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{{Short description|Central Intelligence Agency domestic espionage project}}
{{about|the espionage project|the science fiction novel|Operation Chaos (novel)|Rush Limbaugh's 2008 political strategy|The Rush Limbaugh Show#Operation Chaos}}
'''Operation CHAOS''' or '''Operation MHCHAOS''' was a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) domestic [[espionage]] project targeting American citizens operating from 1967 to 1974, established by President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] and expanded under President [[Richard Nixon]], whose mission was to uncover possible foreign influence on domestic race, anti-war, and other protest movements. The operation was launched under [[Director of Central Intelligence]] (DCI) [[Richard Helms]] by chief of counter-intelligence [[James Jesus Angleton]], and headed by [[Richard Ober]].<ref name="Theoharis06">{{cite book|title=The Central Intelligence Agency: Security Under Scrutiny |last=Athan Theoharis |first=Richard H. |year=2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=0-313-33282-7 |pages=49,175,195,203,322}}</ref><ref name="Napoli05">{{cite book|title=Intelligence Identities Protection Act and Its Interpretation |first=Russell P. |last=Napoli |publisher=Nova Publishers |year=2005 |isbn=1-59454-685-1 |pages=18–20}}</ref> The "MH" designation is to signify the program had a global area of operations.<ref name="Friedman05">{{cite book|title=The Secret Histories: Hidden Truths That Challenged the Past and Changed the World |first=John S. |last=Friedman |year=2005 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-312-42517-1 |pages=278–279}}</ref>

==Background==
The CIA was charged with the collection, correlation, and evaluation of intelligence. While the Act does not specify a prohibition on collecting domestic intelligence, or a restriction to only collect foreign intelligence, [[Executive Order 12333|Executive Order 12333 of 1981]] added prohibitions to limit CIA activities. The CIA began domestic recruiting operations in 1959 in the process of finding [[Cuba]]n exiles who could be used in the [[Cuban Project|campaign against Cuba]] and President [[Fidel Castro]]. As these operations expanded, the CIA formed a Domestic Operations Division in 1964. In 1965, President [[Lyndon Johnson]] requested that the CIA begin its own investigation into domestic dissent—independent of the FBI's ongoing [[COINTELPRO]], which conducted similar activities.<ref name=Lyon>Lyon, Verne. [https://archive.org/download/the-history-of-operation-chaos-by-verne-lyon-covert-action-information-bulletin-/The%20History%20of%20Operation%20CHAOS%2C%20by%20Verne%20Lyon%20%28CovertAction%20Information%20Bulletin%2C%20No.%2034%2C%20Summer%201990%29%20pp.%2059-62.pdf "Domestic Surveillance: The History of Operation CHAOS."] ''[[Covert Action Information Bulletin]]'', No. 34, Summer 1990, pp. 59-62. [https://covertactionmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CAIB34-1990-2.pdf Full issue available].</ref>

The CIA developed numerous operations targeting American dissidents in the US.  Many of these programs operated under the [[Organizational structure of the Central Intelligence Agency#Directorate of Support|CIA's Office of Security]], including:<ref name="Napoli05" />
*[[HTLINGUAL]] – Directed at letters passing between the United States and the then Soviet Union; the program involved the examination of correspondence to and from individuals or organizations placed on a watchlist.
*Project 2 – Directed at infiltration of foreign intelligence targets by agents posing as dissident sympathizers and which, like CHAOS, had placed agents within domestic radical organizations for the purposes of training and establishment of dissident credentials.
*[[Project MERRIMAC]] – Designed to infiltrate domestic antiwar and radical organizations thought to pose a threat to security of CIA property and personnel.
*[[Project RESISTANCE]] – Worked with college administrators, campus security and local police to identify anti-war activists and [[political dissident]]s without any infiltration taking place.

==Scale of operations==
When Nixon came to office in 1969, existing domestic surveillance activities were consolidated into Operation CHAOS.<ref name="Goldstein01">{{cite book|title=Political Repression in Modern America: From 1870 to 1976 |first=Robert Justin |last=Goldstein |year=2001 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=0-252-06964-1 |page=456}}</ref> Operation CHAOS first used CIA stations abroad to report on antiwar activities of American citizens traveling abroad, employing methods such as physical surveillance and electronic [[eavesdropping]], utilizing "liaison services" in maintaining such surveillance. The operations were later expanded to include 60 officers.<ref name="Friedman05" /> In 1969, following the expansion, the operation began developing its own network of [[informants]] for the purposes of infiltrating various foreign antiwar groups located in foreign countries that might have ties to domestic groups.<ref name="Napoli05" /> 

Eventually, CIA officers expanded the program to include other leftist or counter-cultural groups with no discernible connection to [[Vietnam]], such as groups operating within the [[History of feminism#1940s|women's liberation movement]].<ref name="Theoharis06" /> The domestic spying of Operation CHAOS also targeted the [[Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C.|Israeli embassy]], and domestic [[Jew]]ish groups such as the [[B'nai B'rith]]. In order to gather intelligence on the embassy and B'nai B'rith, the CIA purchased a [[Waste collection|garbage collection]] company to collect documents that were to be destroyed.<ref name="Loftus97">{{cite book|title=The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed The Jewish People |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312110574 |url-access=registration |first=John |last=Loftus |author2=Mark Aarons |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |date=April 15, 1997 |isbn=0-312-15648-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312110574/page/322 322]}}</ref>

Targets of Operation CHAOS within the antiwar movement included:<ref name="Goldstein01" />
*[[Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)|Students for a Democratic Society]]
*[[Black Panther Party]]
*[[Young Lords]]
*[[Women Strike for Peace]]
*[[Ramparts (magazine)|''Ramparts'' magazine]]<ref>[[Stansfield Turner|Turner, Stansfield]]. [https://archive.org/details/burnbeforereadin00turn ''Burn Before Reading'']. [[Hachette Books|Hyperion]], 2005, p. 118. {{ISBN|9780786867820}}.</ref>

At its finality, Operation CHAOS contained files on 7,200 Americans, and a computer index totaling 300,000 civilians and approximately 1,000 groups.<ref name="Hixson00">{{cite book|title=Military Aspects of the Vietnam Conflict |first=Walter L. |last=Hixson |isbn=0-8153-3534-2 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2000 |page=282}}</ref>

==Findings==
The aim of the programs was to compile reports on "illegal and subversive" contacts between United States civilian protesters and "foreign elements" which "might range from casual contacts based merely on mutual interest to closely controlled channels for party directives."<ref name="Hixson00"/>

DCI [[Richard Helms]] informed President Johnson on November 15, 1967, that the CIA had uncovered "no evidence of any contact between the most prominent peace movement leaders and foreign embassies in the U.S. or abroad." Helms repeated this assessment in 1969.<ref name="Theoharis06" /> In total, 6 reports were compiled for the [[White House]] and 34 for [[United States Cabinet|cabinet level]] officials.<ref name="Napoli05" />

==Exposure==
The secret program was exposed by investigative journalist [[Seymour Hersh]] in a 1974 article in ''[[The New York Times]]'' entitled ''Huge CIA Operation Reported in US Against Antiwar Forces, Other Dissidents in Nixon Years''.<ref name="Theoharis06" /><ref name="NYT">{{Cite journal |title=Huge CIA Operation Reported in US Against Antiwar Forces, Other Dissidents in Nixon Years |author=Seymour Hersh |author-link=Seymour Hersh |date=December 22, 1974 |journal=[[New York Times]] |page=1 |url=http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/238963-huge-c-i-a-operation-reported-in-u-s-against.html }}</ref> Amid the uproar of the [[Watergate break-in]] involving two former CIA officers, Operation CHAOS had been closed in 1973.<ref name=Lyon/> Further details were revealed in 1975 during Representative [[Bella Abzug]]'s House Subcommittee on Government Information and individual Rights.<ref name="Friedman05" /> The government, in response to the revelations, felt pressured enough to launch the [[United States President's Commission on CIA activities within the United States|Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States]] (The Rockefeller Commission), led by then Vice President [[Nelson Rockefeller]], to investigate the depth of the surveillance.<ref name="Theoharis06" /> [[Richard Cheney]], then [[Deputy White House Chief of Staff]], is noted as having stated the Rockefeller Commission was to avoid "... congressional efforts to further encroach on the executive branch."<ref name="Theoharis06" />

Following the revelations by the Rockefeller Commission, then-DCI [[George H. W. Bush]] admitted that "the operation in practice resulted in some improper accumulation of material on legitimate domestic activities."<ref name="Friedman05" />

==See also==
* [[ECHELON]]
* [[NSA warrantless surveillance controversy]]
* [[Project Megiddo]]
* [[Project MINARET]]
* [[Project Mockingbird]]
* [[Project SHAMROCK]]
* [[Church Committee]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/pdf/ChurchB3_9_CHAOS.pdf CHAOS, MERRIMAC, and RESISTANCE | PDF]
* [https://fas.org/irp/program/process/docs/98-14-01-2en.pdf Development of Surveillance Technology & Risk of Abuse of Economic Information | PDF]
* [http://www.maebrussell.com/Mae%20Brussell%20Articles/Operation%20Chaos.html Operation Chaos: The CIA's War Against the Sixties Counter-Culture]
* [http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIi.htm Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with respect to Intelligence Activities: United States Senate - CIA Intelligence Collection about Americans: CHAOS and the Office of Security]
* [http://ciamemoryhole.blogspot.com/search/label/operation%20mhchaos Transcriptions of CIA documents related to Operation MHCHAOS]{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

{{Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson}}
{{Presidency of Richard Nixon}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:CHAOS, Operation}}
[[Category:Central Intelligence Agency domestic surveillance operations]]
[[Category:Central Intelligence Agency operations]]
[[Category:Cold War intelligence operations]]
[[Category:Government databases in the United States]]
[[Category:History of cryptography]]
[[Category:Lyndon B. Johnson administration controversies]]