Mind-Control and Brainwashing-- a CIA Ruse?

Many purveyors of the conspiracy world are very familiar with reports of the CIA trying to brainwash people and control their minds through drugs and advanced psychological techniques. This is typically referred to as the MK-ULTRA program and the Monarch program.

Most famously, the Robert F Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan was said to be under the control of CIA mind control-- a sleeper agent set to go off after given a specific signal. Kathy O'Brien popularized MK-ULTRA with her books and story, although there is very little if any independent evidence to back up her claims. Recently, there have been vast numbers of pop stars who are said to be under CIA mind control, and who spread mind control memes or Satanic messages in their songs.

However, there is a different side to this story that I only recently learned about, which is actually the origins of the mind control meme.

It started with the Korean War, and rumors of what the Chinese did, and allegations by some American prisoners of war, that occurred after they were captured.

The Oxford English Dictionary records the earliest known English-language usage of brainwashing in an article by newspaperman Edward Hunter, in Miami News, published on 7 October 1950. Hunter, an outspoken anticommunist and said to be a CIA agent working undercover as a journalist, wrote a series of books and articles on the theme of Chinese brainwashing, and the word brainwashing quickly became a stock phrase in Cold War headlines.[4][5] 

The Chinese term 洗腦 (xǐ năo, literally "wash brain")[6] was originally used to describe methodologies of coercive persuasion used under the Maoist government in China, which aimed to transform individuals with a reactionary imperialist mindset into "right-thinking" members of the new Chinese social system.[7] The term punned on the Taoist custom of "cleansing/washing the heart/mind" (洗心, xǐ xīn) before conducting certain ceremonies or entering certain holy places.[8] 

Hunter and those who picked up the Chinese term used it to explain why, during the Korean War (1950-1953), some American prisoners of war cooperated with their Chinese captors, even in a few cases defecting to the enemy side.[9] British radio operator Robert W. Ford[10][11] and British army Colonel James Carne also claimed that the Chinese subjected them to brainwashing techniques during their war-era imprisonment.[12] 

The U.S. military and government laid charges of "brainwashing" in an effort to undermine detailed confessions made by military personnel to war crimes, including biological warfare.[13] After Chinese radio broadcasts claimed to quote Frank Schwable, Chief of Staff of the First Marine Air Wing admitting to participating in germ warfare, United Nations commander Gen. Mark W. Clark asserted: "Whether these statements ever passed the lips of these unfortunate men is doubtful. If they did, however, too familiar are the mind-annihilating methods of these Communists in extorting whatever words they want .... The men themselves are not to blame, and they have my deepest sympathy for having been used in this abominable way."[14]

So basically, the US military, likely with the aid of the CIA, invoked the use of mind control and brainwashing to undermine claims by the POWs that the US conducted horrific war crimes such as biological warfare in Korea during the war.

It turns out, there is reasonable evidence that the US did use biological weapons and does anyone seriously put it past the US?

This would mean that the whole mind control idea is a hoax put out to cover up horrible war crimes by the US in Korea. This is further supported by the fact that several people, including people from the CIA, have come out and said that mind control doesn't work and doesn't exist in a viable form. This would mean all the popular stories of mind control are bullshit, and that Sirhan Sirhan, for instance was not a government agent.

Of course, it is an attractive idea that mind control exists, and such technology does seem feasible, given our advanced state of science and known techniques such as hypnosis. So what is the truth?

But it's an interesting dichotomy:

On the one hand, we have mind control really existing, which would imply that the North Koreans and Chinese were able to make American POWs make false allegations, meaning the US did not commit war crimes. At the same time, this means that RFK could have been killed by a mind-controlled CIA patsy, and that popular culture stars are spreading hidden messages to us, to help control us.

On the other hand, we have mind control being a hoax, which implies that the US committed major war crimes in Korea, but that other implications of mind control are false.

Which one is worse?

I know people are probably used to allegations of war crimes, and killing people in war by terrible means is not so shocking as it should be, but it is freaking evil. Controlling people to assassinate our leaders and also to control our actions has a much greater creepy factor, but it doesn't mean it is true.

Of course, it could be that the Chinese and Koreans really weren't able to brainwash our soldiers, and that the allegations of war crimes are true, AND that the US was able to perfect mind control and used it for controlling assassins and for other nefarious deeds. I wouldn't be surprised. Still, it's interesting how calling one CIA program a hoax can cut both ways, to both help and hurt the US.