MKSEARCH
CIA, mid-1960s into the early 1970s. Successor cover after MKULTRA. Interrogation and incapacitating work retitled rather than ended. Helms 1973 destruction hits this drawer too. Church learns the second name.
077°08'00 W
1. Public Record
MKSEARCH. Central Intelligence Agency, mid-1960s into the early 1970s in the dating the surviving paper will support. It is the name that tries to keep a lane open after MKULTRA becomes a problem inside the building. Subprojects move. Some of the old work, especially on interrogation, behaviour, and incapacitating materials, is retitled rather than ended. Hospitals and contractors still appear. The Church Committee later has to learn this name as well as the famous one.
Richard Helms's 1973 destruction order hits this drawer too. What remains is enough to show a continuation, not enough to map every room. ARTICHOKE and BLUEBIRD sit earlier. MKULTRA sits beside it and then under the lights. MKSEARCH is the quieter tab that hoped the lights would miss it.
A second cover sheet. The same fire.
Retitled rather than ended.
2. Date of Incident
Mid-1960s to early 1970s as MKSEARCH. Destruction order 1973. Church Committee mid-1970s.
3. Location
CIA and contractor sites. Washington as centre of gravity. Approximate 38°57 N 077°08 W.
4. Official Narrative
A successor effort conceded in later hearings. Official narrative after 1975 is that the behavioural programs were curtailed. The surviving paper is not a full ledger.
5. Witness Layer
Project officers. Contractor physicians. Committee staff. Helms again as the man who ordered the bag.
The quieter tab that hoped the lights would miss it.
The 1973 order hits this drawer too.
6. Recovery Logistics
Surviving cables and later testimony. No complete subject list.
7. Assessment
Keep MKSEARCH as its own cover sheet, not a typo for MKULTRA. Keep the 1973 fire in view so the shortness is explained. Do not write a finished map of subprojects from what the bag left. Do not write that the work died when the first name became famous. Continuation is the whole point of a second title.
8. Materials & Remains
Surviving paper. Committee print. A hole the size of the order.
9. Key Personnel
CIA behavioural offices : Owners of the second name.
Richard Helms : The 1973 order.
10. Aftermath
The famous name takes the hearings. This one takes a paragraph. The index still has to carry both.
11. Current Archive Status
Status: Mid-60s successor. Same fire 1973. Thin stack.
Confidence: High that MKSEARCH existed as a continuation vehicle after MKULTRA. Low that the surviving pages are the whole of it.
Filing note
A second cover sheet in the same building, work that changed clothes instead of leaving, a 1973 bag that did not read labels closely, a committee that had to learn two names.
Retitled rather than ended. The most honest sentence the drawer still holds.