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SUBJECT: Behavioral Drugs

1. CLA has had a recurring interest in behavioral drugs.

both as a defensive measure against drugs that might be administered a frrergn 工心
to Americans,to influence their behavior, or that might be adminycx
istered underfundetermincd conditions to influence the be havior 1
of persóns hostile to the United States.( The earliest record of an Post
interest in this steras from thefwWIl period when there were
indications of Soviet interest in this sort of thing, the most famous ean OST 2. Between 1949 and 1956 . undertook the analysis.of
foreign work on. certain unconventional warfare and techniques -1
with the general objective on developing protection for infurmation
of vital signiEcance to the security of the U.S. Initial phases y ataus haspitals, clinies
included the review of drug-related work atjinstitatiens-saehas audsNコH.

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101 There also was an extensive review of foreign literature

particularly work on thc Soviet Bloc. Project BLUEBIRD was

by known means, (b) the possibility of obtaining control of an Spsci individual by application ofreck interrogation techniques,. (c) memory enhancement and (d) defensive means for preventing hostile control of Agency personnel. In August 195l the Project name was changed to ARTICHOKE. In 1952 the Project was transferred from the-Offiee ef Seientife Intolligensc to the predecessor to the present Office of Security, with OSI retaining responsibility for evaluation of foreign intelligence aspects of the matter.

(LSD). A proposal was made in late 1953 to cxperiment with LSD volusteer b
usinglAgency personnel1 OSi records indicate that no such
experiments were unuertaken.

3. The predecessor organization of the Office of Technical Serviccmaintained liaison with personnel at Camp Detric, whercby they met once or twice a year to discuss questions of behavioral drugs. At one such meeting at Deep Creek Lake in Maryland, ISIq November F 1953, with seven representatives from Camp Detrick\_and three from CLA, eight of those present were administered

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LSD, which had been placed in a bottle of cointreau. Personnel
were not advised of this until 20 minutes after they had partaken
of the substance. Of the,two that did not take it one did not drink I retrimel beciuse t
alcoholic beverages and the otheris a heart condition. One of
the members ofs group, a civilian employee of the Department
of Army by the name of Frank R. Olson, had serious after-effects.
He was sent at CLA expense to New York in company of a CLA
employee where he received treatment from a psychiatrist. between the time thnt
24 November and eor he threw himself through
a window in his room on the tenth floor of the Statler Hotel at
2:30 A/M. on 28 November. CIA, through a document of 9 Dccember
1953 signed by its General Counsel, certified that the death of Dr.
Olson resulted from "circumstances arising out of an experiment
undertaken in the course of his officiai duties for the United States Hwe posiloon
Government, ástheofficial medeoente of the Agency, for the necervin
purpose of the srerof Dr. Oison taseeecompensation from
the BEC. Official reprimands were issued by the DCI to two CIA employees involved in the unwitting administering of this drug. 5. On 20 October 1952  formal policy was established by the DD/P for the use of biochemicals in clandestine operations. est|ihe
This was brought under a special funding procedurezon 3 April
1953. The program involved various means of possibly controlis

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human behaviorjof which drugs were only one aspect, others bgiup radiation, electro-shock, psychology, psychiatry, sociology.
anthropology, harrassmentssubstances and paramilitary devices and materials. Under the code nameMKULTRA/MKDELTA the
project dealtwith pharmaceuticfhouses, specialists, hospitals
and federal institutions through which a soarch was conducted
for new matcrials. Amnorg these materials were psylocbin from Mexican mushrooms, a fungus occurring in certain crops, and
LSD. After laboratory testing a second phase involved testing
on voluntary participants. The final phase involved application
to unwitting subjects,in uncontrolled sitiations,commencing in
1955 under an informal arrangement with individuals in the
Burcau of Narcotics. Such tests were conducted from time to time until 1963 when the Inspector General discovered the activity and Proiect
raised questions about it. Eooecords do not now exist but it is understood that unwitting testing was not renewed and the remainder of the program was gradually phascs ont in the late l960's. In a
number of instances the test subject was ill for hours or days Sollowing the application, with their being hospitalized in at least one case, frem19 10 Jmum 6. Project OFTEN was conducted by in which attention was given to possibly defensive drugs that could be used to protect

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was also interested in testing drugs that might induce aberrant

behavior on the part of persons to whom the materials were Lidtliniel

finally involving testing on some 20 volunteers in the laboratories

at Edgewood Arsenal. This program was terminated in