Start Date
4-9-2021 10:45 AM
End Date
4-9-2021 12:00 PM
Disciplines
History
Subjects
United States. Central Intelligence Agency -- Moral and ethical aspects, Behavior modification -- Research -- United States, Project MKULTRA
Description
Abstract: Project MKULTRA, the CIA’s covert mind-control program, began in 1953 and operated throughout the 1960s. Evidence from a number of sources, including the transcripts from the Church Committee hearings (1975), and several news reports uncovered the atrocities of the program. One victim of MKULTRA described the effects of his treatment (for falsely diagnosed psychosomatic leg pain) as “mental rape.” These therapies ranged from electroshock, to being unwittingly drugged with LSD. The Church Committee found that these horrific events were not isolated, but rather conducted within universities, research foundations, and even prisons. The Washington Post later editorialized that lawsuits were filed to force the government to take responsibility for its culpability in the systematic torture of civilians. It became evident that ethics were abridged holistically, displaying a complete malpractice of medicine and science to further the national interest. This essay is relevant because it bares similarity to recent governmental abuses of power uncovered by Edward Snowden, once again displaying that governmental lucidity is imperative for the rights and freedoms of the American people to be sustained. The atrocities of the past must serve as admonitions, and MKULTRA provides compelling evidence against unwarranted trust in governmental operations.
PART OF SESSION 2B. UNCONVENTIONAL WEAPONS
Comment: Dane J. Cash, Carroll College
Chair: Tom Taylor, Seattle University
Sophia Johnson, Whitworth University, undergraduate student
“From Counterinsurgency to Chemical Warfare: Technology Dependence and Agent Orange”
Dawson M. Neely, Gonzaga University, undergraduate student
“Project MKULTRA: How the CIA Used the Cold War to Commit Horrors on US Citizens”
Linda R. Zhang, University of Washington, undergraduate student
“The Blood Logs: Factors in the U.S. Decision to Classify the Japanese Biological and Chemical Warfare Program”
Rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35244
Included in
Project MKULTRA: How the CIA Used the Cold War to Commit Horrors on US Citizens
Abstract: Project MKULTRA, the CIA’s covert mind-control program, began in 1953 and operated throughout the 1960s. Evidence from a number of sources, including the transcripts from the Church Committee hearings (1975), and several news reports uncovered the atrocities of the program. One victim of MKULTRA described the effects of his treatment (for falsely diagnosed psychosomatic leg pain) as “mental rape.” These therapies ranged from electroshock, to being unwittingly drugged with LSD. The Church Committee found that these horrific events were not isolated, but rather conducted within universities, research foundations, and even prisons. The Washington Post later editorialized that lawsuits were filed to force the government to take responsibility for its culpability in the systematic torture of civilians. It became evident that ethics were abridged holistically, displaying a complete malpractice of medicine and science to further the national interest. This essay is relevant because it bares similarity to recent governmental abuses of power uncovered by Edward Snowden, once again displaying that governmental lucidity is imperative for the rights and freedoms of the American people to be sustained. The atrocities of the past must serve as admonitions, and MKULTRA provides compelling evidence against unwarranted trust in governmental operations.
PART OF SESSION 2B. UNCONVENTIONAL WEAPONS
Comment: Dane J. Cash, Carroll College
Chair: Tom Taylor, Seattle University
Sophia Johnson, Whitworth University, undergraduate student
“From Counterinsurgency to Chemical Warfare: Technology Dependence and Agent Orange”
Dawson M. Neely, Gonzaga University, undergraduate student
“Project MKULTRA: How the CIA Used the Cold War to Commit Horrors on US Citizens”
Linda R. Zhang, University of Washington, undergraduate student
“The Blood Logs: Factors in the U.S. Decision to Classify the Japanese Biological and Chemical Warfare Program”