C.I.A. AIDES ASSAIL ASIA DRUG CHARGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200300086-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2004
• Sequence Number: 86
• Publication Date: July 22, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For ReleasZO~ I~/3 CIA-RDP88-01350F00031006-7
EASSAIL monitoring the illegal flow of ington-based official with Air did not agree, he added, Harper
narcotics complained in an in-1America, a charter airline that & Row would not publish the
CXkAfflS ' terview that many of Mr. Mc-flies missions for, the C.I.A. in book.
Coy's charges "are out of date." ~ Southeast Asia. Both categoric- in a subsequent interview,
ASIA DRUG "Go back three or four years," ally denied the allegations hnk- Robert L. Bernsteinpresident
CllARE he said, "and no one was con- ing C.I.A. personnel to any of Random House and president
cerned about this. It wasn't! knowledge of or activity, in of the Association of American
until our own troops started the drug traffic. Publishers, Inc., said that his
A similar letter of disavowal, concern had twice refused of-
il 1968
ddi
d
cte
, unt
to get a
or .Agency, Fights Reports That '69, that anyone was aware" of, signed by Mr. Colby, was sent ficial C.I.A. requests for. per-
the narcotics problems in South- for publication to the publisher mission to revise manuscripts.
It Ignored Heroin Traffic east Asia. 1of Harper's Magazine within "In general," Mr, Bernstein
h 1 t eek Robert Schnayer said "our opinion would be
This official said that in the t e as w .
Among Allies of U.S. eyes of the C.I.A., the charges son, the magazine's editor, said that we would not publish a
were "unfair." He said of the that the letter would be pub- book endangering the life of
C.I.A., "they think they're tak- lished as soon as possible, anybody working for the C.I.A.
1. By SEYMOUR M. HRRSH ing the heat for being un- The C.I.A. began its approach or an other Government agency.
Special to The New York Times aware and not doing anything to Harper & Row in early 1Short of that, we would pub-
WASHINGTON, July 21 -` about something that was go- June, apparently after learning 1lisp any valid criticism."
the Central Intelligence Agency ing on two or three years of Mr. McCoy's appearance be- In a series of interviews with
has begun a public battle ago. fore the Senate subcommittee. The New York Times, a number
Based on 7.50 Interviews Cord Meyer Jr., described as of present and former officials
against accusations that it a senior agency official, me of the C.I.A. acknowledged that
.knew- of but failed to stem During two Congressional ap- with officials of the publishing smuggling and "looking the oth-
the - heroin traffic of United pearances last month, Mr. Mc- concern and- informally asked er way" was common through-
States allies in Southeast Asia, Coy testified that his accusa- for a copy of the manuscript out Southeast Asia during the
tions were based on more than for review prior to publication.' nineteen-sixties. But many noted
Ii7 recent weeks, high-ranking 250 interviews, some of them On July 5, a formal letter; that the agency had since taken
;officials of the C.I.A. have with past and present officials making the request, signed by thong steps to curb such prac-
Signed letters for publication of the C.I.A. He said that top- Lawrence R. Houston, general tices.
to a news a Yer and magazine , level South Vietnamese officials, counsel of the C.I.A. was sent One official, who spent many
1 1 -rrecord including , President Nguyen to Harper & Row. years in Southeast Asia, said,
granted a rare on-the Van Thieu and Premier Iran Mr. Houston's request was 'I don't believe that agency
interview at the agency's head- Van Khiem, were specifically not based on national security, staff personnel were dealing
quarters in McLean, Va., and involved. but on the thesis that "allega-i in opium. But if you're talking/
most significantly --. per- In July, 1971, Representative tioons concerning involvement of about Air America you're tai the
suaded the publishers of a Robert H. Steele, Republican the U.S. Government [in drug
of Connecticut, said during a traffic] or the participation of stuff around, then I'll bet my
forthcoming expose on the House Foreign Affairs suhcom American citizens should be bottom dollar that they were!
C.I.A. .and the drug traffic inittee hearing that the United made only if based on hard in it."
to permit it to review the States Government possessed evidence." Another former C.I.A. agent
1manuscript prior to publica- "hard intelligence" linking a The letter continued: "It is described Mr. McCoy's pub-
tioii. number of high-ranking South-
our belief that no reputable II
shed writings as "1 per cent
1 1 d
ff
The target 'of all these meas-
ures has been the recent writ-I
ings and Congressional testi-
mony of Alfred W. McCoy, a
26-year-old Yale graduate stu-
dent who spent I8 months in-
vestigating the narcotics opera-
tions in Southeast Asia. His
book, "The Politics of Heroin
in Southeast Asia," is sclied-
uted to be published by Harper
& 12ow In mid-September--bar-
ring delays caused by the in-
telligence agency's review.
In his book, Mr. McCoy al-
leged that both C.I.A. and
State Department officials have
provided political and military
support for America's Indo-
chinese allies actively engaged
p
,
ons
ou
a
in the drug traffic, have con-.
Isciously covered up evidence' annuaaentll 11y, the then world's about 70 per
supply.
Hof such involvement, and have The bulk of Mr. McCoy's
m-
ed th
l
e
v
been actively invo
selves in narcotic trade.
C.I.A. officials said they had
reason to believe that Mr. Mc-
Coy's book contained many un-
warranted, unproven and falla-
clous accusations. They ac-
knowledged that the public
stance in opposition to such
allegations was a departure
from the usual "low profile"
of the agency, but they in-
sisted that there was no evi-
dence linking the C.T~~j
drug traffic in Southe s Asia.
,
One well-informed Governments of the C.I.A., and the other
official directly responsible for by Paul C. Velte Jr. a Wash-
east Asian o
icaa as. inc a inf, publishing ]rouse would wish tendentious and 90 per cent or
Maj. Gen. Ngo Dzu, then coin-I to publish such allegations with- the most valuable contributiooi
minder of the South Viet -4 out being assured that the sup- I can think of."
namese II Corps, with involve-I porting evidence was valid."
ment in the narcotics trade.. if the manuscript were handed
Mr. Steele's accusations were over, the letter said. "we be- s _ f d L. of
denied and mostly ignored. lieve we could demonstrate to -t
`'"' S
Mr. McCoy also alleged that you that a considerable num- ? ,^ '
Corsican and American syndi- ber, of Mr.. McCoy's claims
cate gangsters had become in- about this agency's alleged in- ~- G
volved in the narcotics trade. volvement are totally false and
e f~cz t . ~
He said that such information' ithout foundation, a number (~ C
was known to the C.I.A. In a . re distorted beyond recogni- -.-{
chapter of his book published ion, and none is based on
in this month's I-Iarper's Maga- convincing evidence." A copy 9
zinc, Mr. McCoy further of the letter was made avail-
charged that in 1967 the in- able to The New York Times. v A k s
famous "Golden Triangle" -- Mr.McCoy, in an interview, C.
an opiuin.producing area cm-' said that the hook had been t_ c t9 t -
bracing parts of northeastern commissioned by Harper & pp
Burma, northern Thailand and Row and carefully and totally
roducing reviewed by its attorneys with l.
rn Laos--was
th
p
nor
e
ium no complaint until the C.I.A.
of raw o
t 1
000 t
b
accusations-both in the maga-
zinc and during the Congres-
sional hearings-failed to gain
much national attention. None-
theless, the C.I.A. began its
unusual public defense after
a Washington Star reporter
cited some of Mr. McCoy's
allegations in a column.
Letter Sent to Paper
Two letters were sent to
abiFrro ,R,6lle sied2W4i/1.0%1I3
the executive director
Colby
!request was made.
! 13. Brooks Thomas, vice presi-
dent and general counsel of
the publishing house, said in
an interview in New York,
"We don't have nay doubts
,about the book at all. We've
had it reviewed by others and
we're persuaded that the work
is amply documented and schol-
arly." i
"We're not submitting to
censorship or anything like
that," Mr. Thomas said. "We're
taking a responsible middle po-
b I' that
to review it.", If Mt., McCoy
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Q,300086-7