Real Conspiracies That People Tried to Warn Us About
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re breaking down conspiracy theories that later turned out to be much more than just “theories.”
Iran—Contra Affair
Who knew that quietly selling arms to then-embargoed Iran would come back to bite the administration of President Ronald Reagan? Arguably the messiest, most explosive political scandal of the 1980s, the Iran-Contra affair was such a PR blunder for the U.S. government that Reagan was forced to take full responsibility for it on live television in 1987. And that’s not once, but twice. Although two separate investigations cleared Reagan of wrongdoing, the whistle was blown on multiple other participants in the scandal, such as lieutenant colonel Oliver North. North’s involvement was partially exposed by journalist John Mattes, who reported it to Massachusetts Senator (and future Democratic presidential nominee) John Kerry.
PG&E, Chromium-6, & Erin Brockovich
A number of entries on our list today were adapted for the screen after coming to nationwide prominence. But the unbelievable true story of plucky paralegal Erin Brockovich? That blew up after it had been made the subject of director Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-winning biopic starring Julia Roberts For the uninitiated, Brockovich was an unemployed single mother who, after finding work at a law firm, uncovered a sinister conspiracy involving widespread mysterious illness in Hinkley, California. After some digging, it became clear that the Pacific Gas and Electric Company was responsible for the health issues, the result of drinking water contaminated with hexavalent chromium. Not only that, but PG&E had successfully covered the conspiracy up for years. You go, Erin!
The Truth About Tobacco
We hope this goes without saying, but: smoking poses a significant risk to your health, and it’s probably best to avoid picking it up altogether. However, if it were up to tobacco industry insiders, lobbyists, and more, you wouldn’t know that at all in the first place. Director Michael Mann’s 1999 biopic “The Insider” depicts the trials of whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, who, according to the National Library of Medicine, “could recite the damnable facts as a former high level executive.” Wigand wasn’t the first whistleblower to go public — that would be “Deep Cough,” the codename for a former RJ Reynolds employee who accused the tobacco industry of denying nicotine’s addictiveness.
Dreyfus Affair
Sometimes, pulling on a tiny, loose thread can lead to an earth-shattering unraveling. Case in point: the legendary Dreyfus affair, in which 35-year-old French artillery officer Captain Alfred Dreyfus was baselessly convicted of treason — in this case, selling out the French military to Germany. The scandal unfolded over the course of a decade, from 1894 to 1906. Evidence that would’ve exonerated Dreyfus was uncovered in 1896, but was suppressed by the military. French writer Émile Zola’s article “J’Accuse…!,” an open letter to French President Félix Faure, yielded a groundswell of public support for Dreyfus. Dreyfus, whose politicized railroading was attributed to antisemitism, was eventually reinstated to the military and made lieutenant colonel.
Gulf of Tonkin Incident
This is one incident that the United States government would probably like you to forget about. Its authenticity and subsequent, conspiratorial cover-up were brought into question even at the time in 1964. Essentially, two maritime skirmishes between U.S. and North Vietnamese forces in August of that year led to a significant escalation in the Vietnam War. The problem? The second of these face-offs never happened, and due to faulty intel, led the U.S. to become increasingly involved in the conflict. In 2005, NSA historian Robert J. Hanlok revealed his damning conclusion: that the NSA had intentionally tampered with evidence to justify putting American boots on the ground in North Vietnam.
Pentagon Papers
In case you hadn’t already guessed it, the Vietnam War was a messy, deeply embarrassing period in American history. But the fact of the matter is that the public — and even members of Congress — were largely unaware of the extent of the U.S. government’s lies and deceit. This prequel to the infamous Watergate scandal (don’t worry, more on that later) found military analyst Daniel Ellsberg blowing the whistle on the government. That is to say, Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers — which broke down the United States’ involvement in Vietnam in painstaking detail — to the New York Times. The resulting fallout saw Ellsberg charged with, and later acquitted of, theft and conspiracy.
COINTELPRO
This series of illegal operations, executed by the FBI, was intended to subvert organizations and individuals that were deemed potential threats to American security. The targets of COINTELPRO included (but were not limited to) anti-Vietnam War protesters, the American Communist Party, and Martin Luther King Jr. Officially occurring from 1956 to 1971, COINTELPRO used down-and-dirty and strictly off-the-books tactics against its victims, such as falsified documents and unlawful surveillance. The top-secret program was unearthed in 1971 by the Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI, leading to its almost immediate disbandment. However, evidence suggests that the Bureau has continued to employ many of the illicit methods from the COINTELPRO era.
Tuskegee Study
Brace yourself: the Tuskegee Syphilis Study is one of the most heinous chapters in not only American history, but human history as a whole. The experiment began in 1932 and was administered by the Public Health Service and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Carried out in collaboration with the historically Black Tuskegee University, the study aimed to observe the effects of untreated syphilis. The PHS did not disclose the diagnoses of its 600 participants to them, and prescribed risky, experimental, and often harmful treatments. Initially set to last just six months, the experiment was only shut down four decades later, when journalistic leaks resulted in its abrupt cancellation.
MKUltra
Oh, you thought the FBI had gotten up to some shady stuff in the 20th century? Allow us to introduce you to the Central Intelligence Agency. The goal of MKUltra, which was named arbitrarily so as to maintain the program’s secrecy, was to engineer new methods of torture via the use of powerful psychoactive drugs that would weaken a detainee’s resolve. Broadly condemned in the years since as a blatant violation of human rights, MKUltra records were ordered destroyed in the wake of Watergate (it’s coming, we swear). However, some were later recovered, and the Church Committee revealed the program’s existence in 1975, following a 1974 New York Times report.
Watergate Scandal
See? We told you it was coming! After all, how could we not include perhaps the most damning American political transgression of all time? One that yielded the most recent resignation of a U.S. president to date? While you likely already know the broad strokes of this baffling saga, we’ll quickly run through it again: a botched break-in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters in June 1972 revealed a deep-running surveillance operation — tied directly to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign. The scandal may very well have gone unnoticed if not for the vital work of journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, whose writing for the Washington Post led to the president’s resignation. Which conspiracy on our list shocked you the most? Are there any we missed? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!
