THE CIA FIGHTS ILLEGAL DRUG TRAFFIC

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73B00296R000300070032-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 16, 2001
• Sequence Number: 32
• Publication Date: June 17, 1971
• Content Type: OPEN

S 9320
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6ROO0300070032-1'tt,'.1 16 : 1:r I 1
In the end, millions of Americans go with-
out adequate, medical care. They cannot af-
ford It. They are afraid it will break -them.
Or they cannot find a doctor. Some of them
die. Others are left destitute. And most
of them fail victim to needless pain and need-
less suffering. They are your parents or
mine--your children or mine--our friends
and our fellow eltIzews.
The disaster we call medical services makes
most Americans forgotten Americans, It be-
trays each of them and all of us. Our system
of medical care Is in fact a system of medi-
cal neglect. It is in the deepest sense un-
American. '
Despite our power and our strength, cle-
splte our trillioii dollar G.N.P., we have let
young people die before their time. and old
people die when there was some precious
time left. How will history judge its, a coun-
try which was first in the wealth of its re-
sources, but far from first in the health of
Its people? And more importantly, how will
we judge ourselves in those quiet, inner mo-
ments, when we remember that what finally
counts is not how much we have, but what
we are?
It Is time for us to do more until we have
done enough to sustain and enhance the
health of our nation.
Countless medical students and some doc-
tors have already answered the call to a new
kind of service. In the early 1960s, student
health organizations from Los Angeles to
Boston pioneered concepts for comprehen-
sive health care, In the summer of 1967, stu-
dents like you joined together in New York
City to found the student health project of
the South Bronx. Their historic initiative
was a sign of a new generation's determina-
tion to make medicine work for people.
But the young and the concerned in the
the medical profession cannot do the whole
job alone, Your voices have been heard--and
sometimes even heeded. But your own efforts
will take too long. And the results will be
too uncertain. The only certainty is that en-
trenched and established forces will oppose
you every step of the way. We cannot wait
or gamble on the outcome. Human life and
hurnau health hang in the balance.
Four decades after organized medicine al-
most adopted a report favoring uniform fi-
ua.ncing for medical services--four decades
and a hundred million illnesses too late-
we must enact a medical bill. of rights for
all Arzi.ericans, The Constitution commits our
country to protect political freedom. Now,
by legislation, the Congress must commit
America to protect the physical health which
alone, snakes possible the exercise of liberty.
The first medical right of all Americans is
care within their means. Admission to a hos-
pital or a doctor's office should depend on
the state of an individual's health, not the
size of his wallet. And we cannot depend on
reform on half-way measures and half-
hearted compromise. A right to medical care
which left the burden. of cost on the poor
and the near poor would mock its own pur-
pose. The only sure security is federally
funded universal health insurance. That is
our best hope for the future-and a pri-
ority goal in 1071.
We must take the dollar sign out of medi-
cal care. We must destroy the financial bar-
rier between deprived people and essential
medical services. We must end the terrible
choice so many Americans face between Ins-
tug their health and losing their savings,
The second medical right of all Americans
is care within their reach. Even it we guar-
anteed the paytnelit of health coats, millions
of our citiaerts could riot. find sufficient medi-
cal services. The system Is not only Inequit-
able-it is also undermanned and inefficient.
It is on the verge of collapse. 'rhe Nation must
now respond with Federal financial incen-
tives that will insure real reform.
'rhero are not enough doctors: But Federal
incentives can persuade medical schools to And the best guarantee of geod health is a
follow Einstein's lead and expand their en- physically and ernotionalI: `health erivirolt-
roliment. New schools can be created and ment.
sustained by Federal loans and gra:rts. And As health professionals. you must commit
Federal funds must also be provided to help yourselves to total healtl are. And total
medical students who should have something care: includes virtually ev -r t;hlrig that clo-
better than. money to worry about, A pro- termines whether we are sick or well. You
gram of scholarship aid must include all who cannot confine yourselves t-.' the technical
are in need--and it must encourage minority skills you have learned here. You must also
students who intend to return to the old practice the fundamental 'unman concern of
neighborbtxxis. a school like Einstein.
Yet the number of doctors is not the You must speak out for =. fair and sensible
whole answer. If we produce 50,000 additional medical care system.
physicians and plug them into the current You must stand up for : ociai progress and
structure, our efforts for reform will certainly for people---whether they are your patients
fail. Some of the health manpower legislation or migrant workers two thtu. and miles away.
now before the Congress would do just that--- You can cure lndividua"i- -and you must
and the result would be too many more doe:- help America build a coin>a.nsiorate society,
tors serving too few people at too high a cost. It will take time. 'I'her' will be setbacks
Here, too, Congress must set up financial ad frustrations and defer's But men and
incentives that can move medicine in a new women who conic from Eln::tein have good
direction. We must encourage a shift from a rhason to believe that we 'ru+ finally fashion
system dependent on the individual doctor a country that is great ef.ough to be good.
to a system built around the concept of the You have seers in your owii lives what a dif-
health team, composed of primary care phy- ference one school can ina~m Now all of you
sicl.ans and other medical professionals. have a chance to make a real difference in
Teams would allow its to allocate medical re- the lives of others.
sources with maximum einciency and to 'rho practice you choose and the practices
maximum effect. They would employ pare- you follow may not chance o-ir country over-
professionals to relieve nurses and doctors night, But you can remind u by example of
from routine, time-consuming tasks. They Aristotle's ancient truth: "health of mind
would gather together diverse skills---from and body Is so fundament it to the good life
internists to pediatriclans --and patients that if we believe men I e.. any personal
would deal with the team, not just a single rights at all as human being-t, they have an
physician. Einstein has experimented with absolute moral right to th ' measure of good
the health team concept. The Federal Gov- health that, society is able .o give tho n.?"
ernment must make Einstein's experiment That is our challenge and our chance. Two
national policy. thousand years after Arista'tk: wrote, we must
And health teams must be sufficient in die- secure a medical bill of rn.ghits for our own
tribution as well as in number. Federal people. We can wait no ioneem --in health care
bonuses must make it worthwhile to prat- or in society. In our inditid~tal lives and in
tice in the inner city and in rural America. our national life, whatever we can clo, and
Medical care cannot reach people unless pee- whatever we dream we can clay. we must begin
pie can reach doctors. And people must have now,
more than geographic reach. A health team should also be subject to the reach of local F THE
CIA FIGHTS UA,EGAI,
influence.
Location incentives for health services TRAFFIC
must be designed to create responsive, per- Mr. HANSEN. Mr. I'rr,sident, earlier
d
sonal structures. It was never right-an
it is no longer possible--to satisfy Americans
with distant, impersonal medical care. The
system must respect everyone's identity---
and sacriflic's no one's dignity. Andy we must _
always remember that it is easier for a
patient to reach a health team that he
knows---than a shining new medical center
walled off from surrounding rural poverty or
a nearby urban. ghetto.
The third medical right of all Americans
.is care within their needs. The present
health Insurance system is heavily biased
toward high-cost hospital treatment and
against preventive health care. That is in-
credibly expensive---and incredibly, insensi-
tive to the real needs of people. It has filled
hospitals with patients who should not be
there and would be better off elsewhere. A
new national health program must reverse
the old priorities. It must guarantee a range
of medical services, comprehensive in scope,
preventive in emphasis, and restricted only
by the scope of scieatitio knowledge.
America's concern over the quality of
health care has reached a high water mark
in 1971. You are graduating from medical
school at a time when the whole medical
profession may he profoundly altered. You
should welcome change---and work for
change. Only in the context of a medical bill
of rights for every American, can each of you
truly and In the most literal sense profess
your profession--which is. nothing more and
nothing less than the protection of human
life.
And that requires not just a medical bill
of rights, but a social bill of rights. The real
cure for lead poisoning is not hospital care,
but decent housing. The most effective treat-
ment for rnalnutritfop is adequate food.
this year I had the pleastu e of -addressing
all ROTC group who wa in the audience,
questioned me in regard i o certain alle-
gations nia,de in Ranxpar*,x' magazine that
the Central Intelligence, Agency ens-our-
aged the opium traick;,r.; of Indochina.
I doubt that such alleeai,ions have been
given credence by lean r Americans, but
apparently Mr. Ginsbei it either believed
them to be true, or cho. e to pretend that
he believed then. But ,etiTtause I do not
take such serious, chwg-s against our
Government lightly, tad. believe that
none of us should allow unjust criticism
of our Government to stand unchal-
len.ged, I recently asked the Bureau of
Narcotics and Dangera;u;; Drugs to set
the record straight on ill e accusations.
Bureau Director John. Ingersoll replied
this week, and his rern':-"s are timely in
view of the major initia:.fives President
Nixon is expected to aianounce today to
help deal with the ille ,,u drug problem.
Mr. President. Mr. l ;:ersoll has re-
ported to ine that the (No is his Bureau's
strongest ally in identifying foreign
sources and routes of ilegal trade in
narcotics. I ask ul1Rnimolts consent that
his letter of Julie 15 ire printed in the
Itssconn, followed by a report on recent
trends in the illicit narcotics market in
Southeast Asia, and inv telegram of
May 11 which was printed in the final
spring semester edition of the University
of Wyoming student newspaper, the
Branding Iron.
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 Approved For F e } rd 14RE?k3BQ RO O300070032- li `2" 1 ? J I , d
15, The typical refinery Is on a small trib-
utary of the Mekong River in an isolated area
with a military defense perimeter guarding
all ground approaches. i1.Mowt of these refin-
eries operate under the protection of the
various military organizations in the region,
or are owned or managed by the leaders of
them military groups. The KKY units pro-
tect and operate most of the refineries in
Burma. Leaders of these groups also bold an
ownership interest in many of these facilities.
In. Thailand, the refineries appear to be op-
erated by units of the KMT irregiliarn, where-
as In Laos, roost of the refineries operate un-
der the protection of elements of the Royal
Laotian Armed Forces (FAR). While the man-
agement and ownership of the Laotian re-
fdnerie:s appear to be primarily in the hands
of a consortium of Chinese, some reports sug-
gest that a senior FAR officer may hold an
ownership interest in a few of these facil-
ittes.
16. Most of the narcotics buyers in the tri-
border area are ethnic Chinese. While many
of these buyers pool their purchases, no large
syndicate appears to be involved. The opi-
um, morphine base, and heroin purchased
in this area eventually finds Its way into
Bangkok, Vientiane, and Luatng Prabang,
where additional processing may take place
before delivery to Saigon., Hong Kong, and
ether international markets.
1.7. Much of the opium and its derivatives
transiting Thailand from Burma moves out
of such Northern That towns as Chiang Rai,
Chiang Mai, Lampang, or Tak by various
modes of ground and water transport. These
narcotics, along with those produced in Thai-
land, are smuggled into Bangkok for fur-
ther refinement into morphine, or heroin,
A considerable quantity of the raw opium
and morphine base is sent by fishing trawler
from Bangkok to Hong Kong during a
period from about 1 January to I May. Dur-
Ing this period, approximately one fishing
trawler a day--..carrying one to three tons
of opiun'i and/or quantities of morphine
base-leaves .Bangkok for Hong Kong. The
boats proceed to the vicinity of the Chinese
Communist-controlled Lema Islands---15
miles south of Hong Kong--where the goods
are loaded into Hong Kong junks,
lti. Opium and its derivatives which move
throucsh Laos are transferred from the Me-
kong River refineries by river craft and FAR
vehicles to Ban Houet SRI, farther down-
streani on the Mekong in Laos, from where
it is transported on Royal Laotian Air Force
(I1LAF) aircraft to Luang Prabangg or Vien-
tiane. From Vientiane narcotics, are usually
sent via RLAF aircraft, as well as Air Laos,
to other cities in Laos such as Savanuakhet
or Pakse or to international markets. A con-
siderable portion of the Laotian produced
narcotics is smuggled Into Saigon on mili-
tary and commercial air flights, particularly
on Royal Air Laos and Air Vietnam. Al-
though collusion between crew members and
air line agents on one hand and individual
narcotics smugglers on the other. has been
reported, poor handling of commercial cargo
and the -laxity of Lao customs control in'
Vientiane and other surreptitious loading
of narcotics aboard commercial flights.
RECENT CEIANGES IN THE ARY'A
19. '['here are tentative indications that
larger quantities of raw opium may now be
moving Into the tri-border area for refining
and that. larger quantities of this raw opium
are now being refined Into morphine base and
heroin. In this area. As suggested in paragraph
13 above, data on the first two months of
1971 Indicate that the Tachilek tran.eship-
ment and. refining area may he receiving and
pracer.;irag sizably larger amounts of raw
opium than was the case in 1.970. As for
changes in the type of refined narcotics pro-
duced, the processing plants at Mae Raw in
Thailand and Reuel Tap In. Laos now appear
to be converting most of their opium Into #4
or 90 percent pure white heroin, Previously,
these refineries tended to produce refined
opium, morphine base and #3 smoking
heroin. An increased demand for #4 heroin
also appears to be reflected in the steady rise
In Its price. For example the mid-April 1971
price in the Tachilek area for a kilo of #4
heroin was reported to beU,S. $1,780 as com-
pared to U.S. $1,240 In September 1070. Some
of this increase may also reflect "a tight sup-
ply situation in the area because of a short-
age of chemicals used in the processing of
heroin. Rising prices for opium and Its do-
rivatives can also be seen in other areas of
Southeast Asia.
20. The establishment of new refineries
since 1909 In the tri-border area, many with
a capability for producing 96 percent pure
heroin, appears to be due to the sudden in-
crease in demand by a large and relatively
affluent market in South Vietnam. A recent
report pertaining to the production of mor-
phine base in the Northern Shan States
would indicate a possible trend toward verti-
cal integrations---producing areas establish-
ing their own refineries---in the production of
narcotics. Such a development would sign.ifi-
cantly facilitate transportation and distnibrr
tion of refined narcotics to the market
places.
Miss VICKI Wssn HORN,
Editor, % The Branding Iron, University of
Wyorning, Laramie, Wyo.
DEAR MTSs WFnrsaoew: In a letter to the
editor, published in The Branding Iron of
April 23, 1971, Ivls. Allen Ginsberg asked my
comments on some allegations contained in
a recent issue of Rcnrporis Mapa:.cinc which,
In Mr. Ginsberg's words allege "that our gov-
ernment's Cztrai Intelligence Agency has
been for decades rut t3T fnF' br xartx31r t7 S1 tt3i7.
traffickers of 83 per cent of the world's ille-
gal supply in Indochina," and "that the CIA
did actually subsidize main opium trafiic'MTs
in Indochina as part of our :political policy."
I do not take such serious charges against
our government lightly, nor do I feel the'
students at our University can afford to take
such cb,arges lightly. None of us should allow
unjust criticism of our government to go
unchallenged. Therefore, I have sought the
facts and hope you are able to print this in
its entirety.
Having thoroughly investigated these &I-
legations. I can state categorically that they
are completely unfounded. As recently as
April. 14 of this year, the Director of Central
Intelligence stated in an address to the
American Society of Newspaper Editors:
"There is the arrant nonsense, for example,
that the Central Intelligence Agency is some-
how invol.vPC~ n't15'e W8yTff f1I thsftic. We
are not. As fathers, we are as concerned about
the lives of our children and grandchildren
as are all of you. As an agency, in fact, we
are heavily engaged in tracing the foreign
roots of the drug traffic for the Bureau of
Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. We hope we
are helping with a solution; we know we are
not contributing to the problem."
The Central ratelligeuce Agenc ? is directly
tiecaunt l~le #criile PresI7ent. ??frough the
National Security Council which is privy to
all of its activities; it is subject to the
scrutiny of the Office of Management and
Budget, which oversees is expenditures; to
the President's Foreign Intelligence Ad-
visory Board, trade up of distinguished pri-
vate citizens; and to four Committees of the
Congress, to whom it reports on all its activi-
ties. To suppose that in these circumstances
the Agency could conduct the activities al-.
leged in the Ramparts article without the
knowledge or approval of any of these au-
thorities to which It is responsible, or that
any of these authorities would sanction such
activity, is the ultimate in absurdity.
Turning to some of the more specific alle-
gations in the Ramparts article, It is worth
noting that:
So far as opium enteriiy; the '.S. is con-
cerned, recent studies indicate that perhaps
only about 5 per cent of h' illegal imports
come from all of South -s;t Asia, the re-
inainder originating rnal:,iy In the Middle
East;
Roland Paul, a former l.vosticgator for the
Senate Foreign Relatton': Cominittee who
made a study of tho area as-t year, writes in
the April Issue of Foreign, Affairs that "In
passing it may be intere_.ti,ag to note that
because of their long as-?'a utter with the
American agency (CIA), the hill tribes have
shifted their agriculturt.; ernpliar;ls from
opium to rice," a conch lc;n which can be
solidly documented from ,ttiter authoritative
sources.
In fact, efforts of Amerit 41: agencies to di;s-
courage opium growing at:iong these hill
tribes has produced a Nort.: Vietnamese prop-
aganda campaign oracourrn tf,(; and applaud-
ing the raising of opium ?to;;,ples, This carn-
paign contrasts the Corn. a3 unJst-con trolled
areas where the, populati an can "make our
living as we wish" by raising opium to the
lot of those under "impesia:ist domination"
who are restrained from icing so. (in view
of his concern, perhaps A;r. Ginsberg world
like to raise the matter will, the authorities
In Hanoi.)
In summation, I can a? i.re you that the
allegations in. questton 'a completely false
and that no U.S. Government agency operat-
ing in Southeast Asia b 3s approved, sup-
ported, or condoned illegi irug production
or 'traffic. On. the contrary, hose U.S. Govern-
ment agencies are all cocsaerating in efforts
to discourage opium prodw-.t=.on and distribu-
tion and these efforts have had at least some
success.
. Sincerely,
Can';:'('-.ID P. HANSEN. {
STEP BACKWARD- -PSYCHHIATRIC
TRAINING CUTS 1J1,:WARR,AN'I'ED
Mr. HUMPHREY. -Mr. President, the
administr'ation's prop .;ed cutback in
psychiatric training is it cruel and un-
warranted step backwa c d in the field of
mental health.
President Nixon has proposed a $63
million cut in funds for the National In-
stitute of Mental Health's training sup-
port for fiscal 1972 and :s? "_ilallned phase-
out of the entire $34 m la U in program for
psychiatric residency t -atliing.
This cutback would !nr_an the loss of
more than 1,000 hospit.;1 residency posi-
tions and severe curtailil)ent of mental
health services to the rotor.
For example, the Prest-iy terian hospital
in the Bronx, N.Y., treats about 5,000
emotionally disturbed persons a year
from the black and Pt unto Rican com-
munities.
If the President's cutbacks go into of-
fect, the number of pry -Metric residents
would drop front 30 to 13 and the number
'of patients served woudr be reduced by an
cst;ilmated 2,000.
It is important to emphasize that al-
most all of the .patients -ecn at this facil-
ity are poor people, and there is no other
psychiatric service avaiie.ble to theirs,
At a time when we .tr" trying to up-
grade health care and do more to hell)
those with mental prol,lrn-is, we cannot
afford to be cutting back.
Drug use, alcoholism, tusmm, and delin-
quency are creating ~e-lere emotional
probleins and lncreasin (he demand for
mental health services. i'ris growing drug
crisis among Vietnam veterans and sol-
diers is further compounding the situa-
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