Mind Control: MKUltra and the Red Scare

From Introduction: 'How was the CIA able to execute an American mind-altering project involving hallucinogenic drugs, administered to U.S. citizens, that affected human psychological and social behavior under a cloak of secrecy for decades? The American people discovered information regarding the CIA’s mind-control program titled MKUltra two decades after its execution. Followed by the release of confidential information by a Freedom of Information Act request, the American people were told the semi-truth about a project exposed as “un-American and medically unethical” and in which over 80 institutions were involved (4). Some of these same Americans were unknowing participants in the project. By examining newspaper articles and nationwide coverage of information on MKUltra to its American audience in the late 1970’s, this paper argues that the CIA was exploiting unwitting Americans through a drug-related campaign as a direct result of Cold War paranoia. This campaign introduced LSD to vulnerable American citizens. In its attempt to rid society of evidence of the program, the CIA was able to keep the active project a secret for over twenty-five years. When documentation and reports were released in the mid 1970s, the scope of the project was characterized as a combative research campaign to counter communist and Soviet brainwashing techniques. The CIA claimed the campaign was necessary as an American tool in the Cold War era, despite its experimentation and observation being carried out on American soil. The CIA framed this project as a valuable protection plan against Communism, but by implementing the experiments on American citizens, the U.S. abandoned its democratic values and gave into the communist ideology they heavily feared. This Cold War paranoia coupled with American anxieties on communist rule made U.S. citizens vulnerable to the CIA’s projects.'