Talk:Air America (book)

A total mess
This article, purporting to describe Christopher Robbins's book on Air America, describes content that is not in the book, is full of errors concerning things that are in the book, and is written in atrocious English. It needs to be totally rewritten. I'll start on it tonight. Rgr09 (talk) 21:25, 5 July 2019 (UTC)

Incorrect description of book content
The article originally claimed:
 * A new facility was built inside CIA headquarters in northern Laos where bulk opium was refined into heroin and shipped abroad. Within a decade of military intervention, in the early seventies, Indochina had become the world's leading opium producer, reaching a 70% worldwide marketshare.

The book does not claim that opium was refined into heroin inside "CIA headquarters" in Laos. The book does does not claim that Indo China became the world's leading opium producer. Goodreads is not RS for any type of book review. The movie producer's response to Robbins's complaint that the movie made from his book did not accurately portray the content of his book is certainly not relevant to anything in this paragraph. Rgr09 (talk) 11:45, 6 July 2019 (UTC)

Incorrect summary of book content
The article originally read:
 * The book chronicles the investigative reporting of Robbins from his accidental discovery of the very existence of a company named Air America to the end of the former CIA-owned company, ultimately privatized.

It is the story of one of the world's biggest covert operations: Air America was owned by the CIA, started from the scratch of bunch of other agency-owned air assets. Air America—at its peak—became the biggest civil air fleet in the world.

The book does not chronicle Robbins's investigative reporting. It is a history of Air America. "the scratch of bunch of other agency-owned air assets" is not really comprehensible. Rgr09 (talk) 12:55, 6 July 2019 (UTC)

Revised content
The article originally stated that supplies Air America flew included 'drug-related items.' It then said:
 * The most important precursors required for refining raw opium into heroin are ether and acetic anhydride. Because of its use for the synthesis of heroin by the diacetylation of morphine, acetic anhydride is today listed as a US DEA List II precursor, and officially restricted in many other countries.

Robbins's book does not state that Air America flew 'drug-related items', nor does it discuss ether or acetic anhydride or their legal status. I have therefore this inaccurate description of the book's content. Rgr09 (talk) 13:04, 6 July 2019 (UTC)