Project Resistance

Central Intelligence Agency domestic intelligence collection program launched in 1967 to monitor student activism and antiwar movements on American college campuses. The operation violated the CIA's charter prohibiting domestic surveillance by recruiting university administrators, campus security personnel, and faculty members to report on student organizations, protest activities, and individuals involved in antiwar demonstrations.

Project Resistance operated through a network of over 1,000 informants at colleges and universities across the United States, collecting information on Students for a Democratic Society, antiwar teach-ins, draft resistance groups, and other campus-based political activities. The program compiled detailed files on thousands of American students and faculty members, tracking their political associations, travel abroad, and participation in protest movements. Intelligence gathered was shared with other agencies including the FBI and military intelligence services.

The program's existence was exposed during the 1975 Church Committee investigations into intelligence agency abuses, revealing extensive CIA domestic surveillance operations that violated federal law and the agency's founding charter. Project Resistance was terminated in 1973 along with related domestic surveillance programs, leading to congressional oversight reforms and legal restrictions on intelligence agency domestic operations. The revelations contributed to broader public distrust of intelligence agencies and demands for increased accountability and transparency in government surveillance activities.