The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America's War on Drugs

by Douglas Valentine

Voted Outstanding Academic Title in 2004 by Choice.

The Strength of the Wolf is the first complete history of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), which existed from 1930 until its wrenching termination in 1968. The most successful federal law enforcement agency ever, the FBN was populated by some of the most amazing characters in American history, many of whom the author interviewed for this book. Working as undercover agents and with mercenary informers around the globe, these freewheeling “case-making” agents penetrated the Mafia and the French connection, breaking all the rules in the process, and uncovering the Establishment’s ties to organized crime. Targeted by the FBI and the CIA, the case-makers were, ironically, victims of their own fabulous success in hunting down society’s predators. An incredible, never-before-told story, The Strength of the Wolf provides a new, exciting, and revealing look at an important chapter in American history.

Genres: History, Drugs, American, Conspiracy Theories, Nonfiction, Politics, Crime

572 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2004

About the author

Douglas Valentine is the author of four books of historical nonfiction: The Hotel Tacloban, The Phoenix Program, The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America's War on Drugs, and The Strength of the Pack: The Personalities, Politics and Espionage Intrigues that Shaped the DEA. He is the author of the novel TDY, and a book of poems, A Crow's Dream. He is also the editor of the poetry anthology With Our Eyes Wide Open: Poems of the New American Century (West End Press, 2014). He lives with his wife, Alice, in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Mirza Sultan-Galiev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disgruntled pensioners recall their work in the bowels of the covert state.

[Diogenes Grief · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure how Valentine did it while maintaining his sanity, but this painstakingly researched history of the global disease that is the drug trade reads like a hundred spiderwebs placed--sometimes carefully and sometimes recklessly--atop one another across the timeline of the twentieth century. Despite the topic's nearly mind-boggling array of characters, agencies, cabals, and egos, the author truly shines a bright light on the termite nests lurking behind the pleasant veneer of Society, with the U.S. being the central hive and having tentacles reaching into every dark and fetid corner of the globe.

Truly appalling to learn about, but definitely important to know, I doubt any other book could tackle this issue so thoroughly. I'll need to read some short work of mindless fiction to cleanse my palette.

* Minus 1/4 of a star for a gratuitous use of exclamation points ;)

[Nils · Rating 4 out of 5]

The jacket blurb from counterpunch says that "Valentine's book... reads like a coherent speed freak's monologue": this is very true, and while at first a bit annoying, since the book is constructed as a recitation of the schemes and busts and malfeasances of various agents of the FBN between the 1920s and the 1970s, it does work (through the sheer accumulation of repeated detail) to enforce its basic thesis, which is that the US federal drug enforcement has from the get-go been compromised by (if not completely in hock to) a racist, sexist, heteronormative, and above all anticommunist political agenda. The effect (and indeed arguably the purpose) of the agency was therefore really always more about enforcing the social controls desired by the Establishment than about reducing social harm to drug users in the United States. With that said, Valentine recognizes that the people who were busted on the trafficking side were almost all amoral bad guys, albeit some worse than others, and some scarcely worse than the corrupt agents who were busting them.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without a doubt, a 5 star rating, a well researched and constructed manuscript. Strength of the Wolf is an analysis that draws on documentation, reference to prior work by other authors, first person interviews, and the author’s ability to use literary devices to paint a cohesive picture of a long and hidden history, even if it takes a critical comparison of conflicting first person accounts to support a central hypothesis. The blurb on the cover says it reads like a “coherent speed freak monologue”, but I think i would disagree with that because I’m not sure I even know what that means. I’d also disagree with it because it reads like a careful and rational description of history. As I wrote this review, I was also consumed with my own doctoral research on the association of opium-derived drugs with work-related pain and working class exposures. I appreciate that the author undertook what must have been an extraordinary task of research for this book because it may well have remained hidden from history if he had not done so. Yet, with the horrible world-wide epidemic of destruction from drug abuse and trafficking, it’s the information in this book which must be understood by everyone before we go on making the same mistakes, again, and again, and again. Please read this book.

[Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredibly detailed retelling of an agency I never knew existed. If you are new to the history of drug trafficking be prepared to memorize dozens of new names for a single chapter.

[Night of the Big Rain · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think you could start right here in Douglas Valentine’s superb work if you’re looking for a genuine explanation on how the world works.