Office of the Historian

209. Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon1 2

Washington, September 23, 1971.

SUBJECT:

  • Bi-Weekly Report on the Narcotics Problem in Southeast Asia

Regional

Early this month the Inter-Agency Working Group on Narcotics completed and sent to all East Asian diplomatic and consular posts basic guidelines on narcotics control. The guidelines affirmed that Asian nations must be convinced that the problem is theirs as well as ours, and that their effective cooperation with us in this field constitutes an essential part of our bilateral relations with them. Program objectives were defined as:

1.
Long Range-elimination of opium poppy cultivation.
2.
Short Range
  • --Stem the flow of illicit narcotics to U.S. troops in Asia and to the U.S.
  • --Eliminate the illegal manufacture or processing of heroin and other opium derivatives.
  • --Help Asian governments educate their populations regarding the growing narcotics problem.
  • --Assist in reducing the demand for narcotics and rehabilitation of addicts in Asia.

Washington agencies have also agreed that an enhanced United Nations role in the “Golden Triangle” (the tri-border area of Burma, Thailand, and Laos) would be effective, particularly with Burma, which resists our efforts to stimulate action. The U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs has formulated a new $17.2 million program for these three countries for 1971-1976.

[Page 2]

Individual Countries

1.
Burma. When Secretary Rogers’ Drug Coordinator Nelson Gross visited Rangoon earlier this month, he was told by Burmese officials that:
  • --Burma would solve its drug problems itself and did not welcome cooperative efforts with Thailand and Burma or through the Colombo Plan.
  • --The Burmese Government has reduced opium poppy acreage by 80% in the last five years through crop substitution. (Burma is estimated to supply about 400 of the 700 tons of the annual opium production in these three countries.) Embassy Rangoon comments that such a radical reduction in poppy acreage is highly unlikely.
  • --[1 line not declassified]
  • --U.S. purchase of a Burmese Government stock of 50 tons of opium, accumulated over the past four years, would be welcome. (Mr. Gross responded that this would be very difficult.)
2.
Thailand. A joint U.S.-Thai statement on narcotics was issued August 25 in which both governments committed themselves to joint efforts to bring the drug problem under control. In addition, our Embassy in Bangkok has been authorized to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding with the Thai Government which would include a Thai commitment to initiate immediately the measures required to stem the flow of illicit drugs transiting Thailand.
3.
Laos. The Inter-Agency Working Group is completing an integrated drug control program for Laos.
  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Subject Files, Box 358, Narcotics IV. Confidential. Sent for information. A notation on the memorandum indicates that the President did not see it.↩
  2. Kissinger submitted a bi-weekly report on the narcotics problem in Southeast Asia to the President.↩