4 - The Black Vault

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the cooperation and complicity of both local and even American officials.
The previously cited staff report of the Senate Subcommittee on Drug Abuse
noted that:
It would appear self-evident to the staff that the
large-scale transportation of opiates would be utterly
impossible without tite complicity of high Army or
government officials in the countries involved. 14/
An article in the Far Eastern Review claimed that American T-28
bomber crews flying out of Lon Chen, Thailand were well aware of raw opium
being sold in the market place for $52/kilo. The author accused CIA agents
in the region of being aware of and tolerating the situation at Lon
Chen. 15/
Another and r.,'re serious charge concerning US officials' complicity
in the drug traffic was made by Alfred W. McCoy, a Yale graduate
student investigating the international dr.ug traffic. In his testimony
before the Senate subcommittee on Drug Abuse,
he claimed that the US
Ambassador to Laos, G. McMurtie Godley, kept US drug agents from entering
Laos and further, that senior US advisors and CIA personnel were trafficking
in heroin. 16/ It is, however, important to note that these
charges were not sufficiently substantiated to warrant the Justice Department
or the military establishment to press charges against those involved.
There [as been sufficient evidence to conclude that most of the
heroin in South Vietnam originated at the same source. The New York Times
reported that the uniformity of the packaging indicates a uniform source:
the plastic vials containing the heroin were virtually identical throughout
South Vietnam. 17/ That report also notes that American officials were
concerned over their inability to uncover many leaders in the dape smuggling
and distribution racket in South Vietnam because high-ranking Saigon
officials were either conducting the trafficking or protecting those who
were.
4. The Introduction of Drugs into Vietnam
The variety of drug usage, dates of introduction, degree of
prevalence and changing patterns are difficult to catalog accurately. As
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