CIA Experiments on the Fringe of Consciousness and Parapsychology
In one of the most bizarre episodes in Cold War intelligence history, a declassified CIA document titled simply “Magician Walks Into the Laboratory” offers a glimpse into the U.S. government’s fascination with extrasensory perception (ESP), mind-over-matter, and...
How the U.S. Enabled France’s Colonial Return to Vietnam
In 1945, as colonial empires crumbled, the U.S. made a pivotal choice: back Vietnamese independence - or let France return. Despite anti-colonial rhetoric, America sided with the latter. This is the untold beginning of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. “We have fully...
The Russian Visitor Who Asked One Too Many Questions
Document 206-10001-10003, newly released in the 2025 JFK files, contains a short CIA memo from September 1962 about a Soviet national in Mexico City who raised quiet alarms by asking unusually specific questions about U.S. embassy operations. At the time, it seemed...