Operation Northwoods was a document drafted in 1962 by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and presented to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (and possibly President John F. Kennedy himself) on March 13, 1962. Long believed to be residing in the imagination of conspiracy theorists, the document was declassified in recent years by the Freedom of Information Act.

Content

The document was drafted with the intent of getting public support for an invasion of Cuba. The Joint Chiefs of Staff argued that the US population would only support military intervention in Cuba in the event of provocative, aggressive action by the island nation against American soldiers, American civilians or Cuban refugees and Cubans in exile. The document frequently refers to staging fake attacks with fake victims, but in other cases does not specify whether the attacks should be fake or real, and for some recommended attacks explicitly notes that they could be real. Had Operation Northwoods been carried out, it would likely have required the coordinative efforts of the Central Intelligence Agency, which is mentioned several times.

Some of the recommendations of Operation Northwoods proposed by the Joint Chiefs were:

• Using the potential death of astronaut John Glenn during the first attempt to put an American into orbit as a false pretext for war with Cuba.
• Start false rumors about Cuba by using clandestine radios.
• Stage mock attacks, sabotages and riots and blame it on Cuban forces
• Sink an American ship at the Guantanamo Bay American military base - reminiscent of the USS Maine incident at Havana in 1898, which started the Spanish-American War - or destroy American aircraft and blame it on Cuban forces. (The document refers to unmanned drones, fake funerals etc.)
• "Harassment of civil air, attacks on surface shipping and destruction of US military drone aircraft by MIG type [sic] planes would be useful as complementary actions."
• Destroy a fake commercial aircraft supposedly full of "college students off on a holiday" (really an unmanned drone)
• Stage a "terror campaign", including the "real or simulated" sinking of Cuban refugees:

"We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington. The terror campaign could be pointed at Cuban refugees seeking haven in the United States. We could sink a boatload of Cubans enroute [sic] to Florida (real or simulated). We could foster attempts on lives of Cuban refugees in the United States even to the extent of wounding in instances to be widely publicized."

Reaction

It has been reported that John F. Kennedy personally rejected the proposal, but no official record of this exists. What is known for certain is that Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara examined and rejected the proposal, and that the President removed General Lyman Lemnitzer as Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff shortly afterward. The continuing press against Cuba by internal elements of the U.S. military and intelligence community (the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, etc.) prompted President John F. Kennedy to attempt to rein in a burgeoning military-industrial complex that was intent on proactive, aggressive action against Communism around the globe. After the Bay of Pigs disaster, John F. Kennedy fired then CIA director Allen W. Dulles, Deputy Director Charles P. Cabell and Deputy Director Richard Bissell and turned his attention towards Vietnam.

Kennedy also took steps to bring discipline to the CIA's Cold War and paramilitary operations by drafting a National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) which called for the shift of Cold War operations to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and The Pentagon as well as a major change in the role of the CIA to exclusively deal in intelligence gathering.

Further reading

• Jon Elliston Psywar on Cuba (Ocean Press, 1999) ISBN 1876175095
• James Bamford, Body of Secrets (Doubleday; 1st edition, April 24, 2001) ISBN 0385499078

External links

• ABC News article on Operation Northwoods
• Online copy of Operation Northwoods document
• PDF version at George Washington University
• Operation Northwoods on SourceWatch