The program focuses on developing mind-control drugs as a strategy to defeat the Soviet Union. "The program involved more than 150 human experiments involving psychedelic drugs, paralytics and electroshock therapy. Sometimes the test subjects knew they were participating in a study—but at other times, they had no idea, even when the hallucinogens started taking effect. Many of the tests were conducted at universities, hospitals or prisons in the United States and Canada" (History.com).

MKUltra extends experiments carried out in Nazi concentration camps and in prisoner of war camps in Japan. Nazi scientists are brought to Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) labs to teach the use of sarin gas.

While no effective mind-control drugs or targeted use of hypnosis will be found, the research from this program will lead to the creation of the CIA's interrogation and torture techniques that are still being used at the time of this writing.