Alfred W. McCoy

Alfred "Al" William McCoy (born June 8, 1945, in Concord) is an American historian and educator. McCoy is currently the Fred Harvey Harrington Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.^[1] He specializes in the history of the Philippines, foreign policy of the United States, European colonisation of Southeast Asia, illegal drug trade, and Central Intelligence Agency covert operations.

Career[]

Born to Alfred Mudge McCoy, Jr. and Margarita Piel, a noted urban planner, educator, and descendant of the originators of Piels Beer, McCoy graduated from the Kent School in 1964, where he earned varsity letters in football, rowing, and wrestling.^[2] He earned a Bachelor of Arts in European History from Columbia University in 1968, a Master of Arts in Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 1969, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Southeast Asian History from Yale University 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.

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. McCoy remained in Australia at the University of New South Wales 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, where he has since spent his career. McCoy has been given two endowed chairs during his tenure: J.R.W. Smail (2004-2015) and Fred Harvey Harrington (2015-present).

Congressional testimony[]

On June 2, 1972, while studying at Yale, McCoy testified before the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs of which Senator William Proxmire was chairman, and accused American government officials, such as G. McMurtrie Godley and Nelson G. Gross, of covering up drug trafficking in Southeast Asia.^[3] Soon after, McCoy reaffirmed these beliefs in a letter to Congressman Les Aspin.^[4]

McCoy uncovered drug trafficking methods for heroin and opium throughout Southeast Asia and to American troops stationed there by high-ranking government officials: Commander Ouane Rattikone and General Vang Pao (Laos); and President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and General Đăng Văn Quang (Vietnam). McCoy also cited their ties with the Mafia, namely a visit to Saigon in 1968 by Santo Trafficante Jr.. Senator Gale W. McGee dismissed the allegations and accused McCoy of McCarthyism, which was immediately rebutted. Senator Proxmire requested additional evidence and documentation to which McCoy responded his forthcoming book on the topic would serve as such. In that same year, McCoy's book, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, was published by Harper and Row. He restated that the Central Intelligence Agency was knowingly involved in the trade of heroin in the Golden Triangle.

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^[5][6]

Awards[]

• 1985 - Philippine National Book Award^[1]
• 1995 - Philippine National Book Award^[1]
• 1998 - Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad^[1]
• 2001 - Philippine National Book Award^[1]
• 2001 - Association for Asian Studies, Grant Goodman Prize^[1]
• 2004 - University of Wisconsin Graduate School, J.R.W. Smail Chair in History^[1]
• 2011 - Association for Asian Studies, George Kahin Prize^[1]
• 2012 - Yale Graduate School Alumni Association, Wilbur Cross Medal^[1]
• 2012 - University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hilldale Award for Arts and Humanities^[1]

Filmography[]

Film credits include:^[7]

Television credits include:^[7]

Selected publications[]

Books

• Laos: War and Revolution. Edited with Nina S. Adams. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.
• The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
• Priests on Trial: Father Gore and Father O'Brien Caught in the Crossfire Between Dictatorship and Revolution. New York: Penguin Books, 1984.
• Closer Than Brothers: Manhood at the Philippine Military Academy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 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: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009.
• Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009.
• An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009.
• Torture and Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2012.
• Endless Empire: Spain’s Retreat, Europe’s Eclipse, America’s Decline. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2012.
• Beer of Broadway Fame: The Piel Family and Their Brooklyn Brewery. SUNY Press, 2016.
• In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2017.

Selected articles

• "Flowers of Evil: The CIA and the Heroin Trade." Harper's Magazine, July 1972, pp. 47–53.
• "A Correspondence with the CIA." The New York Review of Books, Vol. 19, No. 4, September 21, 1972.
• "The Afghanistan Drug Lords." Convergence, Fall 1991, pp. 11–12, 14.
• "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, January 14, 2019, pp. 9–22. doi:10.31389/jied.8

Interviews

• "Alfred McCoy Interviewed." Interview by Nelson Benton. CBS Morning News, August 8, 1972.
• "An Interview with Alfred W. McCoy." Interview by Frank McGee. Today Show (NBC), August 15, 1972.
• "Name: Alfred McCoy, Occupation: Author." Interview by John Stapleton. The Tagg File, 1980, pp. 5, 7–8, 10–11. Full transcript available.
• "The Future of the American Empire." Interview by Nick Turse. The Nation, November 24, 2017.

See also[]

• Allegations of CIA drug trafficking

References[]

External links[]

• Curriculum Vitae
• Alfred W. McCoy at Library of Congress
• University of Wisconsin-Madison profile
• Full-text publications at ResearchGate