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That market has almost disappeared with the reduction in U.S. troop levels in Vietnam from about 300,000 in mid-1971 to less than 30,000 in November 1972. The question is what will the illegal heroin traffickers do? Will they attempt to increase the amount of heroin being smuggled out of Southeast Asia to the United States and Europe, or will they be satisfied to cater to the hundreds of thousands of opium addicts in Southeast Asia as in the past?
Reliable U.S. intelligence sources are convinced that there are large quantities of opium and heroin hidden in warehouses in Vietnam and Burma and there is apprehension that those who deal in opium and heroin will soon begin moving it to the United States or to Europe in greater quantities than heretofore.
As a result of the widespread use of heroin among U.S. servicemen in South Vietnam, the growing number of addicts in the United States and the determination to lessen the threat that Southeast Asia will become the primary source of heroin in the United States, the U.S. Government has initiated programs designed to encourage the govern- ments of Southeast Asia to take effective action to stop cultivating poppies and to interdict the movement of narcotics into and through those countries.
To date progress has been slow. Initially, U.S. officials failed to recognize the dimensions of the problem and efforts to gain interna- tional cooperation were not given the priority necessary to convince. foreign governments that the United States needed and expected their cooperation and assistance. Prior to the end of 1970 and before the seriousness of the heroin problem in South Vietnam became known, U.S. officials were not overly concerned about the production and use of narcotics in Southeast Asia. It was regarded as a local problem, which from the advantage of hindsight was naive. Second, many for- eign governments regarded the heroin problem as being uniquely American and have been slow in reacting to U.S. initiatives to develop programs to stop the production of and the trafficking in narcotics, particularly heroin.
Third, the governments of Southeast Asia do not exercise effective administrative or political control over large areas of the opium grow- ing and heroin producing regions.
Cambodia, Laos, and South Vietnam are engaged in hostilities and Burma and Thailand are confronted by insurgent movements which hinder effective government control of the mountain regions where poppies are grown.
Fourth, there is widespread corruption in Southeast Asia and there are reports that high-ranking government officials, particularly in Laos and South Vietnam, are involved in the illicit production of and trafficking in narcotics. The narcotics trafficker is a resourceful, sophis- ticated operator with the financial resources needed to buy political protection.