9 Disturbing Covert Operations Executed By The U.S. Government

By Kaleena Fraga | Edited By John Kuroski

Published September 30, 2022

Updated July 18, 2024

MK-Ultra: The Covert Operation That Tried Using LSD For Mind Control

CIACIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb created and ran the covert operation code-named MK-Ultra.

In the 1950s, the CIA began to suspect that some American POWs returning from imprisonment during the Korean War had been brainwashed. Fearful that the Soviet Union had a headstart on developing mind control technology, the agency launched their own program code-named MK-Ultra.

For over a decade, MK-Ultra sought to harness a mind control drug. According to NPR, MK-Ultra director Sidney Gottlieb believed that that drug could be LSD, so he spent $24,000 buying up the world’s supply.

This covert operation took place in the United States and abroad and involved 80 institutions and 185 researchers, according to Smithsonian Magazine, though many didn’t know that they were involved in a CIA-drug experiment. Indeed, MK-Ultra often targeted “people who could not fight back,” like prisoners, drug addicts, sex workers, and terminal cancer patients.

Bettmann/Getty ImagesPoet Allen Ginsberg, seen here advocating for marijuana use in 1965, tried LSD for the first time as part of MK-Ultra.

MK-Ultra experiments varied. One, dubbed Operation Midnight Climax, lured men into a brothel, dosed them with LSD, and observed their behavior from behind a two-way mirror. Others involved prisoners, like mob boss Whitey Bulger. He claims that in 1957, he was given LSD every day for a year after volunteering for an experiment that sought to find a cure for schizophrenia.

And some relied on volunteers, like One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest author Ken Kesey and poet Allen Ginsberg. According to NPR, both found the experience pleasurable and spread the word about LSD to their friends.

The program officially ended in the 1960s, and most records relating to MK-Ultra were destroyed in 1973 — though some still exist. That said, this covert operation had a definite effect on American counterculture.

MK-Ultra may not have unlocked the secrets to mind control — as far as we know — but it did change society by introducing LSD to Americans.

author

A senior staff writer for All That's Interesting since 2021 and co-host of the History Uncovered Podcast, Kaleena Fraga graduated with a dual degree in American History and French Language and Literature from Oberlin College. She previously ran the presidential history blog History First, and has had work published in The Washington Post, Gastro Obscura, and elsewhere. She has published more than 1,200 pieces on topics including history and archaeology. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.

editor

Based in Brooklyn, New York, John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of expertise include modern American history and the ancient Near East. In an editing career spanning 17 years, he previously served as managing editor of Elmore Magazine in New York City for seven years.

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Fraga, Kaleena. "9 Outlandish Covert Operations That The U.S. Government Actually Executed, From LSD Mind Control To Spy Cats." AllThatsInteresting.com, September 30, 2022, https://allthatsinteresting.com/covert-operations. Accessed August 2, 2025.