In the 1950s and 1960s, during the Cold War, the CIA conducted numerous secret chemical experiments on major cities throughout the United States. These experiments included spraying impoverished areas of St. Louis with zinc cadmium sulfide, which is a chemical powder that is able to track dispersal patterns. The chemicals were released by motorized blowers that were situated on top of buildings. Recent studies have shown that high amounts of exposure to cadmium can cause bone and kidney problems, as well as lung cancer. The Army has said that no health consequences were found in St. Louis during/after the tests.
Doris Spates was a resident of St. Louis at the time of these experiments. She witnessed her father die (potentially because of the harmful effects due to cadmium exposure) and watched four of her siblings die of cancer. She has had four different types of cancer from a young age. Benjamin Phillips was a formal city marshal in St. Louis, and remembers men in protective suits on the roofs of houses with machines spraying what he described as a thick fog of bug spray. The residents of St. Louis were told that they were testing “a smoke screen” for protection during enemy attack.
The exact motivations of the Army are still unclear, but it is understood that they did not have enough volunteers willing enough to be tested on, so they had to find other options. Another situation similar to this one can be seen with the CIA testing the effects of multiple drugs on prisoners/prisoners of war. In an Atlanta prison multiple men were experimented on with different drugs to see the effects they would have on them. Over 150 people were tested on with psychedelic drugs, paralytics and electroshock therapy. LSD was a common drug that was frequently used in these tests. This large experiment was called MK-Ultra, which lasted from 1953 to around 1973, in order to find drugs that could achieve mind control, information gathering and even psychological torture. One of the major goals of the program was the find a drug that could go against the drug the Soviets had, which was referred to as truth serum. The details of this experiment were not revealed until 1975 during an investigation of illegal CIA activities. One of the most notorious of the MK-Ultra programs was Operation Midnight Climax, where CIA employees would lure men into "safe houses" and compose drug experiments. Operation Midnight Climax experiments mainly took place in San Francisco NY, and in Marin County CA. The Program had little oversight and CIA employees admitted that there was a party atmosphere present throughout the experiments.
In order to find a complete analysis of our topic, we split our research into several categories of analysis.
1. Why isn’t this topic in the textbooks, and why isn’t this event talked about a lot?
We found that this topic isn't talked about much because it people haven't spoken out against it until recently. The details of the experiment weren't released until two years after the actual experiments ended, and court cases against the inhumane tests were not heard of until the late 1990s. Studies against the MK-Ultra experiments have not gained popularity until around 2012, when researchers studied the effects that zinc cadmium sulfide would have on humans. We wanted this question to be a main topic for our research because we were shocked when we realized that this issue is not talked about, and that not many people know about it.
2. If the president knew about the CIA tests, why wouldn't he call a stop to them?
When beginning our research, we assumed that the president knew what the CIA was doing, but we were quickly proven wrong. We found that the CIA did not inform the president or gave the president false information about what was happening. It wasn't until President Gerald Ford that the experiments came to a halt in 1973 (twenty years after the start of the program). It was clear that the CIA did not want the public or the president to know about what was actually taking place. After the halt of MK-Ultra, many of the records of the experiments were destroyed by the director of the CIA. We also found that former presidents admitted to knowing that the CIA lied about the use of chemicals in their experiments.
3. Is it a violation of our rights as citizens of the U.S. for the CIA to hide certain motivations and actions?
We decided to include this question as a main topic of research because it went along with our first question. If the actions of the CIA go against the rights of U.S. citizens, why hasn't this topic gained more popularity? As a group, we were shocked to find gruesome details about some of the experiments and didn’t understand why there was more of a popular reaction to them. Our group quickly came to an understanding that these actions were a violation of our basic rights as a citizen of the United States of America, and the fact that the CIA lied to us and the US presidents was even worse. We do not have much info on this because most of the papers were burned because the CIA did not want anyone to find out about the experiments. It was clear that the lies about these actions were a violation of the basic rights of citizens. The answers to our questions were deeply shocking to us, because it took a total of twenty years for the truth to come out and even longer for the public to even realize that it happened.
Doris Spates was a resident of St. Louis at the time of these experiments. She witnessed her father die (potentially because of the harmful effects due to cadmium exposure) and watched four of her siblings die of cancer. She has had four different types of cancer from a young age. Benjamin Phillips was a formal city marshal in St. Louis, and remembers men in protective suits on the roofs of houses with machines spraying what he described as a thick fog of bug spray. The residents of St. Louis were told that they were testing “a smoke screen” for protection during enemy attack.
The exact motivations of the Army are still unclear, but it is understood that they did not have enough volunteers willing enough to be tested on, so they had to find other options. Another situation similar to this one can be seen with the CIA testing the effects of multiple drugs on prisoners/prisoners of war. In an Atlanta prison multiple men were experimented on with different drugs to see the effects they would have on them. Over 150 people were tested on with psychedelic drugs, paralytics and electroshock therapy. LSD was a common drug that was frequently used in these tests. This large experiment was called MK-Ultra, which lasted from 1953 to around 1973, in order to find drugs that could achieve mind control, information gathering and even psychological torture. One of the major goals of the program was the find a drug that could go against the drug the Soviets had, which was referred to as truth serum. The details of this experiment were not revealed until 1975 during an investigation of illegal CIA activities. One of the most notorious of the MK-Ultra programs was Operation Midnight Climax, where CIA employees would lure men into "safe houses" and compose drug experiments. Operation Midnight Climax experiments mainly took place in San Francisco NY, and in Marin County CA. The Program had little oversight and CIA employees admitted that there was a party atmosphere present throughout the experiments.
In order to find a complete analysis of our topic, we split our research into several categories of analysis.
1. Why isn’t this topic in the textbooks, and why isn’t this event talked about a lot?
We found that this topic isn't talked about much because it people haven't spoken out against it until recently. The details of the experiment weren't released until two years after the actual experiments ended, and court cases against the inhumane tests were not heard of until the late 1990s. Studies against the MK-Ultra experiments have not gained popularity until around 2012, when researchers studied the effects that zinc cadmium sulfide would have on humans. We wanted this question to be a main topic for our research because we were shocked when we realized that this issue is not talked about, and that not many people know about it.
2. If the president knew about the CIA tests, why wouldn't he call a stop to them?
When beginning our research, we assumed that the president knew what the CIA was doing, but we were quickly proven wrong. We found that the CIA did not inform the president or gave the president false information about what was happening. It wasn't until President Gerald Ford that the experiments came to a halt in 1973 (twenty years after the start of the program). It was clear that the CIA did not want the public or the president to know about what was actually taking place. After the halt of MK-Ultra, many of the records of the experiments were destroyed by the director of the CIA. We also found that former presidents admitted to knowing that the CIA lied about the use of chemicals in their experiments.
3. Is it a violation of our rights as citizens of the U.S. for the CIA to hide certain motivations and actions?
We decided to include this question as a main topic of research because it went along with our first question. If the actions of the CIA go against the rights of U.S. citizens, why hasn't this topic gained more popularity? As a group, we were shocked to find gruesome details about some of the experiments and didn’t understand why there was more of a popular reaction to them. Our group quickly came to an understanding that these actions were a violation of our basic rights as a citizen of the United States of America, and the fact that the CIA lied to us and the US presidents was even worse. We do not have much info on this because most of the papers were burned because the CIA did not want anyone to find out about the experiments. It was clear that the lies about these actions were a violation of the basic rights of citizens. The answers to our questions were deeply shocking to us, because it took a total of twenty years for the truth to come out and even longer for the public to even realize that it happened.
The video above shows a survivor of radiation and drug testing giving her testimony against the CIA.
Below is the podcast that our group has put together to explain the MK-Ultra experiments.
Below is the podcast that our group has put together to explain the MK-Ultra experiments.