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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class. It's a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hi everyone, I'm Eves and Welcome to This

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Speaker 1: Day and History Class, a podcast for people who can

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Speaker 1: never know enough about history. Today is April. The day

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Speaker 1: was April nineteen fifty three. The US Central Intelligence Agency

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Speaker 1: authorized Project m k Ultra, in which the CIA conducted

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Speaker 1: experiments on people with the goal of developing drugs and

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Speaker 1: procedures that could be used for mind control. In April

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Speaker 1: of nineteen fifty three, the Korean War was nearing its end.

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Speaker 1: The war was one between communist North Korea and capitalist

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Speaker 1: South Korea. The U s sent a lot of aid

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Speaker 1: to South Korea and spent tens of billions of dollars

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Speaker 1: on the war. During the Korean War, rumors spread that

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Speaker 1: North Korea and the powers on its side, including the

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Speaker 1: Soviet Union in China, were subjecting American prisoners of war

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Speaker 1: to communist brainwashing. Newly appointed CIA Director Allan Welsh Dullis

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Speaker 1: wanted the US to develop its own techniques for mind

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Speaker 1: control to use on its captives. On April tenth, nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty three, Dullis gave a speech at the National Alumni

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Speaker 1: Conference of the Graduate Council of Princeton University. In it,

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Speaker 1: he said the following, The Soviets are now using brain

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Speaker 1: perversion techniques as one of their main weapons and prosecuting

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Speaker 1: the Cold War. Some of these techniques are so subtle

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Speaker 1: and so abhorrent to our way of life that we

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Speaker 1: have recoiled from facing up to them. Dullis said that

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Speaker 1: the brain warfare that the Soviets were committing could turn

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Speaker 1: people into quote, humble confessors of crimes they never committed,

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Speaker 1: or make them the mouthpiece for Soviet propaganda. Talk of

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Speaker 1: communist brainwashing spread through the US media and politics. Three

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Speaker 1: days after his speech. On April, Dulless approved the launch

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Speaker 1: of the CIA program MK Ultra. The program's aim was

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Speaker 1: to develop mind controlling drugs for use on US prisoners

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Speaker 1: of war in response to alleged Chinese, Soviet, and North

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Speaker 1: Korean mind control techniques. The CIA looked to create a

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Speaker 1: truth drug for interrogating prisoners of war and captured spies.

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Speaker 1: It also wanted to develop drugs that would render CIA

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Speaker 1: agents immune to enemies mind control techniques. In addition to this,

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Speaker 1: the agency sought to create a brainwashed, programmable assassin and

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Speaker 1: figure out how to manipulate foreign leaders. Through mk ULTRA.

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Speaker 1: The CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence organized the project and

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Speaker 1: coordination with the U. S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories. Chemist

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Speaker 1: Sydney got Leave headed up the project. Many of mk

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Speaker 1: Ultra's experiments involved the covert administration of LSD, hallucinogenic drug.

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Speaker 1: The drug was secretly given to CIA employees, U. S

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Speaker 1: soldiers and psychiatric patients. Other techniques employed to alter subjects

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Speaker 1: mental states included hypnosis, radiological implants, electroshock therapy, sensory deprivation,

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Speaker 1: verbal and sexual abuse, and isolation. Many of the experiments

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Speaker 1: conducted were done without the subjects knowledge or consent. Some

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Speaker 1: subjects volunteered freely or under coercion. Dozens of institutions, including universities, hospitals, prisons,

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Speaker 1: and drug companies, participated in mk ULTRA. Not all academic

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Speaker 1: researchers knew that the CIA was using their work for

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Speaker 1: mind control purposes, since they were often funded through front organizations.

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Speaker 1: After a member of the CIA Inspector General staff learned

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Speaker 1: about the program's experimentation on non voluntary subjects, the operation

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Speaker 1: was scaled back and had to follow new guidelines. In

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three, CIA Director Richard helms ordered files. When

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Speaker 1: mk Ultra destroyed. In nineteen reports from the Church Committee

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Speaker 1: and Rockefeller Commission revealed to the public the existence of

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Speaker 1: the mk Ultra experiments. In response to a Freedom of

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Speaker 1: Information Act request. In nineteen seventy seven, the CIA uncovered

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Speaker 1: thousands of additional mk ultra files. They were the subject

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Speaker 1: of Senate hearings that took place later that year. At

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Speaker 1: least one death is attributed to the project, but because

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Speaker 1: of the circumstances surrounding the covert operation, it's true impact

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Speaker 1: may never be known. In two thousand and one, some

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Speaker 1: documents related to mk Ultra were to classified. I'm Eve

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Speaker 1: Jeff Cote and hopefully you know a little more about

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Speaker 1: history today than you did yesterday. You can learn more

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Speaker 1: us an email if you have any questions or comments

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Speaker 1: at this day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks again for

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Speaker 1: tuning in and we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcasts

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