13. The Early 1970s US Military Was Debilitated by Heroin Addiction
In May of 1971, Congressmen Morgan Murphy of Illinois and Robert Steele of Connecticut went to Vietnam on a fact-finding mission, which revealed that 15% of American servicemen in Vietnam were heroin addicts. Even more military were recreational users of heroin, marijuana, and other drugs. Worse, the addiction epidemic was spreading from Vietnam to other US military installations around the world, with the American garrison in West Germany being particularly hard hit. The idea that so many servicemen were hooked on heroin horrified the American public, as the drug was widely perceived as the most addictive narcotic ever produced, and one whose addiction was nearly impossible to escape.
In response, President Nixon created the Special Action Office of Drug Abuse Prevention. He also ordered further research on military personnel addiction, which revealed that Congressmen Murphy and Steele had been mistaken in their figures. Instead of 15%, the true figure for self-identifying addicts in Vietnam was actually 20%. In light of the rapid military draw dawn from Vietnam, it meant that the US military was releasing hundreds of active heroin addicts into the US each week.
