20 of the Most Shocking Secret Government Projects

We think of the more secretive offices of intelligence and military as shadowy realms of James Bondian masterminds, but the fact is, most government departments are more Parks and Recreation than Clear and Present Danger. Sure, the stakes are life and death, but if anything, that’s all the more reason to try whatever goofy shit you can think of to see if it works. Besides, no one’s going to find out about it for 50 years, so you might as well get fully weird with it.

Then again, the cover of classification gives many operatives license to commit all kinds of horrific crimes. Yes, our government has totally run psy-ops on its own citizens, drugged them and even killed them. They’ve also tried to train kittens as spies. Truly, the CIA contains multitudes.

Whichever direction they weird out, everything comes to light eventually, so when user Oliver_Urback asked r/Ask Reddit, “What is a declassified document that is so unbelievable it sounds fake?,” Redditors with a lot of time on their hands to comb through the paperwork shined a spotlight on weird-ass history.