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[INCOMPLETE SINCE APRIL] Cleanup: The Politics of Heroin
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A week has passed, so I'm bumping the thread.
Bumping.
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Books mentioned in this topic
The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (other topics)The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (other topics)
The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (other topics)
The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (other topics)
The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (other topics)
1. All Editions: https://www.goodreads.com/work/editio...
- The Original Title is incorrect. It should be The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia
- The Original Publication Date is incorrect. It should be August 1972.
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2. First Edition Hardcover: The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (ISBN 9780060129019)
- I can’t find a specific publication day. It should just be August 1972.
- The description is incorrect. It should read as follows, transcribed from the jacket:
The fabled Golden Triangle, where Laos, Thailand, and Burma meet, long a traditional opium-growing area, now provides 70 percent of the world’s illicit supply of heroin. And many elements in the governments of these countries, and in the government of South Vietnam – most of which are supported by U.S. military and financial aid – are deeply (and lucratively) involved in the growing, processing, transport, and distribution of narcotics.
How has this situation come about?
Basing their narrative on firsthand research in Asia and Europe, the authors trace the whole story since the end of World War II. They demonstrate that during the First Indochina War (1946-1954) the security of Saigon and its environs and the locality of the hill tribes depended on profits from and some protection for the opium traffic. Similarly, it became necessary for the United States, when it took over the French commitment in 1954, to look the other way in the matter of the involvement in the drug traffic of succeeding Vietnamese regimes. After Diem’s downfall in 1963 it became apparent that money from the rackets – especially narcotics – was vital to any regime’s survival.
The authors found that in Laos, opium crops found their way from the hill villages into a secret base at Long Tieng; in Burma, the CIA financed remnants of Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Army, which later became self-supporting by taking over 90 percent of the opium shipments from the rebel Shan States of Burma; that in Thailand, shaky regimes relied on American support and opium money to help bolster their stability. They also found that the Mafia, working through Corsican criminal syndicates from Marseille, had established outposts in Southeast Asia for its international narcotics smuggling operations during the French occupation.
In spite of recent well-publicized seizures of massive shipments of heroin from Southeast Asia, heroin continues to flood the country, spreading into every level of this society and shredding the fabric of everyday life. U.S. government estimates of the number of addicts has leaped from 315,000 in 1969 to over 560,000 in 1972. This book puts all the pieces of this ghastly puzzle together, and then maps the possible avenues out of the horror, suggesting that America may have to choose between our commitments in Southeast Asia and getting heroin out of our high schools.
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3. 1972 Paperback: The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (ISBN 9780061319426)
- The title is capitalized wrong. It should be The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia
- Cathleen B. Read and Leonard P. Adams II need to be added to the Authors field.
- This edition of the paperback was published at the same time as the hardcover version. The publication date should also be August 1972.
- The paperback doesn’t have a description on or anywhere in it. I would suggest giving it the same description as #2 since it was published at the same time.
- The page count is incorrect. It stops at 472.
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4. Harper Colophon Paperback: The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (ISBN 9780060903282)
- Alfred W. McCoy, Cathleen B. Read and Leonard P. Adams II all need to be added to the Authors field.
- The publisher is incorrect. It should be Harper Colophon Books.
- The publication date is incorrect. I can’t find a month or day, but the copyright page says 1973.
- The paperback doesn’t have a description on or anywhere in it. I would suggest giving it the same description as #2 since it’s from the same publisher and has all the same design.
- The page count is incorrect. It stops at 472.
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5. 1991 Revised Paperback: The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (ISBN 9781556521256)
- The page count is incorrect. I'm holding a copy and it stops at 634.
- The description is incorrect. It should read as follows, transcribed from the back cover:
A revised and expanded edition of The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia
“To an average American who witnesses the dismal spectacle of the narcotics traffic at the street level, it must seem inconceivable that the government could be implicated in the international drug trade. Unfortunately, American diplomats and CIA agents have been involved in the narcotics traffic at three levels: (1) coincidental complicity by allying with groups actively engaged in the drug traffic; (2) support of the traffic by covering up for known heroin traffickers and condoning their involvement; and (3) active engagement in the transport of opium and heroin. It is ironic, to say the least, that America’s heroin plague is of its own making.”
-from The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade
Twenty years of research have led to this revised and updated edition of Alfred W. McCoy’s classic, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia. In it, he concludes that, with global production and consumption of narcotics at record levels and heroin use in America on the rise, it is time to confront the failure of the U.S. government’s drug policy and to put an end to the CIA’s complicity in the narcotics trade, which since World War II has been an integral part of the agency’s efforts to maintain U.S. power abroad. A remarkable exposé of official U.S. hypocrisy in its approaches to one of the world’s greatest social problems, The Politics of Heroin offers an analysis that is destined to influence the public debate on drugs for years to come.
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6. 2003 Paperback: The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (ISBN 9781556524837)
- The day should be removed from the publication date. I can’t find a specific publication day. The publisher page just says May 2003.
- The page count is incorrect. It stops at 710.
- The description is incorrect. It should read as follows, transcribed from the back cover:
A stunning exposé of official hypocrisy, The Politics of Heroin probes the failure of the U.S. “war on drugs” and meticulously documents CIA complicity in international drug trafficking both during and after the Cold War – in Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Central America, and Latin America. The consequences of this complicity are evident today in an eruption of heroin trafficking worldwide, just as the legacy of the CIA’s covert wars is manifest in vast regions that have become black holes of global instability.
After five U.S. drug wars at a cost of over $150 billion, production and consumption of narcotics are currently at record levels. Drug prosecutions in America have packed our prisons without curtailing drug use. This book confronts the utter failure of U.S. drug policy at home and abroad, and raises disturbing questions about the future role of the Central Intelligence Agency in U.S. foreign policy.
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7. Invalid Editions
All of these need to be marked invalid.
A. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
B. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
C. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
D. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
E. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
F. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
G. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
H. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
I. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
J. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
K. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
L. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
M. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
N. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...