History
Sackler Brothers Were Card-Carrying Communist Party Members During Cold War
Danger Close
Danger Close | The Fourth Option Podcast: Gerald Posner
What was said
"You find out from the FOIA documents that they were card-carrying members of the Communist Party in the 1950s. Difficult time to be in the middle of the Cold War, card-carrying members of the Communist Party. Well, they certainly abandoned those communist principles later when they embraced capitalism."
Through Freedom of Information requests, Posner uncovered that the Sackler brothers who founded Purdue Pharma were Communist Party members in the 1950s, during the height of the Cold War. Two of them had to leave government psychiatric hospital positions because they refused to sign loyalty oaths. This previously unknown detail adds complexity to the family history behind the opioid crisis.
Verification status
Attributed speaker claim
Egleze verified who said this and where. The underlying claim has not been independently established by Egleze.
Source and context
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- Programme
- Danger Close
- Episode
- Danger Close | The Fourth Option Podcast: Gerald Posner
- Clip time
- 59:31
- Original source
- Watch the source segment →
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