Joint Chiefs Recommended Attacks on Americans

The year was 1962. Castro was in control of Cuba. The United States was perplexed by a communist regime that had close ties to the Soviet Union and was located just 90 miles from the U.S. mainland.

What to do?

Well, as uncovered in James Bamford's 2001 book "Body of Secrets", the Joint Chiefs of Staff came up with an unusual recommendation: Operation Northwoods.

What was Operation Northwoods?

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."

That's right. This nation's top military brass - led by Eisenhower appointee Army Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer (pictured above) - recommended attacks on their own military personnel and innocent civilians in order to justify going to war with Cuba.

Thankfully, the plan that was endorsed by all members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was rejected by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. And it wasn't until nearly forty years later that Operation Northwoods finally was disclosed under a Freedom of Information Act request.

That such an abominable suggestion would even be made in the first place is, perhaps, secondary in stupidity to the fact that Operation Northwoods was committed to paper for all eternity. As some have pointed out, had such an operation been drawn up by the CIA, the paper trail would have been non-existent. Nobody ever would have known that such an operation had been contemplated. Apparently, the military hadn't quite figured out the subtle nuances of "black ops".

Not that the Joint Chiefs should be faulted for a lack of trying, however. Despite being shot down by McNamara on Operation Northwoods, the Joint Chiefs continued to develop "pretext" plans.

One idea was to create a war between Cuba and another Latin American country so that the United States could intervene. Another was to pay someone in the Castro government to attack U.S. forces at the Guantanamo naval base — an act, which Bamford notes, would have amounted to treason. And another was to fly low level U-2 flights over Cuba, with the intention of having one shot down as a pretext for a war.

Our military leaders had some crazy ideas back then. Driven by a distrust of what they considered to be a soft, liberal civilian leadership, the Joint Chiefs took it upon themselves to find their own solutions to vexing, geo-political problems. As far as we know, they were unsuccessful in carrying them out.

So why does Operation Northwoods bear mentioning today, nearly 45 years after the fact? Frankly, I found it to be an interesting concept that our leaders at the highest levels of government would actually - and seriously - consider unleashing deadly attacks on its own people in order to justify a course of action.

Would others consider doing something similar? Could certain distant or more recent events have had a more devious - or sinister - pretext? Would the leadership of this country consider murdering its own in order to further an agenda?

While many would call such questions akin to treason for even suggesting something so unthinkable, history tells us that, yes, some in our leadership would consider doing just that.

Could it happen again? You be the judge.