Editing Air America (section)

==The Vietnam War and the Expansion of the Drug Trade==
The Vietnam War escalated the CIA’s reliance on drug networks, with Air America becoming a central player. By the early 1960s, the agency was deeply embedded in Laos, supporting General Vang Pao’s Hmong army against the Pathet Lao (The Politics of Heroin, p. 291). Vang Pao’s control over Hmong opium production, facilitated by Air America’s transport capabilities, transformed Long Tieng into a hub for opium and heroin processing (The Politics of Heroin, pp. 304–305; Whiteout, p. 20). Hmong farmers, freed from rice cultivation by USAID rice drops, focused on opium as a cash crop, with Vang Pao’s officers purchasing harvests and flying them to markets in Vientiane and Saigon (The Politics of Heroin, pp. 317–318; Blond Ghost, p. 149).

In 1966, [[Michael Jon Hand]], a Green Beret and CIA operative, began working with Hmong tribesmen to transport opium via Air America, laying the groundwork for his later role in the [[Nugan Hand Bank]] (The Great Heroin Coup, p. 274). Hand’s colleague, Bernard Houghton, a CIA-linked figure, operated rest-and-recreation tours for GIs in Sydney, establishing connections with Australian intelligence (Prelude to Terror, p. 36). Both men, under the supervision of [[Ted Shackley]], the CIA’s Vientiane station chief from 1966 to 1968, used Air America to move drugs and launder profits through the Royal Thai Military Bank (Prelude to Terror, p. 36; The Great Heroin Coup, p. 274).

Shackley, a pragmatic operator, prioritized the war effort over curbing drug trafficking (Prelude to Terror, p. 33). His station collaborated with Laotian generals like Ouane Rattikone and Phoumi Nosavan, both deeply involved in the opium trade (Blond Ghost, pp. 148–149). In 1967, during the Opium War, Rattikone’s forces, backed by U.S.-supplied aircraft, seized a 12-ton opium shipment, consolidating his control over Laos’s drug trade (Blond Ghost, p. 149).

The CIA’s complicity was evident when Air America pilots, unaware of the cargo, transported opium from remote Hmong villages to Long Tieng (The Politics of Heroin, p. 304; Whiteout, p. 20). A 1967 [[USAID]] initiative to fund Vang Pao’s private airline, Xieng Khouang Air Transport, further streamlined opium transport, with flights between Long Tieng and Vientiane carrying drugs alongside relief supplies (One Nation Under Blackmail, p. 157; The Politics of Heroin, p. 318).

The Corsican Mafia, once dominant in Southeast Asia, faced challenges as costs rose and local warlords like Rattikone gained power (The Great Heroin Coup, p. 132). By 1968, when William Colby arrived as deputy to the ambassador for CORDS in Vietnam, the CIA’s drug connections were entrenched. Colby, who had overseen Laos operations from 1962 to 1966, was aware of Air America’s role but focused on programs like Operation Phoenix, which targeted Viet Cong infrastructure (The Great Heroin Coup, p. 132; Lost Crusader, p. 209). The heroin epidemic among GIs, with 15–22% of U.S. soldiers sampling or becoming addicted by 1970, underscored the scale of the trade (The Great Heroin Coup, p. 134).