Sorry, ifinnegan, you need to brush up on your history. The U.S. was ABSOLUTELY involved in selling Opium in China during the Qing Dynasty. The U.S. got involved almost immediately after the Revolutionary War ended, and it was called Old China Trade.
By 1820, the U.S. had passed France as the no. 2 seller of opium into China.
Among those those involved was John Jacob Astor, Washington Irving, John Murray Forbes (Great grandfather of John Kerry.) FDR's maternal grandfather made his fortune in selling Opium in China.
And the U.S. signed a very unequal treaty with China in 1844. They got everything the U.S. got, and more.
Yes.
US traders had some of the market.
But the United States had nothing to do with the Opium War.
Even Britain had nothing to do with Chinese using Opium in the first place in the Ming and Qing eras. That began well earlier with most coming from Thailand. No “western” involvement at all.
UK and Spain took over an already existing market.
I don’t know if you are trying to endorse the ludicrous idea that Chicoms flooding us with fentanyl is payback for the Opium War.