The Economic Times

5,000 US soldiers were made test subjects in a mind-altering drug programme. It was done to find a chemical that could disable enemies during Cold War

During the Cold War, the US Army exposed around 5,000 soldiers to LSD, nerve agents and other dangerous chemicals at a secret Maryland facility. Researchers wanted to find out whether mind-altering drugs could incapacitate enemy troops without killing them. One chemical, BZ, could trigger vivid hallucinations and leave subjects delirious for up to three days. But many soldiers were reportedly unaware of what they were being given, and some later suffered lasting physical and psychological problems.