The Sinister Scientist Behind the CIA’s Mind-Control Mayhem
another one has roots in reality.
"For much of his 22-year CIA career, Gottlieb ran mind-control projects designed to help America defeat Communism. In the ’50s and ’60s, Kinzer writes, Gottlieb “directed the application of unknowable quantities and varieties of drugs into” countless people, searching for the narcotic recipe that might allow him to mold his human test subjects’ thoughts and actions."
The irony of all our Cold War efforts to defeat Communism is that the most effective way was to simply treat people better, pay workers better, improve working conditions and standard of living. Simple things like that could work wonders towards turning people away from Communism.
But rather than take a rational, reasonable, and effective approach like that, our Cold Warriors instead chose to embark on some rather strange programs and bizarre tactics.
Some historians may look back at some of the figures from that earlier era and portray them as obsessed, paranoid loons. People like J. Edgar Hoover, Richard Nixon, Joe McCarthy, Barry Goldwater, or Generals like MacArthur and Patton, who are remembered as great generals, but a bit war wacky. One might well wonder how much of this paranoia and diseased thinking permeates into the lower ranks.
I recall seeing a lecture by G. Gordon Liddy in the early 80s while he was touring the lecture circuit and promoting his book. I never did buy his book, but I did find his lecture interesting. I've also met a number of others over the years who echoed the same basic argument that "the world is a horrible place and that the only way to survive is to be just as horrible as they are." A famous and dramatic portrayal of this same basic argument can be found in the "You can't handle the truth" scene in
A Few Good Men.
The basic idea is that the government had to engage in certain "necessary evils" in order to achieve a "greater good." It's touted as more practical and realistic than the idealistic, peace-loving naivete advocated by "do-gooder, bleeding heart liberals."
