The Cold War and the CIA's Mind Control Program

"There are so many ways to manipulate the behavior of a person who is weaker than you through pain," he says. "Some of the most successful interrogators were not violent they just offered people the cookies or a car or something." The CIA's mind control program started with some guys misinterpreting an idea in Washington, D.C., and then freaking each other out into apocalypse-style chaos by trying to stop it from going off according to author Julian Zelizer.