SUBJECT: BRAINWASHING - CIA REPORT FILE: UFO2681
SEE NOTES AT END FOR INFO ON SOURCES OF THESE DOCUMENTS
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON 25, D. C.
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR
25 APR 1956
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
MEMORANDUM FOR: The Honorable J. Edgar Hoover
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
SUBJECT : Brainwashing
The attached study on brainwashing was prepared by my staff
in response to the increasing acute interest in the subject
throughout the intelligence and security components of the
Government. I feel you will find it well worth your personal
attention. It represents the thinking of leading
psychologists, psychiatrists and intelligence specialists,
based in turn on interviews with many individuals who have had
personal experience with Communist brainwashing, and on
extensive research and testing. While individuals specialists
hold divergent views on various aspects of this most complex
subject, I believe the study reflects a synthesis of majority
expert opinion. I will, of course, appreciate any comments on
it that you or your staff may have.
(signed)
Allen W. Dulles
Director
ENCLOSURE
OA 53-37
--------------------------------------------------------------
A REPORT ON COMMUNIST BRAINWASHING
The report that follows is a condensation of a study by train-
ing experts of the important classified and unclassified
information available on this subject.
BACKGROUND
Brainwashing, as a technique, has been used for centuries and
is no mystery to psychologists. In this sense, brainwashing
means involuntary re-education of basic beliefs and values.
All people are being re-educated continually. New information
changes one's beliefs. Everyone has experienced to some degree
the conflict that ensues when new information is not
consistent with prior belief. The experience of the
brainwashed individual differs in that the inconsistent
information is forced upon the individual under controlled
conditions after the possibility of critical judgment has been
removed by a variety of methods.
There is no question that an individual can be broken
psychologically by captors with knowledge and willingness to
persist in techniques aimed at deliberately destroying the
integration of a personality. Although it is probable that
everyone reduced to such a confused, disoriented state will
respond to the introduction of new beliefs, this cannot be
stated dogmatically.
PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN CONTROL AND REACTION TO CONTROL
There are progressive steps in exercising control over an
individual and changing his behaviour and personality
integration. The following five steps are typical of behaviour
changes in any controlled individual:
1. Making the individual aware of control is the first stage
in changing his behaviour. A small child is made aware of
the physical and psychological control of his parents and
quickly recognizes that an overwhelming force must be
reckoned with. So, a controlled adult comes to recognize
the overwhelming powers of the state and the impersonal,
"incarcerative" machinery in which he is enmeshed. The
individual recognizes that definite limits have been put
upon the ways he can respond.
2. Realization of his complete dependence upon the
controlling system is a major factor in the controlling
of his behavior.The controlled adult is forced to accept
the fact that food, tobacco,praise, and the only social
contact that he will get come from the very interrogator
who exercises control over him.
3. The awareness of control and recognition of dependence
result in causing internal conflict and breakdown of
previous patterns of behaviour. Although this transition
can be relatively mild in the case of a child, it is
almost invariably severe for the adult undergoing
brainwashing. Only an individual who holds his values
lightly can change them easily. Since the brainwasher-
interrogators aim to have the individuals undergo
profound emotional change, they force their victims to
seek out painfully what is desired by the controlling
individual. During this period the victim is likely to
have a mental breakdown characterized by delusions and
hallucinations.
4. Discovery that there is an acceptable solution to his
problem is the first stage of reducing the individual's
conflict. It is characteristically reported by victims of
brainwashing that this discovery led to an overwhelming
feeling of relief that the horror of internal conflict
would cease and that perhaps they would not, after all,
be driven insane. It is at this point that they are
prepared to make major changes in their value-system.
This is an automatic rather than voluntary choice. They
have lost their ability to be critical.
5. Reintergration of values and identification with the
controlling system is the final stage in changing the
behaviour of the controlled individual. A child who has
learned a new, socially desirable behaviour demonstrates
its importance by attempting to asapt the new behaviour
to a variety of other situations. Similar states in the
brainwashed adult are
(SECTION DELETED BY CIA)
pitiful. His new value-system, his manner of
perceiving,organizing,and giving meaning to events, is
virtually independent of his former value-system.He is no
longer capable of thinking or speaking in concepts other
than those he has adopted. He tends to identify by
expressing thanks to his captors for helping him see the
light.Brainwashing can be achieved without using illegal
means.Anyone willing to use known principles of control
and reactions to control and capable of demonstrating the
patience needed in raising a child can probably achieve
successful brainwashing.
COMMUNIST CONTROL TECHNIQUES AND THEIR EFFECTS
A description of usual communist control techniques follows.
1. Interrogation. There are at least two ways in which
"interrogation" is used:
a. Elicitation, which is designed to get the individual to
surrender protected information, is a form of
interrogation. One major difference between elicitation
and interrogation used to achieve brainwashing is that
the mind of the individual must be kept clear to permit
coherent, undistorted disclosure of protected
information.
b. Elicitation for the purpose of brainwashing consists of
questioning, argument, indoctrination, threats, cajolery,
praise, hostility, and a variety of other pressures. The
aim of this interrogation is to hasten the breakdown of
the individual's value system and to encourage the
substitution of a different value-system. The procurement
of protected information is secondary and is used as a
device to increase pressure upon the individual. The term
"interrogation" in this paper will refer, in general, to
this type. The "interrogator" is the individual who
conducts this type of interrogation and who controls the
administration of the other pressures. He is the
protagonist against whom the victim develops his
conflict, and upon whom the victim develops a state of
dependency as he seeks some solution to his conflict.
2. Physical Torture and Threats of Torture. Two types of physical
torture are distinguishable more by their psychological effect
in inducing conflict than by the degree of painfulness:
a. The first type is one in which the victim has a passive
role in the pain inflicted on him (e.g.,beatings). His
conflict involves the decision of whether or not to give
in to demands in order to avoid further pain. Generally,
brutality of this type was not found to achieve the
desired results. Threats of torture were found more
effective, as fear of pain causes greater conflict within
the individual than does pain itself.
b. The second type of torture is represented by requiring
the individual to stand in one spot for several hours or
assume some other pain-inducing position. Such a
requirement often engenders in the individual a
determination to "stick it out." This internal act of
resistance provide a feeling of moral superiority at
first. As time passes and his pain mounts,however, the
individual becomes aware that it is his own original
determination to resist that is causing the continuance
of pain. A conflict develops within the individual
between his moral determination and his desire to
collapse and discontinue the pain. It is this extra
internal conflict, in addition to the conflict over
whether or not to give in to the demands made of him,
that tends to make this method of torture more effective
in the breakdown of the individual personality.
3. Isolation. Individual differences in reaction to isolation are
probably greater than to any other method. Some individuals
appear to be able to withstand prolonged periods of isolation
without deleterious effects, while a relatively short period of
isolation reduces others to the verge of psychosis. Reaction
varies with the conditions of the isolation cell. Some sources
have indicated a strong reaction to filth and vermin, although
they had negligible reactions to the isolation. Others reacted
violently to isolation in relatively clean cells. The
predominant cause of breakdown in such situations is a lack of
sensory stimulation (i.e.,grayness of walls,lack of
sound,absence of social contact,etc.). Experimental subjects
exposed to this condition have reported vivid hallicinations
and overwhelming fears of losing their sanity.
4. Control of Communication. This is one of the most effective
methods for creating a sense of helplessness and despair. This
measure might well be considered the cornerstone of the
communist system of control. It consists of strict regulation
of the mail,reading materials, broadcast materials, and social
contact available to the individual. The need to communicate is
so great that when the usual channels are blocked, the
individual will resort to any open channel, almost regardless
of the implications of using that particular channel. Many POWs
in Korea, whose only act of "collaboration" was to sign
petitions and "peace appeals," defended their actions on the
ground that this was the only method of letting the outside
world know they were still alive. May stated that their morale
and fortitude would have been increased immeasurably had
leaflets of encouragement been dropped to them. When the only
contact with the outside world is via the interrogator, the
prisoner comes to develop extreme dependency on his
interrogator and hence loses another prop to his morale.
Another wrinkle in communication control is the informer
system. The recruitment of informers in POW camps discouraged
communication between inmates.POWs who feared that every act or
thought of resistance would be communicated to the camp
administrators, lost faith in their fellow man and were forced
to "untrusting individualism." Informers are also under several
stages of brainwashing and elicitation to develop and maintain
control over the victims.
5. Induction of Fatigue. This is a well-known device for breaking
will power and critical powers of judgment. Deprivation of
sleep results in more intense psychological debilitation than
does any other method of engendering fatigue. The communists
vary their methods. "Conveyor belt" interrogation that last 50-
60 hours will make almost any individual compromise, but there
is danger that this will kill the victim. It is safer to
conduct interrogations of 8-10 hours at night while forcing the
prisoner to remain awake during the day. Additional
interruptions in the remaining 2-3 hours of allotted sleep
quickly reduce the most resilient individual . Alternate
administration of drug stimulants and depressants hastens the
process of fatigue and sharpens the psychological reactions of
excitement and depression.
Fatigue, in addition to reducing the will to resist,also
produces irritation and fear that arise from increased "slips
of the tongue." forgetfulness, and decreased ability to
maintain orderly thought processes.
6. Control of Food,Water and Tobacco. The controlled individual is
made intensely aware of his dependence upon his interrogator
for the quality and quantity of his food and tobacco. The
exercise of this control usually follows a pattern. No food and
little or no water is permitted the individual for several days
prior to interrogation.When the prisoner first complains of
this to the interrogator, the latter expresses surprise at such
inhumane treatment. He makes a demand of the prisoner. If the
latter complies,he receives a good meal. If he does not, he
gets a diet of unappetizing food containing limited
vitamins,minerals, and calories. This diet is supplemented
occasionally by the interrogator if the prisoner "cooperates."
Studies of controlled starvation indicate that the whole value-
system of the subjects underwent a change. Their irritation
increased as their ability to think clearly decreased. The
control of tobacco presented an even greater source of conflict
for heavy smokers. Because tobacco is not necessary to life,
being manipulated by his craving for it can in the individual a
strong sense of guilt.
7. Criticism and Self-Criticism. There are mechanisms of communist
thought control. Self-criticism gains its effectiveness from
the fact that although it is not a crime for a man to be wrong,
it is a major crime to be stubborn and to refuse to learn. Many
individuals feel intensely relieved in being able to share
their sense of guilt. Those individuals however, who have
adjusted to handling their guilt internally have difficulty
adapting to criticism and self-criticism. In brainwashing after
a sufficient sense of guilt has been created in the individual,
sharing and self-criticism permit relief. The price paid for
this relief, however, is loss of individuality and increased
dependency.
8. Hypnosis and Drugs as Controls. There is no reliable evidence
that the communists are making widespread use of drugs or
hypnosis in brainwashing or elicitation. The exception to this
is the use of common stimulants or depressants in inducing
fatigue and "mood swings."
9. Other methods of control, which when used in conjunction with
the basic processes, hasten the deterioration of prisoners'
sense of values and resistance are:
a. Requiring a case history or autobiography of the prisoner
provides a mine of information for the interrogator in
establishing and "documenting" accusations.
b. Friendliness of the interrogator , when least expected,
upsets the prisoner's ability to maintain a critical
attitude.
c. Petty demands, such as severely limiting the allotted
time for use of toilet facilities or requiring the POW to
kill hundreds of flies, are harassment methods.
d. Prisoners are often humiliated by refusing them the use
of toilet facilities during interrogator until they soil
themselves. often prisoners were not permitted to bathe
for weeks until they felt contemptible.
e. Conviction as a war criminal appears to be a potent
factor in creating despair in the individual. One
official analysis of the pressures exerted by the ChiComs
on "confessors" and "non-confessors" to participation in
bacteriological warfare in Korea showed that actual trial
and conviction of "war crimes" was overwhelmingly
associated with breakdown and confession.
f.
Attempted elicitation of protected information at various
times during the brainwashing process diverted the
individual from awareness of the deterioration of his
value-system. The fact that, in most cases, the ChiComs
did not want or need such intelligence was not known to
the prisoner. His attempts to protect such information
was made at the expense of hastening his own breakdown.
THE EXERCISE OF CONTROL: A "SCHEDULE" FOR BRAINWASHING
From the many fragmentary accounts reviewed, the following
appears to be the most likely description of what occurs during
brainwashing .
In the period immediately following capture, the captors are
faced with the problem of deciding on best ways of exploitation of
the prisoners. Therefore, early treatment is similar both for
those who are to be exploited through elicitation and those who
are to undergo brainwashing. concurrently with being interrogated
and required to write a detailed personal history, the prisoner
undergoes a physical and psychological "softening-up" which
includes: limited unpalatable food rations,withholding of
tobacco,possible work details,severely inadequate use of toilet
facilities, no use of facilities for personal
cleanliness,limitation of sleep such as requiring a subject to
sleep with a bright light in his eyes. Apparently the
interrogation and autobiographical ,material, the reports of the
prisoner's behaviour in confinement, and tentative "personality
typing" by the interrogators, provide the basis upon which
exploitation plans are made.
There is a major difference between preparation for elicitation
andfor brainwashing .Prisoners exploited through elicitation must
retain sufficient clarity of thought to be able to give
coherent,factual accounts. In brainwashing , on the other hand,
the first thing attacked is clarity of thought. To develop a
strategy of defense, the controlled individual must determine what
plans have been made for his exploitation. Perhaps the best cues
he can get are internal reactions to the pressures he undergoes.
The most important aspect of the brainwashing process is the
interro-gation. The other pressures are designed primarily to help
the interrogator achieve his goals. The following states are
created systematically within the individual . These may vary in
order, but all are necessary to the brainwashing process:
1. A feeling of helplessness in attempting to deal with the
impersonal machinery of control.
2. An initial reaction of "surprise."
3. A feeling of uncertainty about what is required of him.
4. A developing feeling of dependence upon the interrogator .
5. A sense of doubt and loss of objectivity.
6. Feelings of guilt.
7. A questioning attitude toward his own value-system.
8. A feeling of potential "breakdown," i.e.,that he might go
crazy.
9. A need to defend his acquired principles.
10. A final sense of "belonging" (identification).
A feeling of helplessness in the face of the impersonal
machinery of control is carefully engendered within the prisoner.
The individual who receives the preliminary treatment described
above not only begins to feel like an "animal" but also feels that
nothing can be done about it. No one pays any personal attention
to him. His complaints fall on deaf ears. His loss of
communication, if he has been isolated, creates a feeling that he
has been "forgotten." Everything that happens to him occurs
according to an impersonal; time schedule that has nothing to do
with his needs. The voices and footsteps of the guards are muted.
He notes many contrasts,e.g.,his greasy,unpalatable food may be
served on battered tin dishes by guards immaculately dressed in
white. The first steps in "depersonalization" of the prisoner have
begun. He has no idea what to expect. Ample opportunity is
allotted for him to ruminate upon all the unpleasant or painful
things that could happen to him. He approaches the main
interrogator with mixed feelings of relief and fright.
Surprise is commonly used in the brainwashing process. The
prisoner is rarely prepared for the fact that the interrogators
are usually friendly and considerate at first. They make every
effort to demonstrate that they are reasonable human beings. Often
they apologize for bad treatment received by the prisoner and
promise to improve his lot if he, too, is reasonable. This
behaviour is not what he has steeled himself for. He lets down
some of his defenses and tries to take a reasonable attitude. The
first occasion he balks at satisfying a request of the
interrogator , however, he is in for another surprise. The
formerly reasonable interrogator unexpectedly turns into a furious
maniac. The interrogator is likely to slap the prisoner or draw
his pistol and threaten to shoot him. Usually this storm of
emotion ceases as suddenly as it began and the interrogator stalks
from the room. These surprising changes create doubt in the
prisoner as to his very ability to perceive another person's
motivations correctly. His next interrogation probably will be
marked by impassivity in the interrogator 's mien.
A feeling of uncertainty about what is required of him is
likewise carefully engendered within the individual . Pleas of the
prisoner to learn specifically of what he is accused and by whom
are side-stepped by the interrogator. Instead, the prisoner is
asked to tell why he thinks he is held and what he feels he is
guilty of. If the prisoner fails to come up with anything, he is
accused in terms of broad generalities (e.g., espionage,
sabotage,acts of treason against the "people"). This usually
provokes the prisoner to make some statement about his activities.
If this take the form of a denial, he is usually sent to isolation
on further decreased food rations to "think over" his crimes. This
process can be repeated again and again. As soon as the prisoner
can think of something that might be considered selfincriminating,
the interrogator appears momentarily satisfied. The prisoner is
asked to write down his statement in his own words and sign it.
Meanwhile a strong sense of dependence upon the interrogator is
developed. It does not take long for the prisoner to realize that
the interrogator is the source of all punishment , all
gratification,and all communication. The interrogator ,
meanwhile,demonstrates his unpredictbility. He is perceived by the
prisoner as a creature of whim. At times, the interrogator can be
pleased very easily and at other times no effort on the part of
the prisoner will placate him. The prisoner may begin to channel
so much energy into trying to predict the behaviour of the
unpredictable interrogator that he loses track of what is
happening inside himself.
After the prisoner has developed the above psychological and
emotional reactions to a sufficient degree, the brainwashing
begins in earnest. First, the prisoner's remaining critical
faculties must be destroyed. He undergoes long, fatiguing
interrogations while looking at a bright light. He is called back
again and again for interrogations after minimal sleep. He may
undergo torture that tends to create internal conflict. Drugs may
be used to accentuate his "mood swings." He develops depression
when the interrogator is being kind and becomes euphoric when the
interrogator is threatening the direst penalties. Then the cycle
is reversed. The prisoner finds himself in a constant state of
anxiety which prevents him from relaxing even when he is permitted
to sleep. Short periods of isolation now bring on visual and
auditory hallucinations. The prisoner feels himself losing his
objectivity. It is in this state that the prisoner must keep up an
endless argument with the interrogator . He may be faced with the
confessions of other individuals who "collaborated" with him in
his crimes. The prisoner seriously begins to doubts his own
memory. This feeling is heightened by his inability to recall
little things like the names of the people he knows very well or
the date of his birth. The interrogator patiently sharpens this
feeling of doubt by more questioning. This tends to create a
serious state of uncertainty when the individual has lost most of
his critical faculties.
The prisoner must undergo additional internal conflict when
strong feelings of guilt are aroused within him. As any clinical
psychologist is aware, it is not at all difficult to create such
feelings. Military servicemen are particularly vulnerable. No one
can morally justify killing even in wartime. The usual
justification is on the grounds of necessity or self-defense. The
interrogator is careful to circumvent such justification. He keeps
the interrogation directed toward the prisoner's moral code. Every
moral vulnerability is exploited by incessant questioning along
this line until the prisoner begins to question the very
fundamentals of his own value-system. The prisoner must constantly
fight a potential breakdown. He finds that his mind is "going
blank" for longer and longer periods of time. He can not think
constructively. If he is to maintain any semblance of
psychological integrity, he must bring to an end this state of
interminable internal conflict. He signifies a willingness to
write a confession.
If this were truly the end, no brainwashing would have occurred.
The individual would simply have given in to intolerable pressure.
Actually, the final stage of the brainwashing process has just
begun. No matter what the prisoner writes in his confession the
interrogator is not satisfied. The interrogator questions every
sentence of the confession. He begins to edit it with the
prisoner. The prisoner is forced to argue against every change.
This is the essence of brainwashing. Every time that he gives in
on a point to the interrogator, he must rewrite his whole
confession. Still the interrogator is not satisfied. In a
desperate attempt to maintain some semblance of integrity and to
avoid further brainwashing, the prisoner must begin to argue that
what he has already confessed to is true. He begins to accept as
his own the statements he has written. He uses many of the
interrogator's earlier arguments to buttress his position. By this
process,identification with the interrogator's value-system
becomes complete. It is extremely important to recognize that a
qualitative change has taken place within the prisoner. The
brainwashed victim does not consciously change his value-system;
rather the change occurs despite his efforts. He is no more
responsible for this change than is an individual who "snaps" and
becomes psychotic. And like the psychotic, the prisoner is not
even aware of the transition.
DEFENSIVE MEASURES OTHER THAN ON THE POLICY AND PLANNING LEVEL
1. Training of Individuals potentially subject to communist
control.
Training should provide for the trainee a realistic appraisalof
what control pressures the communists are likely to exert and
what the usual human reactions are to such pressures. The
trainee must learn the most effective ways of combatting his
own reactions to such pressures and he must learn reasonable
expectations as to what his behaviour should be. Training has
two decidedly positive effects; first, it provides the trainee
with ways of combatting control; second, it provides the basis
for developing an immeasurable boost in morale. Any positive
action that the individual can take, even if it is only
slightly effective, gives him a sense of control over a
situation that is otherwise controlling him.
2. Training must provide the individual with the means of
recognizing realistic goals for himself.
a. Delay in yielding may be the only achievement that can be
hoped for. In any particular operation, the agent needs the
support of knowing specifically how long he must hold out
to save an operation, protect his cohorts, or gain some
other goal.
b. The individual should be taught how to achieve the most
favorable treatment and how to behave and make necessary
concessions to obtain minimum penalties.
c. Individual behavioural responses to the various communist
control pressures differ markedly. Therefore, each trainee
should know his own particular assets and limitations in
resisting specific pressures. He can learn these only
under laboratory conditions simulating the actual pressures
he may have to face.
d. Training must provide knowledge of the goals and the
restrictions placed upon his communist interrogator. The
trainee should know what controls are on his interrogator
and to what extent he can manipulate the interrogator. For
example, the interrogator is not permitted to fail to gain
"something" from the controlled individual. The knowledge
that, after the victim has proved that he is a "tough nut
to crack" he can sometimes indicate that he might
compromise on some little point to help the interrogator in
return for more favorable treatment, may be useful indeed.
Above all, the potential victim of communist control can
gain a great deal of psychological support from the
knowledge that the communist interrogator is not a
completely free agent who can do whatever he wills with his
victim.
e. The trainee must learn what practical cues might aid him in
recognizing the specific goals of his interrogator. The
strategy of defense against elicitation may differ markedly
from the strategy to prevent brainwashing. To prevent
elicitation, the individual may hasten his own state of
mental confusion; whereas, to prevent brainwashing,
maintaining clarity of thought processes is imperative.
f. The trainee should obtain knowledge about communist
"carrots" as well as "sticks." The communists keep certain
of their promises and al-ways renege on others. For
example, the demonstrable fact that "informers" receive no
better treatment than other prisoners should do much to
prevent this particular evil. On the other hand, certain
meaningless concessions will often get a prisoner a good
meal.
g. In particular, it should be emphasized to the trainee that,
although little can be done to control the pressures
exerted upon him, he can learn something about controlling
his personal reactions to specific pressures. The trainee
can gain much from learning something about internal
conflict and conflict-producing mechanisms. He should learn
to recognize when someone is trying to arouse guilt
feelings and what behavioural reactions can occur as a
response to guilt.
h. Finally, the training must teach some methods that can be
utilized in thwarting particular communist control
techniques:
Elicitation. In general, individuals who are the hardest to
interrogate for information are those who have experienced
previous interrogations. Practice in being the victim of
interrogation is a sound training device.
Torture. The trainee should learn something about the principles
of pain and shock. There is a maximum to the amount of pain that
can actually be felt. Any amount of pain can be tolerated for a
limited period of time. In addition, the trainee can be fortified
by the knowledge that there are legal limitations upon the amount
of torture that can be inflicted by communist jailors.
Isolation. The psychological effects of isolation can probably be
thwarted best by mental gymnastics and systematic efforts on the
part of the isolate to obtain stimulation for his neural end
organs.
Controls on Food and Tobacco. Foods given by the communists will
always be enough to maintain survival. Sometimes the victim gets
unexpected opportunities to supplement his diet with special
minerals,vitamins and other nutrients (e.g.,"iron" from the rust
of prison bars). In some instances, experience has shown that
individuals could exploit refusal to eat. Such refusal usually
resulted in the transfer of the individual to a hospital where he
received vitamin injections and nutritious food. Evidently
attempts of this kind to commit suicide arouse the greatest
concern in communist officials. If deprivation of tobacco is the
control being exerted. the victim can gain moral satisfaction from
"giving up" tobacco. He can't lose since he is not likely to get
any anyway.
Fatigue. The trainee should learn reactions to fatigue and how to
overcome them insofar as possible. For example, mild physical
exercise "clears the head" in a fatigue state.
Writing Personal Accounts and Self-Criticism. Experience has
indicated that one of the most effective ways of combatting these
pressures is to enter into the spirit with an overabundance of
enthusiasm. Endless written accounts of inconsequential material
have virtually "smothered" some eager interrogators. In the same
spirit, sober, detailed selfcriticisms of the most minute "sins"
has sometimes brought good results.
Guidance as to the priority of positions he should defend.
Perfectly compatible responsibilities in the normal execution of
an individual's duties may become mutually incompatible in this
situation. Take the example of a senior grade military officer. He
has the knowledge of sensitive strategic intelligence which it is
his duty to protect. He has the responsibility of maintaining the
physical fitness of his men and serving as a model example for
their behaviour. The officer may go to the camp commandant to
protest the treatment of the POWs and the commandant assures him
that treatment could be improved if he will swap something for it.
Thus to satisfy one responsibility he must compromise another. The
officer, in short, is in a constant state of internal conflict.
But if the officer is given the relative priority of his different
responsibilities, he is supported by the knowledge that he won't
be held accountable for any other behaviour if he does his utmost
to carry out his highest priority responsibility. There is
considerable evidence that many individuals tried to evaluate the
priority of their responsibilities on their own, ut were in
conflict over whether others would subsequently accept their
evaluations. More than one individual was probably brainwashed
while he was trying to protect himself against elicitation.
CONCLUSIONS
The application of known psychological principles can lead to an
understanding of brainwashing.
1.
There is nothing mysterious about personality changes resulting
from the brainwashing process.
2.
Brainwashing is a complex process. Principles of motivation,
perception, learning, and physiological deprivation are needed
to account for the results achieved in brainwashing.
3. Brainwashing is an involuntary re-education of the fundamental
beliefs of the individual. To attack the problem successfully,
the brainwashing process must be differentiated clearly from
general education methods for thought-control or mass
indoctrination, and elicitation.
4.
It appears possible for the individual,through training,to
develop limited defensive techniques against brainwashing. Such
defensive measures are likely to be most effective if directed
toward thwarting individual emotional reactions to brainwashing
techniques rather than to ward thwarting the techniques
themselves.
15 August 1955
SECRET
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON 25, D. C.
19 JUN 1964
(Commission No. 1131)
MEMORANDUM FOR: Mr. J. Lee Rankin
General Counsel
President's Commission on the
Assassination of President Kennedy
SUBJECT : Soviet Brainwashing Techniques
1. Reference is made to your memorandum of 19 May 1964,
requesting that materials relative to Soviet techniques in mind
conditioning and brainwashing be made available to the Commission.
2. At my request, experts on these subjects within the CIA
have prepared a brief survey of Soviet research in the direction
and control of human behavior, a copy of which is attached. The
Commission may retain this document. Please note that the use
of certain sensitive materials requires that a sensitivity indicator
be affixed.
3. In the immediate future, this Agency will make available
to you a collection of overt and classified materials on these subjects,
which the Commission may retain.
4. I hope that these documents will be responsive to the
Commission's needs.
(SIGNED)
(DECLASSIFIED) Richard Helms
(By C.I.A.) Deputy Director for Plans
(letter of ___________)
(---------------------)
Attachment
CD 1131 SECRET
MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: Soviet Research and Development in the Field of
Direction and Control of Human Behavior.
1. There are two major methods of altering or controlling
human behavior, and the Soviets are interested in both. The first
is psychological; the second, pharmacological. The two may be used
as individual methods or for mutual reinforcement. For long-term
control of large numbers of people, the former method is more
promising than the latter. In dealing with individuals, the U.S.
experience suggests the pharmacological approach (assisted by
psychological techniques) would be the only effective method.
Neither method would be very effective for single individuals on a
long term basis.
2. Soviet research on the pharmacological agents
producing behavioral effects has consistently lagged about five
years behind Western research. They have been interested in such
research, however, and are now pursuing research on such chemicals
as LSD-25, amphetamines, tranquillizers, hypnotics, and similar
materials. There is no present evidence that the Soviets have any
singular, new, potent drugs to force a course of action on an
individual. They are aware, however, of the tremendous drive
produced by drug addiction, and PERHAPS could couple this with
psychological direction to achieve control of an individual.
3. The psychological aspects of behavior control would
include not only conditioning by repetition and training, but such
things as hypnosis, deprivation, isolation, manipulation of guilt
feelings, subtle or overt threats, social pressure, and so on.
Some of the newer trends in the USSR are as follows:
a. The adoption of a multidisciplinary approach
integrating biological,social and physical-mathematical research
in attempts better to understand, and eventually, to control human
behavior in a manner consonant with national plans.
b. The outstanding feature, in addition to the inter-
disciplinary approach, is a new concern for mathematical
approaches to an understanding of behavior. Particularly notable
are attempts to use modern information theory, automata theory,
and feedback concepts in interpreting the mechanisms by which the
"second signal system," i.e., speech and associated phenomena,
affect human behavior. Implied by this "second signal system,"
using INFORMATION inputs as causative agents rather than chemical
agents, electrodes or other more exotic techniques applicable,
perhaps, to individuals rather than groups.
c. This new trend, observed in the early Post-Stalin
Period, continues. By 1960 the word "cybernetics" was used by the
Soviets to designate this new trend. This new science is
considered by some as the key to understanding the human brain and
the product of its functioning--psychic activity and personality--
to the development of means for controlling it and to ways for
molding the character of the "New Communist Man". As one Soviet
author puts it: Cybernetics can be used in "molding of a child's
character, the inculcation of knowledge and techniques, the
amassing of experience, the establishment of social behavior
patterns...all functions which can be summarized as 'control' of
the growth process of the individual." 1/Students of particular
disciplines in the USSR, such as psychologist and social
scientists, also support the general cybernetic trend. 2/ (Blanked
by CIA)
4. In summary, therefore, there is no evidence that the
Soviets have any techniques or agents capable of producing
particular behavioral patterns which are not available in the
West. Current research indi-cates that the Soviets are attempting
to develop a technology for controlling the development of
behavioral patterns among the citizenry of the USSR in accordance
with politically determined requirements of the system.
Furthermore, the same technology can be applied to more
sophisticated approaches to the "coding" of information for
transmittal to population targets in the "battle for the minds of
men." Some of the more esoteric techniques such as ESP or, as the
Soviets call it, "biological radio-communication", and psychogenic
agents such as LSD, are receiving some overt attention with,
possibly, applications in mind for individual behavior control
under clandestine conditions. However, we require more information
than is currently available in order to establish or disprove
planned or actual applications of various methodologies by Soviet
scientists to the control of actions of articular individuals.
References
1. Itelson, Lev, "Pedagogy: An Exact Science?" USSR October 1963,
p. 10.
2. Borzek, Joseph, "Recent Developments in Soviet Psychology,"
Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 15, 1964, p. 493-594.
The first letter and attachment are from DECLASSIFIED
DOCUMENTS 1984 microfilms under MKULTRA (84) 002258, published
by Research Publication Woodbridge, CT 06525. Some original
markings were not retyped, but the content is the same.
The second letter and attachment are from the Warren
Commission documents. Notice should be paid to the different
tone Helms gives to his letter, keeping in mind he was found
guilty of lying to Congress. He places greater emphasis on
"Soviet" practices and tries to diminish breakthroughs gained
by Americans. Some thought should be given as to WHY the
Warren Commission sought such documents (remembering that
ALLEN DULLES was a member of that Commission). They were
exploring the Manchurian candidate theory. It was revealed
during the Church Committee hearings of 1975 that Helms had
been in charge of Project AMLASH, a program to assassinate
Castro (Cuba),Trujillo (Dominican Republic), Diem (RVN),
Schneider (Chile) using MAFIA figures John Roselli and Santos
Trafficante to do the job.
Care was used to insure lines appear in same length and order.
Page length will have to be adjusted if you desire to print
this. Look for other specials soon. David John Moses.
**********************************************
* THE U.F.O. BBS -
http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
**********************************************
