two is more ed by a determined man
than a casual one. - with a backpack.
The machine- gun -and ? ? Easy Access
the nuichete.- have taken There are many points.
.the lives of some 85. Mexi- at which cotton grows and
can Police, customs offi; cattle graze in the river-
cials, -dr U g pushers and bed and a truck. can d riVe
hapless' Americans within ! across its width. Hundreds
? the-past year. It has mat- of small, private planes;
used for crop-dusting and
ranch-to-ranch transport
can easily be -converted
into drug conveyers.
. Within the past year the
Nixon Administration has
sought to prod the Mexi-
can government into
stricter enforcement ac-
vity In. an area where
police officials have tradi-.
tionally tended to wink or
deze. or enrich themselves.
President Nixon has
conferred Nvith MexiCan
President Luis Echevar-
ria. Director John E. In-
gersoll of the 'justice De-
partment's Bureau of Nar-
cotics and Danger. on f:4,
Drugs has met with Mexi-
border. But at the open
tional le.Vel?bn the streets
of Nuevo Laredo the
frustations of the law.
men, both 'American -and
Mexican, are con?'?H'able.
One narcotics ficial,
speaking ? of recent, re?
verses in. the joint cam-
paign to reduce the drug
flow across the border, re-
fers despondently to the
veMance of the Ports of -?!'Mexrcan dis-connecti0."
entry along the American Such is the setting in
Eastern seaboard and the which the violence has
Canadian border. flourished here for- more
And Nuevo Laredo now than a year between police
lies along a major narcot, and rival gangs, such as
It's thoroughfare that runs the Reyes Prunedas and
northward from Mexico the Gayton Clan who once
City and Monterrey along feuded fiercely for control
lighway 85, funneling of the lherative drug
Into the valley of Texas. stream that flowed along
? '1'he border region is a Highway 85 past their
sieve to smugglers. Thou- ranches..
sands of cars and pcdestri-
Principal Figure
ans swarm across the in-
ternational bridge .into Police on both sides of
1.--tredo, Tex., each day. In the border as well as
many places the -Rio knowledgeable residents
of NueVo Laredo identify
as the principal figure in
the town's underworld el-
ite Francisco Javier Ber-
rpl Lopez, who seems to
relish the two nicknames
that the press has con-
ferred'upon him: El Padri-
no (the Godfather) and El
Abogado Del Diablo (the
Devil's Advocate).
Bernal, an attorney,. is a
heavy- set, moustachioed
man of impoSing presence
who habitually carries a
gun in his belt and some-
times a .45-caliber machine
gun at his shoulder. He
openly acknowledges that
his clientele consists of
drug traffickers as well as seized-in Nuevo Laredo in
the tough ? pistoleros, or the previous quarter of a
century, according' to nar-
cotics officials, including a
fromi the interior's, farm-. kilo -of heroin with a retail
lands to make a quick dol-? value of 8200,000, three
lar and others engaged in tons of marijuana and
what is not conventionally caches of cocaine and opi-
cd what one Vocal journal-
it l'psychosis of
terror" in Nuevo Laredo.
'Day after day the news-
papers have published
'photographs of the blood-
spattered or decapitated
bodies of the latest victims
of the violence. One of the
newspapers, El Manana,
' plant machine-
gunned a n d its presses
sabotaged late last year as
? an admonition ? a 0. a i ns t
Identifying o c ati hood-
: Aims.
? Violence has long been
endemic to the Mexico'
border,. where men still-
. -Slouch at the .bar. with a
.guh tucked under their
belt. ?. . ? .. ? can Atty. Gen. Pedro J.
Dope at Root. .
, ? - Ojeda Paullada. Ojeda's
Put the recent bloodshed soh summered 'this year
has.' far Surpassed even with the family Of 11.5.
- Nuevo Laredo's gory. stan- Atty. Gen. Richard Klein-
dards of tolerance.- dienst.
; The underlying .reason ? The amity, at least at the
for the violence of Nuevo highest level of official-
Lar Afs privedi (FieldEsas eh 20 04103/01?sel
gelled .as t h e principa? thick on both Sides o the .
"He is the-only'one with
the brains to run the orga-
nization," said one high-
-ranking Mexican- law en-
forcement official sent
here to bring the lawless
state of affairs under con-
trol. "The rest are illiter-
ate hoodlums."
Bernal denies the accu-
sations. He replies that the
CIA and FBI were respon-
sible for some of the kill-
ings. "I do my work. And
my work is defending peo-
ple," Bernal said at a re-
cent street corner press
conference.
On Aug. -29 he walked
into. the federal building
with. .tWo bodyguards to
answer a subpoena issued
by a special 'attorney for
the government., Salvatore
Del Toro Roaales. Authori-
ties questioned Bernal, for
more than two hours on
events that led up to the
assassination last July 28
of Federal . Police Com-
mandant Everardo
Rios, who has 1.1111 an ag-
gressive campaign against
drug smuggling during a
six-week tenure that end:.
ed with his death.
Signal Event
- The murder of Pera'les,
who was sent to Nuevo
Laredo to head the Mexi-
can federal policy pre-
sence in the state of Ta-
maulipas, was a signal
event in the border drug
war.
During his short-lived
incumbency Commandant
Perales hauled in more
d r ii 'g s than had heen
considered as upright en-
terprise.
Bernal emerged froth
obscurity smite 10 Months
ago to preside over the
feuding criminal factions
in this border region. Po-
lice and Mexican federal
authorities ascribe to him
an important role in
governing Nuevo Laredo's
0101396Ijoi 'eldoicaboosoctort--4 of
cotics pulled him back
.above the border.
? As the pace of his anti-
smuggling activities picked
up momentum there were
threats both against Per-
ales and against an Ameri-
can narcotics agent work-
ing with him along the
border. Word filtered back:
that a $3,000 contract had.
been issued on the U.S.-
. acient's life and his superi-
t!flY11-1
STATIN1
Approved For Release 2001/031104LYGOARDP80-01601
'6 SEP 1g72
erec ;
VAIL'sf WORLD)
SS...I:
'9?1
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'?)
STATINTL
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WASPIINGTON POST
6 SEP 1972
By Stanley Karnow
Washington Post Staff Writer
American narcotics special-
ists are privately expressing
,concern at the 'prospect of an
increase in the illegal flow of
iheroin into the United States
:from South and West Asia as,
the supply of drugs from,
other foreign sources dwin-.
dles.
Confidential studies pre-:
pared by the Central IntelII--
tenee Agency and other U.S.
? government bureaus warn that
the halt in Turkish opium cut-,
? tivation may spur internation-
al drug traders to tap fresh,
sources of narcotics in India,
Pakistan, 'Afghanistan and:
Iran.
Turkey's legal opium pro-1
duction is scheduled to end
this year as a, result of U.S.
subsidies aimed at encourag-
ing Turkish' farmers to grow
other crops.. Most h'eroin
reaching .the United States is
refined in France from opium
?
of Turkish origin. .
The CIA studies, made
available to The Washington
Pest by columnist Jack Ander-
son, estimate that about half
of the total world raw opium
supply of 2,500 tons is pro;
duced in India, Pakistan and
Afghanistan. Iranian output
has jumped to 156 tons in 1971
from eight tons in 1969, when
Iran legalized opium produc-
tion..
Until . .now, little . of the
opium. grown in South . and,
West Asia ? has served as the
raw material for heroin smug-
gled into the United States.
But according to the CIA "the
withdrawal of Turkey from
the illicit world market"
.threatens to attract_ narcotics
merchants seeking. - new,
.sources of supply.
?The U.S government studies
.calculate that India produces
..:about 200 tons of illegal opium
per year. Most of this opium
'enters a domestic- black mar-
ket serving some 300,000 In-
The studies caution, how-,
ever, that India. could become ?
a supplier of the U.S. market
unless the New Delhi govern-
ment acts to suppress its in-
ternal narcotics trade. Or as
One of the reports puts it:
"India is frequently cited in
United Nations bodies as a
model for controlled opium
production and distribution.
From the U.S. standpoint, this
myth has been detrimental
even though India is not a.
source of U.S. heroin supply..
? "Because the' myth absolves
New .Delhi from dealing seri-
ously with its own addiction
and traffic, it has been able to
strike a pose of moral superi-
ority internationally. This
blocks. U.S.-Indian cooperation
on narcotics matters and di-
verts India from a potentially
useful role in developing
effective multilateral pro-
grams in the United Nations,1
which is a focal point .of U.S.
policy strategy."
The U.S. report urges that
actions be undertaken by the
Nixon administration to "ex-
pose the existence of India's
illicit markets," adding that
"the United States might lose
some good .will in the process
of exposure but not on a:scale
to offset the likely gains."
Turning to Pakistan and Af-
ghanistan, the CIA studies as-
sert that "laxities in law en
forcement" in those countries
"appear, to offer a trafficker
easier access to tribal produ-
cers" of opium than in other
parts of the world.
According to another classi-
fied -U.S. government report,
Pakistan produces about 175
to 200 tons of illicit opium, per
year, most of it cultivated in
the country's northwest, tribal
regions.. . ?
? The report blames the Pald-
stan government's failures to
suppress the drug trade on
inefficiency and "official cor-
ruption." It also points out
that the Pakistan authorities
are unwilling to tackle the
dian addicts. So far, the stud- drug problem because they
les say, IncliAa c not
-significant m Igt/Mt r?1*04101MPIMATC;
e
tier tribal areas."
Recalling that "a number of
diplomatic representations"
made by the United States to
the Pakistan government have
had DO "apparent effect," the
report recommends that the
Nixon administration apply
"pressures and inducements"
including a halt in U.S. aid to
persuade the Pakistanis to
deal with their drug output.
According to the U.S. stud-
ies, Afghanistan produces be-
tween 1.00 and 125 tons of
opium a year, cultivated
mainly by Pushtun tribesmen
in the eastern parts of the
country. Most of Afghanistan's
narcotics output, a 'study
states, is exported illegally.
"Smuggling is a way of life in
Afghanistan," it says.
The study further warns
that drug networks operating
put of Afghanistan are ripe to
be taken over by international
traffickers because the Afghan
authorities take a benign atti-
tude toWard narcotics traders.
The U.S. 'study attributes
the continuation of the Af-
ghan narcotics trade to "offi-
cial corruption" as well as to a
lack of interest on the part of
the country's authorities.
The report warns against.
vigorous . U.S.. actions that'
might increase "Afghan de-
pendence on the Soviet Union.
It further concludes: "It is un-
ealistic to expect ? Afghani-
stan, which suffers little from
the narcotics problem itself, to*
give . its solution the highest
priority in view of the ek-
tremely limited human and fi-
nancial resources of the coun-
try,,,
A CIA plcinorandui,,i if_Tued
on June 9, meanwhile, voices
alarm ht the growth of opium
production and addiction in.
Iran.
The memorandum stresses
that Iran could become a
transit area for illegal- drugs
moving ? from South Asia to-
ward Western Europe and the
United States. Some 170 tons
of illicit Afghan and Pakistani
opium are currently smuggled
diAtAtOgne,014001000050001-8
, a
man prince who accompanied
I Mr/ if:fp (T4
Shah Muhammad Reza
lavi was recenlly charged by
the Swiss authorities with
carrying opium to Geneva.
After a 14-year ban on
opium output, time Shah legal-
ized, the production of drug in
J969, partly in order to stop a
drain on the country's ?forciah ?
currency reserves throu eh
smuggling. His decision was
denounced by the United Na-,
lions at the time as "traaic",,
for both Iran and other na-
tions. ?
Since then, says the CIA ?
memorandum, Iran has regia?
tered about 90,000 narcotics,.
addicts. But this represents..
only one-fourth of the esti-'
mated 400,000 drug users in.
the country.
This year, the memorandum
calculates, the demand for.
opium in Iran will total about
350 tons?roughly two-thirds
of which will conic from 00-?
mestic production and the rest
from contraband supplies, .
The CIA document esti-
mates, however, that Iranian
opium production should soon'
satisfy and even exceed inter-'
nal needs. At that point, the,
memorandum warns, the coun-
try could become a narcotics
exporter and also a ..drtig,
transit channel. . ?
Approved: For Release 2001/03/04 : 'CIA-RDP80-01
ASUNCION POST '
5 SEP 1972
The Vi'asitingiou. EierryaaNnotred
By Jack Anderson
, .
0E111 11,5
STATI NTL
the Western traffickers," re- network in Afghanistan and
ports the CIA. . - Pakistan could be used to
,
, President Nixon's herculean "Tribal producers in ? Af- send substantial quantities of
effort to stop drug smuggling
ghanistan and ,Pakistan un- opium westward," warn the in-
has at last slowed the flow of doubtedly would be willing to telligence documents. Afghans
heroin from Turlccy and sell to W e s t e r n already. have "professional
Southeast Asia. But a tr
affickers ? . ? The potential and sophisticated" means of
- new
tidal wave is rising in Afghani- for substantial diversions of getting hashish by air to Teh-
stan, India and Pakistan. opium westward exist . . ". ? ran, Beirut and Frankfurt and
Even our midcastern ally, "Laxities inSouth Asia by sea to Karachi. Some has
Iran',
has started to grow its would offer a distinct advan- reached the U.S.
own opium under government tage to international traffick- As for. India, the documents
control, but the government
ens if they should decide to say it now produces about
may not be able to stop illegal tap the South Asian opium three-quarters of the world's
shipments from being diverted market." ? legal opium for medical nun-
to America. poses. The- widely held view
its opium production
This is the Warning of the
Opium Gum that India is effectively con-
Central Intelligence Agency, ' In Afghanistan production tr?11-ing
Which has ? also reported orni- is .Up. Starving peasants, "lack-
is a "myth," the docurnents,a1-
nously: "Rumors persist that ing adequate food supplies be- lege.
somemembers of the royal cause of recent droughts, have
family and parliment are nar- resorted to chewing opium
cares users. Swiss authorities gum to ease hunger pains."
recently charged an. Iranian In Pakistan, too, production
Prince, who accompanied the "may have risen sharply since.
Shah to Switzerland, with hay- 1969," ?says the CIA. In both
ing transfefted pure opium." countries "penalties for nar-
Secret documents from the
CIA and other intelligence
agencies describe dangerous
opium buildups in South Asia.
This could be a shot in the
-arm for the Mafia, whose sup-
plies in Turkey and the Thai-
land-Laos-Vietnam area are
slowly beginning to dry up.
The new smuggling menace
was raised by the CIA's Direc-
torate 'of Intelligence in
memos dated June 26 and
June 9.
"Whether or not substantial
quantities of South Asian
opium are diverted to the 'U.S.
and Western Europe will de-
pend, in the final analysis, on
hearings on a bill to give State
Department workers an ind&
pendent grievance hoard.
Two present and one former
foreign service officers ale
breaking the gentleman's code
of silence and spilling 'their
WOOS.
One witness is John Hemen-
way, a conservative diplomat
who 'claims he was fired be-
cause he argued with his
bosses over U.S. policies in:
Berlin.
A present foreign service of-
lien, John Harter, who fought
and won an appeal ?against
shabby treatment from the de-
partment, has told his story in
a letter to Hays. Even State's, ?
Iran still doesn't produce grievanceboard upheld
enough legal opium for the
Harter, urging that he be pro-
country's registered addicts, muted, given a new job and
who receive the drug under a reimbursed for his lawyers':
national program. But the fees,
opium harvest is increasing. The State Department, how--
Meanwhile, allege the doeu- ever, has largely ignored the.
'
cotics violatiens are minimal." men--ts , 'the estimated 100-300 recommendations which are
The intelligence documents tons currently being smuggled now eight months old.
also suggest that the., Mafia into Iran, that could become While the . Hays hearings .
would have no trouble cor-
le exceeds the total have made the State Depart-
opium equivalent. needed to merit anxious over what fur-..
supply the U.S. market.' (her horror stories may sur-...`
face, some of their fears are
Diplomatic Grievances unwarranted. Hays has
Diplomats at the State Be- fided that he does not expecte.
partment have been complain, a bill out of his committee:
ing about undiplomatic treat_ until the next session.
ment from their bosses. This This means that the Senate
week the ,squabble among the would have to go through the ,
striped pants set will boil over entire process of passing their
into a House Foreign Affairs version of the measure again
subcommittee. before any grievance board is
Chairman Wayne Hays (). set up outside the depart-
Ohio) is ?finally yielding to ment's own j,urisdiction. ?
Senate, pressure and holding
rupting officials in both coun-
tries.
In Afghanistan, the docu-
ments report, "official corrup-
tion including high-level pro-
tection of narcotics dealers
is . . . a problem" and "smug-
gling is a way of life."
In Pakistan, "official corrup-
tion is reported to be a serious
problem" among the Land
Customs, Sea Customs, provin-
cial police and para-military
forces.
Worse, "the existing hashish
; :
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TIME
4 SEP 1972 STATINTL
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601
earth and esiiro
T a third-floor window of a Lower
Manhattan hospital, a team of fed-
eral agents huddled behind a battery of
cameras. Below them, other agents
? strolled along the sidewalks, or cruised
?down Gold Street in unmarked cars.
One group waited in a windowless mini-
bus parked across the street. Not far
away, another group, posing as an emer-
gency crew, sat under a yellow canvas
work tent over the open manhole in
, which they had set up a communica-
tions center. Precisely. at 8:40 p.m., two
undercover agents drove up Gold Street
in a green 1970 Cadillac. They pulled
to a stop in the No Parking zone in front
of the hospital?and waited.
Minutes later the hidden agents
?there were 4Q? in all?got the word
? over, their short-wave radios: "Suspects
are proceeding down Spruce Street,
headed for Gold.v In the third-floor ob-
servation ? post, one agent cracked to
.Ti ME Correspondent James Willwerth,.
"The Chinese are very punctual." So
they were?right on time for the most
important narcotics bust this summer..
At 9 p.m., two wary men walked
up to the gran Cadillac: Kenneth Ka n-
? kit ? Huie, 60, self-styled "unofficial
mayor of ,Chinatown," and Tim Lok,
35, known to federal agents as "the
General" for his ramrod-stiff posture.
The four mea?ltwo undercover narcot-
ics agents, and the two "connections"
whom they had been trying to nail for
four months?wasted no time. The
agent S oPened the trunk of the Cadil-
lac and showed the Chinese the con-
tents of an olive-drab attach6 case in-
side: $200,000 in $50 and $100 bills.
he War
^:et.
UNDERCOVER AGENTS SHOW HOIE & LOK $200,000 IN TRUNK
In hollowed-out heels, false-bottomed suitcases, cars, girdles and boa constrictors.
Then the General led one of the agents
off on a meanderjng excursion that end-
ed-up in a Chinatown sportswear shop.
There it was the agent's turn to inspect
the wares: a cardboard box packed with
14 plastic bags containing 20 lbs. of
pure No. 4 white heroin from South-
east Asia. Street value: $10 million..
The agent and the General then
went back toward Gold Street in a taxi,
followed in a gray Dodge station. wag-
on -by a third Chinese, Guan Chow-
tok, bringing the heroin. But Guan,
owner of the sportswear shop, doubled
,.,..12As
?, ?
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CANADA
Montreal
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MEXICO -1
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PANAMA
(Staging and
storage circa)
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Mau Mau 0405?.45
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liaiti
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COLOMBIA
Cocaine producers
BRA;Lil
BOLIVIA
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CHILE.
-
Buenos Aires j ,0

New HO - U.S. Bureau of Narcotics
in South America ARGENTINA
ar- 'as
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FANCE
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fOpium
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