MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History April 13, 1953: CIA Director Allen Dulles launched the MKUltra mind control program. The program ran from 1953 to 1973. It involved giving human subjects LSD and other drugs, often without their knowledge. Then, researchers would try to “weaken” their minds and force confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture. Over 7,000 U.S. war veterans were unwitting test subjects, as well as many Canadian and U.S. civilians. The program was a continuation of Nazi mind-control experiments, which utilyzed mescaline against Jews and Soviet prisoners, hoping it could be exploited as a “truth” serum. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), precursor of the CIA, recruited many of these Nazi torturers in the wake of World War II to exploit their knowledge and research. MKUltra was headed by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, who later devised plans to kill Fidel Castro with an exploding cigar, and saturating his shoes with radioactive thallium to make his beard fall out. He also tried to assassinate Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo, with poison. Several well-known liberals and radicals knowingly participated in MKUltra and its OSS predecessors, either as test subjects (e.g., Ken Kesey, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Hunter), or as researchers (e.g., anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson). Others who have been alleged to have been victims or volunteers include Sirhan Sirhan, Ted Kaczyinski, Charles Manson, and Whitey Bulger. Margaret Mead's connection was discussed in the recent book, Tripping on Utopia, by Benjamin Breen.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/cia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>cia</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MindControl" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MindControl</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/torture" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>torture</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/lsd" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>lsd</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MKUltra" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MKUltra</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/castro" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>castro</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/nazis" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>nazis</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/oss" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>oss</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AllenGinsberg" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AllenGinsberg</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/kenkesey" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>kenkesey</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/margaretmead" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>margaretmead</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/charlesmanson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>charlesmanson</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/mescaline" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mescaline</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/castro" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>castro</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/soviet" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>soviet</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/coldwar" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>coldwar</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>books</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/nonfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>nonfiction</span></a> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/bookstadon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>bookstadon</span></a></span></p>