A Compendium of 89 Documented Covert and Controversial Actions in U.S. History

Introduction

This compendium serves as a catalogue of documented, declassified, and verifiable events from United States history. The facts presented here, sourced from public records, congressional inquiries, and official investigations, span a wide range of government activities, from unethical human experiments conducted on unwitting citizens to covert foreign interventions and expansive domestic surveillance programs. The purpose of this document is not to promote a specific theory, but to present a structured list of these historical events for professional review and understanding. By organizing these actions thematically, this collection aims to reveal overarching patterns in the exercise of state power and the persistent tension between national security and individual liberty.

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1. Unethical Human Experimentation

This section details a series of medical and biological experiments, often conducted under the guise of national security or scientific advancement throughout the 20th century. A critical examination of these events, drawn from declassified records and survivor testimony, reveals a consistent pattern of targeting vulnerable populations—including racial minorities, the poor, prisoners, and the disabled—without their informed consent. Understanding this history is essential for appreciating the strategic and ethical failures that can occur when scientific inquiry is divorced from moral accountability.

• The Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932-1972): For 40 years, the U.S. Public Health Service conducted a study on nearly 400 Black men in Alabama who had syphilis. The men were deliberately denied treatment, including penicillin after it became the standard cure, so that researchers could observe the disease's full progression. This resulted in 28 direct deaths, over 100 deaths from related complications, and the infection of numerous wives and children.
• MK-Ultra (1953-1973): Declassified files confirm this was a covert CIA mind-control program that involved administering LSD and other drugs to thousands of unwitting Americans. Test subjects included prisoners, mental patients, and random citizens, some of whom were lured to a CIA-funded brothel where agents observed them through one-way mirrors. Most records of the program were intentionally destroyed in 1973 by order of the CIA Director.
• Radiation Experiments on Pregnant Women (1940s-50s): At Vanderbilt University and other institutions, hundreds of pregnant women were given radioactive iron disguised as "vitamin supplements." The goal was to track how radiation passes from a mother to a fetus to better understand the effects of nuclear fallout. The women were not informed of the radioactive nature of the supplements, and a follow-up study suggested a link to higher rates of childhood cancer.
• Operation Sea-Spray (1950): The U.S. Navy conducted a secret test to simulate a biological weapon attack by spraying clouds of bacteria (Serratia marcescens and Bacillus globigii) over San Francisco for six days. Though the military considered the bacteria harmless, the experiment was followed by a spike in pneumonia cases and was linked to the death of at least one resident, Edward Nevin.
• Project Sunshine (1950s): To measure the levels of strontium-90 from nuclear fallout in human bones, this program secretly collected over 1,500 body parts—including legs, ribs, and spines—from recently deceased babies and children around the world. The tissue was harvested during autopsies without parental knowledge or consent and shipped to the United States for testing.
• Guatemala Syphilis Experiments (1946-1948): In a program that predated the Tuskegee study, U.S. Public Health Service doctors deliberately infected nearly 700 Guatemalans with syphilis and gonorrhea without their consent to test the effectiveness of penicillin. The subjects, who included prisoners, soldiers, and psychiatric patients, were used as human guinea pigs, resulting in at least 83 deaths.
• Chemical Weapons Testing on U.S. Cities (1950s-60s): The U.S. Army secretly sprayed potentially carcinogenic zinc cadmium sulfide over numerous cities, including St. Louis and Minneapolis, from planes and rooftops. These tests were designed to study the dispersal patterns of chemical agents, using millions of unwitting citizens as test subjects.
• Edgewood Arsenal Experiments (1955-1975): Over 7,000 U.S. soldiers were used as human subjects in chemical warfare experiments at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland. They were deliberately exposed to agents including LSD, PCP, sarin, and VX nerve gas, often without full knowledge of the substances or their long-term health risks.
• Mustard Gas Tests Segregated by Race (WWII): During World War II, the U.S. military deliberately exposed approximately 60,000 American soldiers to mustard gas to test equipment and observe the chemical's effects. Declassified records show these experiments were segregated by race, with specific tests designed to determine if Black and Puerto Rican soldiers reacted differently to the chemical agent than white soldiers.
• Project SHAD (1962-1973): Under the Shipboard Hazard and Defense (SHAD) program, the Department of Defense exposed thousands of U.S. Navy sailors to live nerve agents like sarin and VX, as well as various biological agents. The sailors were told they were testing decontamination procedures and were unaware they were being directly exposed to weaponized toxins.
• Radioactive Cereal for Disabled Children (1940s-50s): Researchers from MIT and Harvard, with funding from Quaker Oats, fed mentally disabled children at the Fernald State School oatmeal and milk laced with radioactive isotopes. The children were told they were joining a "science club" and were not informed that they were subjects in an experiment to study mineral absorption.
• Biological Agents Tested on Subway Systems (1960s): To study the dissemination of biological weapons in a dense urban environment, the U.S. Army released bacteria (Bacillus subtilis) into the New York City subway system. The test, which was not disclosed to the public until years later, exposed over a million people to the bacteria.
• Biological Weapons Tested on Prisoners: American prisoners were used as test subjects for potential bioweapons, deliberately infected with various pathogens to study disease patterns and test the efficacy of vaccines. This practice took place in a coercive environment where true informed consent was impossible.
• Downwinders and Atomic Testing (1945-1962): Over 100 atmospheric nuclear tests conducted in Nevada exposed thousands of civilians in Utah, Nevada, and Arizona to radioactive fallout. These "downwinders" experienced skyrocketing cancer rates, while government officials publicly insisted the tests were safe and failed to warn them of the risks.
• Frank Olsen's Death (1953): Frank Olsen, a CIA biochemist, died after falling from a 13th-floor hotel window just nine days after being unwittingly dosed with LSD as part of MK-Ultra. Initially ruled a suicide, a later exhumation and forensic analysis found evidence suggesting he had been struck on the head before his fall, leading his family to believe he was murdered.

The exposure of these experiments, from Tuskegee to Project SHAD, ultimately forced a reckoning within the American medical and military establishments, leading to the creation of institutional review boards and stricter ethical codes. However, they left a lasting legacy of mistrust in government among the vulnerable communities they targeted.

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2. Domestic Surveillance, Disruption, and Control

This section documents a consistent strategy, from J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO to the post-9/11 NSA, of leveraging the national security apparatus to neutralize domestic dissent. These operations, often targeting specific individuals like Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lennon, reveal a pattern of federal agencies employing illegal surveillance and psychological warfare against American citizens and political movements deemed subversive.

• Operation Northwoods (1962): This was a proposal drafted and approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to stage false flag terrorist attacks on American soil to create a pretext for invading Cuba. Declassified memoranda show the plan included bombing U.S. cities, hijacking planes, and sinking a boat of Cuban refugees, all to be blamed on Fidel Castro. The proposal was ultimately rejected by President John F. Kennedy.
• COINTELPRO (1956-1971): The FBI's Counterintelligence Program was a secret operation designed to surveil, infiltrate, discredit, and disrupt domestic political organizations. Its targets included civil rights activists, anti-war protesters, and the Black Panther Party. Internal FBI documents show Director J. Edgar Hoover personally approved operations to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" these groups.
• FBI's Suicide Letter to Martin Luther King Jr. (1964): The FBI sent an anonymous letter to Dr. King that used information gathered from illegal wiretaps to label him a fraud and implicitly suggest he commit suicide. The letter was sent just before he was due to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, with the implied threat of public exposure if he did not comply.
• Poisoned Alcohol During Prohibition (1920s-30s): The U.S. government ordered industrial alcohol manufacturers to add toxic chemicals, including methanol and benzene, to their products. Officials knew this alcohol was being stolen for bootleg liquor; instead of deterring drinking, the policy is estimated to have caused at least 10,000 deaths. On Christmas Eve 1926 alone, 60 people died in New York City from the poisoned liquor.
• FBI Surveillance of John Lennon (1970s): Due to his vocal opposition to the Vietnam War, the FBI placed John Lennon under surveillance, tracked his movements, and worked with immigration services to try to have him deported. The Bureau compiled a 300-page dossier on the musician in an effort to neutralize his political influence.
• FBI Surveillance of Albert Einstein: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover considered Albert Einstein a security risk due to his pacifism, support for civil rights, and advocacy for nuclear disarmament. As a result, the FBI compiled a 1,427-page file on the physicist, monitoring his activities and associations for decades.
• NSA Warrantless Surveillance Before Snowden: Testimony before the Church Committee in the 1970s exposed decades of illegal surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) long before the Edward Snowden revelations. Programs like Project Shamrock involved the mass, warrantless interception of millions of private telegrams sent by American citizens.
• NSA Metadata Collection: As revealed by Edward Snowden, the NSA operated a program to collect the metadata—who, when, where, and for how long—on nearly every phone call made in the United States. This created a vast and searchable database of the social connections and daily activities of millions of Americans.
• FBI Agents Provocateurs in Anti-War Movement: As a tactic under COINTELPRO, the FBI planted agents within anti-war groups to act as provocateurs. These agents encouraged violence, sowed internal division, and committed illegal acts to discredit the movements and make them appear extremist.
• FBI Sexual Blackmail Operations: J. Edgar Hoover maintained secret files containing compromising information on the private lives of politicians, judges, and other prominent figures. The threat of exposing extramarital affairs or other sensitive details was used as leverage to ensure political compliance and protect the FBI's institutional power.
• FBI Assassination of Fred Hampton (1969): An FBI informant provided law enforcement with a detailed floor plan of the apartment of Fred Hampton, a 21-year-old Black Panther leader, specifically marking the location of his bed. Police fired over 90 shots into the apartment while only one shot was fired from inside, killing Hampton as he slept. Subsequent evidence suggests he was likely drugged that night.
• FBI File on Aretha Franklin: The renowned singer was the subject of a 700-page FBI file due to her association with civil rights activists like Angela Davis and her performances at movement-related events. The Bureau monitored her for decades, viewing her support for civil rights as a potential security concern.
• The Pat Tillman Cover-Up (2004): After former NFL player Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan, the U.S. Army deliberately fabricated a story that he died heroically in combat. The military knew he was killed by friendly fire but concealed this fact, destroyed evidence, and ordered soldiers to lie to his family and the public for propaganda purposes. The truth emerged only after Tillman's family relentlessly demanded answers.
• Weaponizing the Term "Conspiracy Theorist": A 1967 CIA memo instructed stations on how to counter and discredit critics of the Warren Commission's report on the JFK assassination. The memo recommended labeling them "conspiracy theorists" and using "propaganda assets" in the media to portray their arguments as baseless, effectively weaponizing the term to dismiss dissent.
• FBI File on John Denver: The popular folk singer was monitored by the FBI for his activism against nuclear power and his support for environmental causes during the 1s and 80s. His advocacy was considered noteworthy enough to warrant a surveillance file.
• FBI Surveillance of the Catholic Worker Movement: The pacifist Catholic movement founded by Dorothy Day, known for its non-violent opposition to war and its work with the poor, was under FBI surveillance for decades. The Bureau considered the movement a potential threat due to its principled anti-war stance.
• Anthrax Attacks and the Wrong Man (2001): During the "Amerithrax" investigation, the FBI publicly named bioweapons expert Dr. Steven Hatfill as a person of interest, destroying his career before he was exonerated. The Bureau later closed the case by blaming Dr. Bruce Ivans, who died by suicide before he could be charged, leaving significant doubts about the evidence.

These domestic operations highlight a troubling history of the state turning its intelligence and law enforcement apparatus against its own citizens, often extending into covert actions abroad.

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3. Covert Foreign Interventions and War Crimes

The strategic imperatives of the Cold War and the post-9/11 "War on Terror" have been used to justify a wide array of covert operations, military interventions, and alliances with authoritarian regimes. The actions documented in this section often led to the overthrow of democratic governments, the empowerment of brutal dictators, and devastating long-term consequences for civilian populations, revealing a foreign policy frequently detached from stated American values.

• Operation Paperclip (Post-WWII): This secret U.S. intelligence program recruited over 1,600 Nazi scientists and engineers after World War II. Their records, which often included involvement in war crimes, were whitewashed, and they were brought to America to work on strategic projects like NASA's space program.
• The Iran-Contra Affair (1980s): The Reagan administration orchestrated an illegal scheme to secretly sell weapons to Iran, then an embargoed state sponsor of terrorism. The profits from these sales were then illegally funneled to fund the right-wing Contra rebels in Nicaragua, in direct violation of a congressional ban.
• The Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964): The Johnson administration used a reported "second attack" on a U.S. Navy ship as the pretext to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which dramatically escalated the Vietnam War. Declassified NSA documents later confirmed this second attack never happened, with President Johnson himself privately admitting, "For all I know our Navy was shooting at whales out there."
• CIA-Backed Coups of Democratic Leaders: Declassified records confirm the CIA orchestrated coups that overthrew democratically elected leaders deemed contrary to U.S. interests. Documented cases include Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), the Congo (1960), and Chile (1973), all of which resulted in the installation of brutal dictatorships and prolonged civil conflict.
• The Secret War in Laos (1964-1973): The CIA conducted a secret, nine-year bombing campaign in neutral Laos to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The U.S. dropped over two million tons of bombs—more than all the bombs dropped on Germany and Japan in WWII combined—making Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in history.
• Secret Bombing of Cambodia (1969-1973): The Nixon administration authorized a four-year secret carpet bombing campaign in neutral Cambodia. The source context notes that for 100 days straight, the U.S. dropped 32 tons of bombs per hour on the country. This campaign destabilized Cambodia and is widely credited with helping create the conditions for the rise of the genocidal Khmer Rouge.
• CIA Cocaine Trafficking Connections (1980s): A CIA Inspector General report later confirmed allegations that the agency knowingly looked the other way while its-backed Contra rebels smuggled cocaine into U.S. cities like Los Angeles. This operation helped fuel the crack epidemic of the 1980s.
• Funding the Mujahideen in Afghanistan (1980s): In Operation Cyclone, the CIA's largest-ever covert operation, the U.S. funneled over $3 billion in weapons and training to Afghan fighters resisting the Soviet invasion. This support network included religious extremists who would later form the core of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
• Selling Chemical Weapon Precursors to Saddam Hussein (1980s): The Reagan administration removed Iraq from the list of state sponsors of terror to facilitate the sale of chemical and biological precursors for sarin, VX nerve gas, and anthrax. These sales occurred while the U.S. government knew Saddam Hussein was actively using chemical weapons against Iran.
• Supporting Indonesian Death Squads (1965): The U.S. government provided support to Indonesia's military during its anti-communist purge, which resulted in the deaths of 500,000 to 1 million people. The U.S. supplied communications equipment and lists of thousands of suspected communists to be targeted.
• Supporting Death Squads in El Salvador (1980s): The U.S. provided over $1 billion in military aid and training to the government of El Salvador, whose U.S.-trained death squads murdered tens of thousands of civilians, including labor organizers, clergy, and four American churchwomen.
• Supporting Apartheid South Africa: During the Cold War, the U.S. maintained close political and intelligence ties with the white supremacist apartheid regime in South Africa. It opposed economic sanctions and officially classified Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) as a terrorist organization until 2008.
• Supporting the Khmer Rouge at the U.N. (1980s): After the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime was overthrown by Vietnam, the U.S. used its diplomatic power to back a coalition that included the Khmer Rouge as the official representative of Cambodia at the United Nations. This was a Cold War tactic aimed at punishing Soviet-aligned Vietnam.
• Supporting Jonas Savimbi in Angola: For decades, the CIA provided funding and weapons to Jonas Savimbi, an Angolan rebel leader whose brutal forces were responsible for massacres, the use of child soldiers, and the deaths of at least 500,000 people in the country's protracted civil war.
• Supporting Genocide in East Timor (1975): Declassified records show President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave a "green light" to Indonesia's President Suharto to invade East Timor. For the next 24 years, the U.S. supplied weapons and diplomatic cover while Indonesian forces killed up to a third of East Timor's population.
• Air America and the Heroin Trade (Vietnam War): The CIA-owned airline, Air America, was documented to have transported opium for its Hmong allies in Laos. This facilitated a heroin trade that supplied addiction among American soldiers in Vietnam and international markets.
• Deliberate Hospital Bombings in North Vietnam: Despite public denials, declassified documents and photographic evidence show that U.S. forces repeatedly and deliberately bombed marked civilian hospitals in North Vietnam during the war.
• The Kunduz Hospital Bombing (2015): A U.S. airstrike destroyed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 42 patients and medical staff. The attack continued for over an hour despite the facility being clearly marked and its GPS coordinates having been provided to the military. No criminal charges were filed.
• The USS Liberty Incident (1967): During the Six-Day War, Israeli forces attacked the USS Liberty, a U.S. naval intelligence ship, killing 34 American crew members. The official explanation was mistaken identity, but many survivors and intelligence officials believe the attack was deliberate and that the U.S. government suppressed the investigation.
• The CIA Torture Program (Post-9/11): The CIA operated a network of secret "black sites" where detainees were subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques." A Senate Intelligence Committee report later concluded the program was brutal, ineffective, and that the CIA had misrepresented its methods and results to officials.
• Depleted Uranium in Iraq: The extensive use of depleted uranium munitions in the Gulf and Iraq Wars has been linked to dramatic increases in birth defects and childhood cancers in heavily bombed areas like Fallujah. The radioactive and toxic dust created by these weapons contaminates soil and water for generations.
• WMD Lies Leading to the Iraq War (2003): The Bush administration justified the invasion of Iraq on the claim that it possessed weapons of mass destruction. This claim was later proven to be based on manipulated, exaggerated, and false intelligence, with no such weapons ever found.
• Fake Vaccination Program in Pakistan (2011): The CIA used a fake hepatitis vaccination program in Abbottabad to secretly collect DNA samples to confirm Osama bin Laden's location. The exposure of this operation led to a widespread collapse of trust in vaccination efforts across the region and was linked to the murder of polio workers.
• The CIA and the Dalai Lama: During the 1960s, the CIA secretly provided the Dalai Lama's administration with $1.7 million a year and trained Tibetan guerilla fighters to resist Chinese occupation. The program was abruptly abandoned when U.S. foreign policy shifted to normalize relations with China.
• Fake Cuban Exile Groups (1960s): As part of Operation Mongoose, the CIA created and funded fake Cuban exile organizations to create the public illusion of a widespread, grassroots movement demanding a U.S. invasion of Cuba.
• Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: These broadcast stations were secretly created and funded by the CIA during the Cold War to act as propaganda tools. They transmitted anti-communist news and cultural programming into Soviet-controlled territories to undermine state authority.
• Over 50 Government Overthrows Since WWII: Since the end of World War II, the United States has attempted to overthrow or successfully overthrown more than 50 foreign governments through a combination of military invasions, CIA-backed coups, and other covert operations.

These interventions illustrate a recurring pattern of prioritizing geopolitical advantage over democratic principles, often leading to systemic injustices both abroad and at home.

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4. Systemic Injustice and Institutional Deception

Beyond specific covert operations, this section examines broader, institutionalized patterns of injustice, racial discrimination, and official deception. From the legacy of slavery to modern mass incarceration, these facts reveal how systemic failures and deliberate policies have shaped American society, often with devastating consequences for marginalized communities.

• Forced Displacement of Japanese Americans (1942): Under Executive Order 9066, 120,000 Japanese Americans—two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens—were forcibly removed from their homes and imprisoned in internment camps. This action was based solely on their ethnicity, not on any evidence of disloyalty.
• Involuntary Servitude Through Convict Leasing (Post-Civil War): Southern states exploited a loophole in the 13th Amendment, which banned slavery "except as a punishment for crime." They arrested Black people for minor offenses and leased them as forced labor to private corporations, creating a brutal system of neo-slavery.
• Forced Sterilization Programs (1907-1970s): Under state-run eugenics laws, over 60,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized. The targets were disproportionately poor people, people of color, and the disabled, in a practice upheld by the Supreme Court in Buck v. Bell (1927).
• The Reagan Administration's Ignoring of AIDS (1980s): For years at the start of the AIDS epidemic, the Reagan administration maintained public silence and resisted funding for research or public health campaigns. President Reagan did not publicly mention the word "AIDS" until 1987, by which point over 20,000 Americans had already died from the disease.
• No Reparations for Slavery: Despite discussions of providing formerly enslaved people with "40 acres and a mule," no federal reparations were ever paid to them or their descendants for 246 years of stolen labor and systemic brutality.
• No Official Government Apology for Slavery: While Congress has passed non-binding resolutions expressing regret, the United States government has never issued a formal, official apology for the institution of slavery.
• The My Lai Massacre Cover-Up (1968): The U.S. Army covered up the murder of up to 504 unarmed Vietnamese civilians by American soldiers for over a year. The massacre was initially reported as a military victory, and the truth was only exposed by an investigative journalist.
• Government Lies About Agent Orange: For decades, the military assured soldiers that the chemical defoliant Agent Orange was harmless. It then systematically denied its connection to the cancers, neurological disorders, and birth defects suffered by thousands of American veterans and millions of Vietnamese people.
• Gulf War Syndrome Lies: For years, the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs denied the existence of Gulf War Syndrome, dismissing the chronic illnesses reported by thousands of veterans as psychological. It was only after extensive study that the government acknowledged a physical cause linked to toxic exposures.
• Highest Incarceration Rate in History: With less than 5% of the world's population, the United States has nearly 25% of its prisoners. The U.S. imprisons its citizens at a higher rate than any other country in the world, surpassing even the Soviet Union's gulag system at its peak.
• The U.S. is the Sole Non-Ratifier of the Children's Rights Convention: The United States is the only member state of the United Nations that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history.
• Discrediting Gary Webb: After journalist Gary Webb published his "Dark Alliance" series exposing CIA connections to cocaine trafficking, he was professionally destroyed by a coordinated media and government campaign. Years later, the CIA's own internal reports largely vindicated his findings. Webb died in 2004 from two gunshot wounds to the head; his death was ruled a suicide, and his reputation was not restored until long afterward.
• The CIA Destroyed MK-Ultra Records (1973): To prevent the discovery of the illegal mind-control program by congressional investigators, CIA Director Richard Helms ordered the destruction of an estimated 90% of all records related to MK-Ultra. This act ensured the full extent of the abuses will never be known.
• No Acknowledgment for COINTELPRO Victims: Despite the FBI's COINTELPRO program being exposed and deemed illegal, there has never been a systematic government process to identify, compensate, or apologize to the thousands of individuals and groups who were harmed by its campaigns of illegal harassment and disruption.
• Whistleblowers Punished, Not Protected: Many of the revelations in this compendium came from whistleblowers like Daniel Ellsberg, Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning. Rather than being protected, they faced prosecution, exile, and imprisonment for exposing government wrongdoing.

These examples underscore the profound and lasting impact of institutional deceit, which often takes decades to uncover and sometimes results in bizarre and unconventional operations.

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5. The Unconventional, the Unexplained, and the Absurd

This final collection of facts highlights the sheer breadth and at times bizarre nature of government operations. It covers everything from failed espionage experiments and cultural propaganda initiatives to enduring mysteries that remain shrouded in official secrecy, demonstrating that the boundaries of state action can extend into the truly strange and unexpected.

• The Business Plot (1933): This was an alleged political conspiracy in which wealthy industrialists planned to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install a fascist dictator. The plot was exposed when their chosen leader, Major General Smedley Butler, testified to Congress. Congressional hearings confirmed a plot existed, but the names of the powerful figures involved were redacted and no one was prosecuted.
• Operation Midnight Climax (1954-1963): A sub-project of MK-Ultra, this operation involved the CIA hiring prostitutes to lure men to safe-house brothels, where they were dosed with LSD. CIA agents observed their behavior through two-way mirrors, with the officer in charge, George White, later writing of his work, "it was fun, fun, fun."
• Project Acoustic Kitty (1960s): This was a $20 million CIA project that attempted to turn cats into mobile spying platforms by surgically implanting microphones and transmitters into them. The project was abandoned after its first field test allegedly ended with the cat being immediately hit by a taxi.
• CIA-Funded Abstract Expressionism: During the Cold War, the CIA secretly promoted and funded American abstract expressionist artists like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Their work was exhibited worldwide as a form of cultural propaganda to showcase American "freedom and creativity" in contrast to Soviet socialist realism.
• Lost Nuclear Weapons ("Broken Arrows"): The U.S. military has officially lost at least six nuclear weapons that have never been recovered. These "Broken Arrow" incidents include a bomb lost off the coast of Georgia and another at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
• Still-Classified JFK Assassination Files: More than 60 years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, thousands of government documents related to the event remain fully or partially classified, with the government citing ongoing "national security concerns."
• Classified UFO / UAP Documents: The Pentagon has recently acknowledged that it investigates Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs). However, thousands of documents, pilot reports, and sensor data related to these military encounters remain classified.
• Classified September 11th Saudi Connections: For years, 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission Report detailing possible connections between Saudi government officials and the hijackers remained classified. Even after their release, significant information on the topic remains sealed from public view.
• Gain-of-Function Research Funding in Wuhan: The U.S. government, through the National Institutes of Health, provided funding for risky "gain-of-function" coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the same city where the COVID-19 pandemic originated.
• Infected Blankets at Fort Pitt (1763): In a documented act of early biological warfare on American soil, British colonial officers deliberately gave smallpox-infected blankets to Native American representatives during a peace negotiation. This tactic was part of a pattern of colonial warfare that the U.S. government would later inherit.
• America at War 93% of its Existence: Statistical analysis shows that since 1776, the United States has been at war for approximately 231 out of its 249 years of existence, making peacetime an exception rather than the norm in American history.
• Hypnosis in MK-Ultra: Beyond drug experiments, the CIA's MK-Ultra program also invested heavily in researching hypnosis. The stated goal was to determine if it was possible to create "Manchurian candidate"-style assassins who could be programmed to carry out acts without any memory of them.
• Operation Mockingbird: This was a CIA program initiated in the 1950s to influence domestic and foreign media by recruiting journalists from major news organizations. These journalists were used to plant propaganda, gather intelligence, and shape news coverage in line with CIA objectives.
• Use of Napalm on Children in Vietnam: The U.S. military made extensive use of napalm, an incendiary agent that sticks to skin and burns at extreme temperatures. The horrific impact of this weapon on civilians, including children, was immortalized in the iconic 1972 photograph of a young, burned girl, Phan Thị Kim Phúc.
• Classified Details of Waco and Ruby Ridge: Decades after the deadly federal sieges at Ruby Ridge (1992) and Waco (1993), significant portions of the official record remain classified. This includes key documents like FBI rules of engagement and surveillance logs, preventing a full public accounting of the events.

Conclusion

The common threads running through this compendium are undeniable. Whether it is the CIA's deliberate destruction of MK-Ultra records to evade oversight, the Army's fabrication of Pat Tillman's death for propaganda purposes, or the decades-long denial of harm from Agent Orange, the pattern of institutional deception to protect the state at the expense of the individual is the central, unifying theme of this history. From clandestine medical trials to illegal surveillance and covert wars, these actions were almost invariably justified by appeals to national security or scientific progress. The exposure of these programs underscores the critical role of whistleblowers, a free press, and congressional oversight in bringing such facts to light. Acknowledging this documented history is not an exercise in cynicism, but a necessary foundation for maintaining vigilance and demanding transparency in a democratic society.