Historical scholarship in traditional geopolitics often relied on documents authored by states and by other influential actors. Although much work in the subfield of critical geopolitics thus far has addressed imbalances constructed in official, academic, and popular media due to a privileging of such narratives, priority might also be given to unearthing and bringing to light alternative geopolitical perspectives from otherwise marginalized populations. Utilizing the early‐1970s case of the United States' first “war on drugs,” this article examines the geopolitics of opium‐poppy eradication and its consequences within Turkey. Employing not only archival and secondary sources but also oral histories from now‐retired poppy farmers, this study examines the diffusion of U.S. antinarcotics policies into the Anatolian countryside and the enduring impressions that the United States and Turkish government created. In doing so, this research gives voice to those farmers targeted by eradication policies and speaks more broadly to matters of narcotics control, sentiments of anti‐Americanism, and notions of democracy in Turkey and the region, past and present.

传统地缘政治学的历史学研究经常依赖于国家和其他有影响力的参与者撰写的文件。尽管到目前为止，在重要的地缘政治学子领域中，许多工作已经解决了官方，学术和大众媒体由于偏爱此类叙事而造成的失衡问题，但也可能会优先考虑发掘并揭示原本处于边缘化人群的地缘政治观点。本文以1970年代初美国第一次“毒品战争”为例，研究了消灭罂粟的地缘政治及其在土耳其的后果。这项研究不仅利用档案资源和二手资源，还利用了现已退休的罂粟种植者的口述历史，研究了美国的传播 安纳托利亚农村地区的禁毒政策以及美国和土耳其政府创造的持久印象。通过这样做，这项研究向那些根除政策的农民发出了声音，并更广泛地谈到了麻醉品管制，反美主义情绪以及土耳其和该地区过去和现在的民主观念。