Summary Of Alfred Mccoy A History Of Torture

Before long this cult of secrecy was extended to many other parts of government. Following the success of the atomic bomb led the executive administration to focus on other aspects of control, in particular, the use of the mind and physical control and manipulation. What started as a fear of communism and working to combat it, led to nothing but a mere duplication through physical torture and psychological mind control. Alfred Mccoy in his “A History of Torture” goes into great detail in talking about how the Central Intelligence Agency got itself tied up with torture and it all began with their obsession of mind control.

The CIA began to become obsessed with the idea of using mind manipulation. “From 1950 to 1962” the CIA became involved in torture through a massive mind-control effort- “a veritable manhattan project of the mind” (mccoy) “After the OSS was reborn as the CIA in 1947, the agency revived the nazi-inspired drug experiments now testing LSD and THC for interrogation of suspected spies and double agents” (Mccoy chapter 2) Just as the creation of the atomic bomb had stemmed from fear so to did the ideas of mind control. Many popular writers make this known in their common argument that if they could hypnotize a man without his knowledge or consent into commiting

By breaking their superiors through psychological manipulation, young officers gained a sense of their society’s plasticity, creating an illusion that they could destroy and remodel the social order at will. (mccoy chapter 3). Th explicitness of the CIA’s torture training was finally exposed to public scrutiny eight years after the cold war’s end. Yet despite this, the CIA suffered no repercussions. “Citizens and civic groups remained silent, editorials didn’t call for an investigation, there was no pressure pressed on them to repudiate or reform the techniques revealed in the torture training model.” (mccoy chapter