Alfred William McCoy (born June 8, 1945) is an American historian and educator. He is the Fred Harvey Harrington Professor of History at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

."Alfred W. McCoy."
Department of History,

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. Archived fro
the original
He specializes in the history of the Philippines,

foreign policy of the United States The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...

European colonisation of Southeast Asia The first phase of European colonization of Southeast Asia took place throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Where new European powers competing to gain monopoly over the spice trade, as this trade was very valuable to the Europeans due to hig ...

illegal drug trade The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of drug prohibition, prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibitionism, prohibit trade, exce ...

, and

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

covert operations.

Career

Born in

Concord, Massachusetts Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. In the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is n ...

, to Alfred Mudge McCoy, Jr. and Margarita Piel, an

urban planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, tow ...

, educator, and descendant of the originators of Piels Beer, McCoy graduated from the Kent School in 1964, where he earned varsity letters in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, rowing, and

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

. He earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in European History from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1968, a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

in Asian Studies from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1969, and a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

in Southeast Asian History from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1977. His dissertation, advised by Harold C. Conklin was entitled ''Yloilo: Factional Conflict in a Colonial Economy, Iloilo Province, Philippines, 1937-1955'', which examined the region of

Iloilo Iloilo ( ; ), officially the Province of Iloilo (; ; ; ), is a province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital and largest city is Iloilo City, the regional center of Western Visayas and politically independen ...

. McCoy began his teaching career as a lecturer at Yale while he was still a doctoral student (1976-1977). He spent the next academic year as a research fellow at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

. McCoy remained in Australia at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

as a lecturer (1978-1981), senior lecturer (1981-1985), and was eventually promoted to associate professor (1985-1989). He returned to the United States in 1989 as a full professor of history at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

, where he has since spent his career. McCoy has been given two endowed chairs during his tenure: John R.W. Smail (2004-2015) and Fred Harvey Harrington (2015-present).

Congressional testimony

As a Ph.D candidate in Southeast Asian history at Yale, McCoy testified before the

United States Senate Committee on Appropriations The United States Senate Committee on Appropriations is a Standing committee (United States Congress), standing committee of the United States Senate. It has jurisdiction over all discretionary spending legislation in the Senate. The Senate App ...

foreign operations subcommittee on June 2, 1972, and "accused American officials of condoning and even cooperating with corrupt elements in Southeast Asia's illegal drug trade out of political and military considerations". One of his major charges was that

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...

's President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, Vice President Nguyễn Cao Kỳ, and Prime Minister

Trần Thiện Khiêm Trần Thiện Khiêm (; 15 December 1925 – 24 June 2021) was a South Vietnamese soldier and politician, who served as a General in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) during the Vietnam War. He was born in Saigon, French Cochinchina, ...

led a narcotics ring with ties to the Corsican mafia, the Trafficante crime family in Florida, and other high level military officials in South Vietnam,

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

, and

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. Those implicated by McCoy included Laotian Generals Ouane Rattikone and Vang Pao and South Vietnamese Generals Đặng Văn Quang and Ngô Dzu. He told the subcommittee that these military officials facilitated the distribution of

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

to American troops in Vietnam and addicts in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. According to McCoy, the

chartered Air America aircraft and helicopters in northern Laos to transport

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

harvested by their "tribal mercenaries". He also accused United States Ambassador to Laos G. McMurtrie Godley of blocking the assignment of Bureau of Narcotics officials to Laos in order to maintain the Laotian government's cooperation in military and political matters. A spokesman for the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

responded to the allegations: "We are aware of these charges but we have been unable to find any evidence to substantiate them, much less proof."

Documenting the Marcos dictatorship

McCoy's work on the administration of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos has influenced not only the academic documentation regarding the dictatorship, but in some cases had a direct impact on the actual events - such as the publication in the New York Times of his investigation on Marcos' "fake medals", just week before the 1986 Philippine presidential election and Marcos' eventual ouster during the People Power Revolution.

Awards

*1985 - Philippine National Book Award *1995 - Philippine National Book Award *1998 - Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad *2001 - Philippine National Book Award *2001 - Association for Asian Studies, Grant Goodman Prize *2004 -

Graduate School, J.R.W. Smail Chair in History *2011 - Association for Asian Studies, George Kahin Prize *2012 - Yale Graduate School Alumni Association, Wilbur Cross Medal *2012 -

, Hilldale Award for Arts and Humanities

Filmography

Film credits include:"Alfred W. McCoy"
''

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

''. Television credits include:

Bibliography

Books

* ''Laos: War and Revolution'', with Nina S. Adams. New York:

Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins, based in New York City. Founded in New York in 1817 by James Harper and his brother John, the company operated as J. & J. Harper until 1833, when ...

(1970). *'' The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade''. New York:

(1972). * ''Priests on Trial: Father Gore and Father O'Brien Caught in the Crossfire Between Dictatorship and Revolution''. New York:

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

(1984).
''Closer Than Brothers: Manhood at the Philippine Military Academy''.
New Haven:

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

(1999). * ''A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror''. New York: Metropolitan Books (2006). . *''Policing America's Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State''. Madison, Wis.:

University of Wisconsin Press The University of Wisconsin Press (sometimes abbreviated as UW Press) is a Non-profit organization, non-profit university press publishing Peer review, peer-reviewed books and journals. It publishes work by scholars from the global academic comm ...

(2009). *''Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State''. Madison, Wis.:

(2009). *''An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines''. Madison, Wis.:

(2009). *''Torture and Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation''. Madison, Wis.:

(2012). *''Endless Empire: Spain's Retreat, Europe's Eclipse, America's Decline''. Madison, Wis.:

(2012). *''Beer of Broadway Fame: The Piel Family and Their Brooklyn Brewery''.

SUNY Press The State University of New York Press (more commonly referred to as the SUNY Press) is a university press affiliated with the State University of New York system. The press, which was founded in 1966, is located in Albany, New York and publishe ...

(2016). *''In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power''. Chicago: Haymarket Books (2017). *''To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change''. Chicago: Haymarket Books (2021). *''War On Drugs: Studies in the Failure of U.S. Narcotics Policy''.

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

(2021). *''Cold War on Five Continents: A Global History of Empire and Espionage''. Haymarket Books (2026).

Articles

"Flowers of Evil: The CIA and the Heroin Trade."
''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...

'' (July 1972), pp. 47–53.
"A Correspondence with the CIA."
'' New York Review of Books'', vol. 19, no. 4 (Sep. 21, 1972).
"The Afghanistan Drug Lords."
''

Convergence Convergence may refer to: Arts and media Literature *''Convergence'' (book series), edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen *Convergence (comics), "Convergence" (comics), two separate story lines published by DC Comics: **A four-part crossover storyline that ...

'' (Fall 1991), pp. 11–12, 14. * "Lord of Drug Lords: One Life as Lesson for US Drug Policy." '' Crime, Law and Social Change'', vol. 30, no. 4 (Nov. 1998), pp. 301–331.
"Science in Dachau’s Shadow: Hebb, Beecher, and the Development of CIA Psychological Torture and Modern Medical Ethics."
'' Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences'', vol. 43, no. 4 (Fall 2007), pp. 401–417. .
"Searching for Significance among Drug Lords and Death Squads: The Covert Netherworld as Invisible Incubator for Illicit Commerce."
''Journal of Illicit Economies and Development'', vol. 1, no. 1 (Jan. 14, 2019), pp. 9–22. * Online version is titled "How an article about the H-bomb landed ''Scientific American'' in the middle of the Red Scare".

Interviews

"Alfred McCoy Interviewed."
Interview by Nelson Benton. '' CBS Morning News'' (Aug. 8, 1972).
"An Interview with Alfred W. McCoy."
Interview by Frank McGee. ''Today Show'' ( NBC) (Aug. 15, 1972).
"Name: Alfred McCoy, Occupation: Author."
Interview by John Stapleton. ''The Tagg File'' (1980), pp. 5, 7–8, 10–11
Full transcript.

"The Future of the American Empire."
Interview by Nick Turse. ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'' (Nov. 24, 2017).
Alfred McCoy's interviews
on '' Democracy Now!''

References

External links

Curriculum Vitae

at

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

University of Wisconsin-Madison profileFull-text publications
at

ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education' ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCoy, Alfred W. 1945 births Living people 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Academic staff of the University of New South Wales American expatriates in Australia American expatriates in the Philippines American male non-fiction writers American non-fiction writers American people of German descent Columbia College (New York) alumni Kent School alumni Non-fiction writers about the French Connection People from Concord, Massachusetts Scientific American people University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Yale University faculty