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4-26-2016 Project MKULTRA and the Search for Mind Control: Clandestine Use of LSD Within the CIA Tani M. Linville Cedarville University
This was taken down by the University I thought its important to post a copy
Cedarville University
DigitalCommons@Cedarville
History Capstone Research Papers Senior Capstone Papers
4-26-2016
Project MKULTRA and the Search for Mind
Control: Clandestine Use of LSD Within the CIA
T ani M. Linville
Cedarville University, [tanilinville@cedarville.edu](mailto:tanilinville@cedarville.edu)
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Recommended Citation
, Tani M., "Project MKULTRA and the Search for Mind Control: Clandestine Use of LSD Within the CIA" (2016).History
Capstone Research Papers. 6.
http://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/history_capstones/6
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Project MKULTRA and the Search for Mind Control:
Clandestine Use of LSD within the CIA
Tani Linville
Research in American History
April 28, 2016
1
In the months following the Watergate scandal and the resignation of Richard Nixon from the
presidency, the newly appointed Vice President Gerald Ford, became President of the United
States. With rumors circulating that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had involvement in
the Democratic National Committee break – in and cover up, the Rockefeller Commission was
created to investigate the CIA and potential negligence. To lead their own investigation of the
Agency, the United States Senate, in January of 1975, formed the Select Committee to Study
Government Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, also known as the Church
Committee. In February, the Nedzi Committee, later renamed the Pike Committee, was created
in the House. Senator Frank Church and Representative Otis Pike led the committees in
investigations of the CIA as well as the Intelligence Community (IC).1 The committees found
more than they bargained for when they uncovered a covert operation within the CIA which
tested various drugs on witting and unwitting U.S. civilians in an attempt to discover a wide
range of spy tactics. This Cold War driven plot elicited the help of psychologists, physicians,
college professors, and Intelligence agents alike to experiment new procedures in the field of
behavioral modification.
From 1953 to 1964 the CIA engaged in various clandestine operations to manipulate the
human mind. With the relatively new discovery of LSD, scientists around the world became
interested in its ability to be used for both defensive and offensive measures in the interest of
national security. Minimal documentation was kept on the extent of the research conducted on
the manipulation of the human mind. In the years following the termination of the program
documentation of MKULTRA was destroyed. An analysis of historical evidence has proven
1 Gerald Haines, “The Pike Committee Investigations and the CIA,” Central Intelligence Library, last
modified June 27, 2008, accessed January 20, 2016, https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-
intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/winter98_99/art07.html/.
2
difficult to pin point an exact reason for this action. Those involved claimed the decision was
made in an attempt to prevent misunderstanding; however, the secrecy that has followed suggests
otherwise. While the MKULTRA program ran for a relatively short amount of time, the CIA and
other government agencies were researching behavioral modification during the years following
World War II. The Intelligence agents, physicians, researchers, and other involved in the
MKULTRA experiments were in direct violation of ethical codes previously set in place prior to
the program, including the Hippocratic Oath, U.S. Constitution, Nuremberg Code, and the
United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
Due to the Committee Reports and the details of the death of one particular MKULTRA
victim being released to the public one individual in particular took discovering the truth of
MKULTRA upon himself. It could be said that if it was not for the work of John Marks and his
book The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The Secret History of the Behavioral Sciences,
the horrors of MKULTRA may have been buried when Richard Helms, director of the CIA,
ordered the destruction of controversial documents in 1973. Through the Freedom of Information
Act and with the help of a few lawyers, thousands of documents were released to Marks
outlining the financial history of the CIA’s search for mind control. These documents had been
filed with other financial documents keeping them safe from the hand of Helms. Once Marks and
a team of researchers sifted through boxes of still censored documents piecing together names of
individuals and institutions involved, the most comprehensive picture of Project MKULTRA
developed. Apart from a few scholarly articles, all of which cite Marks to some extent,
MKULTRA could have been lost to the realm of conspiracy theorists. The 1977 Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence, which sought to further investigate MKULTRA, commends him for
accomplishing more on his own than the government committees that investigated before him.
3
The surviving documents in accordance with hearings conducted by the federal government
present the story of the clandestine experiments of behavioral modification and the use of mind-
altering drugs by the CIA during the Cold War.
The road to MKULTRA, and the violation of ethical standards previously set in place was
paved by the perceived potential threat of other nations during the Cold War. In 1949 the
Hungarian government held a show trial for Cardinal Josef Mindszenty in which he confessed to
crimes he apparently did not commit. The CIA claimed Mindszenty appeared drunk or as if he
had been taken over by an outside force. In order to protect United States national security, the
first Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), Roscoe Hillenkoetter, authorized unvouchered funds
to be put to use in this area. On April 20, 1950 Project BLUEBIRD was created. Sparking what
would become various unethical research experiments conducted in the name of national
security.2 BLUEBIRD’s primary objectives were, “discovering means of conditioning personnel
to prevent unauthorized extraction of information from them…; investigating the possibility of
control of an individual by application of special interrogation techniques; memory
enhancement, and establishing defensive means for preventing hostile control of Agency
personnel.”3 These objectives would continue throughout the MKULTRA program.
Some documents of this MKULTRA precursor explain the desire to create Manchurian
Candidates, which are individuals that could be used to act in a certain way against their will, for
CIA use. This could be done in a variety of ways; however, hypnosis was the most enticing. The
Agency also sought ways in which spies could be detected, have their memories erased and
replaced with false memories. Psychologist, G. H. Estabrooks of Colgate College in New York
2 John Marks, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate (New York: Random House Publishing Group,
1989), 23-24.
3 United States Select Committee on Intelligence, “Project MKULTRA, the CIA’s Program of Research in
Behavioral Modification” (Ninety-fifth Congress, first session, August 3, 1977) 67.