As the CIA promoted the belief that Communists had mastered “brainwashing” techniques, the Agency fell under the spell of its own propaganda. Allen Dulles and other senior officers were seized by the fear that they were losing a decisive race. That led them not only to justify extreme drug experiments, but to convince themselves that America’s national security demanded them. “There was deep concern over the issue of brainwashing,” Richard Helms explained years later.
