Alfred W.

McCoy

Alfred “Al” William McCoy (born June 8, 1945, in Concord) is an American historian and educator.
McCoy is currently the Fred Harvey Harrington Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin
Madison. He specializes in the history of the Philippines, foreign policy of the United States, European
colonization of Southeast Asia, illegal drug trade, and Central Intelligence Agency covert operations.

Alfred W. McCoy studied Southeast Asian history at Yale University. In 1971 he was commissioned to
write a book on the opium trade in Laos. During his research he discovered that the French equivalent of
the Central Intelligence Agency (SDECE), financed all their covert operations from the control of the
Indochina drug trade. McCoy also found evidence that after the United States replaced the French in
Southeast Asia, the CIA also became involved in this trade. As he later pointed out: "Their mission was to
stop communism and in pursuit of that mission they would ally with anyone and do anything to fight
communism."

In 1972, while studying at Yale, McCoy testified before the United States Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs of which Senator William Proxmire
was chairman, and accused American government officials, such as G. McMurtrie Godley and Nelson G.
Gross, of covering up drug trafficking in Southeast Asia. Soon after, McCoy reaffirmed these beliefs in a
letter to Congressman Les Aspin.
Cord Meyer, a senior official in the CIA and a key figure in Operation Mockingbird, became aware of
Alfred McCoy's manuscript and made efforts to have the book withheld from publication. The publisher,
leaked the story to the media and the book, The Politics of Heroin, was published in 1972. Now in its
third revised edition, this book has been translated into nine languages.

McCoy uncovered drug trafficking methods for heroin and opium throughout Southeast Asia and to
American troops stationed there by high-ranking government officials: Commander Ouane Rattikone
and General Vang Pao (Laos); and President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and General Đăng Văn Quang (Vietnam).
McCoy also cited their ties with the Mafia, namely a visit to Saigon in 1968 by Santo Trafficante Jr..
Senator Gale W. McGee dismissed the allegations and accused McCoy of McCarthyism, which was
immediately rebutted. Senator Proxmire requested additional evidence and documentation to which
McCoy responded his forthcoming book on the topic would serve as such. In that same year, McCoy’s
book, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, was published by Harper and Row. He restated that the
Central Intelligence Agency was knowingly involved in the trade of heroin in the Golden Triangle.

Alfred W. McCoy, who is professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has spent the past
thirty years writing about Southeast Asian history and politics. His publications include Philippine
Cartoons (1985), Anarchy of Families (1994), Closer Than Brothers: Manhood at the Philippine Military
Academy (2000) and Lives at the Margin (2001).

McCoy's work on the administration of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos has influenced

not only the academic documentation regarding the dictatorship, but in some cases had a direct
impact on the actual events - such as the publication in the New York Times of his investigation
on Marcos' "fake medals," just week before the 1986 Philippine presidential election and
Marcos' eventual ouster during the People Power Revolution

Reference :

https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKmccoyA.htm

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_W._McCoy