Description
Book SynopsisPeter 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 ita 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 parapoliticsthe exercise of
Trade ReviewScott, 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 *
Praise for the work of Peter Dale Scott: The War Conspiracy A powerful analysis of the United States' persistent drive toward war..... -- Franz Schurmann
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.'''' -- Christopher Hitchens * The Nation *
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, MIT
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.... * Kirkus *
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, publisher/editor of
From the Wilderness
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, president of the Center for International Policy
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
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, author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
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
