Alfred W. McCoy
Encyclopedia
Alfred William McCoy is a historian
of Southeast Asia
. He is the J.R.W. Smail Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
. McCoy graduated from the Kent School
in 1964. He earned his B.A.
from Columbia College, and his Ph.D in Southeast Asian history from Yale University
.
history, and about Southeast Asia, and in particular about the Golden Triangle
drug trades of opium
and heroin. His book, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia
(1972 first ed.),documented the interactions between the CIA and drug cartels
in that region.
The principal thesis of McCoy's work is that organized crime in both America and Europe collaborated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to establish new centers of opium production, heroin refining and distribution in Southeast Asia. This collaboration occurred following the effective suppression of the heroin trade in America during World War II
and the subsequent decision to stamp out opium
growing by Turkey
which had been one of the main sources of raw opium. The collaboration was greatly facilitated by the Central Intelligence Agency
and by the unstable political situation created by the ongoing Vietnam War
.
McCoy points out that the French SDECE military intelligence agency during the First Indochina War
(1947–1954) was in need of money for its covert operation
s. Its officers contacted opium producers in the Golden Triangle, and set up an international system of smuggling aided by intelligence and other aid from SDECE. This system persisted past the war, and became the French Connection
.
McCoy asserts that the "French Connection" conspiracy arose from an alliance between the Corsica
n Mafia
, who had an historical presence in South Vietnam
dating back to the French occupation
, and between the leading members of the American and Sicilian Mafia under the leadership of Lucky Luciano
who had been imprisoned in the U.S. during World War II for racketeering but who was asked also to provide assistance to American military intelligence about Axis infiltration of Mafia-controlled, waterfront in American ports as well as assisting Allied forces in their invasion of Sicily
and Italy
. According to McCoy, Luciano reportedly used his contacts in the Sicilian Mafia to assist U.S. forces by gathering intelligence and identifying both fascist collaborators and Socialist/Communists in the Italian resistance movement
who were then systematically eliminated.
In return for his assistance, Luciano was covertly permitted to run his crime operations from prison, and at the end of the war he was deported back to Sicily, where he immediately began a major expansion of his drug operations, forging alliances with Corsican Mafia members in South Vietnam and organised crime figures in other countries, including Australia
.
McCoy wrote in the book, "American involvement had gone far beyond coincidental complicity; embassies had covered up involvement by client governments, CIA contract airlines had carried opium, and individual CIA agents had winked at the opium traffic. As an indirect consequence of American involvement in the Golden Triangle until 1972, opium production steadily increased....Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle grew 70 percent of the world's illicit opium, supplied an estimated 30 percent of America's heroin, and was capable of supplying the United States with unlimited quantities of heroin for generations to come."
The CIA's actions were more specifically described by him thus: "In most cases, the CIA's role involved various forms of complicity, tolerance or studied ignorance about the trade, not any direct culpability in the actual trafficking ... [t]he CIA did not handle heroin, but it did provide its drug-lord allies with transport, arms, and political protection. In sum, the CIA's role in the Southeast Asian heroin trade involved indirect complicity rather than direct culpability."
McCoy believes the CIA recruited drug lords in the frame of the Cold War
, underlying a "conflict between the drug war and the cold war." For instance, McCoy suggests that the CIA assisted drug lords in Burma in 1950 in operations against China
. He also alleges similar drug trafficking from 1965 to 1975 in Laos
and through the 1980s in Afghanistan
, supporting for example the drug and warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
, leader of the Hezbi-i Islami guerilla group.
He also uncovered money laundering
activities by banks controlled by the CIA, first the Castle Bank which was then replaced by the Nugan Hand Bank
, who had as legal council William Colby
, retired head of the CIA. He also alludes to the BCCI
, which seems to have played the same role as the Nugan Hand Bank after its collapse in the early 1980s, claiming that "the boom in the Pakistan drug trade was financed by BCCI."
Between a repressive policy (the "Drug war"), which he considers a failure ("The repression creates a shortfall in supply which raises price and then stimulates production everywhere around the world.") and a full legalization of drugs
, which he considers "politically impracticable", McCoy argues in favour of an "alternative strategy," "regularization": "I favor regulation because if cocaine and heroin are commodities let's deal with them as such. You don't repress commodities, you regulate them." Furthermore, against bilateral agreements between the US and other nations (Colombia, Bolivia, etc. - see coca eradication
campaign by the US), McCoy argues in favour of multilateral policies under the direction of the United Nations
.
abuse photographs These were regularised in the The first manual, "KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation," dated July 1963, and then used in a series of U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals, that were widely distributed to right wing dictatorial anti-communist regimes around the world during the cold war, and special training in these torture methods was given at the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA). The manuals provide detailed techniques for infiltrating social movements, using torture to interrogate suspects, surveillance, maintaining military secrecy, recruiting and retaining spies, and controlling the population. Throughout the Bush administration Dick Cheney retained personal copies of the training manuals.
These methods were used during the Vietnam War, in Project Phoenix
, a joint CIA and Vietnamese counter-insurgency operation, resulted in the torture of tens of thousands of suspected Viet Cong and sympathizers and caused the deaths of more than 26,000 of them. They were also used in the Philippines during the Marcos years and in Iran by the Shah's notorious Savak
.
McCoy shows that since the time of the Roman author Ulpian
torture has never been good at eliciting information. Those tortured will confess to anything to get the pain to stop, and often invent information they think the torturer wants to hear. He also demonstrates that not only is the evidence that torture fails to work, it in fact increases hatred of the regimes that use it, and undoubtably contributed to the fall of the Marcos and Shah of Iran's regimes.
In Guantanimo and Abu Ghraib, and through extraordinary rendition, the CIA made widespread use of torture of suspects, producing no useful information that could be used in any criminal court against any suspect. Scapegoats have been tried for these offences. McCoy showed, that from World War II, "Empathic Interrogation" used against fanatic Japanese has been found to be far more effective, and, used by the FBI, has resulted in a number of successful prosecutions. McCoy also demonstrates, not only does torture produce psychotic effects upon the tortured, it historically has led to violence afterwards perpetrated by torturers, citing evidence in both the Philippines and with the OAS in France after its use in Algeria and Vietnam. He concludes "In sum, the powerful often turn to torture in times of crisis, not because it works but because it salves their fears and insecurities with the psychic balm of empowerment."
awarded him the Grant Goodman Prize for his career contributions to the study of the Philippines.
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
of Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
. He is the J.R.W. Smail Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
. McCoy graduated from the Kent School
Kent School
Kent School is a private, co-educational college preparatory school in Kent, Connecticut, USA. The Reverend Frederick Herbert Sill, Order of the Holy Cross, established the school in 1906 and it retains its affiliation with the Episcopal Church of the United States.Students at Kent come from more...
in 1964. He earned his B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from Columbia College, and his Ph.D in Southeast Asian history from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
.
Thesis
McCoy has researched and has written about PhilippinesPhilippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
history, and about Southeast Asia, and in particular about the Golden Triangle
Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)
The Golden Triangle is one of Asia's two main illicit opium-producing areas. It is an area of around that overlaps the mountains of four countries of Southeast Asia: Burma, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Along with Afghanistan in the Golden Crescent and Pakistan, it has been one of the most...
drug trades of opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
and heroin. His book, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia
The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia
The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia is a major, nonfiction book on heroin trafficking—specifically in Southeast Asia from before World War II up to the Vietnam War. Published in 1972, the book was the product of eighteen months of research and at least one trip to Laos by Alfred W...
(1972 first ed.),documented the interactions between the CIA and drug cartels
CIA Drug Trafficking
A few sources indicate the United States Central Intelligence Agency might have been involved in several drug trafficking operations...
in that region.
The principal thesis of McCoy's work is that organized crime in both America and Europe collaborated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to establish new centers of opium production, heroin refining and distribution in Southeast Asia. This collaboration occurred following the effective suppression of the heroin trade in America during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the subsequent decision to stamp out opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
growing by Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
which had been one of the main sources of raw opium. The collaboration was greatly facilitated by the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
and by the unstable political situation created by the ongoing Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
McCoy points out that the French SDECE military intelligence agency during the First Indochina War
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
(1947–1954) was in need of money for its covert operation
Covert operation
A covert operation is a military, intelligence or law enforcement operation that is carried clandestinely and, often, outside of official channels. Covert operations aim to fulfill their mission objectives without any parties knowing who sponsored or carried out the operation...
s. Its officers contacted opium producers in the Golden Triangle, and set up an international system of smuggling aided by intelligence and other aid from SDECE. This system persisted past the war, and became the French Connection
French Connection
The French Connection was a scheme through which heroin was smuggled from Turkey to France and then to the United States. The operation reached its peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when it provided the vast majority of the illicit heroin used in the United States...
.
McCoy asserts that the "French Connection" conspiracy arose from an alliance between the Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
n Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
, who had an historical presence in South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
dating back to the French occupation
French Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
, and between the leading members of the American and Sicilian Mafia under the leadership of Lucky Luciano
Lucky Luciano
Charlie "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian mobster born in Sicily. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for splitting New York City into five different Mafia crime families and the establishment of the first commission...
who had been imprisoned in the U.S. during World War II for racketeering but who was asked also to provide assistance to American military intelligence about Axis infiltration of Mafia-controlled, waterfront in American ports as well as assisting Allied forces in their invasion of Sicily
Allied invasion of Sicily
The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis . It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian Campaign.Husky began on the night of...
and Italy
Allied invasion of Italy
The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied landing on mainland Italy on September 3, 1943, by General Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group during the Second World War. The operation followed the successful invasion of Sicily during the Italian Campaign...
. According to McCoy, Luciano reportedly used his contacts in the Sicilian Mafia to assist U.S. forces by gathering intelligence and identifying both fascist collaborators and Socialist/Communists in the Italian resistance movement
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
who were then systematically eliminated.
In return for his assistance, Luciano was covertly permitted to run his crime operations from prison, and at the end of the war he was deported back to Sicily, where he immediately began a major expansion of his drug operations, forging alliances with Corsican Mafia members in South Vietnam and organised crime figures in other countries, including Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
McCoy wrote in the book, "American involvement had gone far beyond coincidental complicity; embassies had covered up involvement by client governments, CIA contract airlines had carried opium, and individual CIA agents had winked at the opium traffic. As an indirect consequence of American involvement in the Golden Triangle until 1972, opium production steadily increased....Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle grew 70 percent of the world's illicit opium, supplied an estimated 30 percent of America's heroin, and was capable of supplying the United States with unlimited quantities of heroin for generations to come."
The CIA's actions were more specifically described by him thus: "In most cases, the CIA's role involved various forms of complicity, tolerance or studied ignorance about the trade, not any direct culpability in the actual trafficking ... [t]he CIA did not handle heroin, but it did provide its drug-lord allies with transport, arms, and political protection. In sum, the CIA's role in the Southeast Asian heroin trade involved indirect complicity rather than direct culpability."
McCoy believes the CIA recruited drug lords in the frame of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, underlying a "conflict between the drug war and the cold war." For instance, McCoy suggests that the CIA assisted drug lords in Burma in 1950 in operations against China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. He also alleges similar drug trafficking from 1965 to 1975 in Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
and through the 1980s in Afghanistan
Soviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...
, supporting for example the drug and warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is an Afghan Mujahideen leader who is the founder and leader of the Hezb-e Islami political party and paramilitary group. Hekmatyar was a rebel military commander during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan and was one of the key figures in the civil war that followed the...
, leader of the Hezbi-i Islami guerilla group.
He also uncovered money laundering
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
activities by banks controlled by the CIA, first the Castle Bank which was then replaced by the Nugan Hand Bank
Nugan Hand Bank
Nugan Hand Bank was an Australian merchant bank thatcollapsed in 1980 in sensational circumstances amidst rumours of involvement by the Central Intelligence Agency and organized crime.-Founding:...
, who had as legal council William Colby
William Colby
William Egan Colby spent a career in intelligence for the United States, culminating in holding the post of Director of Central Intelligence from September 1973, to January 1976....
, retired head of the CIA. He also alludes to the BCCI
Bank of Credit and Commerce International
The Bank of Credit and Commerce International was a major international bank founded in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani financier. The Bank was registered in Luxembourg with head offices in Karachi and London. Within a decade BCCI touched its peak...
, which seems to have played the same role as the Nugan Hand Bank after its collapse in the early 1980s, claiming that "the boom in the Pakistan drug trade was financed by BCCI."
Between a repressive policy (the "Drug war"), which he considers a failure ("The repression creates a shortfall in supply which raises price and then stimulates production everywhere around the world.") and a full legalization of drugs
Drug liberalization
Drug liberalization is the process of eliminating or reducing drug prohibition laws. Variations of drug liberalization include drug relegalization, drug legalization, and drug decriminalization -Policies:...
, which he considers "politically impracticable", McCoy argues in favour of an "alternative strategy," "regularization": "I favor regulation because if cocaine and heroin are commodities let's deal with them as such. You don't repress commodities, you regulate them." Furthermore, against bilateral agreements between the US and other nations (Colombia, Bolivia, etc. - see coca eradication
Coca eradication
Coca eradication is a controversial strategy strongly promoted by the United States government starting in 1961 as part of its "War on Drugs" to eliminate the cultivation of coca, a plant whose leaves are not only traditionally used by indigenous cultures but also, in modern society, in the...
campaign by the US), McCoy argues in favour of multilateral policies under the direction of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
.
Recent work
In his book "A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror", McCoy shows how from the start of the Cold War to the early nineteen-sixties, the C.I.A. spent billions of dollars developing psychological tools for interrogation. Early on, the emphasis was on electroshock, hypnosis, psychosurgery, and drugs, including the infamous use of LSD on unsuspecting soldiers and civilians, but these methods appeared a complete waste of time, although they were of dubious legality. Drawing on the sensory deprivation work of Canadian neurological scientist Donald O. Hebb, it was found that sensory deprivation was far more effective in brainwashing subjects than beattings or physical pain. Furthermore "self-inflicted pain" (for example forcing an uncooperative subject to stand for many hours with arms outstretched) were more effective means of breaking prisoners. Augmented by fears of physical abuse, sexual humiliation, and other psychological attacks on personal and cultural identity, McCoy has explained how the US government produced exactly the system on display in the Abu GhraibAbu Ghraib
The city of Abu Ghraib in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq is located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000. The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib...
abuse photographs These were regularised in the The first manual, "KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation," dated July 1963, and then used in a series of U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals, that were widely distributed to right wing dictatorial anti-communist regimes around the world during the cold war, and special training in these torture methods was given at the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA). The manuals provide detailed techniques for infiltrating social movements, using torture to interrogate suspects, surveillance, maintaining military secrecy, recruiting and retaining spies, and controlling the population. Throughout the Bush administration Dick Cheney retained personal copies of the training manuals.
These methods were used during the Vietnam War, in Project Phoenix
Project Phoenix
Project Phoenix may refer to:* Project Phoenix , a search for extraterrestrial intelligence by listening for radio signals* Project Phoenix , South African National Defence Force programme to revive its Reserve Force element...
, a joint CIA and Vietnamese counter-insurgency operation, resulted in the torture of tens of thousands of suspected Viet Cong and sympathizers and caused the deaths of more than 26,000 of them. They were also used in the Philippines during the Marcos years and in Iran by the Shah's notorious Savak
SAVAK
SAVAK was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service established by Iran's Mohammad Reza Shah on the recommendation of the British Government and with the help of the United States' Central Intelligence Agency SAVAK (Persian: ساواک, short for سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور...
.
McCoy shows that since the time of the Roman author Ulpian
Ulpian
Gnaeus Domitius Annius Ulpianus , anglicized as Ulpian, was a Roman jurist of Tyrian ancestry.-Biography:The exact time and place of his birth are unknown, but the period of his literary activity was between AD 211 and 222...
torture has never been good at eliciting information. Those tortured will confess to anything to get the pain to stop, and often invent information they think the torturer wants to hear. He also demonstrates that not only is the evidence that torture fails to work, it in fact increases hatred of the regimes that use it, and undoubtably contributed to the fall of the Marcos and Shah of Iran's regimes.
In Guantanimo and Abu Ghraib, and through extraordinary rendition, the CIA made widespread use of torture of suspects, producing no useful information that could be used in any criminal court against any suspect. Scapegoats have been tried for these offences. McCoy showed, that from World War II, "Empathic Interrogation" used against fanatic Japanese has been found to be far more effective, and, used by the FBI, has resulted in a number of successful prosecutions. McCoy also demonstrates, not only does torture produce psychotic effects upon the tortured, it historically has led to violence afterwards perpetrated by torturers, citing evidence in both the Philippines and with the OAS in France after its use in Algeria and Vietnam. He concludes "In sum, the powerful often turn to torture in times of crisis, not because it works but because it salves their fears and insecurities with the psychic balm of empowerment."
Grant Goodman Prize
In 2001, the Association for Asian StudiesAssociation for Asian Studies
The Association for Asian Studies is a U.S. society focused on facilitating contact and information exchange among scholars of Asian fields. It is the self-proclaimed largest society of its kind. The Association consists of eminent Asianists, and is a non-profit organization...
awarded him the Grant Goodman Prize for his career contributions to the study of the Philippines.
See also
- Air America (airline)
- Barry SealBarry SealAdler Berriman Seal , better known as Barry Seal, was a United States drug smuggler and aircraft pilot who flew covert flights for the Central Intelligence Agency and the Medellín Cartel.-Early life:...
- Claire SterlingClaire SterlingClaire Sterling was an American author and journalist whose work focused on crime, political assassination, and terrorism...
– specifically the following books: Octopus: The Long Reach of the International Sicilian Mafia (1990), Crime Without Frontiers (1994), and Thieves' World: The Threat of the New Global Network of Organized Crime (1994) - Gary WebbGary WebbGary Webb was a Pulitzer prize-winning American investigative journalist.Webb was best known for his 1996 "Dark Alliance" series of articles written for the San Jose Mercury News and later published as a book...
- Iran-Contra
Partial bibliography
- LaosLaosLaos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
: War and Revolution, co-editor, 1970 - The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia. CIA complicity in the global drug trade, by Alfred W. McCoy with Cathleen B. Read and Leonard P. Adams II, 1972, ISBN 0-06-012901-8
- An Anarchy Of Families (state and family in the Philippines), 1998, ISBN 971-550-128-1
- Closer Than Brothers: Manhood at the Philippine Military Academy, 1999, ISBN 0-300-07765-3
- Alfred W. McCoy, "Requiem for a Drug Lord: State and Commodity in the Career of Khun Sa," in, Josiah McC. Heyman, ed., States and Illegal Practices (Oxford: Berg, 1999), pp. 129–67.
- Alfred W. McCoy, "Mission Myopia: Narcotics as 'Fall Out' from the CIA's Covert Wars," in, Craig R. Eisendrath, ed., National Insecurity: U.S. Intelligence After the Cold War (Philadelphia: Temple University PressTemple University PressTemple University Press is a university press publishing house that is part of Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.The press was founded in 1969....
, 2000), pp. 118–48. - Alfred W. McCoy, "The Stimulus of Prohibition: A Critical History of the Global Narcotics Trade," in, Michael K. Steinberg, Joseph J. Hobbs, and Kent Mathewson., eds., Dangerous Harvest: Drug Plants and the Transformation of Indigenous Landscapes (New York: Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 2004), pp. 24–111. - A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, From the Cold War to the War on Terror, 2006, ISBN 0-8050-8041-4
- Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State (edited volume co-edited with Francisco A. Scarano), University of Wisconsin PressUniversity of Wisconsin PressThe University of Wisconsin Press is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It primarily publishes work by scholars from the global academic community but also serves the citizens of Wisconsin by publishing important books about Wisconsin, the Upper Midwest, and...
Spring 2009 - Policing America's Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State University of Wisconsin Press Fall 2009
External links
- Homepage at the Department of History, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Interview of McCoy on The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia
- "A Correspondence with the CIA" (part of an article for The New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
on the CIA's interest in his Politics of Heroin) - "Cruel Science: The Long Shadow of CIA Torture Research" -(article for CounterPunchCounterpunchCounterpunch can refer to:* Counterpunch , a punch in boxing* CounterPunch, a bi-weekly political newsletter* Counterpunch , a type of punch used in traditional typography* Punch-Counterpunch, a Transformers character...
on the Abu GhraibAbu GhraibThe city of Abu Ghraib in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq is located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000. The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib...
tortures) - Interview: Democracy Now, Transcript and Audio February, 2006
- Lecture "A Short History of Psychological Terror" exploring the history and use by the CIA of psychological torture