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Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina (War and Peace Library) Paperback – March 4, 2003

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 27 ratings
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Peter Dale Scott's brilliantly researched tour de force illuminates the underlying forces that drive U.S. global policy from Vietnam to Colombia and now to Afghanistan and Iraq. He brings to light the intertwined patterns of drugs, oil politics, and intelligence networks that have been so central to the larger workings of U.S. intervention and escalation in Third World countries through al liances with drug-trafficking proxies. The result has been a staggering increase in global drug traffic. Thus, the author argues, the exercise of power by cover t means, or parapolitics, often metastasizes into deep politics - the interplay of unacknowledged forces that spin out of the control of the original policy ini tiators. Scott contends that we must recognize that U.S. influence is grounded n ot just in military and economic superiority but also in so-called soft power. W e need a soft politics of persuasion and nonviolence, especially as America is e mbroiled in yet another disastrous intervention, this time in Iraq.
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  1. Part of series
    War and Peace Library
  2. Print length
    248 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
  5. Publication date
    March 4, 2003
  6. Dimensions
    6.06 x 0.7 x 9.1 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0742525228
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0742525221
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and current English professor, analyzes an important aspect of U.S. foreign policy. Scott does point to sources and relationships that are often ignored by works relying on standard archival materials. ― Choice Reviews

Praise for the work of Peter Dale Scott: The War Conspiracy A powerful analysis of the United States' persistent drive toward war..... -- Franz Schurmann

Praise for the work of Peter Dale Scott: Cocaine Politics For the evidence that narcotics . . . have been instruments of U.S. foreign policy, you simply have to read Cocaine Politics. This, one of the most enlightening books of the year, will redefine your usage of the silly term 'drug war.'''' -- Christopher Hitchens ― The Nation

Praise for the work of Peter Dale Scott: The War Conspiracy A meticulous and fascinating analysis. . . . The great importance of this book extends well beyond the new understanding it provides with regards to past escapades. Scott exposes an element in the American system of global power that poses an increasing threat to the victims of this system.... -- Noam Chomsky, Laureate Professor, University of Arizona

Praise for the work of Peter Dale Scott: Deep Politics and the Death of JFK Staggeringly well-researched and intelligent overview not only of the JFK assassination but also of the rise of forces undermining American democracy―of which the assassination, Scott says, is symptomatic.... ― Kirkus Reviews

No student of political science or political thinker dares overlook this thirty-year tour de force of the dark side of history and the para and deep politics that control so much of our daily lives. -- Michael C. Ruppert, publisher/editor of From the Wilderness

Peter Dale Scott takes us for a controversial tour along the dark side of American foreign policy. The book builds a powerful case that Washington's War on Drugs is at best futile and at worst criminal. The overall target is the militarization of our foreign policy. The facts and conclusions are chilling. -- Ambassador Robert White, president of the Center for International Policy

Praise for the work of Peter Dale Scott: Coming to Jakarta Coming to Jakarta is the most important political poem to appear in the English language in a very long time. -- Robert Hass

This is a brilliant, compelling, and startlingly original exposé of American foreign policy as oil policy with an addiction to drug trafficking as its adjunct. It makes most academic and journalistic explanations of the dreadful paradoxes of our past and current interventions read like government propaganda written for children. -- Daniel Ellsberg, author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

About the Author

Peter Dale Scott was born in 1929 in Montreal, Canada. A former Canadian diplomat and professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, he is both a poet and an author of political analysis. His chief prose books include Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, The War Conspiracy, Cocaine Politics, and The Iran-Contra Connection (the last two in collaboration). His most recent book of poetry is Minding the Darkness, completing his trilogy Seculum. In 2002 he was awarded the Lannan Poetry Award. He is married to Ronna Kabatznick, and has three children by his former wife, Maylie Marshall.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (March 4, 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 248 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0742525228
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0742525221
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.06 x 0.7 x 9.1 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 27 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Luc REYNAERT
    5.0 out of 5 stars Parapolitics metastasize into deep politics
    Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2005
    Verified Purchase
    Peter Dale Scott illustrates clearly that one of the main aims of the US foreign policy is control of oil, because the US is heavily dependent on foreign oil and oil markets.

    The Vietnam war was based on the Southeast Asia domino theory, which raised concerns about the Indonesian oil assets. The war was all about preventing communist regimes from taking control of oil reserves.

    Other examples are Iraq, Afghanistan and Unocal's oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea, Colombia and Occidental Petroleum's oil fields or Kossovo and the Balkan oil pipeline.

    In order to control oil resources the US backes armies and governments that are heavily involved in drug trafficking. The end justifies all means.

    This kind of powerplay is exercised by covert means (parapolitics). Unfortunately, those policies tend to metastasize into deep politics. As the author states: 'they become an interplay of unacknowledged forces on which the original parapolitical agent no longer has control'.

    The result is that the US and the world are inundated with drugs. One cannot find one dollar note without drug traces.

    This book is partly a rewriting of an older book of the author 'The War Conspiracy'.

    Although it is more confusing and lesser deep digging than his Magnum Opus 'Deep Politics', it is a disturbing and impressive report.

    Not to be missed.
    23 people found this helpful
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  • Paul Vitols
    4.0 out of 5 stars Shocking material in a chewy read
    Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2006
    A hard-to-follow structure and a dry, academic writing style make this powerful and much-needed book less accessible than it should be.

    Spurred in part by the near-unanimous 5-star acclaim among the Amazon reviewers, I bought this book. I was a bit disappointed. Not because of the content: Scott's authority comes through strongly as a concerned, longtime, and deep observer of the deliberately hidden dimension of U.S. foreign policy operating in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina. Writing since the time of the Vietnam War, he has dug and dug into these things, and we are the beneficiaries of his spadework.

    My issue is more with the structure and presentation of the book. As other reviewers have noted, the book is in fact mostly a reprinting of some of Scott's earlier writings, with some new, brief introductions. This means the book is not really unified, but more a collection of essays with some overlap and repetition which I found sometimes confusing. Counterintuitively, it moves backward in time, starting with a discussion of Afghanistan in 2002 and progressing to Colombia in 2001 and Indochina from 1950 to 1970. The book is not a single narrative or a single argument, and its unity suffers for this.

    Scott delivers what should be the most sensational pieces of information--such as that presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon all had strikingly intimate ties to organized-crime figures--in a dry, unemphatic way that makes for a strangely subdued, scholarly tone (with copious end-notes), and thus a less engaging read than it should be.

    Also: if you are not thoroughly familiar with things like the progression of political and military events in Indochina leading up to the Vietnam War, you will find the book heavy going, since Scott assumes this knowledge on the part of the reader.

    All of that being said, this book is very important, and Scott has done a huge service to us all in writing it. In the nature of things, he can't create a seamless narrative of American skulduggery in its wars since World War Two, since this has been kept secret. But he presents a host of suggestive and damning evidence of systematic, covert wrongdoing by American intelligence and military operatives working opportunistically with drug traffickers and organized-crime figures, often without the knowledge of the administration they are ostensibly serving. These people have taken the adage "the ends justify the means" to the extreme--although what the desired "ends" actually might be is often far from clear.

    So: five stars for content and its importance; three stars for presentation. We need more Peter Dale Scotts--a lot more of them. His ideas need to be popularized, but it seems that Scott himself is not the guy to do that.
    29 people found this helpful
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  • Rick Collins
    5.0 out of 5 stars naked truth
    Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2008
    Verified Purchase
    Delivered as promised. Completely satisfied with the distributor. The book delivers the naked truth about our foreign policy. There are pages of footnotes backing up the content. I would recommend the author finding an editor to create an easier read for the material. But the truth is where and how you find it. Compared to the standard fare of feel good news it is a refreshing wind on a hot day.
    One person found this helpful
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  • jeffrey orea
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good book
    Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Good book
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  • J E ROSENTHAL
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2016
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    Yes
    One person found this helpful
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  • eagerstudent
    1.0 out of 5 stars Boring
    Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2014
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    boring.
    One person found this helpful
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  • David Gribble
    5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading
    Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2003
    Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina is an eye-opening journey into the deep politics of U.S. intervention in developing and third-world nations. Scott illuminates the connection between American business interests and American foreign policy with a factual depth that leaves little room for doubt. Scott also documents the CIA involvement--often via drug proxies--in furthering covert American interests. The details and references contained within the text add immeasurably to what is already an incredibly valuable and insightful history. This book is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the motivation behind American foreign policy and the military conflicts that have arisen out of American business interests on foreign soil.
    27 people found this helpful
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  • Jerry Meldon
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth that Hurts
    Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2003
    Like veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, whom McCarthyites dubbed "prematurely anti-Fascist" for fighting against Franco during the Spanish Civil War, Peter Dale Scott has long been ahead of the pack on the parapolitical underpinnings of US foreign policy. Those desiring to catch up - and thereby plug the mega-gap between Bush II rhetoric and reality - will be wise to start by reading Scott's latest book, "Drugs, Oil and War." Though he focusses on Indochina, Colombia and Afghanistan, lessons Washington learned there - and forgot - are being retaught today in Iraq.
    19 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • A m a z o n Customer Ian
    4.0 out of 5 stars Peter Dale's coverage enters into the 21st Century.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 17, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    1e 2003 pp.xix+225=244. Of which 105 pages are new contents. The succeeding 117 pages are a copy of the introduction to and chapters 1,2,6 & 8 of The War Conspiracy (2013) (see my review).

    Part I (1961-2001) Afghanistan, Heroin and Oil. The most lucrative industries in the world are Oil, Narcotics and Armaments. Oil requires control of a country for exploration and extraction. Narcotics are a source of unaccountable money for funding illegality. Arms are used to protect oil and narcotics fields and promoting wars to profit from the sales to governments and mercenaries. These are probably the main drivers of foreign policy of imperial powers such as the USA and the UK etc.

    Aviation companies are subsidised by providing movement of narcotics, mercenaries and govt. troops (Pan Am, Air America). Rainbow herbicides were used for defoliation and starvation being very profitable for Dow Chemicals and Monsanto. These were mainly used in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia (UK).

    Chapter 2 (1959-2001).
    Oil was found in Columbia in 1984. The army and police ran most of the cocaine production; not the FARC. Oil was discovered off-shore of Cambodia. Opium production was moved into Laos where a spurious war was announced. The war was later moved to Vietnam.

    Banking operations are often subsidised by laundering narcotics money (BCCI, Nugan Hand Bank). By 2001 the Taliban eliminated most of the opium production in Afghanistan but the CIA moved it to the Northern Alliance. The drugs also flowed into Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to finance the Islamic Radical Group. USA and Russia were competing for access to the Caspian oil fields.

    Chapter 3. Taiwan and Burma.
    Burma and Thailand were bases for the KMT and CIA to invade the PRC. Opium was cultivated to fund the enterprise. Supplies went to the US drug gangs for distribution there.

    Part II Chapter 4. Columbia, Cocaine and Oil (1962-2001).
    The CIA and US special forces in 1962 trained the police and paramilitaries ofColumbia. In 1991 as a national security matter, US troops arrived to secure the oil piplines of Occidental Oil.

    Chapter 5. CIA and drugs in Columbia. Southern Air Transport was used to ferry drugs for the CIA.

    Chapter 6. Columbian Disengagement.
    Military aid was promoted by BP Amoco, Occidental and Enron Corporation. The author recommends disengagement.

    The book is a good update to his War Conspiracy.
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