Poisoner in Chief

Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control

By: Stephen Kinzer

Narrated by: James Linkin

Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

2019 Amazon.com Best Books of the Year

The best-selling author of All the Shah’s Men and The Brothers tells the astonishing story of the man who oversaw the CIA’s secret drug and mind-control experiments of the 1950s and ’60s.

The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentlehearted torturer - the agency’s “poisoner in chief.” As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he directed brutal experiments at secret prisons on three continents. He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace - including some intended for Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. He paid prostitutes to lure clients to CIA-run bordellos, where they were secretly dosed with mind-altering drugs. His experiments spread LSD across the United States, making him a hidden godfather of the 1960s counterculture. For years he was the chief supplier of spy tools used by CIA officers around the world.

Stephen Kinzer, author of groundbreaking books about US clandestine operations, draws on new documentary research and original interviews to bring to life one of the most powerful unknown Americans of the 20th century. Gottlieb’s reckless experiments on “expendable” human subjects destroyed many lives, yet he considered himself deeply spiritual. He lived in a remote cabin without running water, meditated, and rose before dawn to milk his goats.

During his 22 years at the CIA, Gottlieb worked in the deepest secrecy. Only since his death has it become possible to piece together his astonishing career at the intersection of extreme science and covert action. Poisoner in Chief reveals him as a clandestine conjurer on an epic scale.

©2019 Stephen Kinzer (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Absolutely Essential History

It is almost beyond belief, and it is beyond belief for most people who only learned what they teach in middle school history class. It is such a savage portrait of institutional "evil," and I don't know any better example for this word than what the CIA has done in its covert and fantastically meglomeniachal quests to conquer and puppet the human mind. The book goes through our history developing and testing biological weapons, even testing (supposedly) benign bacteria mass delivery systems as aerosol spray clouds which were launched on San Franciso. The whole culture of the CIA is at times comically "fear and loathing", where they are surprise dosing eachother regularly and coming up with hair brain ideas of how to discredit Castro with serious plans to make his beard fall out by putting thaleum salts in in his shoes, or regularly conducting "experiments" involving lots of sex with hookers and LSD. and at other times their "work" or obsession is absolutely disturbing and defined by procuring people for prolonged torture and experimentation with electroshock and every other method of pharmacological and "interrogation technique" to try to utterly break and replace their very personality and mind and sense of reality as a tool of war. The book shows how in their mad search for this knowledge of ultimate power, to replace, implant and control another's mind, they kill thousands of "easily expendable" people both overseas, (in the korean war for example), as well as at home in the black prisons of Kentucky. This book does a great and thorough job putting this story together in a way that will make you excited, fascinated and morally disgusted all at once. It makes me reflective on just how deceitfully truncated the prescribed narrative of American history is to leave out this deeply revealing chapter of the American portrait.

Wonderful!!

Kinzer’s writing never ever disappoints!! I loved Linkin’s performance and differential accents, I couldn’t stop listening!

Amazing trove of information on MK Ultra

This is the unbelievable true story of the CIA’s forays into mind control and LSD experimentation, and the program’s bizarre chief scientist Sidney Gottlieb. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in postwar American history and the darker side of the Cold War.

I did not care for the reading of this book, however. The narrator’s tone, tempo and voice inflection were a struggle to endure. We’re the story not so compelling, I would have put it down shortly after starting. Sorry, but it has to be said.

Great read- I don’t understand gripes about the narration

I read this as a follow up to another Kinser book “The Brothers” and was not disappointed. The combined narrative of Gottlieb and the Dulles brothers is nothing short of astounding. I found no issue with the narration- performance is consistent, there are no annoying frequency buildups and it sounds properly de-essed.

Reading Performance is not as bad as they say.

Although he does sound a little different, I did not find the performance to be bad at all. There have been some readers that were hard to listen to on other books, and I feared that might be the case here after reading some reviews, but the performance is fine. I came to this book after reading Chaos, a book on the Manson Family that has some connections.

A fascinating tale of a dark time.

Terry Gross’ (from NPR/WHYY-Philadelphia) interview with Stephen Kinzer about this dark time in US history provoked my interest in the book — which did not disappoint. It is a well-written, well-constricted, and deeply thought provoking story of the post-WWII creation and massive expansion of CIA programs to develop non-atomic weapons of mass destruction.

Amidst the historical underpinnings are details about the personal lives of the players involved in these programs and some of the justifications they used to continue their work over many years.

My only critique has nothing to do the writing itself but of the delivery. In his attempt to add some dramatic flair - Mr. Linkin tries (somewhat unsuccessfully) to mimic a speech impediment of one of the central characters and on occasion (oddly) mis-pronounces some words. However, these slight flaws pale in comparison to the positives.

Would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys a deeper dive into history as well as those who enjoy trying to understand the psychological composition of people who are able to justify human atrocities in service of what they believe is the greater good.

Wow

Incredibly destructive to my well being! To listen to this story raises all the hairs left on my body. It is truly amazing to me that our government not only allows this activity, but turns a blind eye. Incredibly well researched and told. The narrator could better have avoided trying to do the stutter, but overall, it could be gotten through. Just give it time to get in to it, as the whole story is very, very pertinent to our history and our present lives.

good book

A good listen that gave pertinent information that I didn't know. It enhanced my understanding of the criminal intelligence agency.

Amazing Narrator!

I am so glad that I did not let all of the bad reviews on the narrator sway me. This is a must listen. I finished it in 2 days.

The narration could use a bit more nuance.

I thought the narration was a bit too gruff, as if being read a PSA. This gruffness may have been the intention, but I felt it made the characters seem a little one dimensional in the descriptions of their actions and backgrounds. It also led to a sense of otherwise serious events coming off as bumbling or comedic antics.