The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs

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

“the press has done a tremendous disservice” historical perspective The clatter of machine guns was like a Stravinsky percussion interlude from Le Sacre du Printemps. There isn’t a psychedelic discotheque that can match the beauty of flares and bombs at night.—John Steinbeck IV, 1968 The nature of the problem is not such that military readiness is considered to be endangered.—Admiral William P. Mack, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, 1970 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? I saw a Sergeant before the show standing on a corner with a lampshade on his head waiting to be turned on. . . . At one barracks, everyone was watching 12 o’clock high. And they didn’t even have a TV set.” He added, “I hear you guys are interested in gardening security. Our officer said a lot of you guys are growing your own grass.” Hope drew the greatest cheers when he declared, “Instead of taking away marijuana from the soldiers—we ought to be giving it to the negotiators in Paris.”1 Although worthy of some good laughs, Hope’s remarks—and the reaction that they elicited—held deep social significance. They promoted recognition that drug use had different connotations for soldiers than for senior commanding officers or contemporaries back home. In calling for American leaders to smoke marijuana before going to the negotiating table, Hope further tapped into a growing antiestablishment ethos and mistrust of government pervading the military, which helped to 16 “the press has done a tremendous disservice” account in part for the relatively high drug usage rates. Only from the perspective of individual soldiers can one assess the genuine scope of drug abuse in Vietnam and disprove claims that the crisis was allencompassing . Why did some soldiers turn to drugs and in what circumstances ? These questions are perhaps most important with regard to the impact of drugs on the military’s fighting performance—which was far less destructive than has been conventionally understood. Though not intended as social satire, Hope’s comedic insights were, in hindsight, quite sharp in pointing not only to the paradox of governmental prohibition policies but also to the scandalous public emphasis on drugs. What Hope missed, however, was how deeply significant drug use was to the social setting of the Vietnam War—and to the injustice of American foreign policy more broadly, which he uncritically supported.2 “Distorted Impression That Average Soldier Uses Drugs . . . ” Illegal drugs were readily available in Vietnam from the invasion of American combat troops in the early 1960s. Among them was a headache remedy known as Binoctal, which soldiers took alongside alcohol for a “quick high.”3 Throughout most of the war the military actually distributed amphetamines or “pep pills” to soldiers serving on long-range reconnaissance missions to prevent them from falling asleep or to help them lose weight.4 Many soldiers claimed that the pills increased their irritability—including one who admitted to killing over 100 civilians in the Ia Drang Valley while coming off a high—though others recorded a more favorable effect.5 The most widely used intoxicant in Vietnam was marijuana of a high potency which grew wild in the countryside.6 GIs developed such nicknames as “Pleiku Pink,” “Bleu de Hue,” and “Cambodian Red,” based on the province or locality in which it was grown. They got stoned overwhelmingly (upward of 90 percent) as a group activity , rather than in isolation. The Vietnamese themselves rarely smoked marijuana, preferring the chewing of betel nuts or the smoking of opium. Capitalizing on rising market demand, however, many farmers sold marijuana through local retailing merchants, often disguised as packs of Parker Lane and Kent cigarettes. These could be purchased for 400 Vietnamese piasters or $1.50—an unheard of price by American standards.7 “Marijuana in Vietnam is cheap, easy to find—and potent,” remarked one medical psychiatrist, as quoted in U.S. News & World Report. “The drug is everywhere. All a person has to do to get the drug in any village hamlet or town is say the word Khan Sa.”8 historical perspective 17 In 1967, as a result of a growing wave of media attention, the...