Project MK ULTRA was a highly classified programme, developed by the CIA that aimed to investigate the effects of mind control. The operation was active from 1953-1973, during the peak of the Cold War. America were extremely concerned about the techniques used by communist states, such as China and Korea against American prisoners. They believed that these countries were developing their own mind controlling drugs. In response to this, Allan Dulles, the director of the CIA gave the greenlight to a project to combat the communist states with their own mind control programme. There were three main aims of MK ULTRA, firstly to develop a “truth serum”, allowing the CIA to enhance their interrogations of captors. Secondly, to devise techniques to prevent mind control of their own super agents who would become immune to their adversaries’ drugs. Thirdly and most importantly, however, the fundamental purpose of MK ULTRA was to produce a “Manchurian Candidate”, a brainwashed super-assassin who would be capable of killing upon order. There were 149 subprojects of MK ULRA, conducted in the US and Canada, all taking place within prisons, hospitals and universities. Some of the tests were conducted on unwitting patients, such as, sex workers, drug-addicted prisoners and terminal cancer patients–”people who could not fight back,” in the words of Sidney Gottlieb, the chemist who introduced LSD to the CIA.

Drugs, hypnosis, subliminal persuasion, electroshock therapy, radiological implants and isolation techniques were the main methods used by the CIA to experiment with mind control. LSD, magic mushrooms, heroin, meth and ecstasy were commonly given to participants in large doses on a regular basis, resulting in some patients experiencing permanent brain damage. One of the subprojects, conducted by Dr Ewen Cameron involved exposing unwitting patients from the Allan Memorial Institute to a torturous three-part technique, known as “Psychic Driving”. This consisted of electroshock therapy, audio therapy and medically induced comas. Firstly, patients were given intensive electroshock therapy repeatedly until no more convulsions could be elicited. Then, helmets were then locked onto patients’ heads and looped messages were played on repeat. This repetition of messages attempted to programme the patients into believing what they heard. Medically induced comas were finally utilised in order to prevent the patients remembering what had happened to them during the “Psychic Driving”. The aim of this technique was to rebuild people as unconscious killing machines. Another subproject of MK ULTRA, known as “Operation Midnight Climax” was initiated in 1954 and involved prostitutes luring men into CIA safe houses, where they could be drugged with LSD. CIA agents would observe and record the behaviour demonstrated by the men through a two-way mirror. The operation expanded from New York to San Francisco. In 1971, the agents admitted that the experiment wasn’t very scientific or professional. An agent named George White wrote to Gottlieb in 1971: “Of course I was a very minor missionary, actually a heretic, but I toiled wholeheartedly in the vineyards because it was fun, fun, fun. Where else could a red-blooded American boy lie, kill and cheat, steal, deceive, rape and pillage with the sanction and blessing of the All-Highest?”. These two examples are the only experiments we have concrete evidence of occurring, as a majority of the project’s records were destroyed by the director of the CIA in 1973. The true extent of the nature of the projects are still unknown, however it is common belief that what really happened was a lot more shocking.

In 1953, Frank Olsen, a CIA agent involved in MK ULTRA expressed his desire to leave the CIA as he was deeply disturbed by his actions and the project as a whole.

His co-workers were extremely concerned about the idea of him quitting as they believed he would leak confidential information. They lured him up to a retreat and fed him LSD without his knowledge. 9 days later Olsen jumped from room 1080A of the Statler hotel in Manhattan. His death was reported as a suicide, however, 20 years later, after of years of campaigning, the Olson family decided that that they wanted a second autopsy due to the suspicious circumstances surrounding Olsen’s death. Frank Olson’s body was exhumed in 1993 and a forensic scientist, James Starrs, deduced that Olsen had most likely been hit on the head and subsequently flung out of the window of his hotel room. Scott Gilbert, lead counsel in the lawsuit, said: “It’s unfathomable that our own government could stand by as its agents, operating on United States soil, killed an American citizen in cold blood, destroyed his family, and then allowed those directly responsible to walk away without so much as a blemish on their personnel files. Instead of putting its energy and resources into doing what is right, the United States – including this administration – has sought to bury this and hide the truth.” This case further illustrates the fact that the CIA and even the American government could not be trusted at this time.

In conclusion, it is evident that project MK Ultra was extremely unethical. It’s unwitting subjects were psychologically and physically scarred for life by the incredibly illegally actions that infringed on their human rights. The scientists involved were very aware of the awful effects of the experiments, yet continued to take part in them, despite the fact that they achieved nothing.

(Kinzer, 2019)

(HISTORY, 2018)

(Eschner, 2017) (Cavenaugh, 2016)

Bibliography

Cavenaugh, D., 2016. The CIA’s Operation ‘Midnight Climax’ Was Exactly What It Sounded Like. [Online]

Available at: https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-cias-operation-midnight-climax-was-exactly-what-it-sounded-like-fa63f84ad015 [Accessed 26 May 2020].

Eschner, K., 2017. What we know about the CIA’s mid-century mind control project. [Online] Available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-we-know-about-cias-midcentury-mind-control-project-180962836/ [Accessed 26 May 2020].

HISTORY, 2018. MKULTRA. [Online] Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/history-of-mk-ultra [Accessed 26 May 2020].

Kinzer, S., 2019. From Mind Control to Murder. [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019//sep/06/from-mind-control-to-murder-how-a-deadly-fall-revealed-the-cias-darkest-secrets [Accessed 26 May 2020