Chop Chop Chang: Operation C.H.I.M.P (2019) - full transcript
The incredible story of Chop Chop Chang, a world famous circus chimpanzee who is secretly trained by the CIA into a deadly assassin.
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.
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.
There are those
who will disbelieve
what I'm about to say.
- 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.
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.
Yeah, but that was never done.
The effects
of which may be out keeping
with the individual's.
- That sort of thing.
Interest
to his being, contrary.
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.
They were though.
- Some of the low level people were,
but the high level people
were not, tell you the truth.
And now ladies and gentlemen
on all continents, the grand finale.
The speediest performing
monkey in all the world.
The acrobat of acrobats.
Alley-oop.
This
exceptionally cool monkey
is known by the name of Chop Chop Chang.
- 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.
Five, four,
three, two, one, fire.
- 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.
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.
- 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.
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.
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.
- Is it conceivable that
he was kidnapped for ransom
or that he deliberately
dropped out of sight?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
There is evidence to suggest
the program had been established
as early as the 1940's,
perhaps in connection
to Operation Paperclip.
The CIA's
interest in LSD was intense.
The worry was that the
Russians would get hold of it.
Were the Soviets into LSD?
- I don't even have to
say, I'm sure they were.
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.
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.
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.
The Manchurian
Candidate, controlled by others,
to do things against his
will, is it possible?.
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.
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.
- He was such a cute little guy
with such a sweet disposition.
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.
Robert Calloway
was a well known gambler
with life long connections
with organized crime.
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.
Is human
behavior predictable?
Could the mind be controlled?
Perhaps not.
- Hold on, give me a minute, forgive me.
- Sorry, give me a minute.
Forgive me.
- When the red light flashes,
fire the vehicle and
this will be protocol.
- No problem, director.
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!
No!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Chang fever
gripped the nation.
- He was like the Beatles
before there even were the Beatles.
Chop Chop Chang cartoons,
Chop Chop Chang t-shirts,
Chop Chop Chang lunch boxes,
Chop Chop Chang cereal,
it was Chang mania.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
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 propaganda.
- 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.
Oh, well you would?
Yes.
Well you will pretty soon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Three, two, one, fire.
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.
Chop Chop
Chang was exceptional.
He outperformed his peers on
every test and examination,
and was selected to be
a part of the launch.
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.
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.
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.
But regardless
of how popular he became,
the world famous chimpanzee
was still the property
of the United States government.
That ensures
West Berlin communication
with the non-Communist world.
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.
- 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.
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.
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.
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.
I asked Mister Johnson then
whether he was satisfied
there was no international conspiracy.
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.
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.
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 elections
and stepped up the fight
against Communism.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
An intelligence
committee said today
that the CIA illegally opened a red play.
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.
- Faceman, Bosco, Bernard,
Little John, and Me.
Faceman, Bosco, Little John.
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.
Doctor Timothy Leary,
the 1960's Johnny Appleseed of LSD.
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.
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.
There were Black Panthers,
Hells Angels, Communists.
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
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.
And what I
saw, I'll never forget.
We're seeing today the
dark side of those actions.
There are many Americans who
would not even suspect a crime.
We're not in his pocketbook.
- 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.
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.
- I was confused.
That summer sure was a hot one.
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.
Turner's
testimony today revealed
that the CIA secretly funneled money
through scores of research
foundations, colleges,
hospitals and clinics here in Washington.
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.
Elvis Presley died today.
He was 42.
The doctor pronounced him dead
at three o'clock this afternoon.
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.
To purger yourself?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
♪ 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
hisses his tongue ♪
♪ At the moon ♪
♪ 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 ♪
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.
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.
There are those
who will disbelieve
what I'm about to say.
- 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.
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.
Yeah, but that was never done.
The effects
of which may be out keeping
with the individual's.
- That sort of thing.
Interest
to his being, contrary.
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.
They were though.
- Some of the low level people were,
but the high level people
were not, tell you the truth.
And now ladies and gentlemen
on all continents, the grand finale.
The speediest performing
monkey in all the world.
The acrobat of acrobats.
Alley-oop.
This
exceptionally cool monkey
is known by the name of Chop Chop Chang.
- 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.
Five, four,
three, two, one, fire.
- 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.
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.
- 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.
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.
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.
- Is it conceivable that
he was kidnapped for ransom
or that he deliberately
dropped out of sight?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
There is evidence to suggest
the program had been established
as early as the 1940's,
perhaps in connection
to Operation Paperclip.
The CIA's
interest in LSD was intense.
The worry was that the
Russians would get hold of it.
Were the Soviets into LSD?
- I don't even have to
say, I'm sure they were.
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.
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.
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.
The Manchurian
Candidate, controlled by others,
to do things against his
will, is it possible?.
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.
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.
- He was such a cute little guy
with such a sweet disposition.
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.
Robert Calloway
was a well known gambler
with life long connections
with organized crime.
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.
Is human
behavior predictable?
Could the mind be controlled?
Perhaps not.
- Hold on, give me a minute, forgive me.
- Sorry, give me a minute.
Forgive me.
- When the red light flashes,
fire the vehicle and
this will be protocol.
- No problem, director.
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!
No!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Chang fever
gripped the nation.
- He was like the Beatles
before there even were the Beatles.
Chop Chop Chang cartoons,
Chop Chop Chang t-shirts,
Chop Chop Chang lunch boxes,
Chop Chop Chang cereal,
it was Chang mania.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
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 propaganda.
- 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.
Oh, well you would?
Yes.
Well you will pretty soon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Three, two, one, fire.
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.
Chop Chop
Chang was exceptional.
He outperformed his peers on
every test and examination,
and was selected to be
a part of the launch.
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.
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.
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.
But regardless
of how popular he became,
the world famous chimpanzee
was still the property
of the United States government.
That ensures
West Berlin communication
with the non-Communist world.
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.
- 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.
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.
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.
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.
I asked Mister Johnson then
whether he was satisfied
there was no international conspiracy.
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.
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.
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 elections
and stepped up the fight
against Communism.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
An intelligence
committee said today
that the CIA illegally opened a red play.
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.
- Faceman, Bosco, Bernard,
Little John, and Me.
Faceman, Bosco, Little John.
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.
Doctor Timothy Leary,
the 1960's Johnny Appleseed of LSD.
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.
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.
There were Black Panthers,
Hells Angels, Communists.
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
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.
And what I
saw, I'll never forget.
We're seeing today the
dark side of those actions.
There are many Americans who
would not even suspect a crime.
We're not in his pocketbook.
- 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.
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.
- I was confused.
That summer sure was a hot one.
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.
Turner's
testimony today revealed
that the CIA secretly funneled money
through scores of research
foundations, colleges,
hospitals and clinics here in Washington.
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.
Elvis Presley died today.
He was 42.
The doctor pronounced him dead
at three o'clock this afternoon.
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.
To purger yourself?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
♪ 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
hisses his tongue ♪
♪ At the moon ♪
♪ 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 ♪