MKUltra

Authorised in 1953, most of its records were destroyed in 1973; about 20,000 surviving documents surfaced in 1977 through a Freedom of Information request. Because a documented government mind-control programme genuinely existed, it has become the root of a much larger body of unrelated and unfounded conspiracy claims.

CIA Director Allen Dulles's authorisation (13 April 1953); the Rockefeller Commission and Church Committee reports (1975); Project MKULTRA, the CIA's Program of Research in Behavioral Modification, Joint Hearing, US Senate (1977); John Marks, The Search for the 'Manchurian Candidate' (1979)