Editing MKUltra (section)

===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>