Dispatches from the Drug Wars: Ishmael Reed, Oscar Zeta Acosta, and the Viet Cong of America

• Published in: Modern fiction studies 2018-03, Vol.64 (1), p.79-103
• Main Author: Darda, Joseph
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: African American literature; American culture; American literature; Armed forces; Attitudes; Contemporary literature; Domestic violence; Drug abuse; Drug use; Immigrants; Justice; Literary characters; Literary criticism; Literary devices; Literary influences; Logic; Marijuana; Military personnel; Murders & murder attempts; Narcotics; Narrative techniques; Police; Reed, Ishmael (1938- ); Steinbeck, John (1902-1968); Vietnamese; War
• ISSN: 0026-7724; 1080-658X; 1080-658X
• DOI: 10.1353/mfs.2018.0003

A doctor who had treated drug addiction in Vietnam testified to the violent effects of cannabis, telling the committee: "Contrary to many popular opinions held here in the States, the drug could cause people to become fearful, paranoid, extremely angry, and led, in a number of cases, to acts of murder, rape, and aggravated assault" (qtd. in Smith 14). The legislation that Nixon outlined built on the Law Enforcement Assistance Act of 1965, the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, and Nixon's own Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, which established the five modern classifications of controlled substances and authorized the use of no-knock search warrants. Whereas white ethnic crime was attributed to class disadvantage, leading to state interventions on behalf of white working-class communities such as the New Deal reforms, black crime was attributed to black culture. [...]Muhammad concludes, "Liberalism fueled [white] immigrant success even as racial liberalism foundered on the shoals of black criminality" (13). In a 1969 letter to the Temescal, California, draft board, informing it of his refusal of induction into the armed forces, movement leader Manuel Gómez wrote, "It is well known that Mexicans were among the first victims of your empire" (qtd. in Martínez and Vásquez 287). [...]he concluded, "The Vietnamese people are not my enemy, but brothers involved in the same struggle for justice against a common enemy" (289).