THE POLITICS OF HEROIN IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74B00415R000400030042-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 10, 2005
• Sequence Number: 42
• Publication Date: September 24, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

KANSAS CIDPprgggd For Release 2005/06/22 : CIA-RDP74B00415R000400030042-5
STAR
- 325,351
S - 396,682
!;C;P9.i1grt? rY
Avad
of the lv'Dav.
Maybe the CIA
was just sneaky
and not stupid
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-
ish nor the present Burmese
Government could police and
control?)
Disregard the sometimes ju-
.venile writing style--"In 152
.-- _-~. Xing Mongut (played by Yul
THE POLITICS OF HEROIN 'Brynner in the King and U
IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, by Al- bowed to British pressure."
fred W. McCoy with Cathleen That's like writing "At Get:
l3. Read & Leonard P. Adams tysburg, Abraham Lincoln
O
(4
..,
64. page:, -,I- - ..
is
~,; ~.~ y ~ ~... said . ." McCoy also notes
,~ s1O.95). P . `a hrufal Chinese na.cifica-
.-,,,,;-;Sy TI, G. Summers, Jr. China) rather similar to the
Suppose you were in the one launched by the U.S.
CIA, and the President had ! + ,1~ Seventh Cavalry against the
just declared an all-out war Great Plains Indians." Why
l
di
h C
l
th
ava
ry ? A
ey
s-
l
on: alrugs. Being devious and 7t
A14ohiavellian by nature, what tinguished themselves for ~~ as
'would be the best way to im- `? getting massacred at the Lit-
tle .= uR / tie Bin Horn. It's racist of ,c
plement the presidential ed- Coy to ignore the all-black
rc f /~ 10th Cavalry which played a.
^now about taking a relative-
_r.~ - `~~??, /10 the pacification of the West.
young researchers, a book Disregard all that, for the
that already included an at- book does give valuable in-
taG!k on the U.S. role in Viet- sights into the mechanics of
nam which ovould appeal to the heroin trade. McCoy's ex-
persons who dote on such amination of the depth and
things, and spicing it up by A brand you can trust? scope of the Asian opium
some rather innocuous and trade is particularly timely
4Ated- attacks on the CLI.Al- vils of CIA harassment-an If you are naturally suspi. since this aspect was ignored
ready portrayed as th l article marred only by the ac- ctous, there is other evidence until our own ox was gored.
irfta at by the left, a few 'eompanying editorial cartoon as well. According to James When only the "heathen Chi-
irore. more. attacks couldn't hurt. ;that s h o w e d the Pentagon
grabbing an author's typewrit- Markham in the New York nese? smoked opium, the U .S.
bNvw then, how to But the n . Rut I suppose that the Times, .a former CIA agent" was singularly uninterested in
Book in the public eye? What 'Pentagon is better identified told Seymour Hersh that Mc- the problem.
Iketter way than to demand -in the public mind than Lang- Coy's assertions are "10 per Read McCoy's "90 per cent
censorship rights over the Jey where the CIA really cent tendentious and 910 per valuable contribution" that .
i.puscript. That would raise - hangs its hat. cent of the most valuable con- the CIA was kind enough
to
a, guaranteed hue and cry - tribution I can think of. He's a
across the political spectrum The CIA, in effect, worked a very liberal kid, and he'd like bring to your attention, but do
not be mislead by his conchr-
because nothing--thank God-- :double blessing. It insured to nail the establishment. Butsion is,sc sacrosanct in American -high-level attention and pub- some leading intelligence offi- that . It is a "in the final to say
as y have the
srtety as the rights of a free licity on McCoy's book, which cers inside the Government's American people will
press. is being faithfully reviewed by p earch is think his re- choose between supporting
'?T+anciful you say? Not near- most of the major publica- great." - d o g g e d I y anti-Communist
Hems Alfred McCoy accuses the a t t e' n t. i o n on the evils of book, which purports to attack Asia or getting heroin out of
:~IX in his book. - look t of
results. The prepdublica- government censorship. The the CIA, actually credits the thet simple. schools." It is not
taxpayers got their money," agency with being 10 feet tall, p'tion censorship was so weak s of having history bending
A the publisher said that he worth in this CIA caper. As James Markham point-
'was "underwhelmed" by the powers, of saving (Godfather ed out in his New York Times
y Let me hasten to add that I forgive us) the Mafia from ex
CIA comments) that reported- claim no inside information on tinction after World War II. review, "American addicts
.1y not a word was. changed in this caper. Maybe the CIA need only 60 to 100 tons of ~tfte censor c^r ipt. The news of Disregard the tendentious opium a year ' to feed their
was just ham-handed enough amount of o
, pi-
,t censorship was leaked to to demand pre-publication 10 per cent"-the rather peer- habits . This
4Il' press and sparked editori- ile political judgements where um can be grown on five to 1.0
censorship without malice of square miles of arable, u land
Vs-In the New York Times, forethought.... but I'd rather McCoy wavers between con- p
'cou ?. Washington Post, and believe that our highest level demning the CIA for being the , country land--in Burma, in
~corlntless other newspapers. intelligence agency was policeman of the world, and India, in Turkey, in Mexico,
3 he Star ran an e. cellent arti- . in Ecuador."
wle-in the Book S AC N"Arv~1f .Fo r hey e2q 'JtY0ci l2veCIA-RDP74B00415R 0030042-5
hey were mere y s upr C021 vjflu8
 Approved For Release 2005/06/22 : CIA-RDP74B00415R000400030042-5
Even if we could stop pop-
pies from growing, Markham
reminds us, "it would not he
long before underworld chem-
ists were turning out oxyco-
done, hydromorphone and ox-
ymorphone---synthetic opiates
used in medical compounds
which established addicts are
unable to distinguish from
heroin."
As the Chinese learned after
almost a century of opium
degradation, the answer to the
problem of heroin lies within,
not without, our own society.
It is easy to blame others for
our problems-the CIA, South-
east Asia, etc.-but sooner or
later we will have to face the
t leasant truth that the only
solution lie here at home.
Approved For Release 2005/06/22 : CIA-RDP74B00415R000400030042-5