The Myth of the Addicted Army

Cover

Download PDF (160.0 KB)
 

Title Page

Download PDF (41.8 KB)
 

Copyright Page

Download PDF (30.9 KB)
 

Dedication

Download PDF (18.9 KB)
 

Table of Contents

Download PDF (63.6 KB)
pp. vii-viii

Acknowledgments

Download PDF (48.2 KB)
pp. ix-x

A work of this nature would not have been possible without the assistance of many people. First, I thank Brandeis University and the Crown family for funding my studies. I also thank the librarians at the Brandeis and Bucknell University libraries for responding to numerous interlibrary loan requests efficiently and the archivists...

Abbreviations Used in the Text

Download PDF (45.2 KB)
pp. xi-xiv

Introduction - The Politics of Scapegoating

Download PDF (201.7 KB)
pp. 1-14

On June 17, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon ushered in a new carceral age in American history by officially declaring a “War on Drugs.”¹ In recent months, there had been growing public concern over revelations of rampant heroin addiction among American troops in Vietnam, compounding existing fears about the spread of middle- class drug use...

Chapter 1 - "The Press Has Done a Tremendous Disservice": Historical Perspective

Download PDF (276.0 KB)
pp. 15-36

In December 1970, comedian Bob Hope generated a wave of laughter from a crowd of American troops telling jokes about marijuana and the use of drugs in Vietnam. Sent to boost morale as part of the United Service Organization (USO), Hope proclaimed, “Is it true the officers are getting flight pay?...

Chapter 2 - Creating the Myth of the "Nam Junkie": Mass Media and the Rise of a Drug Scare

Download PDF (259.9 KB)
pp. 37-55

The screaming headlines said it all. In February 1969 the Washington Post published articles titled “Turn On, Tune In and Fire Away” and “GIs Deep into Drugs.” The U.S. News & World Report subsequently declared, “Marijuana— The Other Enemy in Vietnam”; and Newsweek, “A New GI for Pot and Peace.”¹...

Chapter 3 - Deconstructing the Myth: The Great National Drug Debate of the Sixties and Seventies

Download PDF (250.4 KB)
pp. 56-74

In October 1967, countercultural icon Timothy Leary faced off against Dr. Donald B. Louria, president of the New York State Council on Drug Addiction, in a public symposium on lysergic acid diethylamide at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in upstate New York. Dressed in a white robe to accentuate his newfound persona as a “spiritual holy- man,” Leary argued before a packed crowd of students that LSD was a panacea capable of expanding brain capacity and leading the nation’s youth on a path of self- discovery...

Chapter 4 - "A Generation of Junkies": The Antiwar Movement, the Democratic Party, and the Myth

Download PDF (303.6 KB)
pp. 75-100

In June 1972, Alfred W. McCoy, a twenty- six- year- old graduate student at Yale University, found himself enmeshed in a hurricane of controversy after writing The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia . The book accused the CIA of supporting opium warlords in Southeast Asia and provoking the GI drug “epidemic.” McCoy had previously appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and provided documents that had been leaked...

Chapter 5 - The Brass Responds, Part I: Nixon's War on Drugs

Download PDF (268.1 KB)
pp. 101-120

By the early 1970s, thanks to the spread of misinformation and hyperbole, the myth of the addicted army had become firmly embedded in the American popular consciousness. Former FBN agent John Finlator captured the prevailing mood in comparing the threat of heroin to barbarians menacing the Roman Empire...

Chapter 6 - The Brass Responds, Part II: From Counter Insurg

Download PDF (313.8 KB)
pp. 121-147

Never in his wildest dreams could Bill Hart have envisioned himself running a heroin clinic— especially in Vietnam. On July 4, 1971, however, the colonel found himself in just that position as the head of a newly created drug treatment center at the Long Binh military stockade. At 9:30 p.m., Hart phoned Dr. Tom Robbins of the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to report on the clinic’s progress. Displaying a brief level of candor, he asked Robbins, “Did you ever think that you would be doing this?”...

Chapter 7 - "Get Up You Doped Up Bastard!": The Myth in Hollywood and Popular Television

Download PDF (261.8 KB)
pp. 148-165

In the 1973 Columbia Pictures film The Stone Killer, a black veteran named Gus Lipper appears to be out of control. Scarred by the brutality of the war and its apparent purposelessness, he is arrested for selling heroin and holds up a policeman at gunpoint. When taken into custody, he is gunned down by a team of assassins, who are also Vietnam veterans, competing...

Chapter 8 - The Crackdown: The Reagan Revolution and the War on Drugs

Download PDF (285.3 KB)
pp. 166-188

In 1989, journalist Jefferson Morley smoked a rock of crack cocaine and wrote about his experience for the New Republic in “What Crack Is Really Like.” Though Morley was known to indulge in recreational drug use, the piece held deep political significance: it was written as a parody of the sweeping drug sensationalism that he saw pervading the country...

Conclusion - The Myth Endures

Download PDF (103.9 KB)
pp. 189-194

Rarely is history predictable. From the late 1940s through the early 1960s, American policymakers were consumed with the Cold War and preventing the spread of “falling dominos” in Southeast Asia. By first extending financial support for nation- building projects in South Vietnam and then committing American ground troops, they hoped to create a bastion of American influence and check the spread of what they perceived to be an international Communist movement...

Abbreviations Used in the Notes and Bibliography

Download PDF (33.1 KB)
pp. 195-196

Notes

Download PDF (667.5 KB)
pp. 197-246

Bibliography

Download PDF (313.6 KB)
pp. 247-286

Index

Download PDF (1.1 MB)
pp. 287-303

Back Cover

Download PDF (191.1 KB)