MKUltra — CIA Mind Control Program

From 1953 to 1973, the CIA secretly dosed unwitting American citizens with LSD, conducted psychological torture experiments, and tried to develop mind control techniques — all under the codename MKUltra. When it was exposed, CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all files destroyed in 1973. A 1977 FOIA request uncovered 20,000 documents that survived because they'd been misfiled in the financial records. The Church Committee hearings confirmed everything. Victims included prisoners, mental patients, and random bar patrons. Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber) was an MKUltra test subject at Harvard at age 16. This program was broader than the more famous Project ARTICHOKE, spanning 86 institutions, including 44 colleges, and involved $25 million in research over two decades.