Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina / Edition 1

by Peter Dale Scott University of California,

Overview

Peter 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. The result has been a staggering increase in global drug traffic. Thus, the author argues, the exercise of power by covert means, or parapolitics, often metastasizes into deep politics_the interplay of unacknowledged forces that spin out of the control of the original policy initiators. Scott contends that we must recognize that U.S. influence is grounded not just in military and economic superiority 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742525221
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/04/2003
Series:	War and Peace Library
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	701,204
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Peter Dale Scott was born in 1929 in Montreal, Canada. A former Canadian diplomat and professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, he is both a poet and an author of political analysis. His chief prose books include Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, The War Conspiracy, Cocaine Politics, and The Iran-Contra Connection (the last two in collaboration). His most recent book of poetry is Minding the Darkness, completing his trilogy Seculum. In 2002 he was awarded the Lannan Poetry Award. He is married to Ronna Kabatznick, and has three children by his former wife, Maylie Marshall.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Introduction: The Deep Politics of U.S. Interventions Part 3 Part I: Afghanistan, Heroin, and Oil (2002) Chapter 4 Chapter 1: Drugs and Oil in U.S. Asian Wars: From Indochina to Afghanistan Chapter 5 Chapter 2: Indochina, Colombia, and Afghanistan: Emerging Patterns Chapter 6 Chapter 3: The Origins of the Drug Proxy Strategy: The KMT, Burma, and U.S. Organized Crime Part 7 Part II: Colombia, Cocaine, and Oil (2001) Chapter 8 Chapter 4: The United States and Oil in Colombia Chapter 9 Chapter 5: The CIA and Drug Traffickers in Colombia Chapter 10 Chapter 6: The Need to Disengage from Colombia Part 11 Part III: Indochina, Opium, and Oil (From The War Conspiracy, 1972) Chapter 12 Chapter 7: Overview: Public, Private, and Covert Political Power Chapter 13 Chapter 8: CAT/Air America, 1950-1970 Chapter 14 Chapter 9: Laos, 1959-1970 Chapter 15 Chapter 10: Cambodia and Oil, 1970 Chapter 16 Chapter 11: Opium, the China Lobby, and the CIA

What People are Saying About This

Michael C. Ruppert

No student of political science or political thinker dares overlook this thirty-year tour de force of the dark side of history and the para and deep politics that control so much of our daily lives.

Daniel Ellsberg

This is a brilliant, compelling, and startlingly original exposé of American foreign policy as oil policy with an addiction to drug trafficking as its adjunct. It makes most academic and journalistic explanations of the dreadful paradoxes of our past and current interventions read like government propaganda written for children.

Robert White

Peter Dale Scott takes us for a controversial tour along the dark side of American foreign policy. The book builds a powerful case that Washington's War on Drugs is at best futile and at worst criminal. The overall target is the militarization of our foreign policy. The facts and conclusions are chilling.

Editorial Reviews

Peter Dale Scott takes us for a controversial tour along the dark side of American foreign policy. The book builds a powerful case that Washington's War on Drugs is at best futile and at worst criminal. The overall target is the militarization of our foreign policy. The facts and conclusions are chilling.

Ambassador Robert White

Praise for the work of Peter Dale Scott: The War Conspiracy A powerful analysis of the United States' persistent drive toward war.....

Franz Schurmann

No student of political science or political thinker dares overlook this thirty-year tour de force of the dark side of history and the para and deep politics that control so much of our daily lives.

Michael C. Ruppert

This is a brilliant, compelling, and startlingly original exposé of American foreign policy as oil policy with an addiction to drug trafficking as its adjunct. It makes most academic and journalistic explanations of the dreadful paradoxes of our past and current interventions read like government propaganda written for children.

Daniel Ellsberg

Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and current English professor, analyzes an important aspect of U.S. foreign policy. Scott does point to sources and relationships that are often ignored by works relying on standard archival materials.

Choice Reviews

Praise for the work of Peter Dale Scott: Cocaine Politics For the evidence that narcotics. .. have been instruments of U.S. foreign policy, you simply have to read Cocaine Politics. This, one of the most enlightening books of the year, will redefine your usage of the silly term 'drug war.''''

The Nation - Christopher Hitchens

Praise for the work of Peter Dale Scott: Coming to Jakarta Coming to Jakarta is the most important political poem to appear in the English language in a very long time.

Robert Hass

Praise for the work of Peter Dale Scott: The War Conspiracy A meticulous and fascinating analysis.. .. The great importance of this book extends well beyond the new understanding it provides with regards to past escapades. Scott exposes an element in the American system of global power that poses an increasing threat to the victims of this system....

Noam Chomsky

No student of political science or political thinker dares overlook this thirty-year tour de force of the dark side of history and the para and deep politics that control so much of our daily lives.

Peter Dale Scott takes us for a controversial tour along the dark side of American foreign policy. The book builds a powerful case that Washington's War on Drugs is at best futile and at worst criminal. The overall target is the militarization of our foreign policy. The facts and conclusions are chilling.

Praise for the work of Peter Dale Scott: Coming to Jakarta Coming to Jakarta is the most important political poem to appear in the English language in a very long time.

Praise for the work of Peter Dale Scott: Cocaine Politics For the evidence that narcotics . . . have been instruments of U.S. foreign policy, you simply have to read Cocaine Politics. This, one of the most enlightening books of the year, will redefine your usage of the silly term 'drug war.''''

Praise for the work of Peter Dale Scott: Deep Politics and the Death of JFK Staggeringly well-researched and intelligent overview not only of the JFK assassination but also of the rise of forces undermining American democracy-of which the assassination, Scott says, is symptomatic....

Praise for the work of Peter Dale Scott: The War Conspiracy A meticulous and fascinating analysis. . . . The great importance of this book extends well beyond the new understanding it provides with regards to past escapades. Scott exposes an element in the American system of global power that poses an increasing threat to the victims of this system....

Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and current English professor, analyzes an important aspect of U.S. foreign policy. Scott does point to sources and relationships that are often ignored by works relying on standard archival materials.

This is a brilliant, compelling, and startlingly original exposé of American foreign policy as oil policy with an addiction to drug trafficking as its adjunct. It makes most academic and journalistic explanations of the dreadful paradoxes of our past and current interventions read like government propaganda written for children.

From the Publisher

Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and current English professor, analyzes an important aspect of U.S. foreign policy. Scott does point to sources and relationships that are often ignored by works relying on standard archival materials.

Choice

Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and current English professor, analyzes an important aspect of U.S. foreign policy. Scott does point to sources and relationships that are often ignored by works relying on standard archival materials.

CHOICE