10+ Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out to be True

The CIA was only supposed to spy on foreigners. Still, antiwar protesters in the late 1960s swore the agency was watching them too, keeping files on ordinary Americans who spoke out. Officials denied it for years. A New York Times reporter kept digging anyway.

Seymour Hersh broke the story in December 1974. Under Operation CHAOS, the CIA had kept files on thousands of Americans and a list of about 300,000 names, something it was banned from doing. The shock led to big investigations of U.S. spy agencies and tougher rules.