A 1979 ABC News Special: ‘Mission Mind Control’

In 1979, just two years after U.S. Senate hearings revealed disturbing information about a secret government mind control program code-named Project MKULTRA, this one-hour documentary was released. It covers some of the clandestine, illegal activities involved in this program.

One of the topics covered by this intriguing film is the bizarre activity of a man named George White, who operated outside of the law while directly under CIA direction.

At minute 47 into the documentary correspondent Paul Altmeyer states, “And what of George White, the man who helped the agency in so many of its programs?

Shortly before his death, he wrote to his boss at the CIA, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, and summed up his career by saying, ‘It was fun, fun, fun. Where else could a red-blooded American boy lie, kill and cheat, steal, deceive, rape and pillage with the sanction and blessing of the all highest.'”

MKULTRA was a descendent of Operation Paperclip, a post war program that recruited Nazi scientists for help conducting research to keep pace with the Soviets, especially in the field of mind control.

Annie Jacobsen wrote in her book “Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America”

“work took place inside a clandestine facility in the American zone of occupied Germany, called Camp King. The facility’s chief medical doctor was Operation Paperclip’s Dr. Walter Schreiber, the former Surgeon General of the Third Reich… The activities that went on at Camp King between 1946 and the late 1950s have never been fully accounted for by either the Department of Defense or the CIA.”

The program was comprised 149 subprojects that researched various aspects of mind control, from hypnosis and sensory deprivation to the use of hallucinogens like LSD. Most of these experiments were conducted without the knowledge or consent of the subjects.

The CIA collaborated with universities, hospitals, and research institutions to carry out these experiments. Often, those administering the tests were unaware of the CIA's involvement or the full extent of the program.

One of MKUltra's most infamous operations was the "Midnight Climax”. where CIA operatives employed prostitutes to administer LSD to unwitting clients, while agents observed and recorded their reactions from behind a two-way mirror.

This operation involved the CIA setting up safe houses in San Francisco and New York City during the 1950s and 1960s, where they employed prostitutes to lure unsuspecting clients.

The main objective of Operation Midnight Climax was to study the effects of LSD on individuals without their knowledge and to explore the drug's potential use in mind control and chemical interrogation techniques. The operation was run by George H. White.

MKUltra's activities were exposed in 1973 after Watergate. The CIA attempted to destroy all records of the program, but some documents were mistakenly spared, leading to a congressional investigation in 1977.