GUIDANCE ON MKULTRA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85B01152R000200240001-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 19, 2007
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: September 15, 1983
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2007/10/19 : CIA-RDP85BO1152R000200240001-1
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 Approved For Release 2007/10/19: CIA-RDP85B01152R000200240001-1
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY IDD/A Registry
NOTE TO: Executive Director
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 DD/A Reglstryl
George,
John was very pleased with the attached and believes it is right on
the mark. He would like you to distribute it to the Deputy Directors,
Executive Director, etc., and advise them that all Agency employees on
the speaking circuit should draw from this text when responding to
queries on MKULTRA. I would assume that you would also provide it to any
Agency employees coming to you for guidance before going out on the
speaking circuit.
 Approved For Release 2007/10/19 : CIA-RDP85B01152R000200240001-1
STATEMENT ON MKULTRA
Because of reports that the Soviet Union may have
developed the capability to affect human behavior through the
use of drugs, the Agency initiated a program of research in
this area called MKULTRA which continued from 1953 to 1964.
Much of this research, which principally involved the use of
LSD, was conducted at well-known institutions under the control
and direction of researchers at, and to the standards of, those
institutions. The research and its results were generally
unclassified and published in the normal manner by such
institutions. Other MKULTRA research was performed in a
questionable manner: research and tests were conducted on
individuals who were not witting that they were the subjects of
a research program and that they were being given a drug. This
unwitting testing generally took place in social situations
among friends and acquaintances of the researcher. When
questions were raised within the Agency about this program, it
was discontinued and its nature and termination were reported
to our then Congressional overseers. Public attention was
later drawn to the program in the 1975 Rockefeller Commission
Report and in the Church Committee hearings in 1976.
Safeguards were subsequently promulgated through Presidential
Executive Orders and are strictly adhered to. The current
 Presidential Executive Order, 12333, provides guidelines for
the effective conduct of U.S. intelligence activities and the
protection of constitutional rights. It requires that research
which might be conducted involving humans be subject to Health,
Education and Welfare promulgated guidelines and that the
subjects' informed consent be documented in accordance with
those guidelines.
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Approved For Release 2007/10/19 : CIA-RDP85B01152R000200240001-1