License to Kill

Kailee Conradi & Elise Hokr

In “A License to Kill,” the horrors of the CIA project MKUltra are revealed to acknowledge the consequences of these experiments. This project was conducted by Sidney Gottlieb and the goal was to find a way to gain mind control. This goal was the product of the Cold War, when the fear of mind control from other countries loomed in America’s eyes. Gottlieb tried numerous mind control techniques from noninvasive hypnosis to heavy drug inducing, and this was mainly conducted on unknowing patients. American men, women, prostitutes, Canadian mental institution patients, Nazi camp inhabitants, and even children were the main subjects of these experiments. The CIA’s agenda was to find a way to break the mind and then wire the brain to carry out the United State’s intentions.

Further Readings


Kirk, Peader. “The Performative Museum and the Site-Constructive Work of Mkultra.” Performance Research, vol. 18, no. 3, June 2013, pp. 38–46. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.proxy.lib.miamioh.edu/10.1080/13528165.2013.818312.
Kinzer, Stephen. Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search For Mind Control. Henry Holt and Company, 2019.
LISLE, JOHN. “MKULTRA: The CIA’s Shadowlands.” Skeptic, vol. 25, no. 2, Apr. 2020, pp. 56–57. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.lib.miamioh.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=146356014&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Marchean, Horia. “Somebody to Love — Cia and the Trauma of the Mkultra Program.” Acta Medica Marisiensis, vol. 66, Jan. 2020, p. 11. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.lib.miamioh.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=144675436&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
O’Neill, Tom, and Dan Piepenbring. “Inside the Archive of an LSD Researcher with Ties to the CIA’s Mkultra Mind Control Project.” The Intercept, The Intercept, 24 Nov. 2019, https://theintercept.com/2019/11/24/cia-mkultra-louis-jolyon-west/.
Ornes, Stephen. “Whatever Happened To…Mind Control?” Discover, vol. 29, no. 8, Aug. 2008, p. 10. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.lib.miamioh.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=33066321&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Shephard, Michelle. “Brainwashed: The Echoes of MK Ultra.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 21 Oct. 2020, https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/brainwashed-mkultra.

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