The CIA, in an alliance with the Nationalist Chinese (KMT), addicted millions of Americans on drugs such as heroin and cocaine to finance a covert war against the spread of Communism.
The KMT’s leader was the brutal, authoritarian dictator Chiang Kai-shek of Taiwan that the US still supports, and Chiang Kai-shek ruled Taiwan with an iron fist until his death in 1976.
However, it wouldn’t be until the 2000 presidential election in Taiwan that the KMT’s dictatorial hold on power ended.
I first learned of the KMT-CIA drug pipeline into the US in the early 1980s when I read of Congressional hearings leading to the closing of Air America, a covert airline owned by the CIA that was one of the methods used to move illegal drugs out of Southeast Asia and into the hands of US citizens.
After the Chinese Communists under Mao won China’s long Civil War (1927-1949), a large force of KMT troops in southern China fled to the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia, which is located in Laos, Thailand and Burma. That’s when the KMT became involved in the drug trade with the CIA, and former KMT Chinese generals operating out of Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle cooperated with the CIA during the Vietnam War to supply American troops in Vietnam and drug addicts in the US with heroin and cocaine in trade for weapons. The drugs were sold to U.S. troops and citizens back home and that money paid for the weapons that were traded for the drugs.
For reminding me of this dark chapter of America’s history (which evidence says is still an open book), I thank 21st Century Marco Polo, a committed and experienced human rights and legal education professional with a history of working internationally throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
In addition, Kevin Ryan writing for 911 Blogger.com reviewed American War Machine written by Peter Dale Scott.
Ryan writes, “This book examines a wide-ranging number of covert US operations since World War II, and, among other things, demonstrates that many of these operations were intimately connected with, and dependent on, illicit drug trafficking …”
The Senophobic, American capitalist obsession with everything Communist led the US down this dark path that introduced an expressway of heroin and cocaine into the US in what may contribute to the eventual failure of the most successful and powerful democracy in the history of humanity.
The following embedded videos are a four part series of an audio transcript of a 60 Minutes broadcast about the CIA controlled drug trade.
60 Minutes on CIA Drug Smuggling – Part 1
60 Minutes on CIA Drug Smuggling – Part 2
60 Minutes on CIA Drug Smuggling – Part 3
60 Minutes on CIA Drug Smuggling – Part 4
To understand the impact on US society, Drug Rehabs.org says, “The trafficking of illicit drugs burdens various components of domestic financial sectors as individuals and organizations frequently engage in illegal activates to generate income in order to purchase drugs or finance drug trafficking operations. Mortgage fraud (think 2008 financial crises which originated in New York), counterfeiting, shoplifting, insurance fraud, ransom kidnapping, identity theft, home invasion, personal property theft, and many other criminal activates often are undertaken by drug users and distributers to support drug addictions …”
Did you know that Mao, after winning the Chinese Civil War (1926 to 1949) between the Communists and Nationalists, ended drug trafficking and drug use in China in about 24 hours?
Illegal drugs wouldn’t return to China until after Mao’s death when China joined the WTO in 2001, and opened its doors to world trade and capitalism dominated by neoliberal Milton Friedman economics that thinks “Greed is Good!”
Today, there are over 900,000 registered drug addicts in China, but the Government recognizes that the actual number of users is far higher. Some unofficial estimates range as high as 12 million. Of the registered drug addicts, 83.7 percent are male and 73.9 percent are under the age of 35.
But it’s a lot worse in the United States where it is estimated that 23.5-million Americans are addicted to alcohol and drugs. That’s approximately one in every 10 Americans over the age of 12 – roughly equal to the entire population of Texas, and only 11 percent of those with an addiction receive treatment in the U.S.
______________________________
Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the lusty love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.
Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.
iLook China 