President Harry S. Truman helped transform the wartime OSS into a permanent government department known as the CIA in 1947. Without massive American wartime budgets, the newly established CIA wanted other sources of funding, and the opium trade could help. As a result, the CIA quickly organized its first coup by overthrowing the government of Thailand. It used profits from the opium trade to bribe Thai generals to transform Thailand into an American colony whose army was expanded and equipped to provide troops for American military adventures.

The American Colony of Thailand via Tales of the American Empire

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