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Radio War Nerd, Episode #52—Drugs & War (Patreon)

Published:
2016-09-28 05:17:51
Edited:
2019-04-01 17:15:26
Imported:
2026-06
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Drugs & Wars

Guest: Alexander Zaitchik, journalist & author of "The Gilded Rage: A Wild Ride Through Donald Trump's America"

Alex Zaitchik,  just back from Colombia jungles, explains why hallucinogenic Ayahuasca helps indigenous Amazon tribes prepare for battle...Read Zaitchik's articles on Ayahuasca and indigenous tribes under attack, and buy his book "Gilded Rage" about Trump America...

Afterwards we discuss drugs & the original Assassins in Shia Persia...Captagon, "the beheading drug"...and real drugs that made a difference like penicillin...We also talk about the central covert role opium played in the French Indochina War 1945-54, and how the US quickly followed suit...

Total time: 2:44:46

Direct download to this episode's mp3 here

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Factory Troll

War Nerd Wednesday on actual Wednesdays, lovely.

Adrian Johansson

Donald Trump was created by the crazy identity politics left combined with mainstream Republicans going progressive but acting like they are not.

James Christensen

I think the Russo-Japanese War was actually the first where more died from violence than from disease.

alejandro sosa

I was able to find some numbers on the malaria numbers for the Navy and Marines (the Army numbers are roughly double from what I've gleaned) in Vietnam here: <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4456917?seq=1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.jstor.org/stable/4456917?seq=1</a>#page_scan_tab_contents It seems that the NVA had a particularly hard time with it, but numbers are hard to come by (it may be worth it to look into French sources for that). W/r/t cholera, I'd refer you to the 2010 Haiti outbreak caused by the UN peacekeepers stationed there after the earthquake that obliterated what little sanitation infrastructure existed beforehand. <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/bc72bac9c61a42e5be513daccfd26c65/cholera-quietly-still-kills-dozens-month-haiti?version=meter+at+0&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ijdh.org%2Fadvocacies%2Four-work%2Fcholera-advocacy%2F&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://bigstory.ap.org/article/bc72bac9c61a42e5be513daccfd26c65/cholera-quietly-still-kills-dozens-month-haiti?version=meter+at+0&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ijdh.org%2Fadvocacies%2Four-work%2Fcholera-advocacy%2F&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click</a>

Adrian Johansson

If anyone is interested in the history of medicine "the great courses" has a lecture series on it on audible which is great. Before before Lister the surgeon amputating a leg wanted it to turn a certain color. That meant a certain bacteria had infected it that wouldn't kill you but there where 3 other bacteria's which would. Lister was viewed with skepticism in his home country but after the Franco-German war of 1870-71 lot's of French and German doctors came over to attend his lectures. Before modern medicine the average survival time for a white man in the African interior was 9 months before disease killed him. This is why it took so long to colonize Africa and why slaves had to be bought from local tribes at trading posts by the coast.

John Miller

I think the difference between ayahuasca and synthetic DMT is caused by a fundamental difference in rates of metabolism, not so much context, though that may perhaps have an effect. But as far as I can recall, DMT is a fast acting drug because it's fast metabolizing, usually only lasting 5-10 minutes once in the body. This is why synthetic forms have to be smoked or injected, so that the DMT reaches the brain before its metabolized. The only reason ayahuasca works is because the plant containing DMT is mixed with another plant that dramatically slows it from breaking down, so that it still reaches your brain despite the very slow delivery mechanism of drinking and digesting it. However, this also means, by necessity, that your brain will receive a slow steady stream of low amounts of DMT instead of a huge dose all at once.

Factory Troll

I believe he is refering to Napoleons disastrous attempt to reconquer Haiti in 1802, after the slave rebellion, in which most of the french force of 40 000, including its cheif commander, dies from malaria and yellow fever, before they get wiped away by the rebels in a particullary nasty spectacle, even by Haitian standards. It reminds me of all the amazing stories yet to be told on the podcast. Apart from the much awaited Afghan episode, I long for some insight into the Congo wars, Rwandan genocide, Hutu-Tutsi conflict and the general clusterfuck that is the modern history of this entire region, which, if situated in anywhere else the world, would provide enough matereal for a dozen episodes on its own.

Trevor Jones

Man, such great music at the end - what is it? There have been some fantastic songs included in these podcasts and it would be great if you could include information on them in either the e-mails or patreon post descriptions. Also, kick ass show as always - you guys are awesome.

Lukas Pfannenstiel

Mercury is actually antibacterial, and mercury-based compounds are still used as topical antiseptics. Taking them internally is probably a bad idea, but unlike many 19th century medical treatments, they do have some actual scientific merit.

Francis Terpening

Great episode. I'm curious about PED's in war. Seems like fertile ground.

Carl Zha

About Mongol addiction to alcohol: nomads and hunter gatherers worldwide have little resistance to this drug. Recent genetics studies shown that people with long sedentary agricultural traditions have genetic traits that helps them handle liquor such as wine or rice wine better. But world's first distilled liquor that emerged out of Middle East was a recent development. English word "Alcohol" has Arabic roots. This new invention was too recent for anybody to develop resistance to the distilled spirits, much less Mongols who weren't even introduced to the traditional wine liquor before.

Carl Zha

Mongol encountered distilled liquor on their conquest of Middle East. Like it immensely. Brought it back East, introduce to China. They also brought two Iraqi/Syrian (one is from Aleppo!) engineers to China who build heavy counterweight trebuchet to breakdown the wall of impregnable twin river fortress of Xiangyang and Fancheng. The trebuchet of originally Frankish design successfully breached the wall of Fancheng, not the more robust build Xiangyang. But the loss of Fangcheng fortess across the Han river, cut off Xiangyang completely, forcing its governor to surrender after a 6 year siege! Xiangyang trebuchet were known in China as 回回砲 or Muslim catapult. Loss of strategic city of Xiangyang lead to the Mongol conquest of Southern Song China. So Mongol conquest spread Chinese gunpower weapon tech to the West, we got distilled liquor and counterweight trebuchet in return.

Ronald Dahlgren

Lariam (mefloquine) definitely came with intense dreams. During my time in the deserts (Afghanistan and Iraq) we would have 'Malaria Mondays', when the whole unit took our weekly mefloquine pill. Then, every week, Tuesday night would come with visceral, often horrific dreams. This was a nearly universal reaction in the unit.

eh

The talk about French cooperation with river pirates reminded me more than a little of Chiang Kai-Shek and the rightist faction of KMT using the "Green Gang", which I think had similar origins. After the April 12 1927 massacres in Shanghai where gangsters and the nationalist army rooted out and killed several thousand communists and unionists their leader Du Yuesheng was made head of the "Opium Suppression Bureau" which effectively gave him a monopoly on the Chinese opium trade with the understanding that he'd keep any tendency towards labor organization down and let the government siphon some of the profits.

Eduardo Olchelvsky

You guys gotta start putting the song titles in the show description or something.

Graeme Anfinson

Great show! I don't think you guys took it easy on FARC however. The indigenous people were often reactionaries, especially historically, from a Marxist perspective they are behind by several modes of production. White travelers often romanticize their experience, especially when they get high together for Christ sake, but no surprise they'd see right wing paramilitaries as a more natural ally. I live amongst the largest Hmong community in the US and they still fly a south Vietnamese flag. It wasn't just a strategic alliance, they saw the reactionary government more aligned with their own culture.

Graeme Anfinson

The way I was told to think about this is that these tribal societies are the ultimate conservatives. They're trying to hold back time to an extreme extent. This is lost on many left leaning people, who exoticize these people to such an extent they become artifacts instead of people. What you get is disgusting stuff like this, where an anthropologist defends genital mutilation. <a href="http://www.antropologi.info/blog/anthropology/2010/female-circumcision" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.antropologi.info/blog/anthropology/2010/female-circumcision</a>

margaret mazanak

Hi, I'm pledging at the 5 per show level and not getting the newsletter :( Please add me to the list?

Jose Manuel Marinos Velarde

I am sorry bu i have to disagree. I dont have much information about the case of the FARC, but it is not difficult to imagine that they commited atrocities against the indegenous populations. It is surely true that traditions can play a huge role in native populations lives, and that a tradition can be reactionary, inadequate or even inhumane, but to minimize and asume that attacks against them were caused because of this reactionaries actitudes is a bit of a stretch. Be clear that most groups of people shouldnt be romanticized, neither the FARC nor native populations, but somehow native populations seem to me more fair in their actions in most of the cases that may have ocurred during internal violence.

Avery

The last newsletter was sent on September 15. As I understand it they are working on a website for you to read the archives

Shad Narcher

I second that. The music is important. We need to know.

Shad Narcher

It's simplistic to say some of these shows amount to an extended book review, but I find myself thinking that sometimes. What's I love about it is the books always turn out to be great! I have a hard time sniffing out diverse sources like these and appreciate the curation. On the topic of heroine and politics, I think McMafia by Misha Glenny might complement and expand on the topic. It seems wherever a "regulatory arbitrage" can take place, you end up with a massive subversion of legitimate power structures in all kinds of strange ways.

Benjamin Glover

I only seem to have received one of the newsletters (#20, sent on the 8th of September)

Chuck Petras

Dien Bien Phu... My mom told me she lost a brother there. They assume he died since the French Foreign Legion sent her parents a cheque for 200 francs as payout of his life insurance. The back story leading up to that battle that Mark related in this episode was amazing. In the aftermath of WW2, my mother (German) was dating the man who would become my father (American). He was part of the reconstruction government and in charge of a supply depot. My mothers brother (16 yo) came to my father and ask for a job, he said no, so he decided to wander around Germany to see the damage and what not. He made the mistake of leaving the American Zone. He was in the French Zone walking down the street and a truck pulled up and a couple of soldiers jumped out and arrested him. He was offered a choice, either join the Legion or go to prison. He chose the Legion. Some years ago I read a series of books by a former SS man who fled to Switzerland at the end of the war. There he was offered the opportunity to join a newly formed German unit to help the French re-establish hegemony in Indochina. Once in country they were a veritable scourge of the communists. Essentially they'd live off the land and reek as much havoc as possible. Needless to say the communists had a deep hatred of the Germans. So I'm sure my poor uncle wouldn't have fared well at the hands of the communists if they had captured him.

Petër Thórn

I can confirm that airag is disgusting. I had a romantic notion of it based on novelisations of the Mongol conquests that I read when younger. Needless to say, it placed me in a worse position to conquer anything.

Jan Meyer

I heard of such things as well. My greatuncle got an offer to join when he was a PoW in France he did not take (he fled) but others did. Allegedly the Legion around that time was pretty much a German division under French command with German PoWs either on the lam from possible war crime convictions or boredom, or force into the Legion and a sprinkling of Alsatians and of French collobarateurs (like the Waffen-SS Division Charlemagne) getting drafted into the legion.

radiowarnerd

I'll tell Mark. He handles soundtrack. The theme is by our friend Greg Conger, a great new songwriter.

radiowarnerd

At least it was free! I've paid much more for much worse experiences.

radiowarnerd

Where'd you get airag? I thought the Mongols had moved on to vodka.

Illegal_Structures

What is the first song at the end of the episode? (I'm assuming it's in Vietnamese)