Declassified documents, declassified: Pentagon Proposed Pretexts for Cuban Invasion in 1962

[Judi Lynn]

In his new exposé of the National Security Agency entitled Body of Secrets, author James Bamford highlights a set of proposals on Cuba by the Joint Chiefs of Staff codenamed OPERATION NORTHWOODS. This document, titled “Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba” was provided by the JCS to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on March 13, 1962, as the key component of Northwoods. Written in response to a request from the Chief of the Cuba Project, Col. Edward Lansdale, the Top Secret memorandum describes U.S. plans to covertly engineer various pretexts that would justify a U.S. invasion of Cuba. These proposals - part of a secret anti-Castro program known as Operation Mongoose - included staging the assassinations of Cubans living in the United States, developing a fake “Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington,” including “sink[ing] a boatload of Cuban refugees (real or simulated),” faking a Cuban airforce attack on a civilian jetliner, and concocting a “Remember the Maine” incident by blowing up a U.S. ship in Cuban waters and then blaming the incident on Cuban sabotage. Bamford himself writes that Operation Northwoods “may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government.”

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20010430/

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20010430/northwoods.pdf

It occurred to me this should be posted again, for those who've not spent time researching Cuba/US relations.

[multigraincracker]

1. Anyone think they will update

the history books?

[rateyes]

2. Doesn't surprise me. They faked

an attack in the Gulf of Tonkin to justify the Vietnam War.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Yay, lies!

[calimary]

4. K&R

[burrowowl]

5. K&R

[KS Toronado]

6. Thanks Judi Lynn I never knew this.

"assassinations of Cubans living in the U S" that's some real fascist shit! In !962 JFK would have been
President, it's a shame he's not with us to tell his side of the story how he felt about this.
Since we never attacked Cuba, I'll guess this wasn't his cup of tea.

[Judi Lynn]

7. You're right! Glad you mentioned JFK: He rejected the plans when they presented them to him.

U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba
By David Ruppe
January 7, 2006, 8:34 AM
• 6 min read

N E W Y O R K, May 1, 2001 -- In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.

Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.

The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro.

America's top military brass even contemplated causing U.S. military casualties, writing: "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," and, "casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation."

Details of the plans are described in Body of Secrets (Doubleday), a new book by investigative reporter James Bamford about the history of America's largest spy agency, the National Security Agency. However, the plans were not connected to the agency, he notes.

The plans had the written approval of all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and were presented to President Kennedy's defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in March 1962. But they apparently were rejected by the civilian leadership and have gone undisclosed for nearly 40 years.

More:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92662&page=1