Alfred W. McCoy (born June 8, 1945) is a
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time...
and a Professor of History at the
University of Wisconsin–MadisonThe University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
. He earned his
B.A.Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
from
Columbia CollegeColumbia College may refer to one of several institutions of higher education in North America:In Canada* Columbia College , in Calgary* Columbia College , a two-year liberal arts institution in Vancouver...
, and his Ph.D in
Southeastern AsianManila
Bangkok
Ho Chi Minh City
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Yangon
Bandung
Hanoi
Surabaya
Taichung
Kaohsiung
Medan|-|}...
history from
Yale UniversityYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
.
McCoy has researched and has written about
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
history, and about Southeast Asia, and in particular about the
Golden TriangleThe Golden Triangle is one of Asia's two main illicit opium-producing areas. It is an area of around 350,000 square kilometres that overlaps the mountains of four countries of Southeast Asia: Myanmar , Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand...
drug trades of
opiumOpium is a narcotic formed from the latex released by lacerating the immature seed pods of opium poppies . It contains up to 12% morphine, an opiate alkaloid, which is most frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade...
and
heroinHeroin, or diacetylmorphine , also known as diamorphine , is a semi-synthetic opioid drug synthesized from morphine, a derivative of the opium poppy. It is the 3,6-diacetyl ester of morphine...
. His book,
The Politics of Heroin in Southeast AsiaThe Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia is a major, nonfiction book on heroin trafficking—specifically in Southeast Asia from before World War II up to the Vietnam War. Published in 1972, the book was the product of eighteen months of research and at least one trip to Laos by Alfred W...
(1972 first ed.),documented the interactions between the
CIA and drug cartelsIt has been alleged that the United States Central Intelligence Agency is involved in drug smuggling, specifically in at least three significant episodes...
in that region.
The principal thesis of McCoy's work is that: Following the effective suppression of the heroin trade in America during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the subsequent decision to stamp out
opiumOpium is a narcotic formed from the latex released by lacerating the immature seed pods of opium poppies . It contains up to 12% morphine, an opiate alkaloid, which is most frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade...
growing by
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
— which had been one of the main sources of raw opium — organized crime in both America and Europe collaborated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to establish new centers of opium production,
heroinHeroin, or diacetylmorphine , also known as diamorphine , is a semi-synthetic opioid drug synthesized from morphine, a derivative of the opium poppy. It is the 3,6-diacetyl ester of morphine...
refining and distribution in Southeast Asia; these collaborations were greatly facilitated by the
Central Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government.It is an independent agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers....
and by the unstable political situation created by the ongoing
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
.
McCoy points out that during the
First Indochina WarThe First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union’s French Far East Expeditionary...
(1947-1954), the French SDECE military intelligence agency was in need of money for its
covert operationA covert operation is a military, intelligence, or political activity carried out in such a way that the identity of the sponsors of the operation is concealed or kept secret...
s.
Alfred W. McCoy (born June 8, 1945) is a
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time...
and a Professor of History at the
University of Wisconsin–MadisonThe University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
. He earned his
B.A.Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
from
Columbia CollegeColumbia College may refer to one of several institutions of higher education in North America:In Canada* Columbia College , in Calgary* Columbia College , a two-year liberal arts institution in Vancouver...
, and his Ph.D in
Southeastern AsianManila
Bangkok
Ho Chi Minh City
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Yangon
Bandung
Hanoi
Surabaya
Taichung
Kaohsiung
Medan|-|}...
history from
Yale UniversityYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
.
McCoy's thesis
McCoy has researched and has written about
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
history, and about Southeast Asia, and in particular about the
Golden TriangleThe Golden Triangle is one of Asia's two main illicit opium-producing areas. It is an area of around 350,000 square kilometres that overlaps the mountains of four countries of Southeast Asia: Myanmar , Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand...
drug trades of
opiumOpium is a narcotic formed from the latex released by lacerating the immature seed pods of opium poppies . It contains up to 12% morphine, an opiate alkaloid, which is most frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade...
and
heroinHeroin, or diacetylmorphine , also known as diamorphine , is a semi-synthetic opioid drug synthesized from morphine, a derivative of the opium poppy. It is the 3,6-diacetyl ester of morphine...
. His book,
The Politics of Heroin in Southeast AsiaThe Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia is a major, nonfiction book on heroin trafficking—specifically in Southeast Asia from before World War II up to the Vietnam War. Published in 1972, the book was the product of eighteen months of research and at least one trip to Laos by Alfred W...
(1972 first ed.),documented the interactions between the
CIA and drug cartelsIt has been alleged that the United States Central Intelligence Agency is involved in drug smuggling, specifically in at least three significant episodes...
in that region.
The principal thesis of McCoy's work is that: Following the effective suppression of the heroin trade in America during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the subsequent decision to stamp out
opiumOpium is a narcotic formed from the latex released by lacerating the immature seed pods of opium poppies . It contains up to 12% morphine, an opiate alkaloid, which is most frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade...
growing by
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
— which had been one of the main sources of raw opium — organized crime in both America and Europe collaborated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to establish new centers of opium production,
heroinHeroin, or diacetylmorphine , also known as diamorphine , is a semi-synthetic opioid drug synthesized from morphine, a derivative of the opium poppy. It is the 3,6-diacetyl ester of morphine...
refining and distribution in Southeast Asia; these collaborations were greatly facilitated by the
Central Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government.It is an independent agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers....
and by the unstable political situation created by the ongoing
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
.
McCoy points out that during the
First Indochina WarThe First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union’s French Far East Expeditionary...
(1947-1954), the French SDECE military intelligence agency was in need of money for its
covert operationA covert operation is a military, intelligence, or political activity carried out in such a way that the identity of the sponsors of the operation is concealed or kept secret...
s. Its officers contacted opium producers in the Golden Triangle, and set up an international system of smuggling aided by intelligence and other aid from SDECE. This system persisted past the war, and became the
French ConnectionThe French Connection was a scheme through which heroin was smuggled from Turkey to France and then to the United States, culminating in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when it provided the vast majority of the illicit heroin used in the United States...
.
McCoy asserts that the "French Connection" conspiracy arose from an alliance between the
CorsicaCorsica is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
n
MafiaThe Mafia is a Sicilian criminal society which is believed to have emerged in late 19th century Sicily, and the first such society to be referred to as a mafia . It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct...
, who had an historical presence in
South VietnamSouth Vietnam refers to a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the State of Vietnam and later as the “Republic of Vietnam” . Its capital was Saigon...
dating back to the
French occupation||-|French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887. Laos was added in 1893 and Kouang-Tchéou-Wan in 1900...
, and leading members of the American and Sicilian Mafia, under the leadership of
Lucky LucianoCharles "Lucky" Luciano was a Sicilian-born American mobster. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime and the mastermind of the massive postwar expansion of the international heroin trade. He was the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family...
, who had been imprisoned in the U.S. during World War II for racketeering, but was asked to provide assistance to American military intelligence about Axis infiltration of the waterfront in American ports (which was effectively controlled by the Mafia), as well as assisting Allied forces in their
invasion of SicilyThe Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis . It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian Campaign.Husky began on the night of...
and
ItalyThe Allied invasion of Italy, was the Allied landing on mainland Italy on September 3, 1943, by General Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group during World War II. The operation followed the successful invasion of Sicily during the Italian Campaign...
. He reportedly used his contacts in the Sicilian Mafia to assist U.S. forces by gathering intelligence and identifying both fascist collaborators and Socialist/Communist elements in the
Italian resistance movementThe Italian resistance movement was a partisan force during World War II.-Origins of the movement:After Italy's armistice on 8 September 1943, the Italian resistance movement became massive...
, who were then systematically eliminated.
In return for his assistance, Luciano was covertly permitted to run his crime operations from prison, and at the end of the war he was deported back to Sicily, where he immediately began a major expansion of his drug operations, forging alliances with Corsican Mafia members in South Vietnam and organised crime figures in other countries, including
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
.
McCoy wrote in the book, "American involvement had gone far beyond coincidental complicity; embassies had covered up involvement by client governments, CIA contract airlines had carried opium, and individual CIA agents had winked at the opium traffic. As an indirect consequence of American involvement in the Golden Triangle until 1972, opium production steadily increased....Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle grew 70 percent of the world's illicit opium, supplied an estimated 30 percent of America's heroin, and was capable of supplying the United States with unlimited quantities of heroin for generations to come."
The CIA's actions were more specifically described by him thus: "In most cases, the CIA's role involved various forms of complicity, tolerance or studied ignorance about the trade, not any direct culpability in the actual trafficking ... [t]he CIA did not handle heroin, but it did provide its drug-lord allies with transport, arms, and political protection. In sum, the CIA's role in the Southeast Asian heroin trade involved indirect complicity rather than direct culpability."
McCoy believes the CIA recruited drug lords in the frame of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
, underlying a "conflict between the drug war and the cold war." For instance, McCoy suggests that the CIA assisted drug lords in Burma in 1950 in operations against
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. He also alleges similar drug trafficking from 1965 to 1975 in
LaosLaos , officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and People's Republic of China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
and through the
1980s in AfghanistanThe Soviet War in Afghanistan, also known as the Soviet–Afghan War, was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan at their own request, against the Islamist Mujahideen Resistance...
, supporting for example the drug and warlord
Gulbuddin HekmatyarGulbuddin Hekmatyar is an Afghan Mujahideen leader who is the founder and leader of the Hezb-e Islami political party and paramilitary group. Hekmatyar was a rebel military commander during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan and was one of the key figures in the civil war that followed the...
, leader of the Hezbi-i Islami guerilla group .
He also uncovered
money launderingMoney laundering is the process of creating the appearance that large amounts of money obtained from serious crimes, such as drug trafficking or terrorist activity, originated from a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions with varying definitions...
activities by banks controlled by the CIA, first the Castle Bank which was then replaced by the
Nugan Hand BankNugan Hand Bank was an Australian merchant bank thatcollapsed in 1980 in sensational circumstances amidst rumours of involvement by the CIA and organized crime.-Founding:...
, who had as legal council
William ColbyWilliam Egan Colby spent a career in intelligence for the United States, culminating in holding the post of Director of Central Intelligence from September, 1973, to January, 1976....
, retired head of the CIA . He also alludes to the
BCCIBCCI may refer to:* Board of Control for Cricket in India, India's national cricket governing body* Bank of Credit and Commerce International, a legendarily corrupt and now defunct Pakistani bank, registered in Luxembourg...
, which seems to have played the same role as the Nugan Hand Bank after its collapse in the early 1980s, claiming that "the boom in the Pakistan drug trade was financed by BCCI." .
Between a repressive policy (the "Drug war"), which he considers a failure ("The repression creates a shortfall in supply which raises price and then stimulates production everywhere around the world." ) and a full
legalization of drugsDrug liberalization is the process of eliminating or reducing drug prohibition laws. Variations of drug liberalization include drug relegalization, drug legalization, and drug decriminalization.-History:...
, which he considers "politically impracticable", McCoy argues in favour of an "alternative strategy," "regularization": "I favor regulation because if cocaine and heroin are commodities let's deal with them as such. You don't repress commodities, you regulate them." . Furthermore, against bilateral agreements between the US and other nations (Colombia, Bolivia, etc. - see
coca eradicationCoca eradication is a controversial strategy strongly promoted by the United States government starting in 1961 as part of its "War on Drugs" to eliminate the cultivation of coca, a plant whose leaves are not only traditionally used by indigenous cultures but also, in modern society, in the...
campaign by the US), McCoy argues in favour of multilateral policies under the direction of the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
.
Grant Goodman Prize
In 2001, the
Association for Asian StudiesThe Association for Asian Studies is a U.S. society focused on facilitating contact and information exchange among scholars of Asian fields. It is the self-proclaimed largest society of its kind. The Association consists of eminent Asianists, and is a non-profit organization...
awarded him the Grant Goodman Prize for his career contributions to the study of the Philippines.
See also
- Claire Sterling
Claire Sterling , born Claire Neikind in Queens, New York, was an American author and journalist whose work focused on crime, political assassination, and terrorism...
—specifically the following books: Octopus: The Long Reach of the International Sicilian Mafia (1990), Crime Without Frontiers (1994), and Thieves' World: The Threat of the New Global Network of Organized Crime (1994)
Partial bibliography
- Laos
Laos , officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and People's Republic of China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
: War and Revolution, co-editor, 1970
- The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia. CIA complicity in the global drug trade, by Alfred W. McCoy with Cathleen B. Read and Leonard P. Adams II, 1972, ISBN 0-06-012901-8
- An Anarchy Of Families (state and family in the Philippines), 1998, ISBN 971-550-128-1
- Closer Than Brothers: Manhood at the Philippine Military Academy, 1999, ISBN 0-300-07765-3
- Alfred W. McCoy, "Requiem for a Drug Lord: State and Commodity in the Career of Khun Sa," in, Josiah McC. Heyman, ed., States and Illegal Practices (Oxford: Berg, 1999), pp. 129–67.
- Alfred W. McCoy, "Mission Myopia: Narcotics as 'Fall Out' from the CIA's Covert Wars," in, Craig R. Eisendrath, ed., National Insecurity: U.S. Intelligence After the Cold War (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000), pp. 118–48.
- Alfred W. McCoy, "The Stimulus of Prohibition: A Critical History of the Global Narcotics Trade," in, Michael K. Steinberg, Joseph J. Hobbs, and Kent Mathewson., eds., Dangerous Harvest: Drug Plants and the Transformation of Indigenous Landscapes (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 24–111.
- A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, From the Cold War to the War on Terror, 2006, ISBN 0-8050-8041-4
- Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State (edited volume co-edited with Francisco A. Scarano) University of Wisconsin Press
The University of Wisconsin Press is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It primarily publishes work by scholars from the global academic community but also serves the citizens of Wisconsin by publishing important books about Wisconsin, the Upper Midwest, and...
Spring 2009
- Policing America's Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State University of Wisconsin Press
The University of Wisconsin Press is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It primarily publishes work by scholars from the global academic community but also serves the citizens of Wisconsin by publishing important books about Wisconsin, the Upper Midwest, and...
Fall 2009
External links
- Page on McCoy at the "Center for Southeast Asian Studies"
- Interview of McCoy on The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia
- "A Correspondence with the CIA" -(part of an article for the The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs published in New York City. It takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
on the CIA's interest in his Politics of Heroin)
- "Cruel Science: The Long Shadow of CIA Torture Research" -(article for CounterPunch
Counterpunch can refer to:* Counterpunch , a punch in boxing* CounterPunch, a bi-weekly political newsletter* Counterpunch , a type of punch used in traditional typography* Punch-Counterpunch, a Transformers character...
on the Abu GhraibThe city of Abu Ghraib in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq is located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000. The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib...
tortures)
- Interview: Democracy Now, Transcript and Audio February, 2006
- Lecture "A Short History of Psychological Terror" exploring the history and use by the CIA of psychological torture