Editing MKUltra (section)

===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"/>