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Originally Posted by floatingslowly
^^^ to finance the war in vietnam with cheap and powerful heroin from southeast asia.
I would image that you aren't the first idealist to preach the good word in the hood. it never seems to work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0YVj4pVHhk |
It was to arm and supply the Hmong guerrillas - do you have a better way to fund a 30,000 man strong militia - and before that the KMT 5th Army that retreated south to the Shan States while the rest of Chiangs forces fled to Taiwan.
The Hmong didn't fare well out of this, as they turned increasingly to growing opium cash crops rather than food crops they became more and more dependent on the Americans to the point where in the 1970s villages wanting to stop because they were reduced to sending old men and boys to join the army the response would be to threaten to cut the USAID supplies being flown in by CIA logistics front companies (Air America, etc) - a death sentance on account of having no harvest stored.
Later they faced fierce retribution from the Communist forces.
The money was laundered through the Nugan Hand Bank in Sydney Australia, it employed an awful lot of CIA and military men in its offices around the world and didn't do a whole lot of banking.
Further reading: Politics of Heroin 2nd edition by Alfred W. McCoy.