The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs (Culture, Politics, and the Cold War)
The Myth of the Addicted Army will contend for best-book awards in history, sociology, and many fields of policy studies. It is chock full of original research utilizing government documents and interviews with policy makers to show how the war in Vietnam incubated the myth of widespread drug addiction among U.S. troops that became, in turn, the back story to the homefront War on Drugs.(Jerry Lembcke, author of The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam)What is so compelling about Jeremy Kuzmarov's book is his careful depiction of how 'the myth of the addicted army' was used for a variety of political and cultural purposes. He convincingly shows that Nixon adopted the drug policy he did in order to advance his own political fortunes, and that Nixon's drug war set the terms of the discussion in several ways. It obscured the real lack of evidence for a drug epidemic among GIs and set off an irrational response to drug use that has been a staple of American politics and popular culture ever since.(William O. Walker, author of Drug Control in the Americas)This is a very thought-provoking and well-executed book.... Kuzmarov has made a substantial contribution to our understanding of the importance of the Vietnam War on a long-standing issue with significant foreign policy implications. He has raised good issues on the continuity of the drug war and how American intervention in Southeast Asia fundamentally shaped the trajectory of the ongoing and seemingly endless struggle.(Diplomatic History1900-01-00)Kuzmarov's archival research and analysis of government documents allow the reader to question not only whether there was an addicted army, but also to question American's role in the war.... I recommend this book to scholars of the Vietnam War and to those who justifiably wonder how America ever became entangled in the modern War on Drugs.(Reviews in American History1900-01-00)