Global aggression: the case for world standards and bold US action challenging Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco. INFACT. New York, New York: Apex Press, 1998. ISBN 0-945257-95-3 , pp 126.

Addicted to profit: Big Tobacco’s expanding global reach. Ross Hammond. Washington, DC: Essential Action, 1998. pp 58. < http://www.essential.org/action/addicted/addicted.html >

These two small books are important because they reveal the duplicity and deceit of two large American and one British transnational tobacco companies. On the threshold of a new millennium, what more global harm from tobacco is possible? These two volumes document and illustrate the alarming answer: tobacco industry expansion and aggression in economically vulnerable countries worldwide. Although the Cold War is over, there is no Marshall plan, only a merchandising plan. And that worldwide plan is as aggressive as any war, and unfortunately, has similar consequences. While the United States and the United Kingdom fight tobacco at home, they do little to control tobacco production, sales, and damage abroad.

These presentations are important at this time of seeming decline for the tobacco industry. In the admissions of wrongdoing, settlement money for medical claims, and limits on certain advertising and promotional activities …