Operation Northwoods

While we're on the subject of trying to use falsehood to start a war, I want to discuss an even more nefarious plan by the CIA, one that was actually approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The plan was to make it look as if Cuban terrorists were committing heinous acts on U.S. soil and use it as a pretext for starting a war with Cuba. This was in the early 60's after Fidel Castro took power. The CIA was going to commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities, killing American citizens and soldiers, blowing up a U.S. ship, sinking boats full of Cuban refugees, and hijacking planes. Fortunately, none of this was done because the civilian leadership rejected it. I wonder if that would happen today. Think about that one!

This crazy idea was revealed after being kept secret for 40 years by James Bamford in his 'A Pretext For War' in which he claimed that the CIA was going to commit acts of terrorism and blame it on Cuba in order to justify a war.

The previously secret document was titled: 'Justification for Military Intervention in Cuba', and it was made public by the 'John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board' in 1997. This Federal agency was in charge of releasing documents relative to Kennedy's assassination.

This apparently was not the only goofy CIA plan concerning Cuba. The Operation Mongoose program was designed to cause conflict with Fidel Castro and the Cuban government in order to either bring his regime to an end or cause Cuba to attack our facilities a Guantanamo.

Needless to say that both of these plans were extremely risky given the cooperation between the Soviet Union and Cuba at the time. If this information had gotten out it could have provoked a nuclear war. It almost did when Khrushchev authorized nuclear missiles to be based in Cuba. This is the kind of risky nonsense that governments do on the basis of paranoia. I sure hope that the CIA is not doing crap like this now.

Thanks for reading.