- yesterday
From historical atrocities to government coverups, America's dark chapters deserve examination. Join us as we count down the most disturbing moments in United States history that many would rather forget. A sobering look at how a nation built on freedom has sometimes betrayed its own ideals in ways that continue to impact lives today.
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00:00Up to a third of the 15,000 Cherokee, who were forced to make the journey, died on the way.
00:06Which is one reason that journey came to be known as the Trail of Tears.
00:10Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:12Today we're doing a deep dive into the United States' most regrettable actions in history.
00:17Once moved below deck, enslaved people would find themselves stuffed into compartments
00:22with ceilings as low as four and a half feet, where they would spend most of their voyage.
00:27The Johnson-Reed Act
00:29America is a country forged by immigrants, with only 1-3% of the population being natives in 2020.
00:37You would expect the nation to be more accepting, given that almost everyone there is either an immigrant or a descendant of one.
00:43Well, in reality, a majority of early Americans also brought prejudiced beliefs over to the colonies.
00:48Such sentiments caused the Immigration Act of 1924, enacted to ban Asian immigrants,
00:54ensuring only white Protestants could enter the country.
00:57Then-President Calvin Coolidge supported the law, saying America must be kept American.
01:03It set a cap on yearly immigrants, only 165,000 per year.
01:07It codified racist immigration policy into U.S. law, blocking people from fleeing poverty, persecution,
01:14or even fascism in Europe and the rest of the world.
01:16These laws were part of a broader trend of nativism and anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. during the 1920s.
01:23They reflected a desire to return to what was perceived as the more homogeneous population of earlier decades.
01:31Invasion of Iraq
01:32My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations
01:40to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger.
01:45U.S. intelligence failed in the early 2000s, convincing George Bush that Saddam Hussein was hiding WMDs in Iraq.
01:52In approximately five weeks, a U.S.-led coalition captured Baghdad, beginning the western occupation of Iraq.
01:59The war would only come to a true conclusion in 2011, when the U.S. finally withdrew.
02:04It wasn't the end of war in Iraq, though, with the region since being almost constantly torn apart by warfare.
02:10It was entirely based on false pretenses, which caused immense human suffering across decades.
02:15There was no link between 9-11 and Iraq, so the Bush administration began manufacturing justifications.
02:22An invasion of a sovereign nation without a genuine cause is a violation of international law, widely considered a war crime by many.
02:29It wasn't simply a strategic failure, it was a moral catastrophe.
02:33It changed the entire Middle East.
02:35In fact, it changed much of our world, forever.
02:38MKUltra
02:40I was given a glass of Kool-Aid, and so were the other children.
02:47This Kool-Aid was spiked with LSD.
02:52If possible, mind control would be one of the grossest violations of an individual's freedom.
02:58So you would expect America, once considered the leader of the free world, to be entirely opposed to it, right?
03:04Well, during the Cold War, the CIA was so desperate that they did extremely evil things to achieve it.
03:10This included them doing barbaric tests on unconsenting individuals, often leading to their deaths.
03:16Super hallucinogens were fed to subjects.
03:18You know, what the CIA really dreamed of was sort of like a drug you could give to someone, get them to commit all sorts of unspeakable acts, and they wake up the next day and they don't remember what they've done.
03:29They could also be electrocuted, sleep-deprived, and hypnotized.
03:33It blatantly violated basic human rights and U.S. laws, becoming a real-life horror story that spanned two decades behind closed doors.
03:41Well, there's a lot I could not remember after I got out of the island.
03:45When my family came, I was a zombie. I didn't even know who they were.
03:49McCarthyism
03:50Live TV coverage provides millions of Americans with their first sustained look at the crusading senator and his bare-knuckle methods.
03:58During the peak of the Cold War, fear replaced freedom, paving the way for paranoia to hijack democracy.
04:04This was also known as the Red Scare, a period of intense anti-communist hysteria in America.
04:10People were accused of being communists or sympathizers with little to no evidence, which often destroyed entire lives.
04:16I want to make it clear that the United States Army does not coddle communists.
04:22This committee knows that. The American people know that.
04:26It was like the modern-day equivalent of the hysteria surrounding the Salem witch trials.
04:30You didn't need to be a communist to have your life ruined.
04:33Having a friend with left-wing views, or even just being slightly progressive could prompt investigation.
04:39It was a betrayal of core American values, such as the First Amendment, which took a real beating.
04:45Japanese Internment Camps
04:47Generally, people associate prison camps with the Nazi regime or the Soviet Union.
04:52But America also had its share of concentration camps.
04:56The army provided fleets of vans to transport household belongings, and buses to move the people to assembly centers.
05:03Starting in 1942, roughly 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated into ten separate camps.
05:11Two-thirds of them were U.S. citizens, most second- and third-generation immigrants who had never lived in Japan.
05:17On the other hand, there were millions more Italian and German Americans, yet they suffered far less forced relocation.
05:24It was a mass violation of civil rights, entirely motivated by racism and wartime hysteria.
05:30It's one of many examples of American ideals being abandoned, all in the name of security.
05:36Well, the security of the elite, at least.
05:39The Japanese-American experience of World War II left a scar on generations, and in the soul of a nation.
05:45Tuskegee Syphilis Study
05:47The great shame of the study is that the men thought that they were being treated.
05:52Our next entry isn't just disturbing.
05:55It's one of the most horrifying and unethical experiments ever conducted on U.S. soil.
06:00The study specifically targeted African-American men, supposedly in the name of science.
06:05In 1932, the U.S. Public Health Service began studying the lives of almost 400 African-American men with syphilis.
06:13They were curious about what would happen if the disease was left untreated, in return for free medical care.
06:19While they did get this, they also weren't told they had syphilis,
06:23and were instead given no meaningful treatment for the ailment.
06:26The men still didn't know they were sick, and they were not given penicillin.
06:32By then, more than one-third of the infected men had died.
06:36By 1947, they could be given penicillin as treatment, but the study continued at full steam regardless.
06:42It only ended because of a press leak in 1972, after claiming over 100 victims.
06:48In 1997, President Bill Clinton formally apologized to the victims of the study.
06:55The President's apology was a welcome first step.
06:59Involvement in the Vietnam War.
07:01After centuries of war in Vietnam, the one that began in 1955,
07:06would be internationally reported news and last for 20 years.
07:10The Vietnam War began in 1955, following the nation gaining independence from France.
07:16It became split along the 17th parallel,
07:18with the North being ruled by the Communists and the South by capitalists.
07:22Major support for Ho Chi Minh in the North caught America's attention,
07:26who at the time were terrified of communism.
07:28It prompted them to have the South's leader killed in a coup,
07:32followed by a full-blown occupation by American forces.
07:47It lasted until the mid-70s, with America committing disgusting atrocities to achieve victory.
07:53The most famous was My Lai, when US soldiers massacred hundreds of civilians in a tiny village
08:00for the simple crime of being Vietnamese.
08:02It's gonna be a free-for-all, you can shoot anything you want, anything that moves,
08:05as long as he's not one of your own.
08:07Dropping the bomb.
08:08American scientists had always known the bomb would produce radiation,
08:12but the scale of the after-effects came as a shocking surprise.
08:16While no one will refute the claim that Imperial Japan was egregiously evil,
08:21it's commonly said not to fight fire with fire.
08:23It was the first and only time nuclear weapons had been used in war,
08:28with most of the dead being civilians.
08:30It wasn't a simple case of just dying on impact.
08:33They turned two cities into literal hell, with many later perishing from radiation sickness and
08:38cancer.
08:39Then came something that would forever change perception of the bomb.
08:43The government claimed they were necessary, but many historians refute this idea,
08:47since Japan was ready to surrender.
08:49It was more about intimidating the Soviets than defeating Japan,
08:53which was already under severe conditions by that point.
08:56Native American Genocide
08:58Before European colonization, America was a vibrant and diverse continent, home to millions
09:04of native peoples. Estimates say their population dropped 96% between 1492 and 1900, representing
09:12a genocide of an almost entire continent. It was done because of greed, power, and white supremacy.
09:19For a long time, the American elites sought to entirely erase their cultures from the planet.
09:24Native children were forced into boarding schools, treaties were broken,
09:28and constant wars were waged to steal land.
09:31One of the most infamous atrocities was the Trail of Tears, when almost 60,000 people from five
09:36tribes were forcibly kicked out of their homes and relocated to designated territory in the West.
09:42Up to a third of the 15,000 Cherokee, who were forced to make the journey, died on the way.
09:48Which is one reason that journey came to be known as the Trail of Tears.
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10:06The Transatlantic Slave Trade
10:21The Transatlantic Trade was one of the most lucrative trades in human history.
10:24Europeans brought slaves from Africa to the Americas to live a life of harsh labor and exploitation,
10:30giving the Europeans immense wealth to bring home. It was easily one of the most morally corrupt
10:35chapters in human history, which built the foundations of America's economy and society.
10:40America's wealth was built off the backs of stolen Africans, who lived some of the worst
10:45existences imaginable. It was practiced in America for 250 years, longer than they've been a free
10:51country. Even though it ended in 1865, its shadow still lingers over America, meaning it wasn't just
10:58a crime against individuals, but against entire generations. It really is a testament to the human
11:03spirit that African Americans were able to survive that system and ultimately to be able to do great
11:09things coming out of that system. To end things on a more hopeful note, what do you think is the most
11:15life-affirming moment in American history? Let us know in the comments.
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