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A sweeping and highly readable work on the evolution of America's domestic and global drug war How can the United States chart a path forward in the war on drugs? In Drugs and Thugs, Russell Crandall uncovers the full history of this war that has lasted more than a century. As a scholar and a high-level national security advisor to both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, he provides an essential view of the economic, political, and human impacts of U.S. drug policies. Backed by extensive research, lucid and unbiased analysis of policy, and his own personal experiences, Crandall takes readers from Afghanistan to Colombia, to Peru and Mexico, to Miami International Airport and the border crossing between El Paso and Juarez to trace the complex social networks that make up the drug trade and drug consumption. Through historically driven stories, Crandall reveals how the war on drugs has evolved to address mass incarceration, the opioid epidemic, the legalization and medical use of marijuana, and America's shifting foreign policy

A sweeping work on the evolution of America's domestic and global drug war.

Part I. El Salvador in the Cold War -- Farabundo Martí, la matanza, and a stolen election -- The United States in Latin America -- American military mission in El Salvador -- A divided nation: military traditions, democratic third way, and liberation theology -- Guerrillas are born -- Part II. Jimmy Carter -- Revolution and counterinsurgency in Guatemala -- Mass organizations -- Carter arrives -- Carter and the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua, 1979 -- An October coup -- Carter engages Salvador -- Archbishop Romero -- Land -- The American churchwomen -- Arming the rebels -- Guerrilla final offensive, January 1981 -- Death squads -- Part III. Ronald Reagan -- Reagan arrives -- Reagan and Salvador -- El Mozote -- Another Vietnam -- Solidarity -- Troop cap and certifying human rights -- Reagan gambles on elections, 1982 -- The Shultz Doctrine -- Human rights -- Henry Kissinger -- Contras -- "Elections yes, dialogue no," 1984 presidential election -- La Palma -- Esquipulas -- Counterinsurgency I -- Counterinsurgency II -- Zona Rosa -- Air war -- José Napoleón Duarte -- Iran-Contra -- Part IV. George H.W. Bush -- Elusive justice -- Pessimism -- Bush arrives -- Bush, Cristiani, and the 1989 vote -- Guerrilla "second" final offensive, 1989 -- Jesuit killings -- Sams -- United Nations and peace -- Demobilization -- Part V. Post-war -- Post-war Salvador -- Concluding thoughts

"This book examines the long, complex experience of American involvement in irregular warfare. It begins with the American Revolution in 1776 and chronicles big and small irregular wars for the next two and a half centuries, ending with the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Russell Crandall describes the various ways that American political and military leaders have conducted these often poorly understood, publicly neglected, or intensely controversial conflicts. Contrary to what is often assumed, Crandall argues that the United States tends to win its dirty wars, but that this at times comes at the expense of its moral self-image in these inherently murky conflicts. This exploration of America's dirty wars is interspersed with short intermezzi chapters that chronicle the experiences of the same time period of other global powers such as Great Britain and France"--