1 00:00:09,661 --> 00:00:12,451 Narrator: June 17, 1971. 2 00:00:12,490 --> 00:00:15,580 Richard Nixon declares war on a new enemy. 3 00:00:15,624 --> 00:00:18,584 It's more dangerous than the mob, 4 00:00:18,627 --> 00:00:21,797 more of a threat than Communism. 5 00:00:21,847 --> 00:00:25,677 They call it the "War on Drugs." 6 00:00:25,721 --> 00:00:29,591 America's public-enemy number one is drug abuse. 7 00:00:31,118 --> 00:00:33,338 Man: Anytime you've got that massive amount of drugs 8 00:00:33,381 --> 00:00:35,771 flowing into one area, you're gonna have war. 9 00:00:35,818 --> 00:00:36,818 [ Gunfire ] 10 00:00:36,862 --> 00:00:37,912 [ Indistinct shouting ] 11 00:00:38,777 --> 00:00:41,037 This goes out there. 12 00:00:41,084 --> 00:00:44,744 Stratton: It was the CIA that introduced LSD to the United States. 13 00:00:46,263 --> 00:00:49,833 Moran: The agency was elbow-deep with drug traffickers. 14 00:00:49,875 --> 00:00:51,045 I want him dead, gentlemen. 15 00:00:52,574 --> 00:00:56,104 Man: Nobody knows Pablo Escobar was just a customer. 16 00:00:56,143 --> 00:00:58,413 Stratton: When you're making that kind of money 17 00:00:58,449 --> 00:01:01,449 and living outside the law, it's exciting as hell. 18 00:01:03,237 --> 00:01:05,627 This is crack. 19 00:01:05,674 --> 00:01:08,074 Man: Really? is this your spokesperson? 20 00:01:08,111 --> 00:01:09,851 Any questions? 21 00:01:09,895 --> 00:01:11,545 Together: Just Say No! 22 00:01:11,593 --> 00:01:13,513 Get your hands up, man! Get them up! 23 00:01:13,551 --> 00:01:15,811 And people want their government to get tough 24 00:01:15,858 --> 00:01:17,338 and to go on the offensive. 25 00:01:17,381 --> 00:01:20,521 ♪♪ 26 00:01:20,558 --> 00:01:22,868 President Clinton: Three strikes and you are out. 27 00:01:25,433 --> 00:01:27,573 President Trump: It's time to stop the drugs 28 00:01:27,609 --> 00:01:30,129 from pouring into our country. 29 00:01:30,177 --> 00:01:32,047 Man: It's a war without end. 30 00:01:46,410 --> 00:01:48,760 Stratton: No, I do think that most Americans 31 00:01:48,804 --> 00:01:51,074 would be utterly shocked 32 00:01:51,111 --> 00:01:55,551 if they knew the depth of involvement 33 00:01:55,593 --> 00:01:57,903 that the Central Intelligence Agency has had 34 00:01:57,943 --> 00:02:00,163 in the international drug trade. 35 00:02:00,207 --> 00:02:04,297 ♪ Every little move 36 00:02:04,341 --> 00:02:07,001 ♪ Every little thing you do 37 00:02:07,039 --> 00:02:10,999 Narrator: 11 years before the War on Drugs is declared, 38 00:02:11,043 --> 00:02:15,833 the story begins here at Miami's Fontainebleau Hotel. 39 00:02:15,874 --> 00:02:17,494 It's a favorite spot 40 00:02:17,528 --> 00:02:20,708 for one of the era's most notorious gangsters -- 41 00:02:20,749 --> 00:02:23,359 Santo Trafficante Jr. 42 00:02:23,404 --> 00:02:26,324 Born into the powerful Sicilian mob, 43 00:02:26,363 --> 00:02:28,103 he's well-known by the FBI 44 00:02:28,148 --> 00:02:31,238 as one of the world's biggest heroin traffickers. 45 00:02:31,281 --> 00:02:33,761 Stratton: Santo Trafficante Jr. 46 00:02:33,805 --> 00:02:35,975 at one point had two or three 47 00:02:36,025 --> 00:02:38,415 of the most popular casinos in Havana. 48 00:02:38,462 --> 00:02:39,902 He was running heroin out of there. 49 00:02:39,942 --> 00:02:41,342 These guys were powerful. 50 00:02:41,378 --> 00:02:43,768 They were able to get people killed. 51 00:02:45,730 --> 00:02:48,650 Narrator: But Trafficante is not here on vacation. 52 00:02:48,690 --> 00:02:51,780 He's here to meet with two CIA operatives. 53 00:02:51,823 --> 00:02:54,873 Wright: What's interesting about the CIA and the Cold War 54 00:02:54,913 --> 00:02:57,663 and the War on Drugs is that the CIA 55 00:02:57,699 --> 00:03:01,139 had so many shared interests with drug dealers 56 00:03:01,181 --> 00:03:03,231 and their modes of operation. 57 00:03:03,270 --> 00:03:06,620 Narrator: They're meeting in this hotel to plan the assassination 58 00:03:06,664 --> 00:03:09,414 of America's newest Cold War enemy. 59 00:03:09,450 --> 00:03:11,540 Trafficante: Gentlemen. 60 00:03:20,069 --> 00:03:22,939 ♪♪ 61 00:03:28,295 --> 00:03:29,465 Narrator: Just two years earlier, 62 00:03:29,513 --> 00:03:32,393 Havana was the Caribbean's sin city. 63 00:03:32,429 --> 00:03:35,609 Santo Trafficante ran a vast criminal network 64 00:03:35,650 --> 00:03:37,350 with no fear of arrest -- 65 00:03:37,391 --> 00:03:40,661 gambling, guns, and girls. 66 00:03:40,698 --> 00:03:44,878 But by far, the most lucrative product is heroin. 67 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:48,580 Smuggled from the Middle East through Marseille, France, 68 00:03:48,619 --> 00:03:52,579 via Havana and on to the United States, 69 00:03:52,623 --> 00:03:55,243 they call the route "The French Connection." 70 00:03:55,278 --> 00:03:56,888 Stratton: The thing about Trafficante 71 00:03:56,932 --> 00:03:59,852 and like so many of these wise guys, these Mafia guys, 72 00:03:59,891 --> 00:04:01,501 they would always claim 73 00:04:01,545 --> 00:04:03,325 they weren't in the narcotics business. 74 00:04:03,373 --> 00:04:05,773 They could say, "Oh, yeah, I killed 15 guys, 75 00:04:05,810 --> 00:04:09,120 but I never dealt heroin," which was just like, "Oh, okay." 76 00:04:09,161 --> 00:04:11,561 The fact of the matter is that they've been involved 77 00:04:11,599 --> 00:04:13,429 in the heroin trafficking from the beginning. 78 00:04:15,298 --> 00:04:17,258 Narrator: Trafficante made Havana the center 79 00:04:17,300 --> 00:04:19,390 of his drug-trafficking empire 80 00:04:19,433 --> 00:04:23,833 by paying off Cuba's president, Fulgencio Batista. 81 00:04:23,872 --> 00:04:26,052 The corrupt dictator also happened to be 82 00:04:26,091 --> 00:04:27,961 on the CIA's payroll. 83 00:04:32,794 --> 00:04:36,844 at all came to end with Fidel Castro's revolution. 84 00:04:41,019 --> 00:04:43,239 Members of the old regime, 85 00:04:43,283 --> 00:04:48,163 including those involved with the mob, are rounded up. 86 00:04:50,681 --> 00:04:52,071 [ Guns cock ] 87 00:05:00,125 --> 00:05:04,165 It was bad enough that we had the Soviet Union 88 00:05:04,216 --> 00:05:07,216 that was this threat, but it was far away. 89 00:05:07,263 --> 00:05:09,873 Suddenly, it's right at our doorstep. 90 00:05:09,918 --> 00:05:11,308 Suddenly, that threat 91 00:05:11,354 --> 00:05:14,014 is something that we can actually see, 92 00:05:14,052 --> 00:05:18,802 and that created a tremendous amount of anxiety in Washington. 93 00:05:18,840 --> 00:05:21,710 Narrator: Eisenhower's vice president, Richard Nixon, 94 00:05:21,756 --> 00:05:24,366 signs off on a covert CIA mission... 95 00:05:26,587 --> 00:05:29,017 ...take out Fidel Castro. 96 00:05:40,122 --> 00:05:41,602 You know why Kennedy wants him dead? 97 00:05:47,347 --> 00:05:49,607 Trafficante tells the agency men 98 00:05:49,653 --> 00:05:52,533 it can't be done like a normal mob hit. 99 00:05:57,139 --> 00:06:00,529 Parenti: The CIA is, from its very beginning, 100 00:06:00,577 --> 00:06:03,487 collaborating with mafiosos 101 00:06:03,537 --> 00:06:05,367 who are involved in the drug trade, 102 00:06:05,408 --> 00:06:08,058 because these mafiosos will serve 103 00:06:08,106 --> 00:06:11,366 the larger agenda of fighting Communism. 104 00:06:11,414 --> 00:06:12,764 Trafficante: Okay, so, what are you... 105 00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:32,910 Moran: At the agency then, and even to this day, 106 00:06:32,957 --> 00:06:35,567 morality sometimes has to take a back seat 107 00:06:35,612 --> 00:06:38,402 to whatever the final end is. 108 00:06:38,441 --> 00:06:41,231 Narrator: This clandestine document -- 109 00:06:41,270 --> 00:06:43,710 The Doolittle Report -- is the key to understanding 110 00:06:43,751 --> 00:06:45,321 the last half century 111 00:06:45,361 --> 00:06:48,231 of the CIA's involvement in the drug trade. 112 00:06:48,277 --> 00:06:52,367 Issued in 1954, it lays out the core mission for the agency. 113 00:06:52,412 --> 00:06:54,812 The Doolittle Report essentially said, 114 00:06:54,849 --> 00:06:57,239 we might have to bend the rules a little bit, 115 00:06:57,286 --> 00:06:59,456 or we might even have to break the rules, 116 00:06:59,506 --> 00:07:00,986 in order to combat 117 00:07:01,029 --> 00:07:03,379 this very real threat called Communism. 118 00:07:06,643 --> 00:07:09,083 Narrator: The CIA undertakes extortion, 119 00:07:09,124 --> 00:07:12,214 kidnapping, torture, even murder. 120 00:07:12,257 --> 00:07:15,517 Plotting assassinations and coups in Iran, 121 00:07:15,565 --> 00:07:20,045 Indonesia, the Congo, Guatemala, and now Cuba, 122 00:07:20,091 --> 00:07:23,141 where the Mafia are natural partners. 123 00:07:23,181 --> 00:07:27,401 It doesn't matter the Mafia is also America's largest supplier 124 00:07:27,447 --> 00:07:29,267 of illegal narcotics. 125 00:07:29,318 --> 00:07:32,358 Wright: The CIA enters into a devil's bargain. 126 00:07:32,408 --> 00:07:35,978 When you're at war, you will do anything, in the short term, 127 00:07:36,020 --> 00:07:37,720 that it takes to win that war. 128 00:07:41,722 --> 00:07:44,202 Narrator: The CIA delivers the ingredients to carry out 129 00:07:44,246 --> 00:07:45,896 Castro's assassination... 130 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:54,780 ...a suitcase with $150,000 in cash... 131 00:07:54,822 --> 00:07:57,132 and poison. 132 00:07:57,172 --> 00:08:00,352 Valentine: Trafficante agrees to do this, knowing that, 133 00:08:00,392 --> 00:08:03,532 once you've worked for the CIA, they have two choices -- 134 00:08:03,570 --> 00:08:05,660 they can either kill you or they can protect you. 135 00:08:05,702 --> 00:08:07,362 It's a business decision 136 00:08:07,399 --> 00:08:10,229 that has to do with the Mafia's crime empire 137 00:08:10,272 --> 00:08:12,062 and its prospects for the future. 138 00:08:16,234 --> 00:08:18,114 Narrator: The plot to poison Castro 139 00:08:18,149 --> 00:08:21,759 coincides with a planned invasion of Cuba. 140 00:08:21,805 --> 00:08:23,805 The newly elected President Kennedy 141 00:08:23,851 --> 00:08:26,161 reluctantly signs off on the operation 142 00:08:26,201 --> 00:08:28,551 that will be led by a paramilitary force 143 00:08:28,595 --> 00:08:31,415 of Cuban exiles, trained by the CIA, 144 00:08:31,467 --> 00:08:33,817 known as Operation 40. 145 00:08:36,167 --> 00:08:39,557 Valentine: Operation 40 were gonna go in apart from the brigade 146 00:08:39,606 --> 00:08:41,606 and they were gonna knock off 147 00:08:41,651 --> 00:08:44,611 all the political leaders of Castro's regime. 148 00:08:44,654 --> 00:08:49,404 ♪♪ 149 00:08:49,441 --> 00:08:51,751 Narrator: A small group of Operation 40 commandos 150 00:08:51,792 --> 00:08:53,452 is headed to Cuban soil. 151 00:08:55,839 --> 00:08:59,189 Their goal -- make contact with anti-Castro locals 152 00:08:59,234 --> 00:09:02,324 and then seize control of the government. 153 00:09:02,367 --> 00:09:05,277 One of the leaders is this man -- 154 00:09:05,327 --> 00:09:06,937 Felix Rodriguez. 155 00:09:06,981 --> 00:09:09,721 The son of wealthy Cuban landowners, 156 00:09:09,766 --> 00:09:13,466 his uncle is Minister of Public Works under Batista. 157 00:09:13,509 --> 00:09:16,509 When his friends are executed in the Revolution, 158 00:09:16,556 --> 00:09:18,376 he is one of the first to volunteer 159 00:09:18,427 --> 00:09:20,687 when the CIA begins forming their plan 160 00:09:20,734 --> 00:09:22,874 to take out Fidel Castro. 161 00:09:22,910 --> 00:09:25,740 Moran: For Felix Rodriguez and the other Operation 40 guys, 162 00:09:25,782 --> 00:09:29,132 this was beyond just the mission of the agency. 163 00:09:29,177 --> 00:09:30,437 This was something that they were 164 00:09:30,482 --> 00:09:32,222 personally passionate about. 165 00:09:35,705 --> 00:09:38,225 Narrator: Rodriguez has been undercover for six weeks 166 00:09:38,273 --> 00:09:39,363 when he receives word. 167 00:09:42,059 --> 00:09:44,109 The invasion is on. 168 00:09:50,154 --> 00:09:53,074 [ Indistinct shouting ] 169 00:09:53,114 --> 00:09:57,424 The CIA-trained troops land at the Bay of Pigs... 170 00:09:59,860 --> 00:10:03,860 ...but Castro is onto both the poison plot... 171 00:10:03,907 --> 00:10:05,337 and the invasion plan. 172 00:10:06,910 --> 00:10:08,650 [ Explosion ] 173 00:10:13,090 --> 00:10:14,660 It's a bloodbath. 174 00:10:17,399 --> 00:10:21,139 Over 100 CIA-trained soldiers are killed, 175 00:10:21,185 --> 00:10:23,225 1,200 are captured. 176 00:10:31,152 --> 00:10:35,682 But Felix Rodriguez and the other leaders of Operation 40 177 00:10:35,722 --> 00:10:38,942 escape to Miami. 178 00:10:43,730 --> 00:10:45,510 And it's here in South Florida 179 00:10:45,557 --> 00:10:47,557 where many Operation 40 veterans 180 00:10:47,603 --> 00:10:50,003 will find a lucrative new trade. 181 00:10:53,087 --> 00:10:56,607 Parenti: This army of Cubans that had been trained by the CIA 182 00:10:56,656 --> 00:10:59,876 found themselves seriously underemployed. 183 00:10:59,920 --> 00:11:01,310 And they looked around, 184 00:11:01,356 --> 00:11:03,266 and there was a great way to make money, 185 00:11:03,314 --> 00:11:04,934 and they had the skills for it. 186 00:11:04,968 --> 00:11:06,358 It was smuggling drugs. 187 00:11:06,404 --> 00:11:08,024 Narrator: The Bay of Pigs 188 00:11:08,058 --> 00:11:10,018 may have been one of history's greatest blunders, 189 00:11:10,060 --> 00:11:12,720 but the men behind it will play oversized roles 190 00:11:12,759 --> 00:11:15,199 when the Cold War and the War on Drugs collide 191 00:11:15,239 --> 00:11:16,939 in the years to come. 192 00:11:16,980 --> 00:11:18,590 Valentine: You start having this boom 193 00:11:18,634 --> 00:11:20,334 of drugs and lawlessness in Miami, 194 00:11:20,375 --> 00:11:23,725 which is the very first experience of blowback 195 00:11:23,770 --> 00:11:26,030 from this whole Cuban fiasco. 196 00:11:26,076 --> 00:11:27,946 Narrator: By the end of the '60s, 197 00:11:27,991 --> 00:11:33,211 an estimated 20% of America's heroin and 60% of the cocaine 198 00:11:33,257 --> 00:11:35,907 are connected to anti-Castro operatives. 199 00:11:38,915 --> 00:11:42,745 The seeds of the War on Drugs have been planted. 200 00:12:05,028 --> 00:12:06,808 Narrator: Sandoz Laboratories, 201 00:12:06,856 --> 00:12:09,466 one of the world's leading pharmaceutical factories. 202 00:12:10,817 --> 00:12:14,597 Two American spies have just arrived. 203 00:12:14,646 --> 00:12:17,476 The mission -- corner the market on the world's supply 204 00:12:17,519 --> 00:12:20,609 of a powerful new psychoactive drug. 205 00:12:20,652 --> 00:12:23,742 Wright: The CIA saw itself as being in a kind of 206 00:12:23,786 --> 00:12:29,396 Cold War psychological warfare arms race with the Soviet Union. 207 00:12:31,402 --> 00:12:33,842 What's the answer to controlling people 208 00:12:33,883 --> 00:12:36,063 and brainwashing them or getting them to confess? 209 00:12:36,103 --> 00:12:37,763 It's drugs. 210 00:12:37,800 --> 00:12:40,460 Narrator: The CIA has just authorized the purchase 211 00:12:40,498 --> 00:12:43,408 of 10 kilograms of pure LSD-25, 212 00:12:43,458 --> 00:12:45,628 enough to dose more than half the population 213 00:12:45,677 --> 00:12:47,327 of the United States. 214 00:12:47,375 --> 00:12:50,065 Sandoz even supplies the CIA with a receipt 215 00:12:50,117 --> 00:12:52,547 and shipping information. 216 00:12:52,597 --> 00:12:57,167 The CIA were scared stiff the KGB was gonna get all this LSD 217 00:12:57,211 --> 00:12:59,131 and come over and start dosing people. 218 00:12:59,169 --> 00:13:03,699 So they bought every drop of LSD in existence at that point. 219 00:13:03,739 --> 00:13:07,219 They gave it to George White and let George start dosing people. 220 00:13:07,264 --> 00:13:08,664 ♪ Hey, oh 221 00:13:08,700 --> 00:13:10,090 ♪ My little Tina 222 00:13:10,137 --> 00:13:11,397 ♪ Hey, oh 223 00:13:11,442 --> 00:13:12,972 ♪ Nothing could be sweeter 224 00:13:13,009 --> 00:13:14,359 ♪ Hey, oh 225 00:13:14,402 --> 00:13:15,882 ♪ She's my little ballerina 226 00:13:15,925 --> 00:13:17,315 ♪ Hey, oh 227 00:13:17,361 --> 00:13:19,451 ♪ My little Tina 228 00:13:19,494 --> 00:13:22,284 ♪ She's my little queen and gonna make me royalty tonight ♪ 229 00:13:24,412 --> 00:13:26,332 Narrator: George Hunter White, 230 00:13:26,370 --> 00:13:29,900 a larger-than-life undercover federal narcotics agent. 231 00:13:29,939 --> 00:13:32,119 He's known for busting international drug rings 232 00:13:32,159 --> 00:13:35,549 at home and abroad. 233 00:13:35,597 --> 00:13:37,687 But unbeknownst to his supervisors, 234 00:13:37,729 --> 00:13:40,469 White also works for the CIA. 235 00:13:40,515 --> 00:13:43,815 His job -- to conduct experiments for an operation 236 00:13:43,866 --> 00:13:45,556 called Midnight Climax. 237 00:13:49,002 --> 00:13:51,742 White pays prostitutes to lure their clients 238 00:13:51,787 --> 00:13:54,527 to the agency safe house. 239 00:13:54,572 --> 00:13:59,062 George had a CIA safe house stocked with booze. 240 00:13:59,099 --> 00:14:01,839 George would sit behind this one-way mirror, 241 00:14:01,884 --> 00:14:05,374 drinking martinis, sitting on a portable toilet. 242 00:14:05,409 --> 00:14:07,849 If he had to take a leak, he didn't want to get up and leave. 243 00:14:09,587 --> 00:14:12,847 [ Indistinct conversation ] 244 00:14:12,895 --> 00:14:14,675 [ Laughter ] 245 00:14:14,723 --> 00:14:17,603 Hookers would bring these suckers back to the apartment... 246 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:28,350 ...and dose them with pure LSD-25. 247 00:14:30,391 --> 00:14:33,051 Man: This is where I have my effect -- 248 00:14:33,089 --> 00:14:34,699 in the mind. 249 00:14:34,743 --> 00:14:37,833 Narrator: This is Lysergic acid diethylamide, 250 00:14:37,877 --> 00:14:39,747 better known as acid. 251 00:14:39,791 --> 00:14:41,621 The powerful drug was first synthesized 252 00:14:41,663 --> 00:14:43,673 in 1938 in Switzerland. 253 00:14:43,708 --> 00:14:46,448 With a dose of mere micrograms, 254 00:14:46,494 --> 00:14:48,544 the mind becomes confused. 255 00:14:48,583 --> 00:14:50,283 Perception in distorted. 256 00:14:50,324 --> 00:14:52,804 Personal identity is called into question. 257 00:14:52,848 --> 00:14:56,498 The results can be euphoric bliss or deadly panic. 258 00:14:57,984 --> 00:15:02,084 ♪♪ 259 00:15:02,118 --> 00:15:05,598 Do you see that? The light? 260 00:15:07,080 --> 00:15:09,730 White observes the effects of the acid-laced cocktails 261 00:15:09,778 --> 00:15:11,428 on the unsuspecting men. 262 00:15:11,475 --> 00:15:13,425 Valentine: White was very much into S&M. 263 00:15:13,477 --> 00:15:15,647 He would visit prostitutes himself, 264 00:15:15,697 --> 00:15:18,397 and they would strap him to a bed and whip his butt. 265 00:15:18,439 --> 00:15:20,309 Oh, my God. What's that? 266 00:15:20,354 --> 00:15:22,494 [ Laughs ] 267 00:15:22,530 --> 00:15:25,530 Narrator: Recognizing the bizarre behavior brought on by the drug, 268 00:15:25,576 --> 00:15:29,276 he gives LSD the code name "stormy." 269 00:15:29,319 --> 00:15:31,799 White takes meticulous notes... 270 00:15:33,236 --> 00:15:36,666 ...and files his reports to his CIA handlers. 271 00:15:36,718 --> 00:15:39,978 So, that was how LSD was introduced to this country. 272 00:15:40,026 --> 00:15:43,026 Narrator: Operation Midnight Climax is part of a larger, 273 00:15:43,072 --> 00:15:46,682 top-secret CIA program called MKUltra. 274 00:15:46,728 --> 00:15:48,858 The goal -- learn how to control 275 00:15:48,904 --> 00:15:51,734 and even reprogram people's minds. 276 00:15:51,776 --> 00:15:55,346 The CIA believes LSD might hold the key. 277 00:15:55,389 --> 00:15:57,129 Over the next 10 years, 278 00:15:57,173 --> 00:16:00,093 the agency doses a cross section of the American public. 279 00:16:00,133 --> 00:16:04,663 Everyone from unwitting housewives to soldiers 280 00:16:04,702 --> 00:16:08,582 to even criminals, like gangster Whitey Bulger, is tested. 281 00:16:11,187 --> 00:16:13,797 ♪♪ 282 00:16:22,982 --> 00:16:24,982 The Allan Memorial Hospital. 283 00:16:27,595 --> 00:16:30,205 A psychiatric patient is being prepped for treatment. 284 00:16:34,297 --> 00:16:37,607 But this is no ordinary mental hospital. 285 00:16:37,648 --> 00:16:39,648 The doctor is not looking for a cure. 286 00:16:42,131 --> 00:16:45,871 The patient has no idea what they are about to endure. 287 00:16:45,917 --> 00:16:47,697 This goes out there. 288 00:16:54,361 --> 00:16:57,451 Dr. Ewen Cameron -- the former president 289 00:16:57,494 --> 00:16:59,934 of the American Psychiatric Association. 290 00:16:59,975 --> 00:17:04,455 During the Nuremberg trials, he evaluates Nazi war criminals. 291 00:17:04,501 --> 00:17:06,811 But Cameron has another side to him. 292 00:17:06,851 --> 00:17:10,161 He's fascinated by the idea that the identity can be erased 293 00:17:10,203 --> 00:17:11,993 and the mind reprogrammed. 294 00:17:13,423 --> 00:17:15,773 While George White's tests become inseparable 295 00:17:15,817 --> 00:17:17,987 from his own sexual obsessions, 296 00:17:18,037 --> 00:17:21,477 Cameron's approach is clinical and deadly serious. 297 00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:26,090 Cameron was working for the CIA. 298 00:17:26,132 --> 00:17:28,742 They were looking into brainwashing. 299 00:17:28,786 --> 00:17:31,006 They were looking into mind control. 300 00:17:31,050 --> 00:17:34,100 They were looking into how they could create 301 00:17:34,140 --> 00:17:36,190 what they called "Manchurian candidates." 302 00:17:38,796 --> 00:17:41,226 Narrator: Even his own nurses don't know he is working 303 00:17:41,277 --> 00:17:43,757 on a top-secret CIA program. 304 00:17:52,941 --> 00:17:56,291 Stratton: He was doing a lot of different testing with LSD. 305 00:17:56,336 --> 00:17:59,506 They were trying to figure out if they could get people 306 00:17:59,556 --> 00:18:01,686 to go out and do things 307 00:18:01,732 --> 00:18:05,302 that they would ordinarily not do, like assassination. 308 00:18:09,175 --> 00:18:13,085 Narrator: Once the subject is dosed with a sufficient amount of LSD, 309 00:18:13,135 --> 00:18:16,435 Cameron begins to try and reprogram the patient's mind. 310 00:18:22,536 --> 00:18:24,836 He shocks them with high voltages... 311 00:18:32,154 --> 00:18:34,594 ...and forces them to listen to repetitive audio loops 312 00:18:34,635 --> 00:18:36,935 for days at a time. 313 00:18:36,985 --> 00:18:39,465 [ Man repeating "Black is white, and war is peace" ] 314 00:18:47,648 --> 00:18:52,218 Woman: The drug began to take hold very rapidly. 315 00:18:52,261 --> 00:18:54,871 Things became very frightening, 316 00:18:54,916 --> 00:18:56,916 and I became more and more despondent, 317 00:18:56,961 --> 00:18:58,701 and I thought, "I can't -- 318 00:18:58,746 --> 00:19:00,916 I can't live like this any longer." 319 00:19:10,323 --> 00:19:12,933 Narrator: But not every subject in the MKUltra program 320 00:19:12,977 --> 00:19:16,287 finds the drug's effects so terrifying. 321 00:19:16,329 --> 00:19:19,419 The CIA's quest to create mind-controlled zombies 322 00:19:19,462 --> 00:19:21,642 is about to have an unintended consequence 323 00:19:21,682 --> 00:19:23,382 that will change America. 324 00:19:26,339 --> 00:19:28,299 Wright: You know, what the CIA really dreamed of 325 00:19:28,341 --> 00:19:31,341 was sort of like a drug you could give to someone, 326 00:19:31,387 --> 00:19:34,217 get them to commit all sorts of unspeakable acts, 327 00:19:34,260 --> 00:19:35,740 and they wake up the next day 328 00:19:35,783 --> 00:19:36,873 and they don't remember what they've done. 329 00:19:42,442 --> 00:19:45,922 Narrator: Another CIA LSD experiment is under way. 330 00:19:47,447 --> 00:19:49,577 Volunteers have been paid $75 331 00:19:49,623 --> 00:19:52,543 to participate in a research study. 332 00:19:52,582 --> 00:19:56,802 One of the volunteers -- Ken Kesey, 333 00:19:56,847 --> 00:19:59,237 a young writer, wrestler, and graduate student 334 00:19:59,285 --> 00:20:01,765 at nearby Stanford University. 335 00:20:01,809 --> 00:20:03,589 He'll go on to write the bestseller 336 00:20:03,637 --> 00:20:05,597 "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." 337 00:20:10,296 --> 00:20:12,166 A nurse turns on a recording device 338 00:20:12,211 --> 00:20:15,211 and asks Kesey what the drug is doing to his brain. 339 00:21:12,793 --> 00:21:16,803 The case of MKUltra has to be one of the craziest cases 340 00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:18,540 of blowback in CIA history. 341 00:21:18,581 --> 00:21:22,411 Because here, they took this drug, LSD, 342 00:21:22,455 --> 00:21:24,275 and thought that they were gonna be able to use it 343 00:21:24,326 --> 00:21:27,586 to control people's minds, and the unbelievable irony 344 00:21:27,634 --> 00:21:32,334 is that LSD is a drug that does exactly the opposite. 345 00:21:32,378 --> 00:21:36,858 It frees your mind and causes people to question authority. 346 00:21:36,904 --> 00:21:40,264 Narrator: Within months, Kesey will be hired as a nurse's aid 347 00:21:40,299 --> 00:21:44,559 and given access to the hospital's supply of LSD. 348 00:21:44,607 --> 00:21:48,567 Perhaps the CIA never meant to "turn on" Ken Kesey, 349 00:21:48,611 --> 00:21:50,271 but they did. 350 00:21:50,309 --> 00:21:53,359 Soon, he is turning his friends on to acid, 351 00:21:53,399 --> 00:21:56,619 then the entire West Coast, 352 00:21:56,663 --> 00:21:59,493 then an entire generation. 353 00:21:59,535 --> 00:22:02,885 Stratton: It created the counterculture, as we know it, of the '60s. 354 00:22:02,930 --> 00:22:06,540 All that was a kind of blowback, or backfire, 355 00:22:06,586 --> 00:22:09,976 of the CIA's attempt to control people 356 00:22:10,024 --> 00:22:13,204 turned out to be just the opposite. 357 00:22:13,244 --> 00:22:16,604 It was the CIA that introduced LSD to the United States. 358 00:22:34,744 --> 00:22:38,534 Narrator: While LSD takes hold in the United States, 359 00:22:38,574 --> 00:22:41,364 in Southeast Asia, a covert CIA war 360 00:22:41,403 --> 00:22:45,713 will fuel a new drug epidemic -- heroin. 361 00:22:49,237 --> 00:22:52,017 O0[ Indistinct conversations ] 362 00:22:56,462 --> 00:23:00,072 Man: The President of the United States is dead. 363 00:23:00,117 --> 00:23:03,027 President Kennedy has been assassinated. 364 00:23:03,077 --> 00:23:05,427 It's official now. The president is dead. 365 00:23:05,471 --> 00:23:09,211 Narrator: The United States is shaken to its core. 366 00:23:09,257 --> 00:23:13,607 JFK is shot down in the streets of Dallas... 367 00:23:13,653 --> 00:23:18,013 and Lyndon Johnson takes over as Commander in Chief. 368 00:23:19,485 --> 00:23:22,175 The war against Communism in Vietnam 369 00:23:22,226 --> 00:23:25,966 becomes President Johnson's most pressing issue. 370 00:23:26,013 --> 00:23:28,363 What the American public doesn't know 371 00:23:28,407 --> 00:23:31,667 is just across the border from Vietnam, in Laos, 372 00:23:31,714 --> 00:23:36,594 more seeds are being planted for the War on Drugs. 373 00:23:36,632 --> 00:23:39,162 Moran: Everybody at the time was focused on Vietnam, 374 00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:42,600 but in nearby Laos, there was one of the hugest 375 00:23:42,638 --> 00:23:45,818 paramilitary covert operations going on. 376 00:23:45,859 --> 00:23:47,859 And President Johnson, in fact, 377 00:23:47,904 --> 00:23:51,434 was under a tremendous amount of pressure to keep it secret. 378 00:23:51,473 --> 00:23:54,563 ♪♪ 379 00:23:59,133 --> 00:24:02,623 Narrator: Local forces are waging a secret war 380 00:24:02,658 --> 00:24:06,578 against communist guerrillas in the remote Laotian highlands, 381 00:24:06,619 --> 00:24:10,709 and they're being trained by a legendary CIA operative... 382 00:24:10,753 --> 00:24:12,973 Tony Poe. 383 00:24:13,016 --> 00:24:15,576 A World War II fighter pilot, 384 00:24:15,628 --> 00:24:19,108 he earns two Purple Hearts in the Battle of Iwo Jima. 385 00:24:19,153 --> 00:24:23,903 After the war, he becomes one of America's most prolific spies. 386 00:24:23,940 --> 00:24:28,250 Now he's the CIA's man in Laos. 387 00:24:28,292 --> 00:24:30,642 A lot of people think of someone like James Bond 388 00:24:30,686 --> 00:24:32,686 as the kind of spy prototype, 389 00:24:32,732 --> 00:24:34,822 you know, suave and wearing a tuxedo. 390 00:24:34,864 --> 00:24:36,694 In a place like Laos, 391 00:24:36,736 --> 00:24:39,346 that's not the kind of spy we were sending over there. 392 00:24:39,390 --> 00:24:42,310 [ Indistinct shouting ] 393 00:24:42,350 --> 00:24:43,920 Keep moving forward! 394 00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:46,440 Narrator: Tony Poe breaks CIA rules 395 00:24:46,485 --> 00:24:48,875 and leads a regiment to battle himself. 396 00:24:51,533 --> 00:24:53,973 Moran: If you take a situation like Laos was at the time, 397 00:24:54,014 --> 00:24:56,454 that kind of craziness, 398 00:24:56,495 --> 00:24:58,495 and you insert someone like Tony Poe, 399 00:24:58,540 --> 00:25:01,630 that's basically like adding gas to a fire. 400 00:25:07,244 --> 00:25:09,464 Stratton: After the battles, he'd send his guys out... 401 00:25:11,597 --> 00:25:14,297 ...to chop the ears off of these dead enemy. 402 00:25:16,602 --> 00:25:18,432 And then they would pack the ears up 403 00:25:18,473 --> 00:25:21,523 and send them back to the CIA headquarters, like trophies. 404 00:25:24,044 --> 00:25:25,574 Another thing that they would do 405 00:25:25,611 --> 00:25:27,351 is chop the heads off their victims, 406 00:25:27,395 --> 00:25:29,175 and then they would fly over with helicopters 407 00:25:29,223 --> 00:25:32,753 and drop the heads, like bombs, on the villages. 408 00:25:32,792 --> 00:25:34,662 [ Helicopter blade whirring ] 409 00:25:46,675 --> 00:25:48,495 Narrator: Tony Poe's ally against communists 410 00:25:48,547 --> 00:25:50,417 is a powerful local warlord... 411 00:25:50,461 --> 00:25:52,591 [ Speaking native language ] 412 00:25:52,638 --> 00:25:54,938 ...Vang Pao. 413 00:25:54,988 --> 00:25:57,338 A resistance fighter in World War II, 414 00:25:57,381 --> 00:26:00,911 he now commands a ragtag army of Hmong Hill people 415 00:26:00,950 --> 00:26:04,430 against communists infiltrating their tribal land. 416 00:26:04,475 --> 00:26:08,175 Stratton: Guys like Vang Pao and a guy like Tony Poe 417 00:26:08,218 --> 00:26:10,218 get in business together because they had a common enemy, 418 00:26:10,264 --> 00:26:12,184 which was Communism. 419 00:26:12,222 --> 00:26:14,792 [ Helicopter blade whirring ] 420 00:26:17,532 --> 00:26:19,532 Narrator: But what Poe doesn't realize 421 00:26:19,578 --> 00:26:23,318 is that Vang Pao is not just fighting Communism. 422 00:26:23,364 --> 00:26:26,934 He's also lining his own pockets. 423 00:26:26,976 --> 00:26:30,626 Northern Laos is in the heart of the Golden Triangle, 424 00:26:30,676 --> 00:26:33,236 an area which includes Burma and Thailand, 425 00:26:33,287 --> 00:26:35,507 known as one of the most fertile opium growing-regions 426 00:26:35,550 --> 00:26:36,860 in the world. 427 00:26:38,466 --> 00:26:41,596 Here, the Hmong have used opium for centuries as medicine. 428 00:26:41,643 --> 00:26:44,123 But on the international drug market, 429 00:26:44,167 --> 00:26:46,387 the real value of the poppy's sap 430 00:26:46,430 --> 00:26:49,740 is that it can be refined into heroin. 431 00:26:49,782 --> 00:26:53,922 Moran: When the CIA is focused on a mission, 432 00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:56,090 on a particular end, 433 00:26:56,136 --> 00:27:00,096 they're not going to sit down and pontificate about 434 00:27:00,140 --> 00:27:04,010 "What are the long-term, global consequences 435 00:27:04,057 --> 00:27:05,487 of our actions going to be?" 436 00:27:12,674 --> 00:27:15,294 Narrator: Tony Poe has ordered a CIA plane 437 00:27:15,329 --> 00:27:17,329 to drop off weapons and ammunition 438 00:27:17,374 --> 00:27:19,164 for the Hmong warriors 439 00:27:19,202 --> 00:27:23,122 and to pick up injured soldiers, women, children, and cargo. 440 00:27:26,906 --> 00:27:29,686 The plane is owned by Air America. 441 00:27:31,693 --> 00:27:35,133 One of the most important aspects of fighting Communism 442 00:27:35,175 --> 00:27:37,605 in Laos involved a company called Air America, 443 00:27:37,656 --> 00:27:39,656 which was actually a front for the CIA. 444 00:27:44,010 --> 00:27:46,970 Narrator: The CIA plane lands back at this secret base 445 00:27:47,013 --> 00:27:49,803 in the Long Tieng Valley, in Laos. 446 00:27:49,842 --> 00:27:53,242 Unmarked on any map, it's fast becoming 447 00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:55,850 one of the busiest airports in the world. 448 00:27:57,414 --> 00:28:00,814 But this plane isn't just carrying the wounded and frail. 449 00:28:05,118 --> 00:28:08,028 Vang Pao has begun using Air America 450 00:28:08,077 --> 00:28:11,777 to transport his raw opium from the hills to the cities. 451 00:28:11,820 --> 00:28:16,000 Moran: The Hmong people see Americans coming and going with planes 452 00:28:16,042 --> 00:28:19,002 and having the resources to be able to help them 453 00:28:19,045 --> 00:28:22,175 transport something that's been in their culture for decades. 454 00:28:22,222 --> 00:28:23,402 It's a no-brainer. 455 00:28:30,273 --> 00:28:32,673 Wright: The CIA built Air America 456 00:28:32,711 --> 00:28:36,931 to move people and weapons and money below the radar. 457 00:28:36,976 --> 00:28:42,366 Well, that's identical to what drug traffickers have to do. 458 00:28:42,416 --> 00:28:46,246 It's almost inevitable that the CIA and drug traffickers 459 00:28:46,289 --> 00:28:49,079 are continually crossing through the same worlds, 460 00:28:49,118 --> 00:28:51,158 continually using the same methods 461 00:28:51,207 --> 00:28:52,857 and on a rather intimate basis. 462 00:28:56,256 --> 00:28:58,206 Narrator: The CIA turns a blind eye 463 00:28:58,258 --> 00:29:01,958 to Vang Pao's growing heroin operation. 464 00:29:02,001 --> 00:29:06,481 But Tony Poe didn't come to Laos to enrich a local drug lord. 465 00:29:06,527 --> 00:29:09,697 [ Indistinct shouting ] 466 00:29:13,142 --> 00:29:16,622 Tony Poe hated Vang Pao 'cause he knew he was selling drugs. 467 00:29:16,667 --> 00:29:18,147 [Bleep] you, you son of a bitch! 468 00:29:20,497 --> 00:29:22,797 Tony Poe was actually the model 469 00:29:22,848 --> 00:29:26,108 for Colonel Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now." 470 00:29:26,155 --> 00:29:28,195 At one point, I was sitting, talking with him, 471 00:29:28,244 --> 00:29:30,334 and he was running his hand over his bald head 472 00:29:30,377 --> 00:29:32,547 like Marlon Brando did in the movie. 473 00:29:32,596 --> 00:29:34,336 And I said to him, "Did you get that from Brando, 474 00:29:34,381 --> 00:29:35,731 or did Brando get that from you?" 475 00:29:37,819 --> 00:29:39,729 Narrator: In 1965, 476 00:29:39,778 --> 00:29:43,388 the CIA pulls Tony Poe out of Long Tieng. 477 00:29:43,433 --> 00:29:45,313 Moran: There are probably a lot more Tony Poes 478 00:29:45,348 --> 00:29:47,048 that we don't know about -- 479 00:29:47,089 --> 00:29:51,789 people who went in believing in the higher cause, 480 00:29:51,833 --> 00:29:54,403 and then found that there was a lot of activity 481 00:29:54,444 --> 00:29:58,014 that they either had to sanction or turn a blind eye to. 482 00:29:58,057 --> 00:30:01,277 When your moral compass starts to stray 483 00:30:01,321 --> 00:30:03,851 so far back and forth, you can start to lose it, 484 00:30:03,889 --> 00:30:05,189 as Tony Poe did. 485 00:30:05,238 --> 00:30:08,758 ♪♪ 486 00:30:08,807 --> 00:30:11,027 Narrator: With Tony Poe reassigned, 487 00:30:11,070 --> 00:30:13,380 the CIA will send in a new team 488 00:30:13,420 --> 00:30:15,990 to help run their secret war in Laos. 489 00:30:16,031 --> 00:30:21,381 Parenti: Vang Pao is now unleashed to continue his drug dealing, 490 00:30:21,428 --> 00:30:23,258 and that region becomes 491 00:30:23,299 --> 00:30:25,779 the epicenter of global heroin production. 492 00:30:34,745 --> 00:30:37,175 Man: What is going to be the theme of your meeting? 493 00:30:37,226 --> 00:30:39,786 Are you going to tell what's bad about LSD? 494 00:30:42,188 --> 00:30:44,278 Not necessarily. 495 00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:46,500 Man #2: Will LSD be in evidence 496 00:30:46,540 --> 00:30:49,330 at the graduation ceremony, Ken? 497 00:30:49,369 --> 00:30:52,199 Um... 498 00:30:52,241 --> 00:30:54,291 Why don't you guys come? [ Laughs ] 499 00:30:54,330 --> 00:30:56,810 ♪♪ 500 00:31:01,947 --> 00:31:06,167 Narrator: Five years since Ken Kesey was first introduced to LSD 501 00:31:06,212 --> 00:31:09,962 through the CIA's MKUltra mind-control program, 502 00:31:09,998 --> 00:31:12,258 he is now a psychedelic convert 503 00:31:12,305 --> 00:31:16,605 committed to spreading the LSD gospel across America. 504 00:31:16,657 --> 00:31:19,567 He throws parties known as "acid tests" 505 00:31:19,616 --> 00:31:23,006 where LSD-laced Kool-Aid is served, 506 00:31:23,055 --> 00:31:26,965 and partygoers are invited to achieve a communal high. 507 00:31:32,891 --> 00:31:34,891 Meanwhile, across the country, 508 00:31:34,936 --> 00:31:37,496 there's a smaller, but growing hippie scene, 509 00:31:37,547 --> 00:31:39,197 and a group of them have turned 510 00:31:39,245 --> 00:31:41,765 this country estate into a commune 511 00:31:41,812 --> 00:31:43,812 and are about to drop acid. 512 00:31:47,209 --> 00:31:50,949 Leading them on their acid trip is Timothy Leary. 513 00:31:50,996 --> 00:31:54,346 A popular lecturer at Harvard, Leary's fascinated 514 00:31:54,390 --> 00:31:58,050 by the effect of psychedelic drugs on the brain. 515 00:31:58,090 --> 00:32:01,790 LSD was legal then, and he was giving it to graduate students 516 00:32:01,832 --> 00:32:03,882 to open their minds 517 00:32:03,922 --> 00:32:08,142 and, like Timothy Leary said, "question authority." 518 00:32:08,187 --> 00:32:10,057 And that's when he became an outlaw. 519 00:32:10,102 --> 00:32:13,322 Leary: Our aim is to transform American society. 520 00:32:13,366 --> 00:32:15,406 America today is an insane asylum. 521 00:32:15,455 --> 00:32:18,275 We're going to try to bring about a religious renaissance 522 00:32:18,327 --> 00:32:20,367 and a spiritual revolution. 523 00:32:20,416 --> 00:32:23,116 When he urged people to take LSD, 524 00:32:23,158 --> 00:32:25,158 the effect that it had on people 525 00:32:25,204 --> 00:32:28,774 was so powerful that they almost treat him like a guru of sorts. 526 00:32:28,816 --> 00:32:31,246 [ Laughter ] 527 00:32:31,297 --> 00:32:35,907 Stratton: Millbrook is a bastion of old New England, 528 00:32:35,954 --> 00:32:37,914 had all of these hippies coming in there, 529 00:32:37,956 --> 00:32:40,346 and Ken Kesey showed up there on his bus 530 00:32:40,393 --> 00:32:42,533 with all his merry pranksters. 531 00:32:42,569 --> 00:32:44,749 And that scared the hell 532 00:32:44,788 --> 00:32:49,578 out of this old, blue-blooded, WASP aristocracy 533 00:32:49,619 --> 00:32:52,489 that lived in Millbrook, New York. 534 00:32:52,535 --> 00:32:55,625 Narrator: Leary's acid crusade has made him a target. 535 00:32:57,888 --> 00:33:00,458 [ Police radio chatter ] 536 00:33:00,500 --> 00:33:04,680 A local prosecutor is on a crusade of his own -- 537 00:33:04,721 --> 00:33:06,851 G. Gordon Liddy, 538 00:33:06,897 --> 00:33:09,857 a former FBI agent turned assistant district attorney 539 00:33:09,900 --> 00:33:11,860 in Dutchess County, New York. 540 00:33:14,296 --> 00:33:18,816 Gordon Liddy was an obscure anti-drug, 541 00:33:18,866 --> 00:33:22,646 right-wing prosecutor in Dutchess County, New York, 542 00:33:22,696 --> 00:33:28,436 until he took on Timothy Leary and the LSD movement. 543 00:33:28,484 --> 00:33:32,664 No one was as determined to take Leary down as G. Gordon Liddy. 544 00:33:32,706 --> 00:33:35,056 He just went after Leary with a vengeance. 545 00:33:35,100 --> 00:33:37,620 [ Police radio chatter ] 546 00:33:41,758 --> 00:33:43,278 We waGo, go, go!is 547 00:33:43,325 --> 00:33:45,585 Keep your eyes open. Watch out for drugs. 548 00:33:45,632 --> 00:33:49,592 Inside, the officers find hippies tripping on LSD, 549 00:33:49,636 --> 00:33:51,326 watching a loop of a waterfall. 550 00:33:51,377 --> 00:33:54,077 Are you on drugs? 551 00:33:54,119 --> 00:33:55,599 Are you on drugs? 552 00:33:55,642 --> 00:33:57,642 Where's Leary? 553 00:33:57,687 --> 00:34:01,737 Leary was into disrupting the normal culture 554 00:34:01,778 --> 00:34:04,388 of America with LSD. 555 00:34:04,433 --> 00:34:06,353 Hands in the air! Get up against the wall! 556 00:34:06,392 --> 00:34:07,442 Hands in the air! 557 00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:08,960 That scared the hell 558 00:34:09,003 --> 00:34:13,753 out of this old, blue-blooded, WASP aristocracy 559 00:34:13,790 --> 00:34:16,100 that lived in a place like Millbrook, New York. 560 00:34:16,141 --> 00:34:19,971 Narrator: Liddy's men find a stash of LSD 561 00:34:20,014 --> 00:34:21,974 and some marijuana. 562 00:34:23,931 --> 00:34:28,111 But Liddy can only arrest Leary for marijuana possession 563 00:34:28,153 --> 00:34:31,073 because LSD is still legal. 564 00:34:34,985 --> 00:34:38,465 The marijuana charges against Timothy Leary are dropped 565 00:34:38,511 --> 00:34:40,771 when it's revealed G. Gordon Liddy 566 00:34:40,817 --> 00:34:43,517 failed to read him his rights. 567 00:34:43,559 --> 00:34:45,169 But Liddy doesn't give up. 568 00:34:45,213 --> 00:34:48,783 He continues a relentless campaign against Leary, 569 00:34:48,825 --> 00:34:52,085 tracking his moves over the course of the next year. 570 00:34:54,353 --> 00:34:57,103 Worn down by Liddy's crusade, 571 00:34:57,138 --> 00:35:00,838 in 1967, Leary leaves Millbrook and the East Coast 572 00:35:00,881 --> 00:35:04,151 and heads west, where the LSD-fueled counterculture 573 00:35:04,189 --> 00:35:05,579 is in full swing. 574 00:35:07,801 --> 00:35:10,151 Despite the fact it was the CIA 575 00:35:10,195 --> 00:35:13,195 that first introduced LSD to America, 576 00:35:13,241 --> 00:35:15,291 the drug is now in the hands of a group 577 00:35:15,330 --> 00:35:18,680 that's increasingly seen as a threat. 578 00:35:18,725 --> 00:35:23,025 Wright: Young people, they were fighting for racial justice and equality. 579 00:35:23,077 --> 00:35:26,387 They were fighting against the Vietnam War. 580 00:35:26,428 --> 00:35:29,908 They were seriously opposing the government, 581 00:35:29,953 --> 00:35:33,173 and drugs were at the forefront. 582 00:35:33,218 --> 00:35:37,608 There was this propaganda that the hippies, Timothy Leary, 583 00:35:37,657 --> 00:35:41,397 and LSD were all part of a communist conspiracy. 584 00:35:41,443 --> 00:35:45,143 ♪♪ 585 00:35:52,976 --> 00:35:56,756 Narrator: LSD begins to be distributed by an underground organization 586 00:35:56,806 --> 00:35:59,456 called the Brotherhood of Eternal Love. 587 00:35:59,505 --> 00:36:01,505 Stratton: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love 588 00:36:01,550 --> 00:36:06,340 was actually an organization of hippie Mafia drug dealers 589 00:36:06,381 --> 00:36:10,431 dealing specifically in black Afghani hash 590 00:36:10,472 --> 00:36:12,302 and then, later, LSD. 591 00:36:12,344 --> 00:36:16,094 Narrator: To keep the sale of LSD flowing, 592 00:36:16,130 --> 00:36:18,610 the Brotherhood will need a brand ambassador 593 00:36:18,654 --> 00:36:22,014 who encompasses everything the organization stands for. 594 00:36:22,049 --> 00:36:25,789 Turn on, tune in, drop out. 595 00:36:25,835 --> 00:36:29,355 ♪♪ 596 00:36:29,404 --> 00:36:31,674 Narrator: Timothy Leary's attention-grabbing antics 597 00:36:31,711 --> 00:36:34,371 make him the perfect public face for the movement. 598 00:36:36,411 --> 00:36:39,591 Stratton: It was really kind of a political-social movement. 599 00:36:39,632 --> 00:36:42,682 But in order to keep that movement going, you need money. 600 00:36:42,722 --> 00:36:45,732 Narrator: Fortunately for the Brotherhood, 601 00:36:45,768 --> 00:36:49,208 Leary has brought with him a rich and connected friend... 602 00:36:49,250 --> 00:36:51,770 William Mellon Hitchcock -- 603 00:36:51,818 --> 00:36:54,388 playboy millionaire, 604 00:36:54,429 --> 00:36:57,389 owner of the Millbrook estate where Leary was arrested. 605 00:36:57,432 --> 00:37:00,132 Stratton: Billy Hitchcock was the scion 606 00:37:00,174 --> 00:37:03,224 of one of the most famous old WASP families. 607 00:37:03,264 --> 00:37:05,794 His father was the model for Tom Buchanan 608 00:37:05,832 --> 00:37:08,232 in Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby." 609 00:37:08,269 --> 00:37:11,099 So, for the son, Billy Hitchcock, 610 00:37:11,141 --> 00:37:14,281 to now team up with Timothy Leary was a big scandal. 611 00:37:16,234 --> 00:37:18,414 Narrator: Hitchcock begins to help bankroll 612 00:37:18,453 --> 00:37:22,203 the Brotherhood's mass production of acid. 613 00:37:22,240 --> 00:37:23,850 It was never about the money, 614 00:37:23,893 --> 00:37:25,423 but it was always about the money. 615 00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:29,250 Narrator: As an entire generation 616 00:37:29,290 --> 00:37:31,860 looks for ways to expand their consciousness, 617 00:37:31,901 --> 00:37:35,471 the Brotherhood of Eternal Love moves in to fill the void. 618 00:37:35,514 --> 00:37:37,434 Stratton: LSD has escaped from the lab. 619 00:37:37,472 --> 00:37:39,172 You've got Leary espousing 620 00:37:39,213 --> 00:37:41,913 "turn on, tune in, and drop out." 621 00:37:41,955 --> 00:37:44,565 Huge cultural changes were taking place in the country. 622 00:37:44,610 --> 00:37:46,870 Man: You're listening to a rock-'n'-roll radio station, 623 00:37:46,916 --> 00:37:47,866 you bet. 624 00:37:47,917 --> 00:37:50,957 ♪♪ 625 00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:05,760 Narrator: The Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic, 626 00:38:05,805 --> 00:38:09,195 a haven amidst the chaos of San Francisco's streets. 627 00:38:13,726 --> 00:38:16,556 This man has just taken acid for the first time 628 00:38:16,598 --> 00:38:18,508 and he's having a bad trip. 629 00:38:20,167 --> 00:38:23,077 The doctor treating him keeps detailed notes, 630 00:38:23,126 --> 00:38:25,346 but who he's working for is a secret 631 00:38:25,390 --> 00:38:28,390 no one in San Francisco knows. 632 00:38:28,436 --> 00:38:32,436 Colonel James Ketchum, a psychiatrist in the Pentagon's 633 00:38:32,484 --> 00:38:36,494 top-secret psycho-chemical warfare program. 634 00:38:36,531 --> 00:38:38,361 He's obsessed with finding the key 635 00:38:38,403 --> 00:38:41,323 to manipulating the mind of the enemy. 636 00:38:41,362 --> 00:38:43,892 And like the CIA's MKUltra program, 637 00:38:43,930 --> 00:38:45,890 he's willing to do whatever it takes 638 00:38:45,932 --> 00:38:48,062 to find the answers he's looking for. 639 00:38:55,768 --> 00:38:57,858 Here, at the Edgewood Arsenal, 640 00:38:57,900 --> 00:39:00,990 Ketchum first puts his LSD research to the test. 641 00:39:03,471 --> 00:39:06,781 After ingesting LSD, volunteers are instructed 642 00:39:06,822 --> 00:39:09,132 to perform basic military tasks. 643 00:39:09,172 --> 00:39:11,222 Man: The confused volunteer needed help 644 00:39:11,261 --> 00:39:14,531 as he attempted to traverse part of an obstacle course. 645 00:39:14,569 --> 00:39:17,049 Influenced by an obvious lack of purpose, 646 00:39:17,093 --> 00:39:19,143 the drugged volunteer made no effort 647 00:39:19,182 --> 00:39:21,712 to traverse the trail of tires 648 00:39:21,750 --> 00:39:23,540 and, in obvious confusion, 649 00:39:23,578 --> 00:39:25,748 wandered aimlessly through the woods. 650 00:39:27,626 --> 00:39:31,106 Narrator: Other trials move into more dangerous territory... 651 00:39:34,241 --> 00:39:37,291 ...pushing the soldiers to the limits of sanity. 652 00:39:44,294 --> 00:39:46,254 How do you feel right now? 653 00:39:46,296 --> 00:39:48,726 I just can't figure it out. 654 00:39:48,777 --> 00:39:50,037 It's hard to figure out. 655 00:39:50,083 --> 00:39:51,653 It's hard to figure out. 656 00:39:51,693 --> 00:39:54,043 I don't see it. I don't believe it. I feel it. 657 00:39:54,087 --> 00:39:56,127 Reefer, reefer, reefer! 658 00:39:59,048 --> 00:40:01,488 Narrator: Many of these soldiers have been offered a powerful incentive 659 00:40:01,529 --> 00:40:05,099 to take part in the program -- 660 00:40:05,141 --> 00:40:08,281 time away from combat duty in Vietnam. 661 00:40:08,318 --> 00:40:10,408 [ Helicopter blade whirring ] 662 00:40:19,547 --> 00:40:21,717 Just over the border, in Laos, 663 00:40:21,767 --> 00:40:24,287 the CIA's Air America airline 664 00:40:24,334 --> 00:40:28,474 is increasingly becoming part of the international drug trade. 665 00:40:28,513 --> 00:40:31,863 When those planes were returning to American bases, 666 00:40:31,907 --> 00:40:35,957 they were often used to bring back 667 00:40:35,998 --> 00:40:37,648 some of the bounty of Laos. 668 00:40:37,696 --> 00:40:40,476 And that bounty was heroin. 669 00:41:05,375 --> 00:41:08,805 O0 C1Narrator: In the remote highlands of Laos... 670 00:41:08,857 --> 00:41:11,467 Communist forces are increasingly threatening 671 00:41:11,512 --> 00:41:16,132 to overtake the territory controlled by CIA ally Vang Pao. 672 00:41:17,910 --> 00:41:22,040 The situation in Laos really called for extraordinary means 673 00:41:22,088 --> 00:41:23,998 conducted by extraordinary men. 674 00:41:25,657 --> 00:41:29,047 Narrator: The CIA has sent in a veteran spy 675 00:41:29,095 --> 00:41:32,445 to run the Laos operation -- 676 00:41:32,490 --> 00:41:37,100 Ted Shackley, known as The Blond Ghost, 677 00:41:37,146 --> 00:41:41,316 former head of the CIA's top secret Miami station, 678 00:41:41,368 --> 00:41:44,888 where the CIA ran failed missions to kill Fidel Castro, 679 00:41:44,937 --> 00:41:46,717 which included poisoned milkshakes 680 00:41:46,765 --> 00:41:48,765 and exploding cigars. 681 00:41:48,810 --> 00:41:53,340 Now he's here fighting another secret war. 682 00:41:53,380 --> 00:41:56,560 Moran: The CIA itself was under a tremendous amount of pressure 683 00:41:56,601 --> 00:42:00,001 to accomplish this mission to fight Communism. 684 00:42:00,039 --> 00:42:02,559 [ Radio chatter ] 685 00:42:06,611 --> 00:42:09,181 Narrator: To help finance his war, Vang Pao 686 00:42:09,222 --> 00:42:12,622 has been using Air America to traffic heroin. 687 00:42:12,660 --> 00:42:16,010 But with the war raging, Shackley and the CIA 688 00:42:16,055 --> 00:42:18,925 don't just turn a blind eye to the drug trafficking. 689 00:42:21,756 --> 00:42:25,716 The U.S. provides Vang Pao two transport planes. 690 00:42:27,588 --> 00:42:31,368 Now he's able to fly his opium directly to his refineries... 691 00:42:33,594 --> 00:42:36,384 ...one right on the American air base. 692 00:42:38,425 --> 00:42:42,035 Wright: The CIA at the same time it was fighting, in its mind, 693 00:42:42,081 --> 00:42:45,431 a very successful anti-communist war, 694 00:42:45,475 --> 00:42:50,215 was also standing up an army of drug smugglers. 695 00:42:50,263 --> 00:42:53,403 Narrator: Vang Pao is fast on his way 696 00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:57,230 to becoming the biggest heroin trafficker in the world, 697 00:42:57,270 --> 00:42:59,270 and he's got a growing customer base 698 00:42:59,315 --> 00:43:01,615 just over the border in Vietnam. 699 00:43:01,666 --> 00:43:04,706 Parenti: One side effect of this covert war in Laos 700 00:43:04,756 --> 00:43:07,626 is that there's a lot of heroin in the theater of war, 701 00:43:07,672 --> 00:43:10,112 and many American troops get addicted. 702 00:43:11,371 --> 00:43:13,811 [ Gunfire ] 703 00:43:21,686 --> 00:43:25,116 One of my fellow soldiers 704 00:43:25,167 --> 00:43:27,997 was found dead after a firefight. 705 00:43:36,657 --> 00:43:38,267 We thought he had been shot, 706 00:43:38,311 --> 00:43:40,531 and actually he had the needle stuck in his arm. 707 00:43:44,056 --> 00:43:47,446 Narrator: Heroin, a highly addictive opioid 708 00:43:47,494 --> 00:43:51,024 extracted from the poppy plant and synthesized for morphine. 709 00:43:51,063 --> 00:43:53,283 Once ingested, morphine molecules 710 00:43:53,326 --> 00:43:55,676 rush opioid receptors in the brain stem 711 00:43:55,720 --> 00:43:58,680 that controls the body's survival functions. 712 00:43:58,723 --> 00:44:01,203 It can lead to intoxicating highs 713 00:44:01,247 --> 00:44:05,467 or shut down the respiratory system and lead to death. 714 00:44:05,512 --> 00:44:09,472 [ Gunfire ] 715 00:44:09,516 --> 00:44:13,216 Castillo: The rule was you don't get high while on patrol. 716 00:44:13,259 --> 00:44:15,609 But you can't control depression. 717 00:44:15,653 --> 00:44:19,573 We were wet during the monsoon season 24/7. 718 00:44:21,528 --> 00:44:24,528 The miserable life we lived -- we were homesick. 719 00:44:26,141 --> 00:44:29,191 Narrator: As the war progresses, 720 00:44:29,231 --> 00:44:33,151 two G.I.s are overdosing every day. 721 00:44:34,323 --> 00:44:37,073 [ Speaking Vietnamese ] 722 00:44:41,417 --> 00:44:45,897 [ Drumroll ] 723 00:44:45,944 --> 00:44:50,084 [ Upbeat music plays ] 724 00:44:50,122 --> 00:44:52,432 A nightclub in Saigon, 725 00:44:52,472 --> 00:44:56,042 a refuge from the horrors of combat. 726 00:44:56,084 --> 00:44:57,744 [ Music continues ] 727 00:45:00,959 --> 00:45:02,919 Sitting at the back of the club 728 00:45:02,961 --> 00:45:05,491 is a man well-known to the CIA -- 729 00:45:05,528 --> 00:45:09,748 mobster Santo Trafficante Jr. 730 00:45:09,794 --> 00:45:14,064 Valentine: Trafficante had assured protection back in 1960. 731 00:45:14,102 --> 00:45:16,712 He was involved in these plots to kill Castro. 732 00:45:16,757 --> 00:45:18,847 Once you've worked for the CIA, 733 00:45:18,890 --> 00:45:21,980 you're what they called, in that business, a million-dollar man. 734 00:45:22,023 --> 00:45:25,983 Narrator: Trafficante is meeting with a Corsican gangster, 735 00:45:26,027 --> 00:45:29,377 a middleman for another CIA-connected drug trafficker -- 736 00:45:29,422 --> 00:45:32,082 Vang Pao. 737 00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:34,040 They are discussing a deal 738 00:45:34,079 --> 00:45:38,299 that will bring tons of heroin into the United States. 739 00:45:38,344 --> 00:45:42,134 Valentine: With the booming heroin trade, 740 00:45:42,174 --> 00:45:46,224 which was because of the influx of American troops, 741 00:45:46,265 --> 00:45:48,525 Trafficante had to go out there 742 00:45:48,571 --> 00:45:51,711 and make sure that his family got its fair share. 743 00:45:53,402 --> 00:45:57,062 Narrator: The deal allows Trafficante to ramp up his operation. 744 00:45:57,102 --> 00:46:00,372 Soon his couriers are trafficking Vang Pao's heroin 745 00:46:00,409 --> 00:46:03,979 from refineries in Hong Kong via South America 746 00:46:04,022 --> 00:46:07,722 and the Caribbean onto the United States. 747 00:46:07,765 --> 00:46:11,545 In one shipment alone, they smuggle in as much as 20% 748 00:46:11,594 --> 00:46:14,384 of all the heroin consumed that year. 749 00:46:14,423 --> 00:46:17,733 The history of the CIA is really the history 750 00:46:17,775 --> 00:46:21,255 of unintended consequences and blowback. 751 00:46:21,300 --> 00:46:25,130 With CIA secret wars being fought in places like Laos, 752 00:46:25,173 --> 00:46:29,873 they became instrumental in flooding America with drugs. 753 00:46:29,917 --> 00:46:32,007 [ Horn honking ] 754 00:46:37,925 --> 00:46:40,535 [ Siren wailing ] 755 00:46:40,580 --> 00:46:43,450 Narrator: By 1970, New York City alone 756 00:46:43,496 --> 00:46:46,456 will have over 200,000 heroin addicts. 757 00:46:46,499 --> 00:46:48,369 Parenti: A lot of people came back, 758 00:46:48,414 --> 00:46:50,984 who had served in Vietnam, addicted to drugs. 759 00:46:51,025 --> 00:46:54,805 Doesn't help that the economy is also declining, 760 00:46:54,855 --> 00:46:57,415 depressing situation for a young person 761 00:46:57,466 --> 00:47:00,026 who's just spent a year, maybe two years, 762 00:47:00,078 --> 00:47:01,818 in a terrible and confusing war. 763 00:47:05,126 --> 00:47:07,256 Narrator: With the demand for heroin rising, 764 00:47:07,302 --> 00:47:11,392 a new breed of homegrown dealers emerges. 765 00:47:13,308 --> 00:47:15,268 One of these dealers has just arrived 766 00:47:15,310 --> 00:47:17,700 to check on his operation. 767 00:47:17,747 --> 00:47:19,787 [ Indistinct conversations ] 768 00:47:19,837 --> 00:47:21,877 These women are part of a production line 769 00:47:21,926 --> 00:47:24,746 that runs 24 hours a day 770 00:47:24,798 --> 00:47:26,498 They're made to work in the nude 771 00:47:26,539 --> 00:47:28,369 so that can't steal the product. 772 00:47:32,153 --> 00:47:35,903 Pure, uncut heroin that's sold by this man. 773 00:47:35,940 --> 00:47:38,160 I say we're gonna make some money today or what? 774 00:47:38,203 --> 00:47:40,553 Frank Matthews. 775 00:47:40,596 --> 00:47:45,296 Born in rural North Carolina, his first arrest comes at 14 776 00:47:45,340 --> 00:47:48,600 when he's busted for leading a gang of chicken thieves. 777 00:47:48,648 --> 00:47:50,608 He moves to Brooklyn, 778 00:47:50,650 --> 00:47:53,740 where he opens a barber shop as a front for selling heroin. 779 00:47:53,783 --> 00:47:55,443 The heroin business 780 00:47:55,481 --> 00:47:58,051 has always been controlled by organized crime 781 00:47:58,092 --> 00:48:00,362 and then along comes a guy named Frank Matthews. 782 00:48:02,183 --> 00:48:05,273 [ Radio tuning ] 783 00:48:05,317 --> 00:48:10,187 ♪ I can't keep giving you all my love♪ 784 00:48:10,235 --> 00:48:12,585 Haven't got all day. 785 00:48:12,628 --> 00:48:15,628 Narrator: At any given time, 786 00:48:15,675 --> 00:48:19,715 hundreds of pounds of heroin are being diluted and packaged. 787 00:48:19,766 --> 00:48:21,676 Chepesiuk: He actually had two places in Brooklyn -- 788 00:48:21,724 --> 00:48:24,644 the Ponderosa and the OK Corral. 789 00:48:24,684 --> 00:48:27,864 The thing that fascinates me is how could you operate 790 00:48:27,905 --> 00:48:31,035 two drug mills like this, busing in 40 women every day, 791 00:48:31,082 --> 00:48:33,172 and not anybody getting suspicious. 792 00:48:33,214 --> 00:48:36,704 Narrator: With a nearly unlimited supply of heroin 793 00:48:36,739 --> 00:48:39,179 coming in from Southeast Asia, 794 00:48:39,220 --> 00:48:42,480 Matthews begins building an empire that stretches the length 795 00:48:42,528 --> 00:48:45,618 of the Eastern Seaboard, west to St. Louis. 796 00:48:45,661 --> 00:48:49,141 They call him Black Caesar. 797 00:48:49,187 --> 00:48:50,967 That's what I'm talking about. 798 00:48:51,015 --> 00:48:52,575 Frank Matthews became one of 799 00:48:52,625 --> 00:48:54,495 the biggest heroin distributors in the world. 800 00:48:54,540 --> 00:48:57,020 ♪♪ 801 00:48:57,064 --> 00:48:58,854 Narrator: But with the thousands of addicts 802 00:48:58,892 --> 00:49:02,072 that come with every new deal... 803 00:49:02,113 --> 00:49:04,993 Matthews will find himself in the cross hairs 804 00:49:05,029 --> 00:49:08,339 of a very powerful enemy -- 805 00:49:08,380 --> 00:49:12,730 the newly elected president, Richard Milhous Nixon. 806 00:49:12,775 --> 00:49:14,595 Wright: When Nixon came into the White House, 807 00:49:14,647 --> 00:49:16,997 it was essentially to clean up 808 00:49:17,041 --> 00:49:20,001 this chaos and anarchy in the streets 809 00:49:20,044 --> 00:49:22,004 and to impose law and order. 810 00:49:22,046 --> 00:49:23,866 There was this legitimate fear 811 00:49:23,917 --> 00:49:26,877 that heroin was going to take over 812 00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:28,270 and destroy the United States. 813 00:49:31,055 --> 00:49:37,015 ♪♪ 814 00:49:37,061 --> 00:49:40,061 Narrator: The grand opening of an exclusive resort -- 815 00:49:40,107 --> 00:49:42,937 Paradise Island in the Bahamas. 816 00:49:42,980 --> 00:49:45,160 The crowd celebrating New Year's Eve 817 00:49:45,199 --> 00:49:48,029 is a star-studded collection of Hollywood actors, 818 00:49:48,072 --> 00:49:51,512 politicians, and wealthy investors. 819 00:49:51,553 --> 00:49:53,903 Stratton: People look back on the '60s and they go, "Oh, it was great." 820 00:49:53,947 --> 00:49:55,907 The music was great, rock 'n' roll, 821 00:49:55,949 --> 00:49:57,729 but then it started to change. 822 00:49:57,777 --> 00:49:59,427 '68 was like a turning point. 823 00:49:59,474 --> 00:50:01,784 Martin Luther King was assassinated. 824 00:50:01,824 --> 00:50:03,914 Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. 825 00:50:03,957 --> 00:50:07,217 It was the end of the hippie era of the '60s 826 00:50:07,265 --> 00:50:09,915 where it was all about peace, love, and brotherhood. 827 00:50:09,963 --> 00:50:12,183 Things were starting to turn dark. 828 00:50:16,143 --> 00:50:18,933 Narrator: It's been a good year for at least one of the partygoers, 829 00:50:18,972 --> 00:50:22,502 the President-elect Richard Nixon. 830 00:50:22,541 --> 00:50:26,681 Richard Milhous Nixon is no stranger to the White House. 831 00:50:26,719 --> 00:50:30,159 He served two terms as vice president under Eisenhower, 832 00:50:30,201 --> 00:50:32,161 where he signed off on the secret plan 833 00:50:32,203 --> 00:50:34,293 to assassinate Fidel Castro. 834 00:50:34,335 --> 00:50:38,035 He narrowly lost to Kennedy in 1960. 835 00:50:38,078 --> 00:50:40,078 By the time he runs for president again, 836 00:50:40,124 --> 00:50:42,344 crime rates are skyrocketing, 837 00:50:42,387 --> 00:50:46,257 and he appeals to what he calls "the silent majority." 838 00:50:46,304 --> 00:50:50,004 Parenti: These besieged middle-class suburbanites 839 00:50:50,047 --> 00:50:54,357 who fear what, at that time, seems to be a society 840 00:50:54,399 --> 00:50:57,009 going through really profound and negative changes. 841 00:50:57,054 --> 00:51:00,104 ♪♪ 842 00:51:00,144 --> 00:51:03,634 Narrator: At Paradise Island, it all seems a world away. 843 00:51:03,669 --> 00:51:07,459 But Nixon has no idea he's celebrating alongside 844 00:51:07,499 --> 00:51:09,679 one of his counterculture enemies. 845 00:51:09,718 --> 00:51:13,458 William Hitchcock is the millionaire playboy 846 00:51:13,505 --> 00:51:14,975 and sometimes-financier 847 00:51:15,028 --> 00:51:17,988 of The Brotherhood of Eternal Love. 848 00:51:18,031 --> 00:51:20,031 He's also invested the equivalent 849 00:51:20,077 --> 00:51:25,257 of 35 million in today's dollars in Paradise Island. 850 00:51:25,299 --> 00:51:28,089 But Hitchcock is not the only one at this party 851 00:51:28,128 --> 00:51:30,698 moving large sums of cash to the Bahamas. 852 00:51:30,739 --> 00:51:33,179 You could take as much money as you wanted in cash 853 00:51:33,220 --> 00:51:34,610 and deposit it in banks down there 854 00:51:34,656 --> 00:51:36,266 in the Bahamas and launder it. 855 00:51:36,310 --> 00:51:38,050 Next thing you know, wired back into 856 00:51:38,095 --> 00:51:39,435 a bank account in the United States 857 00:51:39,487 --> 00:51:41,317 and nobody would ever know that it came 858 00:51:41,359 --> 00:51:43,449 as a result of illegal activity. 859 00:51:43,491 --> 00:51:47,971 Narrator: The Bahamas is full of banks that launder dirty money, 860 00:51:48,017 --> 00:51:52,807 but none will become as infamous as the Castle Bank & Trust. 861 00:51:52,848 --> 00:51:56,238 Founded by a former CIA spy, 862 00:51:56,287 --> 00:51:59,287 its clients include celebrities like John Fogerty, 863 00:51:59,333 --> 00:52:03,513 Tony Curtis, and Hugh Hefner. 864 00:52:03,555 --> 00:52:06,685 But Castle serves another purpose. 865 00:52:09,038 --> 00:52:11,778 Stratton: Money that was coming from the drug business 866 00:52:11,824 --> 00:52:13,704 was deposited in these banks 867 00:52:13,739 --> 00:52:18,349 and then used to finance covert CIA operations. 868 00:52:20,224 --> 00:52:23,444 Wright: Drug trafficking is really all about laundering money, 869 00:52:23,488 --> 00:52:28,278 and it turns out that so is being a CIA officer. 870 00:52:28,319 --> 00:52:31,539 Because everything the CIA does has to be secret, 871 00:52:31,583 --> 00:52:34,803 and in order to be secret, you have to launder your money. 872 00:52:34,847 --> 00:52:38,937 Narrator: Even the president-elect banks at Castle. 873 00:52:38,981 --> 00:52:42,291 ♪♪ 874 00:52:42,333 --> 00:52:46,823 While Hitchcock is celebrating in the Bahamas, 875 00:52:46,859 --> 00:52:49,689 back in California, another of his investments 876 00:52:49,731 --> 00:52:51,521 is working around the clock. 877 00:52:58,218 --> 00:53:01,478 In this makeshift lab, the Brotherhood of Eternal Love 878 00:53:01,526 --> 00:53:04,216 is producing a potent new brand of LSD 879 00:53:04,268 --> 00:53:07,748 that they hope will stamp out all competition. 880 00:53:07,793 --> 00:53:11,453 It will become the most famous acid ever produced. 881 00:53:11,492 --> 00:53:14,152 They call it "Orange Sunshine." 882 00:53:14,191 --> 00:53:17,981 Orange Sunshine, after Sandoz LSD-25, 883 00:53:18,020 --> 00:53:21,500 was the purest LSD manufactured in the world. 884 00:53:24,940 --> 00:53:28,290 Steve Jobs dropped acid, The Grateful Dead. 885 00:53:28,335 --> 00:53:32,335 It infiltrated music, business. 886 00:53:32,383 --> 00:53:35,083 Orange Sunshine was all over the country. 887 00:53:39,607 --> 00:53:41,257 Narrator: In the coming months, 888 00:53:41,305 --> 00:53:44,345 Hitchcock's lab will produce 10 million hits -- 889 00:53:44,395 --> 00:53:46,785 enough to dose the entire population 890 00:53:46,832 --> 00:53:49,232 of New York City and L.A. 891 00:53:53,752 --> 00:53:56,762 Padilla: I figured out where we could load the water supply 892 00:53:56,798 --> 00:53:59,108 with a 55-gallon drum of acid. 893 00:54:02,282 --> 00:54:04,152 Timothy Leary stopped us. 894 00:54:04,197 --> 00:54:06,157 Timothy said, 895 00:54:06,199 --> 00:54:08,289 "Thou shalt not alter 896 00:54:08,332 --> 00:54:12,162 thy brother's consciousness without his permission." 897 00:54:12,205 --> 00:54:14,155 Wow. 898 00:54:14,207 --> 00:54:16,687 That's Timothy Leary. 899 00:54:16,731 --> 00:54:20,001 Timothy Leary wasn't promoting "Go give everybody acid." 900 00:54:20,039 --> 00:54:23,039 We were. "Everyone should take LSD." 901 00:54:23,085 --> 00:54:27,215 Narrator: But soon, the luck of Orange Sunshine's 902 00:54:27,264 --> 00:54:30,054 most famous advocate will run out. 903 00:54:30,092 --> 00:54:33,402 [ Police radio chatter ] 904 00:54:33,444 --> 00:54:35,844 [ Siren wails ] 905 00:54:38,797 --> 00:54:42,277 A cop on the night shift makes a routine traffic stop. 906 00:54:46,239 --> 00:54:49,979 The driver is LSD evangelist Timothy Leary. 907 00:54:50,025 --> 00:54:52,155 The police searched the car 908 00:54:52,201 --> 00:54:55,251 and in the ashtray was a joint and a roach. 909 00:54:57,511 --> 00:55:01,301 And they busted Timothy for a minute amount of pot. 910 00:55:04,257 --> 00:55:06,737 Narrator: Shortly after his arrest, 911 00:55:06,781 --> 00:55:09,701 he makes a surprise announcement. 912 00:55:09,741 --> 00:55:11,961 I'm going to run for the governorship 913 00:55:12,004 --> 00:55:13,704 of the state of California. 914 00:55:13,745 --> 00:55:16,045 I think that we need a new party, 915 00:55:16,095 --> 00:55:18,315 and by "party", I mean party. 916 00:55:20,665 --> 00:55:24,625 Schou: Leary's platform included, among other things, banning football, 917 00:55:24,669 --> 00:55:27,889 banning all money, creating a barter system 918 00:55:27,933 --> 00:55:30,983 that would kind of take over capitalism. 919 00:55:31,023 --> 00:55:34,293 The song "Come Together", which was written by John Lennon, 920 00:55:34,331 --> 00:55:37,381 was actually a campaign song for Timothy Leary. 921 00:55:37,421 --> 00:55:39,031 Let the kids get high. 922 00:55:39,074 --> 00:55:40,604 As a matter of fact, President Nixon, 923 00:55:40,641 --> 00:55:43,691 why don't we all turn on together? 924 00:55:43,731 --> 00:55:47,171 Narrator: His Republican opponent -- Ronald Reagan. 925 00:55:47,213 --> 00:55:51,303 There's nothing smart, there's nothing grown-up 926 00:55:51,348 --> 00:55:54,568 or sophisticated in taking an LSD trip at all. 927 00:55:54,612 --> 00:55:56,662 They're just being complete fools. 928 00:55:57,963 --> 00:56:00,533 ♪♪ 929 00:56:06,319 --> 00:56:09,979 Wright: When anti-war protesters descended on Washington 930 00:56:10,018 --> 00:56:13,068 and protested Nixon's policies, 931 00:56:13,108 --> 00:56:16,588 Nixon probably could smell the marijuana smoke 932 00:56:16,634 --> 00:56:19,904 wafting in through the windows of the White House, 933 00:56:19,941 --> 00:56:23,511 and so Nixon associated marijuana 934 00:56:23,554 --> 00:56:25,734 with his political opponents. 935 00:56:28,080 --> 00:56:30,430 Narrator: But in the Nixon administration, 936 00:56:30,474 --> 00:56:32,914 Leary's old nemesis, G. Gordon Liddy, 937 00:56:32,954 --> 00:56:34,964 has been brought in by the Treasury Department 938 00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:38,740 to hatch a plan to clamp down on drugs. 939 00:56:38,786 --> 00:56:40,396 We can then try and cover that section 940 00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:42,360 of the border, okay? 941 00:56:42,399 --> 00:56:43,569 Sounds good. 942 00:56:45,445 --> 00:56:48,705 Wright: G. Gordon Liddy was the law-and-order figure 943 00:56:48,753 --> 00:56:50,453 in the White House. 944 00:56:50,494 --> 00:56:52,804 And when Nixon was elected into the White House, 945 00:56:52,844 --> 00:56:55,024 Nixon saw and Liddy saw 946 00:56:55,063 --> 00:56:58,243 that drugs were this powerful hot-button issue. 947 00:56:58,284 --> 00:57:00,904 [ Horns honking ] 948 00:57:03,507 --> 00:57:06,467 Narrator: Liddy launches Operation Intercept -- 949 00:57:06,510 --> 00:57:10,950 shutting down the entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico, 950 00:57:10,992 --> 00:57:14,172 cutting off the source of most of America's marijuana. 951 00:57:17,259 --> 00:57:18,739 For over 20 days, 952 00:57:18,783 --> 00:57:21,353 all vehicles crossing the border are searched. 953 00:57:24,528 --> 00:57:27,838 It's the largest operation of its kind in history. 954 00:57:33,493 --> 00:57:35,503 Wright: The interesting thing about the very beginning 955 00:57:35,539 --> 00:57:37,319 of the War on Drugs -- 956 00:57:37,366 --> 00:57:41,016 many of these acts were completely symbolic. 957 00:57:41,066 --> 00:57:43,326 It actually had no impact whatsoever 958 00:57:43,372 --> 00:57:45,332 on the drug trade in the U.S. 959 00:57:47,594 --> 00:57:50,604 Narrator: A few marijuana smugglers may have been apprehended, 960 00:57:50,641 --> 00:57:53,121 but the most successful traffickers in America 961 00:57:53,165 --> 00:57:55,555 are not waiting in line at the Mexican border. 962 00:57:55,602 --> 00:58:03,132 ♪♪ 963 00:58:03,175 --> 00:58:06,865 Narrator: A small private plane is losing altitude, fast. 964 00:58:10,748 --> 00:58:14,058 The pilot, Juan Restoy, 965 00:58:14,099 --> 00:58:18,319 a former Cuban politician who fought against Fidel Castro, 966 00:58:18,364 --> 00:58:20,284 now a key player in the nation's largest 967 00:58:20,322 --> 00:58:22,412 narcotics distribution network. 968 00:58:26,198 --> 00:58:28,028 [ Indistinct shouting ] 969 00:58:28,069 --> 00:58:29,719 [ Loud crash ] 970 00:58:32,421 --> 00:58:34,861 1970, there was a plane crash in California. 971 00:58:34,902 --> 00:58:37,172 Juan Restoy was flying this plane. 972 00:58:37,209 --> 00:58:39,389 Turns out that this guy was a veteran 973 00:58:39,428 --> 00:58:42,818 of the Bay of Pigs Operation and a CIA operative. 974 00:58:42,867 --> 00:58:44,697 [ Helicopter blades whirring ] 975 00:58:44,738 --> 00:58:46,908 [ Police radio chatter ] 976 00:58:56,271 --> 00:58:58,191 Narrator: Restoy survives, 977 00:58:58,230 --> 00:59:01,020 but the crash catches the attention of federal agents 978 00:59:01,059 --> 00:59:03,019 working on Operation Eagle, 979 00:59:03,061 --> 00:59:06,151 a national investigation of narcotics smuggling. 980 00:59:12,200 --> 00:59:14,380 Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for being here. 981 00:59:14,420 --> 00:59:15,900 The Attorney General will have a statement, 982 00:59:15,943 --> 00:59:17,423 and I introduce to you now 983 00:59:17,466 --> 00:59:18,556 the Attorney General of the United States. 984 00:59:20,948 --> 00:59:22,908 We have called all of you this morning 985 00:59:22,950 --> 00:59:26,480 to tell you about Operation Eagle, 986 00:59:26,519 --> 00:59:29,869 which is the code name for the biggest operation 987 00:59:29,914 --> 00:59:31,574 of its kind in history. 988 00:59:31,611 --> 00:59:35,271 10:00 a.m. last night, 989 00:59:35,310 --> 00:59:38,970 special agents of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs 990 00:59:39,010 --> 00:59:43,190 made simultaneous raids in Miami, 991 00:59:43,231 --> 00:59:45,151 New York, and Chicago 992 00:59:45,190 --> 00:59:47,370 and seven other cities. 993 00:59:47,409 --> 00:59:50,589 Please. [ Speaks indistinctly ] 994 00:59:50,630 --> 00:59:53,200 We are very pleased to report that the raids 995 00:59:53,241 --> 00:59:55,551 have already resulted 996 00:59:55,592 --> 00:59:59,602 in the arrests of 123 defendants. 997 01:00:04,905 --> 01:00:06,905 Narrator: What Attorney General John Mitchell 998 01:00:06,951 --> 01:00:11,521 neglects to mention is as many as 70% of those arrested 999 01:00:11,564 --> 01:00:16,094 are Cubans who fought for the CIA against Fidel Castro. 1000 01:00:16,134 --> 01:00:20,054 The agency's secret war against Communism has given rise 1001 01:00:20,094 --> 01:00:23,624 to an entire generation of drug traffickers. 1002 01:00:23,663 --> 01:00:27,283 Wright: Cuban exiles trained by the CIA for the Bay of Pigs 1003 01:00:27,319 --> 01:00:31,579 had all these skills in radios, flying airplanes, boats, 1004 01:00:31,628 --> 01:00:34,668 and applied these skills to smuggling drugs. 1005 01:00:34,718 --> 01:00:38,418 ♪♪ 1006 01:00:45,946 --> 01:00:50,646 Narrator: The crackdown on drugs begins to attract unlikely allies -- 1007 01:00:50,690 --> 01:00:52,260 Elvis Presley. 1008 01:00:52,300 --> 01:00:55,430 The King of Rock 'n' Roll has seen better days. 1009 01:00:55,477 --> 01:00:58,387 Elvis has developed a prescription drug habit 1010 01:00:58,437 --> 01:01:01,527 that includes uppers, downers, and needles. 1011 01:01:01,570 --> 01:01:05,050 Doctors are on call to provide an endless supply of drugs. 1012 01:01:07,751 --> 01:01:12,151 Wright: At the time, Elvis Presley was essentially a stoned junkie. 1013 01:01:12,190 --> 01:01:15,540 He also was obsessed with firearms. 1014 01:01:15,584 --> 01:01:20,894 He actually wanted to obtain a drug agent badge from Nixon 1015 01:01:20,938 --> 01:01:23,768 so he could safely travel the world 1016 01:01:23,810 --> 01:01:25,900 with his drugs and -- and firearms. 1017 01:01:32,079 --> 01:01:36,739 Elvis wrote this rambling letter requesting a visit with Nixon. 1018 01:01:36,780 --> 01:01:38,520 Expressed all these concerns 1019 01:01:38,564 --> 01:01:41,094 and the Communists in the entertainment industry, 1020 01:01:41,132 --> 01:01:42,612 the un-American people, 1021 01:01:42,655 --> 01:01:44,565 foreign acts like the Beatles 1022 01:01:44,613 --> 01:01:46,793 that were coming over to our country 1023 01:01:46,833 --> 01:01:49,923 and subverting clean-cut American youth. 1024 01:01:52,709 --> 01:01:55,409 Narrator: The letter works, and Nixon agrees to meet. 1025 01:01:58,062 --> 01:02:00,372 Being seen with the rock-'n'-roll legend 1026 01:02:00,412 --> 01:02:04,292 makes for a public relations coup for the president... 1027 01:02:04,329 --> 01:02:07,939 but it's also part of a larger strategy. 1028 01:02:07,985 --> 01:02:11,335 If you look at the wider framed photos, 1029 01:02:11,379 --> 01:02:14,509 there's Elvis Presley, there's President Nixon, 1030 01:02:14,556 --> 01:02:18,256 and there's this young man wearing glasses 1031 01:02:18,299 --> 01:02:21,739 and he was this White House high-end political fixer, 1032 01:02:21,781 --> 01:02:25,261 And his name was Egil "Bud" Krogh. 1033 01:02:25,306 --> 01:02:27,266 Narrator: Egil "Bud" Krogh. 1034 01:02:27,308 --> 01:02:30,048 As Nixon's deputy of domestic affairs, 1035 01:02:30,094 --> 01:02:32,314 he'll help hire G. Gordon Liddy, 1036 01:02:32,357 --> 01:02:34,097 and they will spearhead policies 1037 01:02:34,141 --> 01:02:37,321 that will lead to the declaration of the War on Drugs. 1038 01:02:37,362 --> 01:02:40,192 That's why Bud Krogh brought in Elvis Presley. 1039 01:02:40,234 --> 01:02:41,454 He was the "drug" guy. 1040 01:02:44,021 --> 01:02:46,631 Narrator: Elvis gets his badge, 1041 01:02:46,675 --> 01:02:48,455 but there's no record of The King 1042 01:02:48,503 --> 01:02:50,683 ever performing any drug busts. 1043 01:02:55,336 --> 01:02:58,076 Meanwhile, at a state prison in California, 1044 01:02:58,122 --> 01:03:00,392 one of Nixon's political enemies 1045 01:03:00,428 --> 01:03:04,168 is beginning a sentence for a small amount of marijuana. 1046 01:03:04,215 --> 01:03:07,345 Timothy Leary's run for governor has been cut short. 1047 01:03:09,263 --> 01:03:11,313 But the underground hippie organization, 1048 01:03:11,352 --> 01:03:13,572 the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, 1049 01:03:13,615 --> 01:03:17,135 doesn't want their LSD guru to die behind bars. 1050 01:03:17,184 --> 01:03:19,104 Padilla: Timothy was one of us. 1051 01:03:19,143 --> 01:03:21,973 So Timothy being in prison -- We weren't gonna let him down. 1052 01:03:25,323 --> 01:03:27,723 Stratton: Brotherhood was extremely well-financed. 1053 01:03:27,760 --> 01:03:30,850 So the Brotherhood hires the Weathermen 1054 01:03:30,894 --> 01:03:32,594 to break Leary out of prison. 1055 01:03:32,634 --> 01:03:36,604 Narrator: Launched by radical students in 1968, 1056 01:03:36,638 --> 01:03:38,768 the Weather Underground has turned into 1057 01:03:38,815 --> 01:03:41,245 a violent revolutionary organization, 1058 01:03:41,295 --> 01:03:44,385 carrying out bombings across the United States. 1059 01:03:46,518 --> 01:03:49,958 For a rumored $20,000 fee, the Weather Underground 1060 01:03:50,000 --> 01:03:52,570 breaks Timothy Leary out of prison. 1061 01:03:54,439 --> 01:03:57,529 Stratton: After they break him out of prison, he ends up in Algeria. 1062 01:03:57,572 --> 01:04:00,752 While he's in Algeria, he hooks up with Eldridge Cleaver 1063 01:04:00,793 --> 01:04:03,403 and a lot of the Black Panthers who were also on the lam. 1064 01:04:08,540 --> 01:04:10,410 Narrator: It's an audacious move, 1065 01:04:10,455 --> 01:04:13,715 but the Brotherhood doesn't lay low for the rest of 1970. 1066 01:04:13,762 --> 01:04:15,902 One of their associates will attempt 1067 01:04:15,939 --> 01:04:19,769 one of most brazen drug distribution stunts of all time. 1068 01:04:23,076 --> 01:04:26,076 Laguna Beach, California. 1069 01:04:26,123 --> 01:04:28,823 25,000 young people have gathered 1070 01:04:28,865 --> 01:04:33,165 for an outdoor rock concert to celebrate the counterculture. 1071 01:04:33,217 --> 01:04:34,957 Schou: The idea initially was just to have 1072 01:04:35,001 --> 01:04:36,961 a Woodstock-type rock concert, 1073 01:04:37,003 --> 01:04:39,443 but some of the local artists decided that it would be better 1074 01:04:39,484 --> 01:04:41,144 to give it kind of a spiritual connotation 1075 01:04:41,181 --> 01:04:44,921 to try to avoid any unnecessary law-enforcement scrutiny, 1076 01:04:44,968 --> 01:04:47,578 but it became completely out of control. 1077 01:04:50,016 --> 01:04:52,626 Narrator: One of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love's associates 1078 01:04:52,671 --> 01:04:54,411 has hired a private plane, 1079 01:04:54,455 --> 01:04:56,365 and it's flying towards the festival. 1080 01:05:01,593 --> 01:05:05,163 Padilla: The plane flew over the Christmas Happening 1081 01:05:05,205 --> 01:05:08,335 and dropped thousands of Christmas cards, 1082 01:05:08,382 --> 01:05:10,862 and in the middle was a tab of Orange Sunshine. 1083 01:05:10,907 --> 01:05:14,297 ♪♪ 1084 01:05:14,345 --> 01:05:16,085 Schou: It's just a legendary moment 1085 01:05:16,129 --> 01:05:18,039 in the countercultural history of the United States. 1086 01:05:18,088 --> 01:05:21,608 An actual acid drop from the sky 1087 01:05:21,656 --> 01:05:23,826 on a huge crowd of young Americans. 1088 01:05:23,876 --> 01:05:26,436 ♪♪ 1089 01:05:45,463 --> 01:05:48,383 Narrator: Over the past decade... 1090 01:05:48,422 --> 01:05:52,512 secret government drug tests and covert CIA operations... 1091 01:05:55,473 --> 01:05:58,823 ...have unleashed a wave of drugs into the United States. 1092 01:05:58,867 --> 01:06:01,217 It's fueled the counterculture 1093 01:06:01,261 --> 01:06:04,261 and, increasingly, anarchy in the streets. 1094 01:06:04,308 --> 01:06:06,348 Stratton: The economy's starting to falter. 1095 01:06:06,397 --> 01:06:09,917 There's riots in the major cities of the United States, 1096 01:06:09,966 --> 01:06:14,096 so all these things are coming to a boiling point. 1097 01:06:14,144 --> 01:06:16,194 The Nixon administration is looking at this and going, 1098 01:06:16,233 --> 01:06:17,893 "My God. What are we gonna do? 1099 01:06:17,930 --> 01:06:21,330 We can put the controls back on our society 1100 01:06:21,368 --> 01:06:22,978 that seems to be out of control. 1101 01:06:23,022 --> 01:06:25,022 We're gonna declare a war on drugs." 1102 01:06:47,177 --> 01:06:50,047 Narrator: June 17, 1971. 1103 01:06:50,093 --> 01:06:52,533 President Richard Nixon is about to make 1104 01:06:52,573 --> 01:06:54,363 one of the most important speeches 1105 01:06:54,401 --> 01:06:56,621 in presidential history. 1106 01:07:01,365 --> 01:07:03,055 Do you want to join me here? 1107 01:07:03,106 --> 01:07:04,366 Won't you be seated, please, ladies and gentlemen? 1108 01:07:04,411 --> 01:07:07,681 Come on, Dr. Jaffe. 1109 01:07:07,719 --> 01:07:09,069 Fine. All right. 1110 01:07:10,678 --> 01:07:12,458 Narrator: Standing next to the president, 1111 01:07:12,506 --> 01:07:15,766 31-year-old drug policy guru Bud Krogh. 1112 01:07:15,814 --> 01:07:18,214 Standing to his left, his boss, 1113 01:07:18,251 --> 01:07:21,691 Nixon's chief counsel John Ehrlichman. 1114 01:07:23,735 --> 01:07:26,125 Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to summarize for you 1115 01:07:26,172 --> 01:07:29,612 the meeting that I have just had with the bipartisan leaders 1116 01:07:29,654 --> 01:07:33,794 which began at 8:00 and was completed two hours later. 1117 01:07:33,832 --> 01:07:37,922 America's public-enemy number one in the United States 1118 01:07:37,966 --> 01:07:40,446 is drug abuse. 1119 01:07:40,491 --> 01:07:43,021 In order to fight and defeat this enemy, 1120 01:07:43,059 --> 01:07:47,589 it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive. 1121 01:07:47,628 --> 01:07:50,108 This will be a worldwide offensive. 1122 01:07:50,153 --> 01:07:53,423 Fundamentally, it is essential for the American people 1123 01:07:53,460 --> 01:07:55,640 to be alerted of this danger, 1124 01:07:55,680 --> 01:07:58,810 to recognize that it is a danger that will not pass 1125 01:07:58,857 --> 01:08:01,287 with the passing of the war in Vietnam, 1126 01:08:01,338 --> 01:08:03,778 which has brought to our attention the fact 1127 01:08:03,818 --> 01:08:06,038 that a number of young Americans 1128 01:08:06,082 --> 01:08:08,432 have become addicts as they serve abroad. 1129 01:08:08,475 --> 01:08:11,735 This offensive deals with the problem there, 1130 01:08:11,783 --> 01:08:13,223 but will then go on to deal 1131 01:08:13,263 --> 01:08:16,743 with the problem throughout America. 1132 01:08:16,788 --> 01:08:20,138 Narrator: President Nixon never actually uses the word, 1133 01:08:20,183 --> 01:08:22,753 but for everyone listening, it's clear -- 1134 01:08:22,794 --> 01:08:27,844 Richard Nixon is declaring a war on drugs. 1135 01:08:27,886 --> 01:08:31,146 President Nixon: The briefing team will now be ready to answer any questions 1136 01:08:31,194 --> 01:08:33,114 on the technical details of the program. 1137 01:08:36,373 --> 01:08:40,383 Wright: Nixon proclaiming this War on Drugs is this epic moment -- 1138 01:08:40,420 --> 01:08:44,030 Nixon standing up as the law-and-order president. 1139 01:08:44,076 --> 01:08:46,946 We'll proceed in about five minutes. 1140 01:08:46,992 --> 01:08:49,392 Narrator: Nixon has launched one of the most expensive 1141 01:08:49,429 --> 01:08:53,869 and politically complicated initiatives ever attempted. 1142 01:08:53,912 --> 01:08:58,442 But behind the scenes, there's another agenda at work. 1143 01:08:58,482 --> 01:09:01,702 In the eyes of the inner circle of the Nixon administration, 1144 01:09:01,746 --> 01:09:04,176 the War on Drugs brought together 1145 01:09:04,227 --> 01:09:06,227 the peace movement, the hippies, 1146 01:09:06,272 --> 01:09:09,062 the counterculture, African-Americans. 1147 01:09:09,101 --> 01:09:12,501 All of this stuff can be captured and addressed 1148 01:09:12,539 --> 01:09:15,759 by force with law enforcement 1149 01:09:15,803 --> 01:09:18,283 under the rubric of the War on Drugs. 1150 01:09:18,328 --> 01:09:22,808 And the trick is to create a system that deals with this 1151 01:09:22,854 --> 01:09:24,294 without appearing to. 1152 01:09:26,771 --> 01:09:30,951 This announcement this morning is the culmination of a project 1153 01:09:30,992 --> 01:09:33,652 that began about a year ago. 1154 01:09:33,691 --> 01:09:37,301 Narrator: It will be decades before one of Nixon's top advisers 1155 01:09:37,347 --> 01:09:39,827 will allegedly admit to a magazine writer 1156 01:09:39,871 --> 01:09:43,571 this deception behind the origin of the War on Drugs. 1157 01:10:17,430 --> 01:10:19,430 Stratton: We got a problem with the blacks, 1158 01:10:19,476 --> 01:10:20,826 we got a problem with the hippies. 1159 01:10:20,868 --> 01:10:22,258 What are we gonna do? 1160 01:10:22,305 --> 01:10:24,305 We're gonna declare a war on drugs. 1161 01:10:24,350 --> 01:10:26,310 And we criminalize these elements 1162 01:10:26,352 --> 01:10:29,442 and we broadcast it all over the nightly news. 1163 01:10:29,486 --> 01:10:33,096 We can put the controls back on our society 1164 01:10:33,141 --> 01:10:34,581 that seems to be out of control. 1165 01:10:39,104 --> 01:10:41,244 Right. Right. Okay. 1166 01:10:41,280 --> 01:10:43,240 Fine. 1167 01:10:43,282 --> 01:10:46,112 Narrator: Nixon soon finds himself increasingly frustrated 1168 01:10:46,154 --> 01:10:48,424 by the War on Drug's lack of progress 1169 01:10:48,461 --> 01:10:50,721 and grills his inner circle for answers. 1170 01:11:19,840 --> 01:11:21,630 Inner cities are increasingly 1171 01:11:21,668 --> 01:11:24,448 in the grip of a heroin epidemic. 1172 01:11:24,497 --> 01:11:27,147 Drug-related deaths are up to 1,000 a year 1173 01:11:27,195 --> 01:11:29,845 in New York City alone. 1174 01:11:29,894 --> 01:11:32,464 Junkies steal to finance their addictions, 1175 01:11:32,505 --> 01:11:35,465 and police corruption is rampant. 1176 01:11:35,508 --> 01:11:38,558 NYPD narcotics detective Frank Serpico 1177 01:11:38,598 --> 01:11:40,028 tells a mayor's commission 1178 01:11:40,078 --> 01:11:42,208 that cops are paying off their superiors 1179 01:11:42,254 --> 01:11:44,744 for a transfer to the narcotics division. 1180 01:11:48,869 --> 01:11:52,089 Serpico: I saw what was going on. 1181 01:11:52,133 --> 01:11:55,573 Being transferred to the Gold Coast, as it was called, 1182 01:11:55,615 --> 01:11:58,265 where there was big money -- of course. 1183 01:11:58,314 --> 01:12:00,844 Narcotics was where the money was. 1184 01:12:00,881 --> 01:12:02,671 [ Police radio chatter ] 1185 01:12:02,709 --> 01:12:06,189 Cops would notify drug dealers 1186 01:12:06,234 --> 01:12:10,724 whenever some other cops were going to raid their place. 1187 01:12:13,720 --> 01:12:16,420 There was no limit. There was no morality. 1188 01:12:16,462 --> 01:12:18,252 [ Horn honking ] 1189 01:12:18,290 --> 01:12:21,550 Narrator: Cops are also putting drugs on the street. 1190 01:12:21,598 --> 01:12:23,898 And in one of the strangest coincidences 1191 01:12:23,948 --> 01:12:27,168 in the War on Drugs, fact will collide with fiction. 1192 01:12:27,212 --> 01:12:29,392 A movie called "The French Connection" 1193 01:12:29,432 --> 01:12:31,392 is a favorite for an Academy Award. 1194 01:12:31,434 --> 01:12:35,444 It tells the story of a NYPD 1962 bust 1195 01:12:35,481 --> 01:12:38,221 of the famous French Connection heroin smuggling network 1196 01:12:38,266 --> 01:12:42,046 run by gangsters like Santo Trafficante. 1197 01:12:42,096 --> 01:12:45,056 So this great movie comes out, "The French Connection." 1198 01:12:48,189 --> 01:12:51,449 Gene Hackman plays the narcotics cop 1199 01:12:51,497 --> 01:12:54,807 who made the big French Connection bust. 1200 01:12:57,721 --> 01:13:01,551 Narrator: For 10 years, the confiscated heroin is thought to be held 1201 01:13:01,594 --> 01:13:04,424 in a secure Manhattan police lockup. 1202 01:13:04,467 --> 01:13:07,727 Stratton: So they had all this heroin that they busted, 1203 01:13:07,774 --> 01:13:12,344 and it was in the property vault in NYPD custody. 1204 01:13:12,388 --> 01:13:14,478 Open them up. 1205 01:13:14,520 --> 01:13:17,390 But when they ultimately went down there to get it... 1206 01:13:23,573 --> 01:13:25,013 ...they found it was gone. 1207 01:13:25,052 --> 01:13:27,142 Narrator: Large amounts of heroin 1208 01:13:27,185 --> 01:13:29,225 from the famous French Connection bust 1209 01:13:29,274 --> 01:13:31,494 have been stolen from the police evidence room 1210 01:13:31,537 --> 01:13:34,447 and replaced with flour. 1211 01:13:34,497 --> 01:13:37,667 Stratton: $70 million worth of heroin 1212 01:13:37,717 --> 01:13:42,157 goes from NYPD into the streets of New York City. 1213 01:13:42,200 --> 01:13:43,850 And they couldn't figure out, "Well, what happened?" 1214 01:13:43,897 --> 01:13:45,937 Of course, we know what happened -- the cops stole it. 1215 01:13:45,986 --> 01:13:47,636 And, amazingly, as people are sitting there 1216 01:13:47,684 --> 01:13:49,564 watching the movie "The French Connection," 1217 01:13:49,599 --> 01:13:52,649 that heroin was on the streets of New York 1218 01:13:52,689 --> 01:13:55,519 being sold to dealers and drug addicts. 1219 01:13:55,561 --> 01:13:58,431 Narrator: The French Connection heroin robbery 1220 01:13:58,477 --> 01:14:01,867 remains the single largest theft in American history, 1221 01:14:01,915 --> 01:14:06,215 and it was done by the police themselves. 1222 01:14:06,267 --> 01:14:09,097 The French heroin was big -- it corrupted New York City, 1223 01:14:09,140 --> 01:14:10,790 and it corrupted the New York cops. 1224 01:14:10,837 --> 01:14:12,137 It corrupted everybody. 1225 01:14:15,929 --> 01:14:18,669 Narrator: While drugs are corrupting the nation's police, 1226 01:14:18,715 --> 01:14:21,455 the White House itself will soon be engulfed 1227 01:14:21,500 --> 01:14:23,500 in its own criminal conspiracy. 1228 01:14:26,505 --> 01:14:27,805 Abort. 1229 01:14:27,854 --> 01:14:30,684 I repeat -- abort. Get out of there. 1230 01:14:30,727 --> 01:14:31,677 Hello? 1231 01:14:33,164 --> 01:14:34,604 Hello? 1232 01:14:42,478 --> 01:14:43,908 O0 C1Reporter: Good evening. 1233 01:14:43,957 --> 01:14:45,697 We have a mystery story out of Washington. 1234 01:14:45,742 --> 01:14:47,962 Five people have been arrested and charged with breaking 1235 01:14:48,005 --> 01:14:50,005 into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee 1236 01:14:50,050 --> 01:14:53,140 in the middle of the night. 1237 01:14:53,184 --> 01:14:55,624 Narrator: One year to the day after President Nixon 1238 01:14:55,665 --> 01:14:57,745 declares a war on drugs, 1239 01:14:57,797 --> 01:15:02,017 his law-and-order presidency is about to unravel. 1240 01:15:03,716 --> 01:15:06,886 One of Nixon's top lieutenants, G. Gordon Liddy, 1241 01:15:06,937 --> 01:15:08,847 is arrested for trying to break into 1242 01:15:08,895 --> 01:15:11,715 the Democratic National Committee's headquarters. 1243 01:15:14,640 --> 01:15:17,340 When his five burglars are interrogated, 1244 01:15:17,382 --> 01:15:20,992 it's revealed they're part of a secret White House team 1245 01:15:21,038 --> 01:15:23,688 that includes an ex-CIA officer 1246 01:15:23,736 --> 01:15:28,476 and four former anti-Castro operatives. 1247 01:15:28,524 --> 01:15:30,444 As Congress begins hearings 1248 01:15:30,482 --> 01:15:33,352 investigating just how high the plot goes... 1249 01:15:33,398 --> 01:15:35,878 Mr. Ehrlichman, are you telling me that the break-in to Dr. Fielding's office 1250 01:15:35,922 --> 01:15:37,752 was to satisfy the President of the United States? 1251 01:15:39,970 --> 01:15:42,710 ...across the country... 1252 01:15:42,755 --> 01:15:46,405 another kind of conspiracy is brewing. 1253 01:15:46,454 --> 01:15:49,634 A casino in Vegas. 1254 01:15:49,675 --> 01:15:52,195 The East Coast's biggest heroin dealer 1255 01:15:52,243 --> 01:15:54,683 is enjoying a run on the roulette table. 1256 01:15:54,724 --> 01:15:56,464 Chepesiuk: Frank Matthews was ahead of his time, 1257 01:15:56,508 --> 01:15:58,338 'cause he was the Al Capone 1258 01:15:58,379 --> 01:16:00,119 of African-American drug dealing. 1259 01:16:00,164 --> 01:16:02,514 [ Cheering ] 1260 01:16:02,558 --> 01:16:04,648 ♪♪ 1261 01:16:04,690 --> 01:16:08,170 Narrator: But Frank Matthews is not in town just to gamble. 1262 01:16:11,175 --> 01:16:13,125 The drug trade is changing, 1263 01:16:13,177 --> 01:16:16,827 and he wants to find a way to stop the growing violence. 1264 01:16:16,876 --> 01:16:18,656 [ Gunshots, people screaming ] 1265 01:16:18,704 --> 01:16:21,494 Just recently, one of Matthews' top dealers 1266 01:16:21,533 --> 01:16:23,803 was gunned down in a popular nightclub. 1267 01:16:25,755 --> 01:16:28,145 How you all doing? 1268 01:16:28,192 --> 01:16:30,242 Yo. You good? 1269 01:16:30,281 --> 01:16:31,591 So he's called a summit 1270 01:16:31,630 --> 01:16:34,890 of the country's top black drug lords. 1271 01:16:34,938 --> 01:16:36,978 Stratton: A lot of people in law enforcement will tell you 1272 01:16:37,027 --> 01:16:39,327 that when the mob was in control of the neighborhoods, 1273 01:16:39,377 --> 01:16:41,157 there was a lot less crime. 1274 01:16:41,205 --> 01:16:44,245 The days of sharing with the Italians, they're over now. 1275 01:16:44,295 --> 01:16:45,905 Y'all hear me? Over. 1276 01:16:45,949 --> 01:16:47,299 This is our time now. 1277 01:16:47,341 --> 01:16:48,781 This is our time! 1278 01:16:48,821 --> 01:16:52,261 Now you had the emergence of these gangs 1279 01:16:52,303 --> 01:16:54,743 that were cutting out the mob. 1280 01:16:54,784 --> 01:16:57,264 It created these turf wars and these battles. 1281 01:16:57,308 --> 01:16:59,478 What I'm saying first, though, we got to stick together, though, 1282 01:16:59,527 --> 01:17:00,957 without killing each other. 1283 01:17:01,007 --> 01:17:03,617 His objective was to form some kind of network 1284 01:17:03,662 --> 01:17:06,712 where they could work together rather than kill each other. 1285 01:17:06,752 --> 01:17:09,452 This business is ours now. All the way. 1286 01:17:09,494 --> 01:17:11,714 That's it. That's it. 1287 01:17:11,757 --> 01:17:16,107 Narrator: But before he can see his dreams of unity fulfilled... 1288 01:17:16,153 --> 01:17:19,373 he's arrested in Vegas. 1289 01:17:19,417 --> 01:17:23,377 Matthews jumped bail on July 2, 1973, 1290 01:17:23,421 --> 01:17:25,681 and has never been seen again. 1291 01:17:25,728 --> 01:17:28,818 Narrator: To add to the mystery, 1292 01:17:28,861 --> 01:17:32,521 the testimony of nine of his French Connection suppliers 1293 01:17:32,560 --> 01:17:36,830 is suppressed for national security reasons by the CIA. 1294 01:17:39,480 --> 01:17:42,180 Stratton: Frank Matthews may be one of the few 1295 01:17:42,222 --> 01:17:45,442 of the big drug kingpins who actually got away. 1296 01:17:45,486 --> 01:17:48,136 But unlike Matthews, most of the guys 1297 01:17:48,185 --> 01:17:49,795 who were involved in the drug trade 1298 01:17:49,839 --> 01:17:52,449 were getting hammered with these huge sentences. 1299 01:17:52,493 --> 01:17:56,763 Narrator: Possibly the most enduring legacy of Nixon's war on drugs 1300 01:17:56,802 --> 01:18:00,282 is a series of laws passed in New York State. 1301 01:18:00,327 --> 01:18:02,627 Life sentence for pushers. 1302 01:18:02,678 --> 01:18:03,978 Stratton: We saw guys coming in 1303 01:18:04,027 --> 01:18:06,637 who were like low-level street dealers 1304 01:18:06,682 --> 01:18:08,952 with 20, 30 years' time. 1305 01:18:08,988 --> 01:18:12,858 Narrator: Under what are known as the Rockefeller Drug Laws, 1306 01:18:12,905 --> 01:18:16,335 anyone caught with more than four ounces of drugs -- 1307 01:18:16,387 --> 01:18:20,477 even marijuana -- faces a 15-year-to-life sentence. 1308 01:18:20,521 --> 01:18:22,441 It's the same as second-degree murder. 1309 01:18:22,480 --> 01:18:24,920 Other states soon follow suit. 1310 01:18:24,961 --> 01:18:28,881 Hart: Rockefeller Drug Laws reverberate to this day, 1311 01:18:28,921 --> 01:18:33,451 because 90% of the people who were arrested under those laws 1312 01:18:33,491 --> 01:18:34,751 were black and brown. 1313 01:18:54,773 --> 01:18:58,523 Narrator: But for the man who declared America's War on Drugs, 1314 01:18:58,559 --> 01:19:01,169 the battle has come to an early end. 1315 01:19:04,043 --> 01:19:08,183 The irony of Nixon championing a war on drugs 1316 01:19:08,221 --> 01:19:10,011 is his own criminality. 1317 01:19:10,049 --> 01:19:12,399 The guy leaves office in disgrace. 1318 01:19:20,364 --> 01:19:22,804 Narrator: For their roles in the Watergate scandal, 1319 01:19:22,845 --> 01:19:25,325 four of the key architects of the War on Drugs 1320 01:19:25,369 --> 01:19:27,549 will go to prison -- 1321 01:19:27,588 --> 01:19:29,288 the former Attorney General 1322 01:19:29,329 --> 01:19:34,159 who spearheaded Operation Eagle, John Mitchell... 1323 01:19:34,204 --> 01:19:36,384 the senior adviser who introduced Nixon 1324 01:19:36,423 --> 01:19:39,993 to Elvis, Bud Krogh... 1325 01:19:40,036 --> 01:19:44,556 the president's chief counsel, John Ehrlichman... 1326 01:19:44,605 --> 01:19:47,425 and the former prosecutor who first made his name 1327 01:19:47,478 --> 01:19:50,738 trying to take down LSD guru Timothy Leary, 1328 01:19:50,786 --> 01:19:54,306 G. Gordon Liddy, will be sent to a Connecticut federal prison. 1329 01:19:55,965 --> 01:19:58,785 And it's here where one of the strangest connections 1330 01:19:58,837 --> 01:20:02,147 in the history of the War on Drugs will be made. 1331 01:20:14,070 --> 01:20:17,990 O0 C1Narrator: The federal prison at Danbury, Connecticut, 1974. 1332 01:20:19,902 --> 01:20:22,642 Richard Nixon's dirty tricks mastermind, 1333 01:20:22,687 --> 01:20:25,037 G. Gordon Liddy, 1334 01:20:25,081 --> 01:20:29,351 is here serving time for his role in the Watergate break-in. 1335 01:20:29,389 --> 01:20:31,349 When Gordon Liddy found himself in federal prison, 1336 01:20:31,391 --> 01:20:35,351 he found a fellow inmate there, Carlos Lehder. 1337 01:20:35,395 --> 01:20:37,265 [ Camera shutter clicking ] 1338 01:20:37,310 --> 01:20:40,180 Narrator: Carlos Lehder, a Colombian car thief 1339 01:20:40,226 --> 01:20:43,316 who will soon change the face of the drug trade. 1340 01:20:43,360 --> 01:20:46,710 Liddy had all these ideas about the will to power, 1341 01:20:46,754 --> 01:20:49,324 to impose your will on circumstances 1342 01:20:49,366 --> 01:20:52,666 and do heroic things as an individual. 1343 01:20:52,717 --> 01:20:55,497 Lehder was completely inspired by this man. 1344 01:20:55,546 --> 01:20:58,716 This weird admiration society built up. 1345 01:20:58,766 --> 01:21:00,896 Carlos Lehder started dressing like him, 1346 01:21:00,943 --> 01:21:03,773 started talking about the same ideas, 1347 01:21:03,815 --> 01:21:06,465 and Carlos Lehder would then get out 1348 01:21:06,513 --> 01:21:10,003 and basically flood America with cocaine. 1349 01:21:10,039 --> 01:21:11,949 Narrator: And as a founding member 1350 01:21:11,997 --> 01:21:14,517 of Pablo Escobar's Medellín Cartel, 1351 01:21:14,565 --> 01:21:18,605 he'll revolutionize a new drug trade. 1352 01:21:18,656 --> 01:21:20,606 [ Helicopter blades whirring ] 1353 01:21:20,658 --> 01:21:22,618 [ Police radio chatter ] 1354 01:21:22,660 --> 01:21:25,880 The power dynamics that forged the War on Drugs 1355 01:21:25,924 --> 01:21:29,414 will now reverberate across five decades. 1356 01:21:29,449 --> 01:21:31,969 Hart: Sometimes people say that the War on Drugs 1357 01:21:32,017 --> 01:21:33,367 really wasn't about drugs. 1358 01:21:33,410 --> 01:21:36,200 And they state that like that's news. 1359 01:21:36,239 --> 01:21:39,849 [ Indistinct shouting ] 1360 01:21:39,895 --> 01:21:41,415 It's only news to people 1361 01:21:41,461 --> 01:21:44,331 who just haven't been paying attention. 1362 01:21:44,377 --> 01:21:46,247 Of course it wasn't about drugs. 1363 01:21:49,382 --> 01:21:51,082 Stratton: It was a fraud. 1364 01:21:51,123 --> 01:21:54,303 It was a political maneuvering that was designed 1365 01:21:54,344 --> 01:21:59,134 to keep certain aspects of the culture under control. 1366 01:22:02,482 --> 01:22:04,222 Wright: In many ways, the counterculture 1367 01:22:04,267 --> 01:22:08,837 was a product of the CIA LSD program 1368 01:22:08,880 --> 01:22:11,490 that released it into the populace. 1369 01:22:11,535 --> 01:22:13,965 All of these individual experiences 1370 01:22:14,016 --> 01:22:17,976 that people had taking LSD collectively 1371 01:22:18,020 --> 01:22:20,500 completely altered society. 1372 01:22:20,544 --> 01:22:24,644 Moran: What's really remarkable is that a lot of these patterns 1373 01:22:24,678 --> 01:22:29,508 that have their origins in the 1960s become cyclical. 1374 01:22:33,035 --> 01:22:36,165 Wright: Virtually all of the CIA activities abroad 1375 01:22:36,212 --> 01:22:39,822 always came on the backs of drug smuggling 1376 01:22:39,867 --> 01:22:41,127 and drug financing. 1377 01:22:43,001 --> 01:22:46,961 Moran: And we're going to see those relationships develop 1378 01:22:47,005 --> 01:22:49,965 again and again throughout the War on Drugs. 1379 01:22:51,488 --> 01:22:53,708 Valentine: The War on Drugs is not about one thing, 1380 01:22:53,751 --> 01:22:57,361 it's about many things in relationship to each other. 1381 01:23:13,379 --> 01:23:17,639 Narrator: On the next episode of "America's War on Drugs"... 1382 01:23:17,688 --> 01:23:20,948 Stratton: Pablo Escobar had tremendous political ambition. 1383 01:23:20,996 --> 01:23:23,166 Man: If you were gonna mess with Pablo, 1384 01:23:23,215 --> 01:23:24,905 you know, Pablo will kill you. 1385 01:23:24,956 --> 01:23:27,646 This is an outlaw regime. 1386 01:23:27,698 --> 01:23:30,568 Man #2: They're flying secret shipments of weapons down 1387 01:23:30,614 --> 01:23:34,054 and then coming back with cocaine. 1388 01:23:34,096 --> 01:23:37,356 Man #3: I'm going after the drug dealers that they were protecting. 1389 01:23:40,102 --> 01:23:43,892 We were really playing Russian roulette with our lives. 1390 01:23:43,931 --> 01:23:48,111 Man #4: I knew it went all the way to the White House. 1391 01:23:48,153 --> 01:23:52,683 Moran: You basically have a secret CIA operation laid bare. 1392 01:23:54,029 --> 01:23:55,899 MAN #5: It was really hard for me to fantasize 1393 01:23:55,943 --> 01:23:58,563 that something so small could be so valuable. 1394 01:23:59,860 --> 01:24:02,040 It was like, "This is what I was made for."