CIA ADMITTED FAILURE IN MIND-CONTROL STUDIES, AUTHOR SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200420010-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: February 11, 1979
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For Release 2004/10/13: CIA-RDP88-01350RO
ARTICLE APPEARED
OIL PAGE+
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
11 February 1979
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By Norman Kempstcr
L w An=elet Timm Servic4
WASHINGTON -- The CIA spon-
sored scientific research into meth-
ods of controlling the human mind'
for almost 10 years after it ended its
previously disclosed experiments
with the hallucinogen LSD in 1963,
author John Marks says in a new-1
book.
. Citing documents released by the
agency under the Freedom of 1nfor?
matlon Act, Marks, a former State
Department intelligence officer,
said the CIA continued at least
until mid-1972 - -to search for exotic
ways to dominate the brain. and con-
. ', trot behavior..
.:The :agency eventually `admitted
that Its experimentation, which
.began in 1950 in the midst'of? the
Cold War, bad been a failure. The
human mind was either too resilient
or too unpredictable to be molded
with the reliability required for espi?
onage operations. ' .., :.. ,.. , ..i. , ..::
The book, "The Search,for The
Manchurian Candidate, quotes a
CIA document as saying that the
mindocontrol programs_finally iend?
ed July 10, 1972, when the chief.of
the project, Dr. Sidney.; Gottleib,.:
wrote Its bureaucratic epitaph.
The Clandestine Service has beet]
able to maintain contact :with the
leading edge of developments in the
-field of biological and chemical con-.
trol of human behavior;: Gottteib
wrote. , 1
"it has become increesingly'ol
.ous over. The last several years that
this general area bad less and lext
relevance to current clandestine
operations ... On the scientific side;'
.ft,has become .very clear that ihese_:
;materials and techniques' are too
unpredictable in their effect on indi. L
tvidual human beings, under specific,
circunistances, ? to be, operationally'
useful..; Our; operations officers
have shown a discerning and per-
haps commendable distaste for uti-
lizing these Materials and techi
Iques." ? 4 - .. . . ...?...1.
The'materials'and techniques in-,'
eluded ISD; and a wide variety of
{ other mind-altering', drugs, sexual i
lentraprnent, electric.. shock, elect
,trodes implanted in the brain, and
.radiation .hyVnosla-'' _
-The objectives-were to-develop a
foolproof truth serum to be used in.'
questioning agents, defectors and
enemy prisoners; to determine if
brainwashing was possible; to devisee
ways of producing 'amnesia so that
agents could not - reveal secrets', if"
'captured, and to develop a variety of
.ways of killing and. incapaciting.
;:enemies.
In. 1975, . the public got its' first's
glimpse of. the. mind-control pro.
gram, once the CIA's deepest secret,
when a commission headed by the-
'.late Vice President Nelson Rockefel.
lerireported that an unnamed Army
civliatt employe --since identified
. as Dr. Frank Olson had committed
suicide in 1953 after having been
given LSD without his knowledge. ? ?
The lfockefeiler report provided
'_ no' details. but in the last three vears!
additional information has seeped
-out. In his book. Marks pulls the sto-
ry together, showing for the first
time its scope, placing previous reve-
lations in contextand filling in soma
of the blanks. -
He reports, for example, that in the
1960s, Dr.. James Hamilton,, a San
t'Francisco psychiatrist, received CIA
'.funds to-conduct "clinical testing of
behavicral ? control materials" on:,
? inmates at the California Medical:
? ,Facility at Vacaville. Although the
records do not indicate the precise::
nature of the experiments, they;
show that Hamilton spent more than;
$10,000.In CIA funds to pay volun-:
Leers during'1967 and 1968. At prison
pay scales, that means he probably'!
experimented on between 400 and'
Approved For Release 2004/10/13 : Ct -b1350R000200420010-7
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