The Biggest, Most Notorious Government Cover Ups Ever

When the Cold War was at its peak, the CIA began testing the possibility of using mind control to create sleeper agents that would infiltrate communist Russia. The project went by numerous names, but the most famous was Project MK-Ultra. It involved government scientists using methamphetamine, barbiturates, LSD, and hypnosis to break down a subject and then rebuild them with very specific qualities.

Needless to say, it didn't work how they wanted it to. The project was scrapped, but not before CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all documents from Project MK-ULTRA to be destroyed. 

It probably goes without saying that the JFK assassination is one of the biggest suspected government cover-ups ever. Whether or not you believe the numerous conspiracy theories, you probably don't think that the government was completely transparent with the American people.

With theories ranging from the presence of multiple gunmen to a rogue secret service agent who accidentally shot the president, it's safe to say that we'll never know the full story of President Kennedy's end. 

The Watergate Scandal, named after the building where much of the scandal took place, is the most well-known government scandal of them all. The basic story goes like this: Under President Nixon's orders, a group of men broke into the DNC headquarters at the Watergate complex in order to find dirt on the Democratic party that could be used in upcoming elections.

The men were caught, and money that they had on them was traced back to a slush fund used by a committee to re-elect the president. Nixon did his best to cover up the scandal, and even succeeded for a while, but the entire plot unraveled when a tape was released that proved Nixon was trying to cover up the scandal. And the rest is history. 

In 2014, the Senate Report on CIA Detention Interrogation Program was released after five years of preparation. Inside, we finally saw that the CIA had not only been using illegal interrogation techniques, but that those so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" hadn't even worked all that well.

We're not sure what the government wanted to cover up more: The fact that they'd been torturing people or that it was essentially useless.

In the '60s, America tried to assassinate Castro SO MANY TIMES that things kind of got out of hand.

So much so that when the information on our many assassination attempts (which included everything from exploding cigars to mafia hits) was declassified almost 40 years after later, it made our government look like writers for Get Smart.

Area 51 has long been considered a Mecca for conspiracy theorists, and while there have been a few legit cover-ups at Area 51 (spy plane tests, the SR-71 Blackbird, etc.), the Nevada-based government site is still a hotbed of secret activity.

It probably goes without saying that we'll never know exactly what's going on out there in the desert, but that won't stop people from speculating.