The French Connection, Part Deux: Sects And Drugs

Carmen K. Steigman, M.D., M.P.H. Independent Scholar The French Connection

The French Connection: The World’s Most Crucial Narcotics Investigation (1969) Robin Moore

2 French Connection, Part Deux

y French Expeditionary Forces y Binh Xuyen y Operation X

3 French Expeditionary Forces

y y Captain Antoine Savani y Corsican Machiavelli y Major Roger Trinquier y Scientific Tactician y Deuxième Bureau

4 5 French Expeditionary Forces

y New Strategies y Supplementary Forces y Hill Tribes y Binh Xuyen Pirates

6 SDECE

y Service de Documentation Extérieure Et de Contre- Espionnage y French Equivalent Of The CIA y Colonel Maurice Belleux

7 MACG

y Mixed Airborne Commando Group y Hill Tribes Of Central Highlands y Training Camp At Cap Saint Jacques y Vung Tau

8 9 Corsicans

y Italian Catholic Culture y Marseille, y Gangsters, Cops Or Priests y Syndicates And Underworld

10 Corsican Syndicates

y French Fascists, Gestapo, CIA y Political Influence y Marseille’s Heroin Laboratories y International Crime

11 Binh Xuyen

y River Pirates, 1920s y Terrorism, Extortion, Paramilitary Intelligence y Opium Refineries y Bay Vien y Boss Tweed y Al Capone

12 Shifting Loyalties

y French y Japanese y Viet Minh

13 Dieuxieme Bureau – 1948

y Binh Xuyen Swore Loyalty To Bao Dai y Viet Minh Roundup y Increasing Control Over Saigon y Chief Of Police

14 French Opium Monopoly

y 1862 y Legal Opium Franchise y Created Revenues For New Colony y 1863 – 1883 y Expanded To Other Areas In Indochina

15 French Opium Monopoly

y Anti-Opium Crusade y 1920s And 1930s y Exploitation Of Vietnam By French y World War II Embargoes y Meo Tribesmen y y Tonkin

16 Operation X

y 1946 y Opium Monopoly Ended y First Indochina War Began y Unpopular War y Curtailed Military Funding y Secret Opium Trafficking To Finance Covert Operations

17 Operation X

y Top Secret, Known To Few y Sanctioned By y Colonel Maurice Belleux (SDECE) y General Raoul Salan (FEC) y MACG y Major Trinquier Supervised Purchase Of Opium From Meo

18 Operation X

y Opium Flown To Cap Saint Jacques y Trucked To Saigon y Binh Xuyen Refineries (2) y Captain Savani y Dieuxième Bureau

19 Operation X

y Sold In Opium Dens y Saigon-Cholon y Proceeds Split y Macg y Deuxième Bureau y Bao Dai y Excess Sold y Chinese Merchants y Corsican Syndicates y Export y Hong Kong y Marseille 20 Colonel Edward Lansdale

y 1953 y Discovered Operation X y Told To Keep Quiet, Don’t Embarrass Friendly Government

21 April 1955

y CIA And Deuxième Bureau Battle For Saigon y Diem Holed Up In Presidential Palace y Captain Savani At Binh Xuyen HQ In Cholon

22 May 1955

y Binh Xuyen Defeated y Opium Traffic Halted In Saigon For 3 Years y Opium Trade Becomes Purview Of Small Time Criminals

23 The Ghost Of Operation X

24 The Ghost Of Operation X

y 1958 y Diem’s Brother Nhu Needs Money y Opium Traffic Revived y Corsican Charter Airline y Air Laos Commercial y Dr. Tran Kim Tuyen

25 Nguyen Cao Ky Nguyen Ngoc Loan

26 Nguyen Ngoc Loan

y Director Of Military Security Service y Director Of Central Intelligence Organization y Director-General Of National Police

27 Nguyen Ngoc Loan

y Revived Large Scale Corruption y Organized Opium Exports y Contacted Corsicans And Chinese y Taxed Corsican Morphine Exports To Europe y Taxed Chinese Morphine And Opium Exports To Hong Kong

28 Nguyen Van Thieu

29 Alfred McCoy

30 Counterinsurgency

y Binh Xuyen Effectively Countered Urban Guerilla Warfare y Combination Of Counterinsurgency And Crime y Governments And Gangsters y Blurred Lines Between War And Law Enforcement y Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Pakistan

31 Questions

y Thank You

32