Vince Bugliosi: The Whole Story

[Anthony Thorne]

But as far as LSD and the CIA, in my view Acid Dreams is one of the most overlooked books of the eighties. It was that book that enlightened me about Tim Leary. And Ronald Stark has all the earmarks of being a deep cover, highly protected, off the books CIA agent.

Jim, the recent Trine Day volume DRUGS AS WEAPONS AGAINST US, by John Potash, draws upon ACID DREAMS quite a bit and I recommend it. Potash's earlier book was THE FBI WAR ON TUPAC SHAKUR AND BLACK LEADERS, and the new volume follows up on that subject with a lot of fascinating (if depressing) info on the period discussing Cointelpro, the CIA, Leary and others. Leary comes across very badly in it, as does Ken Kesey. Trine Day editor Kris Millegan actually concludes the book with a personal disclaimer noting that he didn't find Kesey to be as much of a probable stooge for the CIA as Potash suggests, but Potash offers a wealth of documentation suggesting otherwise.

The subtext of DRUGS AS WEAPONS AGAINST US is the CIA and FBI repeatedly using assassination and other methods to disrupt, destroy and generally subdue the left, from leftist leaders to activist members of the general public. It made my jaw drop a little. The Kindle version is cheap and it's probably one of the better books I've seen from them in a while, making up for their dopey Judith Baker volumes.