The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade
E148758
The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade is a landmark investigative book that examines the historical intersections between U.S. intelligence operations and the international heroin trade.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1302891 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade Context triple: [Alfred W. McCoy, notableWork, The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade]
-
A.
War on Drugs
The War on Drugs is a long-running U.S. government campaign that uses law enforcement, legislation, and international efforts to reduce the production, distribution, and consumption of illegal drugs.
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B.
Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981–1987
Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981–1987 is a non-fiction book by investigative journalist Bob Woodward that examines the covert operations, internal politics, and controversies of the CIA during the Reagan administration.
-
C.
Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA
"Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA" is the memoir of former CIA Director William Colby, recounting his decades in U.S. intelligence and the moral and political controversies surrounding the agency’s activities during his tenure.
-
D.
FBI COINTELPRO operations
FBI COINTELPRO operations were a series of covert and often illegal counterintelligence programs conducted by the FBI to surveil, infiltrate, and disrupt domestic political organizations and activists in the United States.
-
E.
Operation Cyclone
Operation Cyclone was a covert CIA program during the Cold War that funneled money, weapons, and training to Afghan mujahideen fighters resisting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade Target entity description: The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade is a landmark investigative book that examines the historical intersections between U.S. intelligence operations and the international heroin trade.
-
A.
War on Drugs
The War on Drugs is a long-running U.S. government campaign that uses law enforcement, legislation, and international efforts to reduce the production, distribution, and consumption of illegal drugs.
-
B.
Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981–1987
Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981–1987 is a non-fiction book by investigative journalist Bob Woodward that examines the covert operations, internal politics, and controversies of the CIA during the Reagan administration.
-
C.
Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA
"Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA" is the memoir of former CIA Director William Colby, recounting his decades in U.S. intelligence and the moral and political controversies surrounding the agency’s activities during his tenure.
-
D.
FBI COINTELPRO operations
FBI COINTELPRO operations were a series of covert and often illegal counterintelligence programs conducted by the FBI to surveil, infiltrate, and disrupt domestic political organizations and activists in the United States.
-
E.
Operation Cyclone
Operation Cyclone was a covert CIA program during the Cold War that funneled money, weapons, and training to Afghan mujahideen fighters resisting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
investigative journalism book
ⓘ
non-fiction book ⓘ |
| addresses |
consequences of covert alliances with criminal actors
ⓘ
ethical issues in intelligence operations ⓘ policy failures in controlling narcotics ⓘ |
| aimsTo |
inform public debate on intelligence and drug policy
ⓘ
reveal hidden aspects of the global heroin economy ⓘ |
| author | Alfred W. McCoy ⓘ |
| citedBy |
historians of the Vietnam War
ⓘ
researchers on U.S. foreign policy ⓘ scholars of narcotics trafficking ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| criticizes |
U.S. government oversight of intelligence operations
ⓘ
use of covert alliances with drug-linked actors ⓘ |
| describes |
heroin production in Southeast Asia
ⓘ
role of local warlords and paramilitary groups in drug trade ⓘ transport routes for opiates ⓘ |
| examines |
impact of heroin trade on local societies
ⓘ
interaction between organized crime and intelligence agencies ⓘ relationship between anti-communist policies and narcotics networks ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
Cold War-era covert operations
ⓘ
Vietnam War period ⓘ global heroin production and distribution networks ⓘ links between intelligence operations and narcotics trade ⓘ |
| format | print ⓘ |
| genre |
history
ⓘ
political non-fiction ⓘ |
| hasPerspective |
anti-corruption
ⓘ
critical of U.S. intelligence practices ⓘ |
| hasReputation | landmark work on drugs and U.S. foreign policy ⓘ |
| intendedAudience |
general readers interested in politics
ⓘ
scholars and students of international affairs ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
Central Intelligence Agency
ⓘ
Golden Triangle region ⓘ
surface form:
Golden Triangle
Southeast Asia ⓘ U.S. foreign policy ⓘ drug trafficking ⓘ heroin trade ⓘ |
| notableFor |
controversial claims about U.S. intelligence complicity in drug trade
ⓘ
detailed documentation of alleged CIA connections to heroin trafficking ⓘ extensive use of interviews and archival research ⓘ |
| timePeriodCovered |
Cold War
ⓘ
Vietnam War ⓘ
surface form:
Vietnam War era
mid-20th century ⓘ |
| usedIn |
academic research on drug policy
ⓘ
courses on intelligence studies ⓘ courses on international relations ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade Description of subject: The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade is a landmark investigative book that examines the historical intersections between U.S. intelligence operations and the international heroin trade.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia
→
hasEdition
→
The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade
ⓘ