University of Virginia Library

Blitzkrieg

Prior to Nixon's blitzkrieg Laos, the opium
trade was booming. Production had grown
rapidly since the early '50s to a level of
175-200 tons a year, with 400 of the 600 tons
produced in Burma, and 50-100 tons of that
grown in Thailand, passing through Laotian
territory.

But if the opium has been an El Dorado for
the Corsicans, the Lao lite, the CIA and
others, it has been a nemesis for the Meo
tribesmen. For in becoming a pawn in the larger
strategy of the U.S., the Mos have seen the
army virtually wiped out, with the average age
of recruits now 15 years, and their population
reduced from 400,000 to 200,000.

The Meos' reward for CIA service, in other
words, has been their destruction as a people.

Both the complexity and the finality of the
opium web which connects Burma, Thailand,
Laos and South Vietnam stretch the
imagination.