Editing MKUltra (section)

==Background==
===Origin of the project===
During the early 1940s, [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] scientists working in the [[concentration camps]] of [[Auschwitz]] and [[Dachau]] during [[World War II]] conducted interrogation experiments on [[Nazi human experimentation|human subjects]]. Substances such as [[barbiturate]]s, [[morphine]] derivatives, and [[hallucinogen]]s such as [[mescaline]] were employed in experiments conducted on Polish, Russian, Jewish, and other nationalities' [[prisoners of war]].<ref name="Flores" /> The aim of these experiments was to develop a [[truth serum]] which would, in the words of one laboratory assistant to Dachau scientist [[Kurt Plötner]], "eliminate the will of the person examined".<ref name="Flores">{{Cite web |last=Flores |first=D. |date=2019 |title=Mind Control: From Nazis to DARPA |s2cid=235366267 |url=https://www.jsmcentral.org/sm-physical-medicine/fulltext_smpmr-v2-1007.pdf|language=en}}</ref> American historian [[Stephen Kinzer]] argues that the CIA project was a "continuation" of these earlier Nazi experiments, citing the numerous German scientists who were hired to work for the U.S. as part of [[Operation Paperclip]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stephen Kinzer NPR interview |website=[[NPR]] |url=https://www.npr.org/2019/09/09/758989641/the-cias-secret-quest-for-mind-control-torture-lsd-and-a-poisoner-in-chief}}</ref>

American interest in drug-related interrogation experiments began in 1943, when the [[Office of Strategic Services]] began developing a "truth drug" that would produce "uninhibited truthfulness" in an interrogated person.<ref>{{Citation |title=HGP 36 :1945 - "K" Tablet & T.D | date=December 21, 2014 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty-M_I-HA6E |access-date=2023-09-28 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1977-09-05 |title=Files Show Tests For Truth Drug Began in O.S.S. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/09/05/archives/files-show-tests-for-truth-drug-began-in-oss-marijuana-derivative.html |access-date=2023-09-28 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In 1947, the [[United States Navy]] initiated [[Project CHATTER]], an interrogation program which saw the first testing of [[LSD]] on human subjects.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/navychatter |title=Navy Project CHATTER |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Martin A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kX6XR0bdUJcC |title=Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD : the CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond |last2=Shlain |first2=Bruce |date=1992 |publisher=Grove Weidenfeld |isbn=978-0-8021-3062-4 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1950, the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] under the direction of general [[Walter Bedell Smith]] initiated a series of interrogation projects involving human subjects, beginning with the launch of Project Bluebird, officially renamed [[Project Artichoke]] on August 20, 1951.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Science, Technology and the CIA |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB54/ |access-date=2023-09-28 |website=nsarchive2.gwu.edu}}</ref> Directed and overseen by Brigadier General [[Paul F. Gaynor]], the objective of Artichoke was to determine whether an individual could be made to involuntarily perform an act of attempted assassination.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Nate |date=2010-04-23 |title=Document Friday: Project ARTICHOKE, or the CIA Attempt to Create an Unwitting Assassin Through Hypnosis |url=https://unredacted.com/2010/04/23/document-friday-project-artichoke-or-the-cia-attempt-to-create-a-manchurian-candidate/ |access-date=2023-09-28 |website=UNREDACTED |language=en}}</ref> [[Morphine]], [[mescaline]] and [[LSD]] were all administered on unknowing CIA agents in an attempt to produce [[amnesia]] in the subjects. In addition, Project Artichoke aimed to employ certain viruses such as [[dengue fever]] as potential [[incapacitating agent]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Martell |first=Zoe |date=2010-07-21 |title=Florida Dengue Fever Outbreak Leads Back to CIA and Army Experiments |url=https://truthout.org/articles/florida-dengue-fever-outbreak-leads-back-to-cia-and-army-experiments/ |access-date=2023-09-28 |website=Truthout |language=en-US}}</ref>

===Aims and leadership===
[[File:Mkultra-lsd-doc.jpg|thumb|[[Sidney Gottlieb]] approved of an MKUltra sub-project on LSD in this June 9, 1953, letter.]]

The project was headed by [[Sidney Gottlieb]] but began on the order of CIA director [[Allen Dulles]] on April 13, 1953.<ref>{{cite book |last= Marks|first= John|date= 1991|title= The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate": The CIA and Mind Control|publisher= W. W. Norton & Company|page= 61|isbn= 978-0-393-30794-8}}</ref><ref>Church Committee; [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book1/html/ChurchB1_0199b.htm p. 390] "MKUltra was approved by the DCI <nowiki>[</nowiki>Director of Central Intelligence] on April 13, 1953"</ref> Its aim was to develop mind-controlling drugs for use against the [[Soviet bloc]] in response to alleged [[Soviet]], [[China|Chinese]], and [[North Korea]]n use of mind control techniques on U.S. prisoners of war during the [[Korean War]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eh.doe.gov/ohre/roadmap/achre/chap3_4.html |title=Chapter 3, part 4: Supreme Court Dissents Invoke the Nuremberg Code: CIA and DOD Human Subjects Research Scandals |work=Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments Final Report |access-date=August 24, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041109061412/http://www.eh.doe.gov/ohre/roadmap/achre/chap3_4.html |archive-date=November 9, 2004 }} "MKUltra, began in 1950 and was motivated largely in response to alleged Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean uses of mind-control techniques on U.S. prisoners of war in Korea."</ref> The CIA wanted to use similar methods on their own captives, and was interested in manipulating foreign leaders with such techniques,<ref name="churchdelta">Church Committee; [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book1/html/ChurchB1_0200a.htm p. 391] "A special procedure, designated MKDELTA, was established to govern the use of MKUltra materials abroad. Such materials were used on a number of occasions."</ref> devising several schemes to drug [[Fidel Castro]]. It often conducted experiments without the subjects' knowledge and/or consent.<ref>Church Committee; "The congressional committee investigating the CIA research, chaired by Senator [[Frank Church]], concluded that '[p]rior consent was obviously not obtained from any of the subjects.{{'"}}</ref> In some cases, academic researchers were funded through grants from CIA front organizations but were unaware that the CIA was using their work for these purposes.

The project attempted to produce a perfect [[truth serum]] for interrogating suspected Soviet spies during the [[Cold War]] and to explore other possibilities of mind control. Subproject 54 was the Navy's top-secret "Perfect Concussion" program, which was supposed to use sub-aural frequency blasts to erase memory; the program was never carried out.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/e1950/mkultra/Hearing05.htm |title=Retrieved 25 April 2008 |publisher=Druglibrary.org |access-date=2010-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620105003/http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1950/mkultra/Hearing05.htm |archive-date=20 June 2010 }}</ref>

Most MKUltra records were destroyed in 1973 by order of CIA director [[Richard Helms]], so it has been difficult for investigators to gain a complete understanding of the more than 150 funded research subprojects sponsored by MKUltra and related CIA programs.<ref name=Supremecourt>{{cite web|url=http://www.hss.doe.gov/healthsafety/ohre/roadmap/achre/chap3_4.html |title=Chapter 3, part 4: Supreme Court Dissents Invoke the Nuremberg Code: CIA and DOD Human Subjects Research Scandals |work=Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments Final Report |access-date=April 16, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130331150116/http://www.hss.doe.gov/healthsafety/ohre/roadmap/achre/chap3_4.html |archive-date=March 31, 2013 }} (identical sentence) "Because most of the MK-ULTRA records were deliberately destroyed in 1973 ... MK-ULTRA and the related CIA programs."</ref>

The project began during a period of what English journalist [[Rupert Cornwell]] described as "paranoia" at the CIA, when the U.S. had lost its nuclear monopoly and [[Red Scare|fear of communism]] was at its height.<ref name=autogenerated2>{{cite news |title=Obituary: Sidney Gottlieb |author=Rupert Cornwell |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-sidney-gottlieb-1080920.html |newspaper=The Independent (London) |date=March 16, 1999 |access-date=25 June 2012}}</ref> CIA counter-intelligence chief [[James Jesus Angleton]] believed that a [[Mole (espionage)|mole]] had penetrated the organization at the highest levels.<ref name=autogenerated2/> The agency poured millions of dollars into studies examining ways to influence and control the mind and enhance its ability to extract information from resistant subjects during interrogation.<ref name="question-torture">{{cite book|last=McCoy|first=Alfred|title=A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation from the Cold War to the War on Terror|publisher=Metropolitan Books|location=New York|year=2006|pages=8, 22, 30 |isbn=0-8050-8041-4}}</ref><ref name="shock-doctrine">{{cite book| last=Klein| first=Naomi | title=The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism | publisher = Picador | location = New York | year = 2007 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/shockdoctriner00unse/page/47 47]–49| url=https://archive.org/details/shockdoctriner00unse| url-access=registration| isbn = 978-0-312-42799-3| author-link = Naomi Klein}}</ref> Some historians assert that one goal of MKUltra and related CIA projects was to create a [[The Manchurian Candidate|''Manchurian Candidate'']]-style subject.<ref>{{cite book | last = Ranelagh | first = John | title = The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA | publisher = Sceptre |date=March 1988 | pages = 208–210 | isbn = 0-340-41230-5}}</ref> American historian [[Alfred W. McCoy]] has claimed that the CIA attempted to focus media attention on these sorts of "ridiculous" programs so that the public would not look at the research's primary goal, which was effective methods of interrogation.<ref name="question-torture"/>

===Applications===
The 1976 [[Church Committee]] report found that, in the MKDELTA program, "Drugs were used primarily as an aid to interrogations, but MKULTRA/MKDELTA materials were also used for harassment, discrediting or disabling purposes."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/finalreportofsel01unit#page/390/mode/2up |title=Book 1: Final report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, United States Senate: together with additional, supplemental, and separate views|page=391|publisher=United States Government Printing Office |date= April 26, 1976}}</ref><ref name="Scheflin1978">{{cite book|last1=Scheflin|first1=Alan W. Jr.|last2=Opton|first2=Edward M.|title=The mind manipulators: a non-fiction account|date=1978|publisher=Paddington Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-448-22977-5|page=158}}</ref><ref name="Thomas1989">{{cite book|last1=Thomas|first1=Gordon|title=Journey into madness: the true story of secret CIA mind control and medical abuse|date=1989|publisher=Bantam Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0-553-05357-9|page=123}}</ref>

===Other related projects===
In 1964, MKSEARCH was the name given to the continuation of the MKULTRA program. The MKSEARCH program was divided into two projects dubbed [[MKOFTEN]] and [[MKCHICKWIT]]. Funding for MKSEARCH commenced in 1965, and ended in 1971.<ref name= 1977Senate /> The project was a joint project between the [[U.S. Army Chemical Corps]] and the CIA's [[Office of Research and Development (CIA)|Office of Research and Development]] to find new offensive-use agents, with a focus on [[incapacitating agent]]s. Its purpose was to develop, test, and evaluate capabilities in the covert use of biological, chemical, and radioactive material systems and techniques of producing predictable human behavioral and/or physiological changes in support of highly sensitive operational requirements.<ref name= 1977Senate />

By March 1971, over 26,000 potential agents had been acquired for future screening.<ref name="LeeShlain2007">{{cite book|author1=Martin A. Lee|author2=Bruce Shlain|title=Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oq8djFLFL0C&pg=PT373|year=2007|publisher=Grove/Atlantic|isbn=978-0-8021-9606-4|pages=373–}}</ref> The CIA was interested in [[Bird migration#Physiology and control|bird migration]] patterns for [[Chemical warfare|chemical]] and [[biological warfare]] (CBW) research; subproject 139 designated "Bird Disease Studies" at [[Pennsylvania State University]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Bill |last=Richards |title= Data shows 50s projects: Germ Testing by the CIA|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |page=A1 |date=June 17, 1977 |access-date= January 20, 2014 |url=http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/C%20Disk/CIA%20CBW/Item%2001.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/C%20Disk/CIA%20CBW/Item%2001.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live }}</ref> MKOFTEN was to deal with testing and toxicological transmissivity and behavioral effects of drugs in animals and, ultimately, humans.<ref name=1977Senate>1977 Senate MKULTRA Hearing: Appendix C – Documents Referring to subprojects</ref> MKCHICKWIT was concerned with acquiring information on new drug developments in Europe and Asia, and with acquiring samples.<ref name=1977Senate/>

In January 1957, the CIA started a subproject of MKUltra in effort to broaden their scientific research. "[[Subproject 68]]", conducted at the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal under the direction of psychiatrist [[Donald Ewen Cameron|Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron]], represents one of the most infamous and ethically controversial endeavors within the MKUltra program.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Anderson |first=Jack |date=October 27, 1985 |title=Subproject 68: The Case Continues |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00965R000100120028-1.pdf |newspaper=Washington Post}}</ref> This subproject aimed to explore innovative techniques for manipulating and controlling human behavior, particularly through the methods of "[[psychic driving]]" and "depatterning". Psychic driving involved subjecting patients to continuous playback of recorded messages, often with themes of self-improvement or identity reinforcement, while they were under the influence of powerful psychoactive substances such as LSD or [[barbiturate]]s.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Shenon |first1=Philip |last2=Times |first2=Special To the New York |date=1988-10-06 |title=C.I.A. Near Settlement of Lawsuit By Subjects of Mind-Control Tests |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/06/world/cia-near-settlement-of-lawsuit-by-subjects-of-mind-control-tests.html |access-date=2024-05-06 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>