Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and IndochinaPeter Dale Scott's brilliantly researched tour de force illuminates the underlying forces that drive U.S. global policy from Vietnam to Colombia and now to Afghanistan and Iraq. He brings to light the intertwined patterns of drugs, oil politics, and intelligence networks that have been so central to the larger workings of U.S. intervention and escalation in Third World countries through alliances with drug-trafficking proxies. This strategy was originally developed in the late 1940s to contain communist China; it has since been used to secure control over foreign petroleum resources. The result has been a staggering increase in the global drug traffic and the mafias associated with it--a problem that will worsen until there is a change in policy. Scott argues that covert operations almost always outlast the specific purpose for which they were designed. Instead, they grow and become part of a hostile constellation of forces. The author terms this phenomenon parapolitics--the exercise of power by covert means--which tends to metastasize into deep politics--the interplay of unacknowledged forces that spin out of the control of the original policy initiators. We must recognize that U.S. influence is grounded not just in military and economic superiority, Scott contends, but also in so-called soft power. We need a "soft politics" of persuasion and nonviolence, especially as America is embroiled in yet another disastrous intervention, this time in Iraq. |
Contents
The Deep Politics of US Interventions | 1 |
Afghanistan Heroin and Oil 2002 | 25 |
Drugs and Oil in US Asian Wars From Indochina to Afghanistan | 27 |
Indochina Colombia and Afghanistan Emerging Patterns | 39 |
The Origins of the Drug Proxy Strategy The KMT Burma and US Organized Crime | 59 |
Colombia Cocaine and Oil 2001 | 69 |
The United States and Oil in Colombia | 71 |
The CIA and Drug Traffickers in Colombia | 85 |
Overview Public Private and Covert Political Power | 109 |
CATAir America 19501970 | 119 |
Laos 19591970 | 147 |
Cambodia and Oil 1970 | 167 |
Opium the China Lobby and the CIA | 185 |
A Deep Politics Bibliography | 209 |
| 213 | |
About the Author | |
The Need to Disengage from Colombia | 97 |
Indochina Opium and Oil from The War Conspiracy 1972 | 107 |
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Afghan Afghanistan Air America airlift airline American April arms army Asian August Bank BCCI Bernard Fall bombing Burma Cambodia cartel Chennault Chiang chief China lobby Chinese CIA's Cocaine Cocaine Politics communist conspiracy coup covert operations crisis Deep Politics director Dommen drug trafficking Eisenhower escalation FARC forces foreign FRUS global guerrillas Hmong Indochina intelligence International Khmer Serei Kong Laotian later Mafia McCoy narcotics National Security Nationalist neutralist Nixon North Vietnamese officer oil companies opium opium production Pakistan paramilitary Pathet Lao Pentagon Papers percent Peter Dale Scott Phoumi pilots Plain of Jars Plan Colombia planes Politics of Heroin President Press reported right-wing role San Francisco Chronicle Scott and Marshall secret Senate September Sihanouk South Vietnam Southeast Asia Souvanna Phouma Soviet Stingers supply Taiwan Taliban Thai Thailand tion troops U.S. government U.S. intervention U.S. military U.S. oil U.S. policy United Vientiane Washington World York