History Highlight: Harry J Anslinger Part 3- The Reds, The Dragons, and the FBN

The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 dragged the United States into a war it had been desperate to avoid. Roosevelt used the horrific event to declare war on the Nazis and their allies, the Japanese. Anslinger saw the American public focus their attention on the war and the military buildup of the nation. The war effort meant rations for the public and increased funds for the military. No to be outmaneuvered by the war, Anslinger took the war as an opportunity to re-brand the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. His speeches began to speak of the evils of the Japanese and their opium smuggling. He characterized opium smuggling as another extension of the war and his agents as unsung soldiers. The result of the Japanese smuggling was, in his own words, equivalent to "multiple Pearl Harbors".

Anslinger and the media, a complex relationship.

However, the war would eventually come to an end, China (seen as an ally during the war) became a communist state, and Japan evolved into our new ally. Without missing a beat, Anslinger rewrites the narrative of the war on drugs to accommodate these changing alliances. His new message forgave and forgot about the Japanese role in opium smuggling and turned its ire toward the alleged center for opium production, China. The Red Scare would also influence the language Anslinger used as drugs became synonymous with a communist plot to overthrow the United States. With the panic over communism spreading across the nation, Anslinger offered himself and his agency as defenders of American morality, democracy, and sobriety. Throughout the rest of the Cold War, Anslinger would continue to tie the FBN's mission to foreign policy and national security. His tenure as commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics would last over 30 years and end in 1962 when he retired. The agency he had built up in strength and influence would only continue until 1968. Without its tenacious and ambitious commissioner, the FBN floundered and would be merged with the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control (a branch within the Food and Drug Administration) to become the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Again, this new agency would lack permanency without Anslinger guidance and in 1973, under the orders of President Nixon, be merged once more to form the modern Drug Enforcement Agency. Nixon would enhance the power and authority of the DEA in his efforts to fight the re-imagined war on drugs. His policies (and those of subsequent presidents) would be the initiatives that Americans are familiar with today.