(crowd cheering)
(fanfare music)
- [Announcer] Welcome ladies and gentlemen, boy and girls,
and all residents of the Planet Earth,
This year, the chimpanzees have joined the space cadets
and will attempt their first launching into space,
(engine roaring)
(crowd cheering)
(chimp screeching)
(banging)
(suspenseful music)
- [Reporter] Yesterday, Frank Church, chairman
of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
said the White House is holding up the investigation
of the CIA, by not providing requested documents
in an alleged CIA plot against Fidel Castro,
(chimp squawking)
(gun shots firing)
- [Man] There are those who will disbelieve
what I'm about to say,
(chimp chattering)
(explosions booming)
(ringing)
- When I first came here, the first people
they sent up to see us, you see,
were operational type people from the CIA
with some rather wild ideas,
(chimp screeching)
(guns firing)
- [Interviewer] In the CIA documents we have examined,
it says that the project that was named down here,
they intended to use everything learned
about the new agents to induce them to, quote,
to perform acts of a complex, purposeful nature,
- [Analyst] Yeah, but that was never done,
- [Reporter] The effects of which may be out keeping
with the individual's,
- That sort of thing,
- [Interviewer] Interest to his being, contrary,
(gun firing)
Intentions and interest contrary to the individual
subversive to goals which he,
- Yeah, I understand all this talk,
but the situation was, you see,
those things were never done,
Because of wise people on both sides,
We weren't able to do this, nor interested in it,
- [Interviewer] They were though,
- Some of the low level people were,
but the high level people were not, tell you the truth,
(birds chirping)
(crowd cheering)
- [Announcer] And now ladies and gentlemen
on all continents, the grand finale,
The speediest performing monkey in all the world,
The acrobat of acrobats,
(circus music)
Alley-oop,
- [Narrator] This exceptionally cool monkey
is known by the name of Chop Chop Chang,
(upbeat rock music)
- Everyone, everyone loved Chop Chop Chang,
and for good reason,
These circus tricks require a high level of ability
to perform that not just any monkey could do,
Chop Chop Chang made it look easy,
I think he was up to something like
a chimpanzee riding a bicycle,
Not only was it very impressive to watch,
it's also very, very funny,
You couldn't find a single person alive on the planet
who didn't like that chimp,
- I love him, I don't care what anybody thinks about him,
I'll always love, even when I'm 105 years old,
but I'll love him,
Please touch the window so I can just see you,
I saw you smoking before, and I just wanted to
but I love you and I want you,
- Have you ever been this crazy
about any other entertainer?
- No, and that's what's so amazing,
We don't know why we're like this,
- [Announcer] Five, four, three, two, one, fire,
(explosion booming)
- You just immediately fell in love with him,
He had such a sweet disposition, he was just a,
- I guess we got a chimpanzee flying in space,
Took off at 10:08, he reports that everything
is perfect and working well,
(audience laughing)
- [Narrator] The world's most famous and successful
chimpanzee, before his death in March of 1986,
would be linked to over 18 assassinations,
20 unsolved murders, plus covert military operations,
All the files highly submitted, highly classified
United States CIA program Operation Chimp,
The purpose of it was to transfer
on the common party,
(speaking in foreign language)
(guns firing)
- The CIA has repeatedly denied these allegations
and refuses to acknowledge the existence of said program,
- We are not professing to tell you the complete story
of these activities,
We are professing to tell you
the complete story that we know,
But these records don't tell the story,
they tell pieces of it,
- [Narrator] However, to many conspiracy theorists,
the story of Chop Chop Chang
uncovered evidence to the contrary,
- In 1952, Chop Chop Chang,
the world famous chimpanzee,
known and beloved all over the planet suddenly disappears,
(sirens wailing)
- [Radio Announcer] The greatest manhunt in history
as agents from the FBI, coast guard, highway patrol,
sheriff deputies and local police join in the search,
- From 1962 onward, there would be no more
Chop Chop Chang movies or TV shows,
America was devastated,
- I don't have the words to express how I feel,
- As a police official, what do you think happened?
- There's too much to speculate on,
I believe it was just too early,
perhaps in the next 24, 48 hours,
(shouting)
- Is it conceivable that he was kidnapped for ransom
or that he deliberately dropped out of sight?
- [Narrator] Is it possible that the CIA
successfully commissioned a trained circus chimpanzee
into an unstoppable, mindless killing machine
as a lot of conspiracy theorists believe?
- Chop Chop Chang's disappearance is highly debatable,
Very controversial amongst monkey historians,
- [Narrator] Chimps matching his description
had been reported in Vietnam, Russia, Cuba, China,
Germany, and South America,
These claims remain as unsubstantiated as those
of Elvis, Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster,
- On the one hand, you have this Operation Chimp
conspiracy theory right out of the Manchurian Candidate
or the 2006 classic film Primate,
And then on the other hand,
you have to consider that maybe he's just a chimp
and he died,
It's a stupid fucking theory,
The CiA isn't training a chimp to be a hit man,
It's a stupid and childish thing to believe,
It's frivolous, it's frivolous and unreal, so,
- [Narrator] This would prove to be
his final public appearance,
Shortly after, Chop Chop Chang would disappear overnight
with no known explanation
fueling conspiracy theorists around the globe
for decades to come,
- This is a story that has been told in bits and pieces,
This is an attempt to pull most of it together,
We know we don't have the whole story,
we do however have some striking new revelations
and insights,
The story begins here, just off the nation's front yard,
The Mall,
The buildings behind me were the headquarters
for the World War II office of strategic service,
It was here that the first haunting steps
toward mind control began,
Some of those engaged in that search
have agreed to talk about it for the first time,
- I worked on Operation Chimp and personally oversaw
the actual training of Chop Chop Chang,
That I've decided to come forward with my story,
(water splashing)
- [Narrator] The story begins in the jungles of Africa
somewhere between Cameroon and the Congo,
A baby chimpanzee is born,
the third child to a ten year old mother,
he is the runt of the family
but has a very sweet disposition,
Growing up in the tough African jungle
would not have been easy for the youngster,
who is small and frail compared to other chimps,
He is often bullied and ostracized
by the younger members of his troop,
including his own mother and brothers,
At only a few months old,
the baby chimp leaves his troop
and sets off by himself into the jungle,
This would prove disastrous for the child
who is almost immediately captured by animal trappers
and shipped halfway across the world,
to the United States of America,
- [Radio Announcer] President Truman's dramatic announcement
that Russia has created an atomic explosion
sends reporters racing for Flushing Meadow
when Russia's Rucinski arrives
to address the United Nations,
- [Radio Announcer] The Cold War,
especially the trial of Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty,
who was forced to testify in a Hungarian court
that he was a spy and then lingered
the Korean War with the coerced and mainly foggiest
impressions of American servicemen,
This would spark intense interest
in intelligence circles about brainwashing,
- In one year alone, more than 2,000 Communist agents
were caught in West Germany,
Today, all over the world,
there are thousands of Soviet intelligence agents
with money to burn,
looking for unsuspecting targets
of exploitation among members of our forces,
In fact, everyone in uniform could be a target
of opportunity for exploitation if he is vulnerable,
- [Reporter] The CIA secretly commissioned a study
of Communist brainwashing methods
in the Cornell University Medical Center,
While the purpose of this study was to find out about
Communist brainwashing techniques,
CIA documents show that the agency was interested
in developing mind control methods of its own,
- Soon you'll be like a child, or like all the others,
- [Narrator] Historians say that the creation
of a Manchurian Candidate for mind control
under extreme conditioning techniques
was a major goal of several CIA projects
as far back as the 1940's,
- [Reporter] But documents clearly show that the CIA
was attempting to develop agents over whom they had
as much control as possible,
agents who would perform tasks contrary to their own good,
- Normally conditioned American,
who's been trained to kill and have no memory having killed,
The brain has not only been washed, as they say,
but been scrubbed clean,
- [Reporter] The shaper and molder of OSS
is General Wild Bill Donovan,
He said of his groups work, we may have made mistakes
but we were not afraid to try things
that have never been done before,
He later wrote of his OSS job that it was, quote,
to stimulate the bad boy under the surface
of every American scientist and to say to them,
throw all of your normal, law-abiding concepts
out the window,
Here's a chance to raise merry hell,
It was under this atmosphere that the search
for mind control began,
- [Reporter] The decision was made at the highest levels
of the CIA to test on the most unwitting Americans,
As one CIA document says,
such testing would be operationally realistic,
This bizarre man would be an active participant
in that search over the next two decades,
- I remember it like it was yesterday,
- [Narrator] There is evidence to suggest
the program had been established as early as the 1940's,
perhaps in connection to Operation Paperclip,
- [Reporter] The CIA's interest in LSD was intense,
The worry was that the Russians would get hold of it,
- [Interviewer] Were the Soviets into LSD?
- I don't even have to say, I'm sure they were,
- [Reporter] These are various progress reports
written by Doctor Monroe and recently obtained by ABC News,
In one of the progress reports,
a report of a woman who had electrodes implanted
in the brain and was then given LSD and other drugs,
- [Interviewer] Was this patient aware
that she was being given LSD?
- I don't think that they would've even known what LSD was
at the time,
- [Reporter] By far the most chilling experiments
we have uncovered took place at this gothic estate
called Ravenscrag,
It was here that the CIA funded a series of experiments,
severe experiments,
This man worked on some of these programs,
He described it as breaking up the existing
patterns of behavior by means of intensive
electroshock therapy with long periods of sleep,
Cameron used this combined sleep electroshock treatment
on patients as long as 30 days,
One patient he kept asleep for 65 days,
He would write of his work, it was fun, fun, fun,
- Now to a layman, it would appear that Doctor Cameron
was trying to take the slate and wipe it clean,
the slate being the mind, in other words, brainwashed,
(chattering)
- [Reporter] The Manchurian Candidate, controlled by others,
to do things against his will, is it possible?,
- [Narrator] Upon his arrival to the United States,
historical records indicate the chimp
was purchased by the Calloway Circus,
a small group of traveling circus performers
and he moved down to Alabama,
- Step this way to see this
from the four corners of the world,
what you need is one dime,
- [Narrator] The circus was owned and operated
by Mister Robert J, Calloway, a circus strongman
who quickly became fond of the young chimp
and gave him the name Chop Chop Chang,
(cheering)
- He was such a cute little guy
with such a sweet disposition,
- [Narrator] Chop Chop Chang was a natural,
He quickly mastered advanced acrobatics
and complicated routines,
- In just a few short years,
Chop Chop Chang became the headlining attraction
for Calloway Circus,
He sold out show after show to become celebrated
as the most talented circus performer in all of the US,
- [Narrator] Robert Calloway was a well known gambler
with life long connections with organized crime,
(guns firing)
He got his start a few years before during prohibition,
When the traveling circus was founded as a front
to transport large barrels of alcohol
from town to town through the south,
The details of his death are unknown,
It was later discovered that the Calloway Circus
had operated as a front to launder money
for local bookies and that Calloway had a long history
of unpaid gambling debts,
The circus closed shortly after Calloway's death
and the now famous Chop Chop Chang was sold
to a man named Rockford Swope,
a film producer in Hollywood, California,
- [Reporter] Is human behavior predictable?
Could the mind be controlled?
Perhaps not,
- Hold on, give me a minute, forgive me,
(choking)
- Sorry, give me a minute,
Forgive me,
- When the red light flashes,
fire the vehicle and this will be protocol,
- No problem, director,
(explosion)
- [Man] Whoever you are, you're too late,
You'll never stop my evil plan to blow up this mountain,
One press of a button and the whole thing goes boom,
- I thought the same thing, but then it hit me,
you can't blow up Mount Everest,
if I do it first!
- [Man] No!
(exploding)
- [Reporter] So in the end it was decided
that a Manchurian Candidate was not feasible
but the search for mind control continues,
- A chimpanzee army following is fast becoming
the world's largest,
With these assets, it seems logical
that we should specialize in the study of
high risk, operational situations prior to exposing man,
- [Reporter] In this area, the CIA did make
a significant breakthrough,
Neuro physicist Doctor Jose Delgado was financed
by the office of naval research,
In this experiment, the bull is sedated,
Electrodes are implanted in its brain,
Delgado transmits an electronic impulse
to the center of the bull's brain,
Delgado has remote control of the animal,
Recently released CIA documents refer to the feasibility
of the remote control of animals,
- Animal surrogates would be used to obtain data
that would be meaningful in evaluating the danger command,
And in addition, a chimpanzee filing
was a resource of great value and medical research,
Accordingly, we launched a program
of experimental medical and included a comprehensive study
of hetero transplantation of simian and human electrodes,
- [Reporter] Other areas were examined
through the 60's and 70's,
Brain surgery, psycho surgery, creation of amnesia,
parapsychology, manipulation of genes,
- Detailed study of the functions of the primate brain
is now underway,
(big band music)
- [Narrator] Hollywood in the 1950's was a booming town
for animal actors,
Work was everywhere for monkeys,
dogs, cats, roaches, animals,
Chop Chop Chang became one of the most recognizable
chimps in the industry,
appearing in the most television programs
and motion pictures during his time in California,
- In looking at the film and television work
of Chop Chop Chang, undeniable that he was one of
if not the greatest contributor
to the history of chimpanzee cinema,
There was simply no one else like him,
- [Narrator] Chang fever gripped the nation,
- He was like the Beatles
before there even were the Beatles,
- [Narrator] Chop Chop Chang cartoons,
Chop Chop Chang t-shirts, Chop Chop Chang lunch boxes,
Chop Chop Chang cereal, it was Chang mania,
(western music)
- Alright, alright, come on, no smoking!
- I've dedicated my life to furthering the history
of monkeys and apes in film and television,
There's classic films like Congo,
MVP, Most Valuable Primate,
MVP Two, Most Vertical Primate,
His films are my passion,
they're my life's work,
I'm sorry, I have no clue,
I don't know, I really don't know,
I don't know about planets, I'm not an astronomy professor,
I'm a professor of apes in film and television,
so I don't know the movie,
I don't know it,
(upbeat music)
- He changed chimpanzee film forever,
Right up there with the great apes of modern cinema,
King Kong, Donkey Kong, Gorilla Graw,
these are titans of the field and he stood among them,
- [Narrator] His handler Rockford Swope, however,
was not as lucky,
Having been forced into migrant work
during the Great Depression,
Swope spent a brief period of his youth
as a Communist sympathizer,
- [Reporter] Calling the House on American Activities
committee to order,
chairman Jay Parnell Thomas of New Jersey
opens an inquiry into possible Communist penetration
of the Hollywood film industry,
The committee is looking to determine if red party members
have reached the screen with the purpose of propoganda,
- There has been a small group of the Screen Actors Guild
who oppose the policy of the Guild officers
or the Guild as shown by evidence on various issues,
That's a small break that's been referred to
as more or less following the tactics
of the Soviets with the Communist Party,
- If I had my way about it,
they'd all be sent back to Russia
or some other unpleasant place,
- Are you or have you ever been
a member of the Communist Party?
- I believe I have the right to be confronted
with any evidence to support this question,
I should like to see what you have,
- [Man] Oh, well you would?
- [Rockford] Yes,
- [Man] Well you will pretty soon,
- [Narrator] He was blacklisted from Hollywood in 1957
and never worked again
until his death less than a decade later,
Broke and bitter, Swope was forced to sell Chop Chop Chang
to the United States Air Force,
He was shipped off to a military base
in Cape Canaveral, Florida,
The details surrounding the origins
of Operation Chimp are unclear,
It is known that several CIA projects of the 1960's
had experimented with chimpanzee
and other animal intelligence in a CIA facility
outside of Denver, Colorado,
- Oh, forgive me,
(guns firing)
(exploding)
- [Narrator] It was only the start of the space race
between the United States and Russia,
The US had long been using animals
to test their rockets,
- [Reporter] Today a new movement in the sky,
a 23 inch metal sphere placed in orbit by a Russian rocket,
one of the great scientific feats of the age,
- In a masterpiece of propaganda,
the Soviet Union announced they had launched
Sputnik number two, carrying a live dog,
this is reportedly history's first space animal,
Yet behind the scientific event,
lies a great military warning,
Confirmed now by Anglo American scientists,
the rocket that launched Sputnik number two
is capable of carrying a ton and a half
hydrogen bomb warhead more than 5,000 miles to a target,
(exploding)
- [Narrator] Chop Chop Chang had been purchased
by the Air Force along with 40 other
highly trained chimpanzees,
all of whom would undergo thorough and intense
astronaut training before being shot into space,
- [Radio Announcer] Three, two, one, fire,
(exploding)
(guns firing)
- [Announcer] The saga of Ham, trailblazer in space
is a story of a chimpanzee serving the cause of life,
Ham is but one of several chimps to undergo
pre flight training,
Each is outfitted from head to toe
in his own space suit as he awaits the big day,
On a whirlwind tour of Florida,
President Kennedy visits Cape Canaveral
for a first hand look at the mighty Saturn One missile,
which will carry a 19,000 pound payload
into space next month,
a payload larger than any the Russians have launched,
At takeoff, it will have a thrust
of a million and a half pounds,
again, far ahead of Russian achievement,
- [Narrator] Chop Chop Chang was exceptional,
He outperformed his peers on every test and examination,
and was selected to be a part of the launch,
- [Reporter] At last, early in 1961,
the preflight preparations are complete,
At Cape Canaveral, the blue gray space capsule
is ready to take its place atop the launching block,
And then to the launching pad comes the chimpanzee,
Minutes felt like hours as the countdown was started,
Only the star of the space drama seemed unconcerned
at the mounting tension around him as he arrives
in typical high spirits for his flight checkup,
- [Narrator] The entire world would watch
with baited breath as the chimp
was rocketed out of the Earth's orbit,
The Air Force had decided
not to release the chimps name to the public for fear
of negative backlash in the likely event
that Chop Chop Chang burned to death live on television,
The rocket landed successfully in the Atlantic,
making Chop Chop Chang the first monkey in space
and a national hero,
- Dramatic achievements in space
which occurred in recent weeks could've made clear to us all
as did the Sputnik in 1957,
the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere,
who are attempting to make a determination
of which road they should take,
We choose to go to the moon,
We choose to go to the moon in this decade
and do the other things,
not because they are easy, but because they are hard,
- [Radio Announcer] Seven, six, five, four,
- In 1961, Chop Chop Chang became a household name,
He captured the hearts of not only the American people,
but the entire planet,
Leave it to President John F, Kennedy
to invite Chop Chop to the White House
to get a private, non-sexual performance,
- [Narrator] But regardless of how popular he became,
the world famous chimpanzee was still the property
of the United States government,
- [Reporter] That ensures West Berlin communication
with the non-Communist world,
- [Reporter] Another former CIA agent
says that Fidel Castro at one time
was considered a possible target for a Manchurian candidate,
- Castro was naturally our discussion point,
Could you get somebody gung ho enough
that they would go in and get him?
But if you have 100% control of the guy
you have 100% dependency,
If something happens and you haven't programmed it in
you've got a problem,
(guns firing)
- It's not safe for me to talk like this, even now,
It's too dangerous,
I was an investigative journalist
at one of the top newspapers
and media outlets in the country,
It wasn't till I started snooping around
and asking too many questions about Operation Chimp,
It's clear to me now that someone didn't want me
to uncover the truth behind the program,
Somebody with power,
I wouldn't give up my investigation without a fight,
- [Reporter] John Marks has filed
numerous Freedom of Information suits
against the CIA and had unearthed much new material,
He is the author of The Search for the Manchurian Candidate,
a history of intelligence agency work with mind control,
He is a consultant for this report,
- [Narrator] Over the next decade
there is little to no record of the life
of the world famous chimpanzee,
There are no public or television appearances,
nor any form of documentation regarding his whereabouts,
To the rest of the nation, it appeared as though
the beloved monkey had simply vanished,
It is during this period that many believe
Chop Chop Chang was the primary subject of the operation,
- Ladies and gentlemen, we've just received word
that Chop Chop Chang, the world famous chimpanzee,
has mysteriously vanished,
Riots have broken out across American cities,
Chop Chop Chang, if you're listening, we love you,
- It was obvious that there was much, much more
to Chop Chop Chang's disappearance
than the government would have you believe,
I began an undercover investigation
to tell us about this chimp, one of 14,
This investigation would consume me for several years,
I was obsessed, but I didn't care who I was gonna piss off
to determine the uncovered truth,
The more I uncovered, the more I researched,
the more pulled back into the story to make it perfect,
Throughout my investigation,
I watched friends, family members, people tell me I'm crazy,
that I should stick my tin foil hat in the microwave,
but I refuse to give up, no matter how dangerous it gets
and besides, you can't microwave tin foil,
Trust me, I've seen a lot of hot tin foil,
- It all started one day in the early summer of 1962,
- [Narrator] In the fall of 1962, orders were given
to Cape Canaveral for Chop Chop Chang
to be transferred to a CIA facility
outside of Denver, Colorado,
- You go through a year of searching
but I finally found someone
willing to fund my investigation,
A small organization out of Atlanta, Georgia
called Arby's Incorporated,
That's right, yeah, they agreed to fund my research
and in exchange, I agreed to wear an Arby's uniform
and take customers' orders in their restaurant
for about 25 hours a week,
Well that's what they wanted it to look like, see,
they couldn't have the government knowing
they were funding my research,
Seven point five an hour,
There's almost no evidence or information
about Operation Chimp available,
like they helped the job, covering their tracks,
destroying all the evidence,
However a quick scan of the Chop Chop Chang
Wikipedia page left me so shocked
I actually knocked my Macbook Pro off my desk
and onto the floor,
- Ah, shit,
- [Reporter] I asked Mister Johnson then
whether he was satisfied
there was no international conspiracy,
(guns firing)
- [Narrator] Throughout the late 1960's and 1970's
there are countless unconfirmed sightings
of Chop Chop Chang all over the world,
- Good evening, the bad news on an assassination plot
was reported today by the Senate intelligence committee,
The committee issued a report that said
officials of the United States government
initiated plots to kill two foreign leaders
were involved in a plot to kill two others
and that the CIA was aware of two more,
- [Reporter] South Vietnam, focal point of the west's
fight against Communism is southeast Asia,
For nearly a decade, Premier Ngo Dinh Diem
ruled his small nation of 15 million
without open opposition,
But in mid 1963, protests begin mounting
against his regime,
His powerful brother Ngo Dinh Nhu,
who headed the feared secret police
then joins Diem in decisions that alienated
both the Vietnamese and the west,
He went too far,
(guns firing)
In a French coup, they took to the streets of Saigon,
overwhelmed royalist forces and seized key buildings,
New leaders, General Tran Van Minh Nguyen Ngoc Tho
promised free elec6tions and stepped up the fight
against Communism,
- - [Reporter] To give this guy some of the
recent public accounts of CIA activities
and we keep hearing stories the CIA has undertaken
certain independent operations and other elements
of the American justice department,
- They made a big mistake since we all knew
on different occasions they had many successes,
The chimp may go on heroine, but it's my opinion
in this case it's fair that we'll charge them
as they had been charged, I think they did a good job,
Good evening my fellow citizens,
This government has promised to maintain
the closest surveillance of the Soviet military build up
on the island of Cuba,
- Tonight we ought to be going to Cuba,
Cuba lies just off the coast of Florida,
- [Reporter] Just 30 days ago, Fidel Castro in Havana
was greeted by a cheering mob as one of the greatest heroes
in Cuban history,
Fidel Castro at the age of 32,
now having in hand a great deal of power
and a great deal of responsibility,
- There will not be under any conditions
be an event in Cuba by the United States armed forces,
The government will do everything possible
to ensure there are no Americans involved
in the actions inside Cuba,
(exploding)
- [Narrator] There are hundreds of reports, documents,
photos and eyewitness testimonies
connecting Chop Chop Chang to various assassinations
and covert missions on behalf
of the United States government,
Some are more credible than others,
while others have been proven to be outright fakes,
- [Reporter] In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired
at President Kennedy's motorcade through downtown Dallas,
The first reports say that President Kennedy
has been seriously wounded,
- [Narrator] There is, however, substantial evidence
to his involvement with the assassination
of Ruben Cuoadra, a Nicaraguan extremist
and Communist leader as reported by a Nicaraguan newspaper
that followed him,
Several eyewitnesses reported a chimpanzee
matching Chop Chop Chang's description
smoking a cigarette and holding an automatic assault rifle,
These photos, taken the same day as the assassination
appear to support eyewitness accounts
of a heavily armed chimpanzee,
- The photographic evidence is indisputable,
Cuba in 1964, also in 1975,
December to November 22nd, 1963, Dallas, Texas,
the day President John F, Kennedy was assassinated,
That same day a lone chimpanzee was photographed
just miles away from the grassy knoll
wearing a pair of sunglasses and smoking a cigarette,
(guns firing)
Here he is again in 1968, Los Angeles, California,
killing Robert Kennedy,
I suspect the CIA has been tracking me,
They're afraid of my research,
I've started to take precautions
in case of CIA retribution,
warning my mother as well as several others
who are terrified now that any day it could happen,
They're gonna take full advantage of it,
Even though my research funding was recently cut short,
because I was caught stealing roast beef,
I refuse to give up my investigation
no matter how dangerous it gets,
I know I've stumbled onto something big,
Iran Contra and Roswell level big,
I hope Chop Chop Chang will find the truth,
- [Reporter] An intelligence committee said today
that the CIA illegally opened a red play,
- [Speaker] As a petitioner obligation to examine the NSA,
in light of its tremendous potential, for the Americans,
- They were harassed, they were discredited
and at times, endangered,
(exploding)
- Faceman, Bosco, Bernard, Little John, and Me,
Faceman, Bosco, Little John,
- [Reporter] Millions of dollars would be spent
on LSD research at universities throughout the country
and word would begin to spread on campus
about this so-called mind blowing drug,
And suddenly, it was the counterculture of the 60's,
- I give the CIA a total credit for sponsoring
and initiating the entire consciousness movement
and counterculture events of the 1960's,
- [Reporter] Doctor Timothy Leary,
the 1960's Johnny Appleseed of LSD,
- [Timothy] The CIA funded and supported and encouraged
hundreds of young psychiatrists to experiment
with this drug, the fallout from that was
the young psychologists began taking it themselves,
discovering that it was an intelligence enhancing
consciousness raising experience,
- [Reporter] History will judge the role of the CIA
and other intelligence agencies in unwittingly
contributing to the counterculture of the 60's
with their intense interest in LSD
and other hallucinogenics,
- Of course Hollywood tried to fill
the monkey sized hole he left with other copycats
but they just simply weren't the same,
- [Boston] There were Black Panthers,
Hells Angels, Communists,
- [Reporter] The CIA was not the only government agency
interested in the possibilities LSD and other drugs
presented for mind control,
The Army chemical corps first started working with the CIA
and then branched out on its own,
It too tested drugs on unwitting victims,
and as their predecessors had a decade earlier
turned to General Wild Bill Donovan for help,
He was the ideal choice for what the Army had in mind,
- [Reporter] As this 1952 CIA memo says,
the goal will remain the same,
The aim is controlling an individual
to the point where he will do our bidding against his will
and that special investigations will be conducted
toward the application of selected elements
of these techniques to man,
- [Reporter] Experiments continued on mental patients
throughout the country,
even though past and present CIA officials
have indicated this kind of work ended in the 60's,
(guns firing)
- There must be a mole in the CIA,
Someone at the highest levels of government
and to be safe,
- I want to say this to the television audience,
I made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public life,
I have never profited,
- [Narrator] Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal
caused a government wide panic,
- In all my years of public life,
I have never obstructed justice,
I reached this kind of determination
because have gotta know whether their President is a crook,
Well I am not,
(gun firing)
- [Boston] And what I saw, I'll never forget,
- [Man] We're seeing today the dark side of those actions,
There are many Americans who would not even suspect a crime,
- [Man] We're not in his pocketbook,
(exploding)
- Yesterday, Frank Church,
chairman of the Senate elect committee on intelligence,
said the White House is holding up
the investigation of the CIA
by not providing requested documents,
- [Man] It is likely that at the very moment
President Kennedy was shot,
a CIA officer was meeting with a Cuban agent in Paris
and giving him an assassination device
to use against Castro,
(guns firing)
- I was confused,
That summer sure was a hot one,
- [Reporter] More than 5,000 well laundered
and sometimes lurid documents were released today by the CIA
as agency director Stansfield Turner
outlined parts of the CIA's
144 human behavior console projects
before a joint Senate committee,
- The chief of the CIA told the Senate today
that 80 institutions such as colleges,
business and hospitals were used in top secret
mind control during the Cold War years,
- It is totally foreign to me to think
about using a human being as a guinea pig
and in any way jeopardizing his life and his health
but I can assure you that this is totally beyond
the pale of my operations and activities in the CIA
or any other of our intelligence agencies would undertake,
- [Reporter] Turner's testimony today revealed
that the CIA secretly funneled money
through scores of research foundations, colleges,
hospitals and clinics here in Washington,
- [Man] I hear there was an arrangement made with the CIA
or some other agency to do something that was never done
and it never did come to pass, we don't know,
- [Reporter] Elvis Presley died today,
He was 42,
The doctor pronounced him dead
at three o'clock this afternoon,
(toilet flushing)
- [Reporter] What arose when you took part
in these programs?
In 1977, a Senate subcommittee
heard testimony from many of them,
But the testimony was not that revealing,
According to one of them, they agreed amongst themselves
to keep the inquiry within bounds
that would satisfy the committee,
Former narcotics officer Charles Siragusa
says that he was asked to limit his testimony
by the man he reported to at the CIA,
- He wanted me not to say anything,
- [Interviewer] To purger yourself?
- [Charles] That's right,
Well either that, I'd have to purger myself
or take the fifth amendment,
And I'm not about to take the fifth amendment for anybody,
- [Reporter] Former CIA chemist Robert Lashbrook
testified he had no first hand knowledge
of the agency run safe houses,
when in fact he supervised one of them
and according to George White's diaries
was at a safe house when White conducted
what he called an LSD surprise experiment,
Doctor Guthlie also testified
before the Senate subcommittee,
but from an anteroom where he could not be filmed
because of what his lawyer termed
health and cardiac problems,
- In that memorandum that the sheriff is pointing to
that memorandum said if he returns,
that's you'd go to see Mister Gray, is that correct?
- If that's what the memorandum said, Senator,
- Thank you, Mister Chairman,
- [Narrator] CIA director Richard Helms
ordered all files from Operation Chimp to be destroyed,
Pursuant to this order, almost the entirety
of all CIA documents regarding the project have been lost,
making a full investigation of the operation impossible,
- The need for a secret budget reflects
the widespread conviction on the part
of intelligence professionals
grounded in their intelligence experience
that public revelation of vast espionage techniques
would inevitably hurt our intelligence efforts,
A trendline would be established
and a not so hypothetical intelligence analyst
in another country would have something to work with,
- [Reporter] Doctor Sidney Gutley,
who we recently filmed near his California home
oversaw many of the CIA behavioral programs,
He retired in 1973 and destroyed the records
of his work,
In a valedictory letter, Doctor Gutley wrote
that he and his colleges have been able to
maintain contact with the leading edge of developments
in the field of biological and chemical control
of human behavior,
Doctor Gutley declined ABC News' request for an interview,
He would retire here to Stinson Beach, California
and shortly before his death,
he wrote to his boss at the CIA, Doctor Sidney Gutley,
and summed up his career by saying it was fun, fun, fun,
Where else could a red blooded American boy
lie, kill and cheat, steal, deceive, rape and pillage
with the sanction and blessing of the all highest,
- [Boston] The music, the drugs, the free love,
we had so much to protest against,
- Has mind control been achieved?
From all of the available evidence, it appears doubtfully,
The human will has prevailed up to this point,
but as we have seen, work is continuing in this field,
Work that we still don't know very much about,
How deeply are the Russians and other dictatorships
into all of this?
We really can't say and the CIA is reluctant
to give out information about it,
But the basic question remains,
what place does all of this have within a democracy?
- Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall,
My fellow Americans, I've said on several occasions
that I wouldn't comment on the recent Congressional hearings
on the Iran Contra matter until the hearings were over,
I know you have doubts in your own mind
about what happened in this whole episode,
What I hope is not in doubt however,
is my commitment to the investigation themselves,
- The CIA knowingly and intentionally did what amounts
to pump crack cocaine into Los Angeles
to help fund rebels in Nicaragua,
- All of this is rather than about crack is about crap,
- [Man] Do you solemnly swear, that in the testimony
you're about to give will be the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
- I do,
- One final point has been made,
as one the persons who would run these programs told us,
we are very capable, conscientious and dedicated scientists
working for our country,
Their work speaks for itself,
This is Paul Altmeyer for ABC News, goodnight,
- [Narrator] Chop Chop Chang would not return
to the public records until 1977,
13 years after his mysterious disappearance,
Few surviving government files
reported that the world famous chimp
was quietly placed in the National Zoo
in Washington DC, sometime in the spring of 1977,
He was married to a female chimpanzee named Florence
and fathered over six children,
The marriage didn't last and the couple divorced in 1981,
citing irreconcilable differences,
Chop Chop Chang was eventually transferred
to the Toledo Zoo where he was remarried
to a female chimpanzee named Lilly,
They stayed married until his death
of natural causes in 1986 at the age of 42,
- CIA documents reveal that Chop Chop would perform
shows for all the visitors at the zoo, it was the best,
- [Narrator] The death of Chop Chop Chang
shocked the nation,
- Ladies and gentlemen, I planned to speak to you tonight
to report on the state of the union,
but the events of earlier today
have lead me to change those plans,
Today is a day for mourning and remembering,
This is truly a national loss,
- [Narrator] Hundreds grieved the loss
of the world's most beloved and famous monkey
and he was given a proper military burial
at Arlington Cemetery,
- Chop Chop Chang, man,
Sorry, I get a little emotional talking about him,
I promise we've done everything in our power
to honor the greatness he had,
He's an inspiration to us all,
He's a real hero,
- [Earl Warren] Our nation is bereaved,
The whole world is poorer because of his loss,
Because he has been our chosen leader
at a time in history when his character,
his vision and his quiet courage
have enabled him to chart a course for us,
a safe course for us,
through the shoals of treacherous seas
that encompass the world,
And now that he is relieved
of the almost superhuman burdens we imposed on him,
may he rest in peace,
- Chop Chop Chang is the reason I am the man I am today,
No doubt about it,
Sure I only make $2,500 a year,
sure due to financial reasons I am currently living
with my ex wife, the woman I once stated to be
truly the devil incarnate, who often instigates
very loud and very violent fights with me
in a night after she's been drinking,
But I owe my life to the great Chop Chop Chang himself
and would gladly give it to him,
- [Narrator] We may never know the full story
of Chop Chop Chang, the truth behind Operation Chimp,
or what really happened during those 13 mysterious
and undocumented years of his life,
But his memory, his sacrifice, his legacy
will forever live on in the hearts, minds and spirits
of the American people,
Rest in peace, Chop Chop Chang,
We love you,
("Dusty Meadow" by Don't Stop or We'll Die)
♪ Deep down in the dusty meadow ♪
♪ There's a toad ♪
♪ Jamming out on his sister's banjo ♪
♪ Havin' fun ♪
♪ Deep down in the dusty meadow ♪
♪ There's a snake ♪
♪ Tokin' up on his grandpa's reefer ♪
♪ Gettin' baked ♪
♪ And they're tokin' ♪
♪ You know they're tokin' so good ♪
♪ You know we're tokin' ♪
♪ You know we're tokin' so good ♪
♪ Deep down in the dusty meadow ♪
♪ There's a toad ♪
♪ Tokin' up on his sister's reefer ♪
♪ Getting high ♪
♪ And they're tokin' ♪
♪ You know they're tokin' so good ♪
♪ You know we're tokin' ♪
♪ You know we're tokin' so good ♪
♪ And from the forest to the stream ♪
♪ The toad he dares to dream ♪
♪ And the snake (Ow) hisses his tongue (Hoo) ♪
♪ At the moon (ho, ho, ho) ♪
♪ Now baby ♪
♪ And they're tokin', tokin' baby ♪
♪ You know we're tokin' so good ♪
♪ You know we're tokin' ♪
♪ You know we're tokin' so good ♪