MKULTRA Records Destruction (1973) — Ordered, Executed, Protested
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The man who ordered the files destroyed admitted it wasn't the normal procedure.
Who they are
CIA director Richard Helms, who in 1973 authorised Sidney Gottlieb to destroy the MKULTRA records.
What they do
The destruction happened, and one of Gottlieb's own assistants objected to it.
How it works
The objection was that the agency had spent millions and 'the reconstruction of the research and development program would be difficult if not impossible, without the documents'. Asked whether the destruction followed regular procedure, Helms said: 'anything outside of that, I suppose, would have been unusual. In other words, there were documents being destroyed because somebody had raised this specific issue rather than because they were encompassed in the regular records destruction.'
Why it matters
It was not routine housekeeping and the man who ordered it said so. His own people warned at the time that the programme could never be reconstructed afterwards.
The engine's record — word for word
[Report #191] Richard Helms authorised Sidney Gottlieb to destroy the MKULTRA records in 1973. Per the 1977 Joint Hearing, the agency had 'spent millions of dollars developing both materials and delivery systems which could be used by the Clandestine Services; the reconstruction of the research and development program would be difficult if not impossible, without the documents, and at least one assistant to Dr. Gottlieb protested against the document destruction on those grounds.' Helms, asked by the Select Committee whether the procedure was regular, verbatim: 'Well, that's hard to say whether it would be part of the regular procedure or not, because the record destruction program is conducted according to a certain pattern. There's a regular record destruction pattern in the Agency monitored by certain people and done a certain way. So that anything outside of that, I suppose, would have been unusual. In other words, there were documents being destroyed because somebody had raised this specific issue rather than because they were encompassed in the regular records destruction [program].'
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