The U.S. government had directed mind-control experiments since the 1950s under the direction of Sidney Gottlieb and by order of CIA director, Richard Helms, in response to alleged Chinese, Soviet, and North Korean torture and mind control tactics used against U.S. prisoners during the Korean War. Common knowledge suggests that millions of American victims of those experiments exist and one experiment in particular, MK-Ultra mind-control, has been of interest to the public. There is some concern that many American victims have not recovered from the useless abuses perpetrated by the CIA, and a real plan for recovery and an amends making process has mostly been swept under the rug.

Many people do not realize that they were used in government experiments throughout the 50s through 90s. Most research documents were destroyed unlawfully in 1973 by Richard Helms, the C.I.A. director that ordered massive experiments on unwitting citizens to cover the C.I.A.’s massive crimes when the Rockefeller Commission began investigations along-side congress. Investigations have uncovered much evidence about the MK-Ultra experiments and its uses. In 1977, Nicholas M. Horrock, a writer for the New York Times reported that Admiral Turner, a C.I.A. director, had testified that the C.I.A. had secretly undermined the American public by perpetrating human mind-control and behavior experiments “at 80 institutions, including 44 colleges or universities as well as hospitals, prisons, psychiatric facilities, and pharmaceutical companies” (Horrock). This was just icing on the cake though, for other testimony continuously and sporadically has been presented or uncovered through private citizens, the press, and children victims that endured the MK-Ultra mind-control experiments; which support evidence that the experiments were much more massive than Turner admitted to.

In an official government document available through the government printing office, available to anyone, the Select Committee on Intelligence supplied a hearing document in 1977, which states: “the Agency commissioned a ‘manual on trickery,’ to be authored by a prominent magician, who described ways to conduct ‘tricks with pills’ and other substances” (238). In 1995, the Clinton Administration listened to more evidence and read more documentation about the MK-Ultra and related experiments in a public hearing. According to the public hearing testimony, children from all over the country were also used by the C.I.A. and fell victim to incomprehensible experimentation and treatment (USA Advisory Committee Hearings). In 1995, some of these children came forward to testify. These victims claim they were drugged, hypnotized, had joints dislocated, suffered sexual abuse, and other types of abuses perpetrated by C.I.A. doctors including, radiation experiments (USA Advisory Committee Hearings/Clinton). This testimony is available for anyone to view and listen to on networks such as Youtube, as well as in paper document format.

There is more: Mae Brussels, who wrote, From Monterey Pop to Altamont: Operation Chaos: The CIA’s War Against the Sixties Counter-Culture touched on some very pertinent points. Brussels wrote about the Johnson and Nixon administration’s experiment, which was filed under the MK-Ultra experiment files entitled, “Operation Chaos.” According to Brussels, this was a multi-tasking assault plan perpetrated by the C.I.A. and its lackeys upon special protester groups, rock bands, and famous stars who may have disagreed with the Vietnam War, the Commission Report, and other argumentative ideas the government had at that time. Brussels stated that targets were Jewish groups such as B’nai B’rith, protesters and organizers against the war, and musical artists such as, Jimi Hendrix and the Band of Gypsies, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Jimmy Reed, and a host of others (Brussels). Part of the government’s plan was to disorientate these freedom thinkers, cause havoc, falsely arrest, plant drugs, slander, and cause the suicides of dissenters from government control. Behind this mayhem and treachery, was C.I.A. director, Richard Helms, who planned to discredit people by the use of drugs and torture which could cause mental illnesses. Brussels’ work lends much food for thought when contemplating the mysterious deaths and so called, “suicides” of famous celebrities such as: John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Sal Mineo, Janis Joplin, and more (Brussels). The C.I.A has been known to cover its tracks so well, that mysteries never seemed to be resolved. This needs to change and now.

Many of these stars took LSD, which was manufactured by the C.I.A. and distributed all over the country. Oftentimes, LSD was given to people without their knowing such as in the famous case of Dr. Olson, an employee of the U.S. military, who was unknowingly fed LSD by C.I.A. members. According to a declassified Justice Department report, part of a larger collection and file of White House memos between Cheney, Bush, and others in 1975, “a dosage of LSD was placed by CIA personnel in drinks consumed by Dr. Olson and others” and “neither Dr. Olson, nor any of the others were made aware that they had been given LSD” (4). After developing negative side effects to the drug, Dr. Olson was told he needed to be hospitalized. While waiting in New York for a room to be prepared at the hospital over the course of another day, somehow strangely, while staying with a “Dr. Lashbrook” in a New York hotel, Dr. Olson was pushed ten stories to his death. The CIA claimed that he jumped. The CIA was concerned that Dr. Olson was going to relay inside information at the hospital about the secret covert experiments going on. The report also stated: “The CIA General Counsel rendered an opinion that the death resulted from ‘circumstances arising out of an experiment undertaken in the course of his official duties for the U.S. Government’” (6). No one was ever charged and his wife and three children were left without a provider. They sued years later and settled for piddle winks. Dr. Olson was just one of the multitudes of victims though, and it took his family over twenty years to pursue the case extensively. There are victims from all walks of life.

LSD and other drugs were used on soldiers who were much of the time unaware that they were being fed various drugs. LSD manufacturing reached its height in the 60s, during the Vietnam War. Soldiers were used like guinea pigs whereas; chemicals and various drugs were given to soldiers fighting in Vietnam. In Tim O’Brien’s book, The Things They Carried, he narrates an experience as a soldier during the Vietnam War:
Late at night, on guard, it seemed that all of Vietnam was alive and shimmering—odd shapes swaying in the paddies, boogiemen in
sandals, spirits dancing in old pagodas” and “Charlie Cong was the main ghost . . . . you never really saw him, just thought you did.
Almost magical—appearing, disappearing. He could blend with the land, changing form, becoming trees and grass. He could levitate. He
could fly. (202)

This describes somewhat, a possible effect of LSD. O’Brien’s character, Azar, seems to possibly be drugged without knowing. Azar says, “What’s real? . . . Eight months in fantasyland, it tends to blur the line. Honest to God, I sometimes can’t remember what real is” (204). Were these soldiers experiencing war fatigue or were these Vietnam soldiers fed LSD and other drugs, without their knowledge or consent? Although, O’Brien’s work has been listed as a fictional work of literature, the characters echo the reality of many living soldiers.
Prisoners were also used as test subjects. Evan Thomas wrote how the Pentagon irradiated the testicles of prisoners to see how much radiation would cause sterility. This was published in Newsweek (Thomas). Whoever the test subject was and whatever cruel experiment someone endured, the public had and has a right to know about it. Real transparency and human rights are the only real gems, when contending with C.I.A. experiments.

There is a rebuttal available and a flip-side point of view pertaining to the C.I.A. experiments that sanction, excuse, and justify their mistreatment of people. In an article written by Troy Hooper for SF Weekly, a past government official named Wayne Ritchie, who served as deputy U.S. marshal, a U.S. marine, and a prison guard, has this to say concerning the illegal MK-Ultra experiments: “’They thought they were helping the country’” (Hooper). In any event, Ritchie himself was a victim of the experiments after being dosed with LSD by the C.I.A. without his knowing. His career was destroyed and he suffered tremendous side effects and repercussions because of the drug. He never gained satisfaction through a court case he filed against the government after those wrong actions were committed against him, yet, he sought refuge in their potential motivation. Stephen Ornes sheds some light as to the modus operandi of the C.I.A. in a scholarly article for Discover magazine, by stating what experimenter-psychiatrist James Ketchum once stated: “Moral-issues were considered minor if greater national security could be obtained” (1). There are people that believed that experimenting on American citizens was in the best interest of the country.


Whether testing and torturing individuals is considered a moral or immoral matter is up to the individual to decide. Persons may claim that actions taken by the C.I.A. are necessary and acceptable, since it is in the name of national security. Some may agree that feeding young children with drugs, raping them, and hypnotizing them in the name of national security may also be acceptable—as long as it is not their own children, possibly. Varied testimony and articles online also support the evidence of child torture such as, the Clinton hearings. These public hearings shed a little light on two test subjects who are female, who were tortured as children by C.I.A. members.

Many people may be afraid of the C.I.A. or terrified to discuss them in any way, even if they may have endured much suffering, due to the C.I.A.’s unlawful activities and bullying. People may have reason to be. Finding lawyers to represent citizens is a difficult task because many lawyers will not stand up to what they feel is a government giant; most lawyers will not discuss the C.I.A. with a potential client. The C.I.A. has been known to be like a major gang: Saying anything against them has been known to be a dangerous concept. This may leave many human beings in the dark, without recourse, justice, satisfaction, and a feeling that the C.I.A. goes by the rule of tyranny. Court cases are expensive and most victims do not have the funding to pursue justice.

Michael Robinett, an attorney in Virginia, has placed a large file online available to the public entitled, Declassified MK-Ultra Project Documents Archive, which may help disperse the idea that MK-Ultra and the C.I.A’s various other 149 or so unlawful experiments are conspiracy theories. Contained in these documents are letters within the C.I.A. to and from psychology departments at colleges, orders for equipment such as, electroshock equipment, recorders, drugs, and budgets for LSD and related drugs. These memos, orders, reports, and letters are straight from the C.I.A. archive and are evidence that much wrongdoing took place. In one of these documents, typed up by a C.I.A. employee it states, “Approximately one safe drawer full of Dr. Gottlieb’s papers was destroyed by his secretary at his orders in June 1973” and “Some [blacked out] material dealing with the testing of drugs on human volunteers has been reviewed” (003). The next page available in this list states: “17. The final stage of covert testing on unwitting subjects is clearly the most sensitive aspect of MKULTRA. No effective cover story appears to be available” (004). Colin A. Ross, an MD at the Institute for Psychological Trauma in Richardson, Texas wrote this in an article entitled, Ethics of CIA and Military Contracting by Psychiatrists and Psychologists, regarding MK-Ultra: “These violations have occurred at leading medical schools” and “none involved documented consent” (25). Ross’s statement just adds to the testimony which was left out by Turner.

George Orwell sums up the moral structure of human beings doing things against their own conscience profoundly, in his real life account, Shooting an Elephant: “when . . . man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys . . . . He becomes a . . . posing dummy . . . . in every crisis he has got to do what the ‘natives’ expect of him . . . . I did not want to shoot the elephant” (269-270). Orwell impresses the mob of people, but felt it was against his conscience to shoot the elephant, yet he does it anyway. This was how the C.I.A. pressured each other, and used mob bully tactics against their own and each other’s conscience, which caused them to collectively do what they knew was immoral, unfit, unbecoming, and highly criminal. The acts they performed against U.S. citizens and children were known violations of the law. The C.I.A. violated the Nuremberg Codes, which were and are a set of codes making it illegal for any governmental entity to experiment on human subjects without legal consent. The famous Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals, which took place at the end of World War II. The defendants were various high profile Nazi perpetrators.

All in all, allowing the C.I.A. or any government figure the leisure to do harm is up to the body they govern: you and I, they, we, and everyone united. The definition of “government” is not “tyranny” to me. Is it to you? Torturing American citizens (or any citizens anywhere) who have not done anything wrong—including children--or conducting experiments upon people without their consent, knowledge, and comprehensive understanding is not a democracy, in my opinion. What is your idea of one? I feel a well thought-out amends and restitution plan needs to be implemented at the White House and congressional level that directly addresses all the current day problems or issues of those affected by the MK-Ultra experiments. By government not clearly holding accountability for those terrible actions, we as a nation are allowing an escape route for government level wrong-doing and for further abuses in the name of tyranny—not national security.












Works Cited
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Sixties Counter-Culture." Nov. 1976. HTML file.

Hooper, Troy. "Operation Midnight Climax: How the CIA Dosed S.F. Citizens with LSD." SF
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Nicholas, Horrock M. "80 INSTITUTIONS USED IN C.I.A MIND STUDIES; Admiral Turner
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O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. 1978. New York: Broadway, 1998. Print.
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Nancy R. Comley, David Hamilton, and Nancy Sommers. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. 266-273. Print.

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Thomas, Evan. "Sins Of A Paranoid Age. (Cover Story)." Newsweek 122.26 (1993): 20.
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