1. Project MKUltra
From the 1950’s through the 1970’s, the CIA conducted mind control experiments on U.S. citizens. President Clinton even issued a formal apology on behalf of the government in 1995 for it. The government used drugs, hypnosis, abuse, and electronics in an attempt to control the minds of various subjects. This story was originally uncovered when a Freedom of Information Act request exposed 20,000 classified documents and triggered a series of Senate hearings.
2. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
On August 2nd of 1964, the USS Maddox reported that it had been attacked by three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats. Maddox shot back 280 shells in what it claimed was a sea battle. a U.S> aircraft carrier was damaged. This incident was largely used to justify our entrance into the Vietnam war. But it never actually happened. In 2005, a study revealed that there were no North Vietnamese naval vessels actually present at the time.
3. The Iran-Contra Affair.
In the mid 1980’s, the Reagan Administration authorized government officials to secretly trade weapons with Iran in the hopes that U.S. hostages would be released and then used the proceeds to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. When uncovered by Congress, General Oliver North took the fall for Ronald Reagan, who could have been indicted for high treason.
4. The Business Plot.
In 1933, a cadre of wealthy businessmen, including the heads of Chase Bank, GM, Goodyear, Standard Oil, DuPont and Prescott Bush (yeah, that Bush family) attempted to recruit General Smedley Butler to lead a coup against President Franklin Roosevelt and install a pro-business fascist government in the United States. Unfortunately for their little plan, Gen. Butler was a staunch supporter of FDR, even actively campaigning for him in 1932. Smedley immediately spilled the beans to congress, but all parties involved denied it. The House McCormack-Dickstein Committee did acknowledge that there was a conspiracy to install a fascist government in the U.S. at the same time fascism was taking root in Nazi Germany. There were, however, no prosecutions and the whole thing was mostly forgotten.
