Golden Triangle 101

 

Here I am at the Golden Triangle Park. Across
 the Mae Kong River behind the leaves on
the right is Laos. The land behind me on the 
opposite side of the river is Burma. I'm 
standing in Thailand.

The Baw Gaew mission station mentioned in the previous post was located next to a Hmong village that was actively growing opium poppies in the early 1980s. Our work didn’t directly intersect with opium or those growing or producing it, but the opium trade did affect us in several ways. So, with this post, we’ll provide some context.

Mention “The Golden Triangle” in Thailand today, and it is likely assumed you mean a point 9 km north of the town of Chiang Saen. There is a park there along the Mae Kong River at the junction of the Ruak River. Stand in the park in Thailand and look across the Mae Kong River and you’ll see Laos. Look to the left at the point of land formed where the Ruak River meets the Mae Kong River and you’re looking at Burma. Thus, “The Golden Triangle” is the point where Thailand, Burma and Laos come together.

While the original “Golden Triangle” term indeed, did refer to the three countries of Burma, Thailand and Laos it really referred to the region where opium/heroin from those three countries was produced. Shrouded in mystery, intrigue, dirty dealings, violence and corruption the whole region was and remains remote with limited economic development, poor transportation and often considered rebel areas where the central governments have had little to no control.

Hmong man standing in an opium field

Sadly, western powers including the US have a long and sordid history both encouraging opium
production in that part of the world (consider “The Opium Wars” in the 1800s) at the same time as making it highly illegal. Seeking some background on the opium we could see growing in Thailand, I once started to read the book “The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia” by Alfred W. McCoy. I got so discouraged and depressed at the role the CIA and US military was playing in the opium trade during the Vietnam War days that I couldn’t finish the book.

Opium production of the “Golden Triangle” increased and got organized after things fell apart for Chiang Kai Shek in China as Mao Zedong took control. Some of Chiang Kai Shek’s generals and other leaders could not make it to Taiwan so they and their followers fled into the remote areas of Burma, Laos and Thailand. Opium was already being grown in these areas for personal and medicinal use as well as limited commercial production and the displaced generals needed some way to make a living. They saw an opportunity to expand the trade internationally and went to work. It was a lucrative business with the generals getting rich and powerful enough they could influence and bribe government and military leaders of the region and around the world. Though they all had their roots fighting along side Chiang Kai Shek, these displaced generals had no loyalty to each other and competed to the point of fighting.

Home in a ethnic Chinese village in Thailand. The
village was likely first settled by remnants
of Chiang Kai Shek's army 

So while the generals got rich and powerful, growing opium was simply a cash crop for the farmers in the villages of the Golden Triangle. They got paid enough to survive but like so many illegal enterprises, the real profits were at the level of the traffickers.

Some of the veteran missionaries told us that it was not unusual for them to encounter trains of pack horses carrying opium along some of the trails they walked from village to village. It would have been illegal of course, but the missionaries and other villagers were no threat so everyone would just greet each other as fellow travelers along the road. We never encountered that but we could easily pick out the pale green color of opium fields growing on the mountain slopes in our travels. But in the early 1980s, the Thai government was beginning to get serious about eliminating opium production at least in it’s share of the Golden Triangle and opium production in Thailand was on it’s way out. Travel the mountains of northwest Thailand today and it would be hard to find opium fields.

Within the Baptist missionary corps, Dick Mann was seconded to the United Nations and was instrumental in introducing and promoting coffee and other crops as a replacement for opium. The Thai government also started to send helicopters full of soldiers or police and they would destroy opium fields shortly before harvest time. Enforcement combined with the offering of alternatives eventually curtailed opium production in Thailand.

It's my understanding that opium is not widely grown any more in Burma and Laos as well as Thailand. However, opium has been replaced by methamphetamine production or “Yah Bah” (Crazy medicine) in Thai. In even more recent years, Burma has become known for it’s scam centers and fraud factories. So, while Thailand has tamed it’s portion of the Golden Triangle to a fair degree, the region continues to be a place of mystery, intrigue, dirty dealings, violence and corruption even if opium production has dropped.