The myth of the addicted army : Vietnam and the modern war on drugs

Resource Information

The work The myth of the addicted army : Vietnam and the modern war on drugs represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Boston University Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The myth of the addicted army : Vietnam and the modern war on drugs

Title remainder

Vietnam and the modern war on drugs

Statement of responsibility

Jeremy Kuzmarov

Creator

• Kuzmarov, Jeremy, 1979-

Subject

• Drogenbekämpfung -- Vietnam -- Geschichte 20. Jh
• Drogenkonsum
• Drug abuse -- Prevention
• Drug abuse -- United States -- Prevention | History -- 20th century
• Drug and Narcotic Control -- history -- United States
• Drug control
• Drug control -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• History
• History, 20th Century -- United States
• Military Personnel -- history -- United States
• Social aspects
• Soldat
• Soldiers -- Drug use
• Soldiers -- Drug use -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• Soldiers -- Drug use -- Vietnam -- History -- 20th century
• Substance-Related Disorders -- history -- United States
• USA
• United States
• Vietnam
• Vietnam Conflict -- United States
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Social aspects
• Vietnamkrieg
• 1900 - 1999

Genre

• History

Language

eng

Summary

This work is an analysis of the links between the Vietnam War and the evolution of American drug policy. The image of the drug addicted American soldier, disheveled, glassy eyed, his uniform adorned with slogans of antiwar dissent, has long been associated with the Vietnam War. More specifically, it has persisted as an explanation for the U.S. defeat, the symbol of a demoralized army incapable of carrying out its military mission. Yet as the author documents in this book, popular assumptions about drug use in Vietnam are based more on myth than fact. Not only was alcohol the intoxicant of choice for most GIs, but the prevalence of other drugs varied enormously. Although marijuana use among troops increased over the course of the war, for the most part it remained confined to rear areas, and the use of highly addictive drugs like heroin was never as widespread as many imagined. Like other cultural myths that emerged from the war, the concept of an addicted army was first advanced by war hawks seeking a scapegoat for the failure of U.S. policies in Vietnam, in this case one that could be linked to permissive liberal social policies and the excesses of the counterculture. But conservatives were not alone. Ironically, the author shows, elements of the antiwar movement also promoted the myth, largely because of a presumed alliance between Asian drug traffickers and the Central Intelligence Agency. While this claim was not without foundation, as new archival evidence confirms, the left exaggerated the scope of addiction for its own political purposes. Exploiting bipartisan concern over the perceived drug crisis, the Nixon administration in the early 1970s launched a bold new program of federal antidrug measures, especially in the international realm. Initially, the War on Drugs helped divert attention away from the failed quest for peace with honor in Southeast Asia. But once institutionalized, it continued to influence political discourse as well as U.S. drug policy in the decades that followed

Member of

• Culture, politics, and the Cold War

Cataloging source

DLC

Government publication

government publication of a state province territory dependency etc

Index

index present

LC call number

HV5825

LC item number

.K89 2009

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

NLM call number

• 2015 C-247
• WM 11 AA1

Series statement

Culture, politics, and the cold war.