Overtime Episode 10 - The Repressive State Apparatus Pt 3 - Guns, Drugs, and NGOs (Patreon)

On the third part of our Overtime series on the history of the US repressive state apparatus, we dive into the long relationship between the CIA and the global drug trade.  From working with the Mafia to break strikes in post-war Europe and protecting their heroin smuggling, to helping the Kuomintang fight China in the 50s funded by opium traffic, to funding a secret war in Laos on the back of the drug trade, the CIA has been involved in drugs since its inception.   Knowing how these operations worked greatly affects how we view the “War on Drugs” here in the US.  We also discuss Operation Cyclone, the US war against the socialist government of Afghanistan, using Mujahedin fighters armed, trained, and paid by the CIA.  Much of the propaganda around the "Brave Mujahedin Fighters of Afghanistan" is still reflected in how our media reports on CIA backed forces in "enemy" countries today.  Finally, we cover the last major foreign operation of the series, the US post-Cold War policy of instigating “Color Revolutions” in countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, to install neoliberal Western-friendly governments, and how these tactics and the use of NGOs are seen here in the US as well.