In such devastatingly detailed and engaging works as The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America’s War on Drugs; The Strength of the Pack: The Personalities, Politics and Espionage Intrigues that Shaped the DEA; and The Phoenix Program, investigative journalist and historian Douglas Valentine is recognized as one of the authoritative experts on the American State’s century-old martial efforts regarding the control of narcotics and counter-insurgency. From the beginning of this War on Drugs, there has been an intense internecine warfare waged by various law enforcement and intelligence agencies within the labyrinth of the Deep State. In Creating a Crime: How the CIA Commandeered The DEA, Valentine provides an exhaustive account of this intrigue, naming names, and documenting the destructive duplicity and deceit of this war. Here is an array of Douglas Valentine’s contributions to be found at LRC, and various books on how the US government created America’s drug problem.

The Best of Charles Burris