Project BlueBird

• Name: Project BLUEBIRD

• Dates Active: Officially launched April 20, 1950

• Parent Agency: CIA’s Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI)

• Purpose:

  1. To control human behavior through special interrogation methods.

  2. To protect U.S. agents from enemy attempts at brainwashing.

  3. To develop techniques to make subjects reveal information against their will.

BLUEBIRD was directly born out of early Cold War paranoia — fears that the Soviets, Chinese, and North Koreans were developing “mind control” methods, particularly after sensational claims of “brainwashing” American POWs during the Korean War.

Why It Was Created

The U.S. government had multiple motivations:

1. Fear of Communist “Mind Weapons”
   Intelligence reports claimed the USSR was experimenting with hypnosis, psychoactive drugs, and psychological torture.

2. Post-WWII Scientific Loot
   Through Operation Paperclip, the U.S. had access to Nazi and Japanese scientists who had performed human experiments in concentration camps and Unit 731. The CIA wanted to exploit their knowledge.

3. Korean War Incidents
   U.S. POWs made propaganda statements for their captors, fueling belief in "brainwashing."

4. Desire for Interrogation Superiority
   The CIA wanted to ensure it could interrogate spies and defectors with more success than traditional methods allowed.

Main Objectives

According to declassified documents, BLUEBIRD had three stated goals:

1. Learn how to condition individuals — to prevent unauthorized extraction of information from CIA agents.

2. Control behavior — to create altered personalities or induce amnesia in subjects.

3. Coerce confessions or compliance — without leaving obvious physical evidence.

Techniques Explored

BLUEBIRD was experimental and covered a wide range of mind and body manipulation:

1. Drug Use

• Sodium Pentothal and Sodium Amytal (barbiturate “truth serums”).

• Scopolamine (used historically in interrogations to induce confusion).

• Early trials with LSD (before it became MKUltra’s main focus).

• Cocktail mixes: barbiturates to relax, followed by stimulants to increase talking.

2. Hypnosis

• Attempted to use hypnosis to:

  • Create split personalities.

  • Induce post-hypnotic amnesia.

  • Plant false memories.

  • Make subjects carry out actions without remembering them.

3. Combination Methods

• Hypnosis + Drugs: Using sedatives to lower resistance before hypnotic suggestion.

• Sleep deprivation + sensory isolation + drugging to break mental defenses.

4. Covert Delivery Methods

• Early experiments in slipping drugs into drinks or cigarettes.

• Inhalation via aerosols in closed rooms.

Early Experiments

BLUEBIRD operated in both domestic and overseas locations:

• U.S. military bases.

• CIA black sites in Europe and Asia.

• Prisons and hospitals (often without patients’ consent).

• Experiments on suspected double agents, defectors, and foreign prisoners.

One notable feature: BLUEBIRD was the first U.S. intelligence program to actively test mind control on unwitting subjects, which set the legal and ethical precedent for ARTICHOKE and MKUltra.

Transition to ARTICHOKE

By August 1951, BLUEBIRD was officially renamed Project ARTICHOKE. The change wasn’t just cosmetic — ARTICHOKE expanded the program’s scope:

• More emphasis on creating “Manchurian Candidate” assassins.

• Deeper exploration of extreme physical and psychological stress.

• Testing more dangerous chemical agents.

Legacy

• BLUEBIRD’s files show that almost all the “innovations” of MKUltra — LSD dosing, hypnotic programming, sensory deprivation, use of unwitting subjects — began here.

• It’s the missing link between WWII Nazi/Japanese experiments and the 1950s CIA’s domestic/foreign mind control programs.

• While MKUltra became a household name after the Church Committee hearings in the 1970s, BLUEBIRD was less well known — partly because it was buried under layers of classification and partly because it was renamed so quickly.

Declassified Evidence

Some surviving CIA documents detail:

• Testing of “memory erasure” via electroconvulsive therapy combined with drugs.

• Hypnotic “trigger” words meant to cause specific actions.

• The idea of creating “compartmented personalities” — one personality for normal life, another for covert operations.

Key Figures

• Allen Dulles — CIA Director who expanded mind control research.

• Richard Helms — Future CIA Director, later oversaw MKUltra.

• Dr. Sidney Gottlieb — CIA chemist who began under BLUEBIRD and became MKUltra’s lead.

• Morris “Moe” Allen — Hypnotist contracted for early experiments.