Poisoner in Chief

Excellent overview of Sidney Gottlieb's life and work at the CIA, including the known details of the MK-ULTRA mind control experiments and various assassination attempts. Kinzer's prose is clear and direct without ever feeling condescending. The book essentially reads like a (gripping and disturbing) novel. Most of the details about MK-ULTRA are found within the first half of the book. However, the subsequent chapters about Gottlieb's other CIA projects, the aftermath of MK-ULTRA, and further developments in Gottlieb's life and American society are interesting as well.

Kinzer does an exemplary job of recounting Gottlieb's atrocities. However, the most unsettling revelation of all is that Gottlieb was not a uniquely evil man; he was an individual whose goals, and willingness to use alarming means to achieve them, were the products of his circumstances. Anybody could have been Sidney Gottlieb. He is all of us, and we are all him.

After my experience with Poisoner in Chief, I am looking forward to reading Kinzer's other books, such as All the Shah's Men and The Brothers.