The CIA's airline Air America was used to transport opium in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War

When Alfred McCoy began researching the origins of America's heroin crisis in the early 1970s, he stumbled onto a story the U.S. government had no interest in sharing. His 1972 book "The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia" presented detailed documentation that Air America—a commercial airline secretly owned and operated by the CIA—had been transporting opium throughout Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. The CIA's response was swift and unmistakable: they attempted to suppress the book before publication.

Air America wasn't a shadowy operation hidden in basement files. It was a legitimate-looking airline that flew throughout Southeast Asia from 1950 to 1976, operating openly with routes, schedules, and thousands of employees. The CIA maintained ownership through proprietary shell companies, giving the agency an air transport network answerable to no civilian authority. The airline's real utility, however, extended far beyond moving passengers and standard cargo.

The claim that emerged from McCoy's research was straightforward: Air America planes were regularly used to transport opium and processed heroin produced by Hmong tribesmen in Laos. The Hmong, led by General Vang Pao, were crucial allies in the CIA's secret war against communist forces in Laos—a conflict never formally declared or acknowledged by the U.S. government. To maintain Vang Pao's loyalty and cooperation, the agency essentially looked the other way as opium became the region's primary cash crop and Air America became its delivery system.

The official denials came predictably. Government agencies claimed no such trafficking occurred, that McCoy's evidence was circumstantial, and that any drug movement through Air America routes was either unauthorized or coincidental. 's pre-publication pressure on McCoy's work suggested otherwise—institutions typically don't fight to suppress books they believe contain falsehoods.