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 First Indochina War y Captain Antoine Savani y Corsican Machiavelli y Major Roger Trinquier y Scientific Tactician y Deuxième Bureau
4 5 French Expeditionary Forces
y New Counterinsurgency 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, France 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 Laos 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