Fwd: New book, Bill Conroy
Molly Molloy
I have a new book, released today, and it's on the CIA and the drug war.You can learn more about the book at thegreatpretense.org .... It's available via Amazon.com and elsewhere online and via the publisher, TrineDay Press, as well as through most bookstores.A press release for the book is below.Best,Bill Conroy
The Great Pretense
A Tour Through the Boneyard of the CIA's
“War for Drugs”
In The Great Pretense, veteran journalist Bill Conroy delivers a riveting, deeply reported exploration of one of the most consequential — and misunderstood — conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries: the CIA’s long, tangled, and often contradictory involvement in the so-called War on Drugs. His book isn’t just incredibly well-documented, it’s also timely, with everything going on in Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, and elsewhere in the region.
Conroy isn’t a talk-show demagogue or conspiracy theorist. With decades of experience covering Latin America and narcotics trafficking, he has seen firsthand how drug cartels, government policy, and intelligence operations intersect in ways that defy simplistic narratives and partisan talking points. In The Great Pretense, he peels back decades of rhetoric to expose the gap between official claims and operational reality.
From Cold War-era alliances with dubious partners to covert programs that blurred the lines between policing and geopolitics, Conroy’s book shows how the CIA’s strategies often produced outcomes diametrically opposed to its stated goals. Contrary to the mythology of a clean, technocratic fight against narcotics, The Great Pretense reveals a history riddled with moral compromises, strategic blind spots, and catastrophic unintended consequences.
What truly sets Conroy’s work apart is his ground-level reporting. Drawing on interviews with former operatives, declassified documents, and cartel veterans, he reconstructs the real dynamics of narcotrafficking networks and how intelligence priorities shaped — and were shaped by — corruption, violence, and state collapse.
The Great Pretense isn’t just a history of failed policy; it’s a cautionary tale about power, secrecy, and the limits of intervention. It challenges readers to rethink everything they’ve been told about drug wars, national security, and the institutions we trust to protect us
.
Book Website: TheGreatPretense.org
Publisher: The Great Pretense: A Tour Through the Boneyard of the CIA’s War for Drugs – TrineDay
ABOUT BILL CONROY…
Bill Conroy, M.A. in Mass Communications/Journalism (Marquette University), is a veteran journalist with 40 years of experience working as a staff reporter, editor-in-chief, and freelance correspondent at print and online publications based in the United States and in Mexico. His journalism has been cited in more than 35 books to date. Conroy also is the author of the nonfiction books Dispatches from the House of Death: A Juarez Cartel informant, a DEA whistleblower, mass murder and a coverup on the edge of the Empire; and Borderline Security: A Chronicle of Reprisal, Cronyism and Corruption in the U.S. Customs Service.
