Politics of Heroin CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade

The first book to prove CIA and U.S. government complicity in global drug trafficking, The Politics of Heroin includes meticulous documentation of dishonesty and dirty dealings at the highest levels from the Cold War until today. Maintaining a global perspective, this groundbreaking study details the mechanics of drug trafficking in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and South and Central America. New chapters detail U.S. involvement in the narcotics trade in Afghanistan and Pakistan before and after the fall of the Taliban, and how U.S. drug policy in Central America and Colombia has increased the global supply of illicit drugs.

“A fascinating, often meticulous unraveling of the byzantine complexities of the Southeast Asia drug trade . . . a pioneering book.”  —The New York Times Book Review

Includes bibliographical references (p. 649-680) and index.

Alfred W. McCoy is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He holds a doctorate in southeast Asian history from Yale University and is the recipient of the 2001 Goodman Prize from the Association for Asian Studies. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Sicily : home of the Mafia -- Marseille : America's heroin laboratory -- Opium for the natives -- Cold War opium boom -- South Vietnam's heroin traffic -- Hong Kong : Asia's heroin laboratory -- The Golden Triangle -- War on drugs -- The CIA's covert wars.