Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
This paper surveys the history of American support for Iranian counter-narcotics policy between 1945 and 1989. In particular, it explores the general failings of Tehran's attempt to ban the domestic production and consumption of opium. The significance of this period is two-fold. First, this essay argues that American-backed efforts to combat the opium trade in Iran highlighted the detrimental effects narcotics had upon both state and society in Iran. Second, it suggests that the Iranian ban upon narcotics helped to stimulate a rise in Afghan opium production before the Soviet invasion of 1979.
1 Lambertus, Joshua, “Analysis of Taliban Revenue and the Importance of the Opium Trade to the Insurgency” (MA diss., Naval Postgraduate School, 2011)Google Scholar. I want to especially thank Josh Lambertus with inspiring me to write this piece.
2 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Addiction, Crime and Insurgency: The Transnational Threat of Afghan Opium (Vienna, 2009), 11Google Scholar.
3 UNODC, Addiction, Crime and Insurgency, 28–9; Karl Vick, “AIDS Crisis Brings Radical Change in Iran's Response to Heroin Use,” The Washington Post, 5 July 2005.
4 Matthew Dupree, “Iran's 30-Year War on Drugs?,” World Politics Review, 10 February 2010, http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/5102/irans-30-year-war-on-drugs (accessed 10 June 2011).
5 Nazanine Moshiri, “Iran Takes on Drug Smugglers,” Al Jazeera English, 27 June 2008, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/06/200862620538368661.html (accessed 24 April 2011).
6 Neil Padukone, “US and Iran could become strategic allies—with India's help,” Christian Science Monitor, 20 February 2011; Andrew Gray, “U.S., Iran Share Interests in Afghanistan,” 8 January 2009, http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/01/09/us-afghan-usa-iran-idUSTRE5080A720090109?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews (accessed 25 April 2011).
7 MacDonald, David, Drugs in Afghanistan: Opium, Outlaws and Scorpion Tales (London, 2007), 137–42Google Scholar; Matthee, Rudi, The Pursuit of Pleasure: Drugs and Stimulants in Iranian History 1500–1900 (Princeton, NJ, 2005), 97–105, 207–21Google Scholar.
8 Matthee, The Pursuit of Pleasure, 219–21.
9 An incredibly wide range of histories have been produced in the last several years with respect to the opium trade during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. See for example, Booth, Martin, Opium: A History (London, 1996), 103–90Google Scholar; Brook, Timothy and Wakabayashi, Bob Tadashi, eds., Opium Regimes: China, Britain and Japan, 1839–1952 (Berkeley, CA, 2000)Google Scholar; Block, Alan and Chambliss, William, Organizing Crime (New York, 1961), 19–39Google Scholar; Davenport-Hines, Richard, The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics (New York, 2002), 61–225Google Scholar; Foster, Anne, “Prohibiting Opium in the Philippines and the United States: The Creation of an Interventionist State,” in Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State, ed. McCoy, Alfred and Scarano, Francisco (Madison, WI, 2009), 95–105Google Scholar; McCoy, Alfred, The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (Chicago, 2003), 5–10Google Scholar.
10 One UN observer noted, for example, that ethnically Turkish Azeris tended not to be drug addicts (as opposed to Persian-speaking Iranians) due to their “racial origins.” See “Field Notes of United Nations Advisor to the Narcotics Control Administration of Iran on a Tour of Control Offices and Agencies in Azerbaijan from 27th of October to 7th November 1962,” Iran File, 1961–63; Subject Files of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, 1916–70; Records of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Record Group 170; National Archives Building II, Silver Spring, MD (NAB); Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 30 January 1958, Turkey File, 1957–59; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; MacDonald, Drugs in Afghanistan, 143–45.
11 Hansen, Bradley, “Learning to Tax: The Political Economy of the Opium Trade in Iran, 1921–1941,” The Journal of Economic History, 16, no. 1 (March 2001): 97–99Google Scholar; “The Opium Situation in Iran,” 7 July 1971, CIA/ORR Job[?] SOTO 1315A, Box 24, Folder S3686–S3716.
12 Under intense pressure from Washington, the Republic of Turkey agreed to impose a state monopoly on opium production in 1931. Production of opium in Afghanistan was first banned in 1944, only to be lifted two years later. In 1958, Afghani representatives before the United Nations dropped their demands to be designated an opium exporting country. See Kathleen McClaughlin, “Fate of Afghan Opium Growers Challenge U.N.,” New York Times, 16 June 1958; Taylor, Arnold H., American Diplomacy and the Narcotics Traffic, 1900–1939 (Durham, NC, 1969), 244Google Scholar.
13 Kinder, Douglas Clark and Walker III, William O., “Stable Force in a Storm: Harry J. Anslinger and United States Narcotic Foreign Policy, 1930–1962,” Journal of American History, 72 (March 1986): 908–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
14 See McWilliams, John C., “Covert Connections: The FBN, the OSS and the CIA,” Historian, 53, no. 4 (Summer 1991): 660–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
15 Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs for the Year Ended December 31, 1942 (Washington, DC, 1943), 16.
16 Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs for the Year Ended December 31, 1944 (Washington, DC, 1945), 26–28.
17 By 1947, opium derived from Turkish sources began to overtake the trade in Iranian opium. See Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs for the Year Ended December 31, 1947 (Washington, DC, 1948), 14.
18 For Commission of Narcotics Anslinger from White #3, May 11, 1948, George H. White Papers, Box 1, Folder 7, Special Collections Department, Stanford University; Letters from Garland M. Williams to H. J. Anslinger, Commissioner of Narcotics Regarding the Narcotics Situation in the Near East, February 1, 1949, George H. White Papers, Box 1, Folder 7, Special Collections Department, Stanford University.
19 For Commission of Narcotics Anslinger from White #1, May 1, 1948, George H. White Papers, Box 1, Folder 7, Special Collections Department, Stanford University.
20 Letters from Garland M. Williams to H. J. Anslinger, Commissioner of Narcotics Regarding the Narcotics Situation in the Near East, February 9, 1949, George H. White Papers, Box 1, Folder 7, Special Collections Department, Stanford University. Among the families that profited from the opium trade Williams lists are the Pahlavi, Vahabzadeh, Ebtehajh, Namazee and Ardalan families.
21 Hansen, “Learning to Tax,” 107–09.
22 For Commission of Narcotics Anslinger from White #1, May 1, 1948, George H. White Papers, Box 1, Folder 7, Special Collections Department, Stanford University; Letters from Garland M. Williams to H. J. Anslinger, Commissioner of Narcotics Regarding the Narcotics Situation in the Near East, February 1, 1949, George H. White Papers, Box 1, Folder 7, Special Collections Department, Stanford University.
23 Hansen, “Learning to Tax,” 108.
24 “Narcotics Agency Scores Iran Anew,” The New York Times, 3 January 1950; “China and Iran Cited as Opium Offenders,” The New York Times, 21 August 1952.
25 Hansen, “Learning to Tax,” 109.
26 In 1953 the FBN estimated that there were 50–60,000 drug addicts in the United States. Of the actual number of addicts reported in 1954, 24,043 people (77.83 percent) were addicted to heroin. By 1966 FBN officials declared that the number of “reported addicts” had grown to 57,199. Anecdotally, most “reported addicts,” according to the year-end report, appear to have been heroin users. See Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs for the Year Ended December 31, 1954 (Washington, DC, 1955), 31; Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs (Washington, DC, 1967), 43. Also see Jonnes, Jill, Hep-cats, Narcs and Pipe Dreams: A History of America's Romance with Illegal Drugs (Baltimore, MD, 1999), 119–40Google Scholar.
27 Galante, Pierre and Sapin, Louis, The Marseilles Mafia: The Truth Behind the World of Drug Trafficking (London, 1979)Google Scholar; US Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics, Part 4 (Washington, DC, 1964), 687–89Google Scholar.
28 See for example A. Gilmore Flues to Harry Anslinger, 23 January 1959, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 13 May 1958, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
29 Valentine, Douglas, The Strength of the Wolf (London, 2004), x: 105Google Scholar. During his time in Iran, Williams served under the State Department's Office of Public Safety in the United States Official Mission to Iran.
30 Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 10 April 1960, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
31 In investigating one individual accused of bringing opium to the United States, SAVAK, according to Williams, proved “difficult to deal with so far as getting anything [information] from them.” See Garland Williams to Andrew Tartaglino, 29 October 1958, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB. Into the 1970s, it appears that Mohammad Reza Shah was fairly well removed from debates and issues with respect to narcotics. In 1971, the CIA drafted a memo with talking points on who to approach the “king of kings” on opium related issues. See “Considerations in Approaching the Shah to End Iranian Poppy Production,” 7 July 1971, CIA/ORR Job[?] SOTO 1315A, Box 24, Folder S-3686-S3716.
32 Harry Anslinger to Vice Admiral Alfred Richmond, 4 March 1958, Iran File, 1958–60
33 Garland Williams to Charles Siragusa, 25 February 1958, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 20 April 1958, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
34 It appears that Williams may have been somewhat conscious of his zealousness towards anti-narcotics operations. In one report back to Washington, he states that Iranians needed to see that “narcotics work” was important to “many persons from many countries” and “not just a crusade of Williams backed by Anslinger.” See Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 1 March 1959, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
35 From Tehran to Department of State, 8 April 1958, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB. US Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics, Part 4 (Washington, DC, 1964), 702Google Scholar.
36 “Opium Traffic,” 22 June 1955, CIA-RDP 73B00296R000300070022-8, CIA Records Search Tool (CREST), NARA.
37 Manfred Mandrot to Mr. O'Carroll, 9 December 1961, Iranian File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
38 Manfred Mandrot to Chief of Mission, Imperial Iranian Gendarmerie, 7 August 1962, Iranian File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 30 September 1958, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
39 Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 10 April 1960, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
40 A. Gilmore Flues to Garland Williams, 3 December 1958, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
41 Charles Siragusa to Paul Knight, 19 November 1956, Iran Miscellaneous File; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; “Field Notes of United Nations Advisor to the Narcotics Control Administration of Iran on a Tour of Control Offices and Agencies in Azerbaijan from 27th of October to 7th November 1962,” Iran File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 23 January 1960, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
42 Directorate of Intelligence, “The French–Turkish Connection: The Movement of Opium and Morphine Base from Turkey to France (December 1971),” CIA-RDP 73B00296R000300070022-8, CIA Records Search Tool (CREST), NARA; Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 27 February 1960, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
43 Generally speaking, the files found in the Iran section of the FBN's records suggest that Pakistani-grown opium also posed an issue for the anti-narcotics regime in Iran. However, it seemed to Garland Williams, for example, that Pakistan served more as a transit point of Afghani opium than as a site of origin. See Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 10 April 1960, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; Summary of Proceedings of Conference of Mutual Assistance for the Prevention of the Smuggling of Narcotic Drugs on the Iran–Pakistan Border (14–16 July 1962),” Iran File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
44 Letters from Garland M. Williams to H. J. Anslinger, Commissioner of Narcotics Regarding the Narcotics Situation in the Near East, January 26, 1949, George H. White Papers, Box 1, Folder 7, Special Collections Department, Stanford University.
45 “End of Tour Report for Garland Williams, 24 June 1959 to 23 June 1961,” Iran File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 27 February 1960, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 10 April 1960, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
46 Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 26 May 1960, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
47 Directorate of Intelligence, “The French–Turkish Connection”; “Information on a Case of Illicit Traffic in Narcotics or on a Seizure,” 13 August 1962, Iran File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB. Specific tribes involved in drug trafficking cited in the FBN files are the (Baluchi) Noori and (Pashtun) Alizai tribes. For later examples of Pashtun resistance to anti-opium efforts, see Jonathan Randal, “Afghanistan's Promised War on Opium,” The Washington Post, 2 November 1978.
48 Bayat, Kaveh, “Riza Shah and the Tribes: An Overview,” in The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society under Riza Shah, 1921–1941, ed. Cronin, Patricia (London, 2003), 213–19Google Scholar.
49 Letters from Garland M. Williams to H. J. Anslinger, Commissioner of Narcotics Regarding the Narcotics Situation in the Near East, January 26, 1949, George H. White Papers, Box 1, Folder 7, Special Collections Department, Stanford University. In reporting on a nationwide opium suppression campaign waged by the gendarmerie in 1965, the American agent, Manfred Mandrot, surmised that there would be some resistance from various tribes but the gendarmerie believed it had “sufficient firepower this year to overcome them.” Manfred Mandrot to Michael Picini, 23 February 1965, Iranian File, 1964–67; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
50 Directorate of Intelligence, “The French–Turkish Connection”; Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 10 April 1960, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; “Information on a Case of Illicit Traffic in Narcotics or on a Seizure,” 13 August 1962, Iran File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; “Opium Fight Kills 18 in Iran,” The New York Times, 17 June 1957.
51 Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 7 August 1960, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; R. S. Turnbull to Commissioner of Police, New Scotland Yard, 25 January 1963, Iran File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
52 Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 10 April 1960, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
53 G. E. Yates to Harry Anslinger, 15 April 1958, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
54 Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 13 February 1959, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 18 June 1960, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB. In 1961, for example, Afghanistan continued to refuse to meet with CENTO members on narcotics issues. See [Signature illegible] to Garland Williams, undated, Iran File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB. Also see Bernard Weinraub, “Afghan Use U.S. Aid Project for Opium,” New York Times, 26 May 1973.
55 See Abrahamian, Evrand, Iran Between Two Revolutions (Princeton, NJ, 2002)Google Scholar, passim.
56 Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 26 May 1960, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 26 May 1961, Iran File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
57 “Field Notes of United Nations Advisor to the Narcotics Control Administration of Iran on a Tour of Control Offices and Agencies in Azerbaijan from 27th of October to 7th November 1962,” Iran File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB; “Field Notes of United Nations Advisor to the Narcotics Control Administration of Iran on a Tour of Control Offices and Agencies in Southeastern and Eastern Iran from 24th of November to 12th December 1962,” Iran File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
58 “Completion of Tour Report of Garland Williams,” March 1959, Iran File, 1958–60; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
59 Bewley-Taylor, David R., The United States and International Drug Control, 1909–1997 (London, 1999), 136–59Google Scholar.
60 John Cusack to Charles Siragusa, 30 January 1963, Iran File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
61 Manfred Mandrot to John Cusack, 26 March 1962, Iran File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
62 John Cusack to Manfred Mandrot, 20 April 1962, Iran File, 1961–63; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB. According to an investigation carried out in 1957 by FBN agent Joseph Salm, an informant had leveled similar charges against Ahmand Shafik, who as head of Parse Airlines had smuggled drugs from Tehran to Paris. See Memorandum Report, 15 January 1957, Iran Miscellaneous File; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
63 Untitled memorandum, 28 May 1964, Iran File, 1964–67; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
64 Mr. Jarnigan to Mr. Movassaghi, undated, Iran File, 1964–67; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
65 Valentine, The Strength of the Wolf, 117–19.
66 Memorandum Report, 6 January 1957, Iran Miscellaneous File; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
67 “Twelfth Progress Report of the United Nations Advisor for the Period October 1964 through June 1965,” Iran File, 1964–67; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
68 Arthur Doll to Michael Picini, 6 January 1964, Iran File, 1964–67; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
69 Eric Clark, “Iran Revises Opium Policy,” The Washington Post, 18 March 1969.
70 Garland Williams to Harry Anslinger, 20 April 1961, Iran File, 1958–61; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
71 Adolf Lande to George Gaffney, 6 April 1965, Iran File, 1964–67; FBN Files, 1916–70; DEA Records; RG 170; NAB.
72 See Gingeras, Ryan, “In the Hunt for the Sultans of Smack: Dope, Gangsters and the Construction of the Turkish Deep State,” The Middle East Journal, 65, no. 3 (Summer 2011): 6–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Erhan, Çağrı, Beyaz Savaş: Türk–Amerikan İlişkilerinde Afyon Sorunu (Istanbul, 1996), 132–44Google Scholar.
73 Directorate of Intelligence, “The French–Turkish Connection”; “Opium Production in Iran,” 7 July 1971, CIA/ORR Job[?] SOTO 1315A, Box 24, Folder S-3686-S3716.
74 Jack Anderson, “Corsicans Set Up ‘Afghan Connection,’” The Washington Post, 2 March 1973; Stanley Karnow, “U.S. Fears Increased Flow of Heroin from New Sources,” The Washington Post, 6 September 1972.
75 Lewis M. Simons, “Iran Cleanup Viewed as Token Effort,” The Washington Post, 23 February 1976.
76 Jonathan Randal, “Khalkhali Sends 20 Drug Dealers to Firing Squads,” The Washington Post, 22 May 1980; Jay Ross, “Iranian Clergyman Shows Booty from Drug-Busting Drive,” The Washington Post, 9 July 1980. Shooting suspected drug traffickers had been a policy also propagated under Pahlavi rule. See Henry Kamm, “They Shoot Smugglers in Iran but…,” New York Times, 11 February 1973.
77 Stuart Auerbach, “New Heroin Connection,” The Washington Post, 11 October 1979; “Unrest is Said to Unplug Heroin Flow from Adjoining Pakistan and Afghanistan,” The Washington Post, 9 December 1979.
78 There are a great many works that explore and analyze the role of drug trafficking and traffickers during the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. For some of the more recent publications on this issue, see Dale Scott, Peter, American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection, and the Road to Afghanistan (Lanham, UK, 2010)Google Scholar; Shanty, Frank, The Nexus: International Terrorism and Drug Trafficking from Afghanistan (Santa Barbara, CA, 2011)Google Scholar.
79 McCoy, Alfred, “The Stimulus of Prohibition: A Critical History of the Global Narcotics Trade,” in Dangerous Harvest: Drug Plants and the Transformation of Indigenous Landscapes, ed. Steinberg, Michael K. et al. (New York, 2004), 75Google Scholar.
80 I think, on the basis of the FBN sources presented here, there is some reason to question the conclusion that Afghanistan “was not an important actor in the illicit opium market” before 1970. See Thoumi, Francisco, “The Rise of Two Drug Tigers: The Development of the Illicit Drugs Industry and Drug Policy Failure in Afghanistan,” in The Organized Crime Community, ed. Bovenkerk, Frank and Levi, Michael (New York, 2007), 127–28Google Scholar.
81 See for example Gootenberg, Paul, Andean Cocaine: The Making of Global Drug (Chapel Hill, NC, 2008)Google Scholar; Gootenberg, Paul, ed., Cocaine: Global Histories (New York, 1999)Google Scholar; Slack, Edward R., Opium, State, and Society: China's Narco-Economy and the Guomindang, 1924–1937 (Honolulu, 2001)Google Scholar.