User talk:Eathar

Operation Northwoods Initiated

Operation Northwoods was a series of proposals that originated within the United States government in 1962. The proposals called for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or other operatives, to commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities and elsewhere. These acts of terrorism were to be blamed on Cuba in order to create public support for a war against that nation, which had recently become communist under Fidel Castro.[2] One part of Operation Northwoods was to "develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington." Operation Northwoods proposals included hijackings and bombings followed by the introduction of phony evidence that would implicate the Cuban government. It stated: "The desired resultant from the execution of this plan would be to place the United States in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances from a rash and irresponsible government of Cuba and to develop an international image of a Cuban threat to peace in the Western Hemisphere." After the failure of the Bay of the Pigs invasion, President John F. Kennedy decided to take the advice of the Joint Chief of Staffs and green lighted Operation Northwoods. The Operation took place in 1962. Operation Northwoods, which had the written approval of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere. People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war.[3] Origins:

The Joint Chiefs of Staff worked with the Department of Defense to create the guidelines and proposals of the operation. The proposals were sent over to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. It was then when McNamara showed the contents of the operation to Kennedy and Kennedy made the operation a go. Content: In response to a request for pretexts for military intervention by the Chief of Operations of the Cuba Project, Brig. Gen. Edward Lansdale, the document listed methods, and outlined plans, that the authors believed would garner public and international support for U.S. military intervention in Cuba. These were to be staged attacks purported to be of Cuban origin.

Note: Proposals of how to carry out Operation

10.	The first phase of the plan called for the American government to trick the Cubans into seriously believing that an American attack on Cuba was imminent. If the Cubans were fooled, than it would turn hostile to the U.S and attack, giving the U.S justification to attack Cuba. 11.	A series of well coordinated incidents will be planned to take place in and around Guantanamo to give genuine appearance of being done by hostile Cuban forces. a. Incidents to establish a credible attack (not in chronological order): 1.	Start rumors (many). Use clandestine radio. 2.	Land friendly Cubans in uniform "over-the-fence" to stage attack on base. 3.	Capture Cuban (friendly) saboteurs inside the base. 4.	Start riots near the base main gate (friendly Cubans).[14] 5.	Blow up ammunition inside the base; start fires. 6.	Burn aircraft on air base (sabotage). 7.	Lob mortar shells from outside of base into base. Some damage to installations. 8.	Capture assault teams approaching from the sea or vicinity of Guantanamo City. 9.	Capture militia group which storms the base. 10.	Sabotage ship in harbor; large fires—napthalene. 11.	Sink ship near harbor entrance. Conduct funerals for mock-victims (may be in lieu of (10)). b. United States would respond by executing offensive operations to secure water and power supplies, destroying artillery and mortar emplacements which threaten the base. c. Commence large scale United States military operations. 12.	A "Remember the Maine" incident could be arranged in several forms: a. We could blow up a US ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba. b. We could blow up a drone (unmanned) vessel anywhere in the Cuban waters. We could arrange to cause such incident in the vicinity of Havana or Santiago as a spectacular result of Cuban attack from the air or sea, or both. The presence of Cuban planes or ships merely investigating the intent of the vessel could be fairly compelling evidence that the ship was taken under attack. The nearness to Havana or Santiago would add credibility especially to those people that might have heard the blast or have seen the fire. The US could follow up with an air/sea rescue operation covered by US fighters to "evacuate" remaining members of the non-existent crew. Casualty lists in US newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation. 13.	We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington.[15] The terror campaign could be pointed at refugees seeking haven in the United States. We could sink a boatload of Cubans en route 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. Exploding a few plastic bombs in carefully chosen spots, the arrest of Cuban agents and the release of prepared documents substantiating Cuban involvement, also would be helpful in projecting the idea of an irresponsible government. 14.	A "Cuban-based, Castro-supported" filibuster could be simulated against a neighboring Caribbean nation (in the vein of the 14 June invasion of the Dominican Republic). We know that Castro is backing subversive efforts clandestinely against Haiti, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Nicaragua at present and possible others. These efforts can be magnified and additional ones contrived for exposure. For example, advantage can be taken of the sensitivity of the Dominican Air Force to intrusions within their national air space. "Cuban" B-26 or C-46 type aircraft could make cane-burning raids at night. Soviet Bloc incendiaries could be found. This could be coupled with "Cuban" messages to the Communist underground in the Dominican Republic and "Cuban" shipments of arm which would be found, or intercepted, on the beach. 15.	Use of MIG type aircraft by US pilots could provide additional provocation. Harassment of civil air, attacks on surface shipping and destruction of US military drone aircraft by MIG type planes would be useful as complementary actions. An F-86 properly painted would convince air passengers that they saw a Cuban MIG, especially if the pilot of the transport were to announce such fact. The primary drawback to this suggestion appears to be the security risk inherent in obtaining or modifying an aircraft. However, reasonable copies of the MIG could be produced from US resources in about three months.[16] 16.	Hijacking attempts against civil air and surface craft should appear to continue as harassing measures condoned by the government of Cuba. Concurrently, genuine defections of Cuban civil and military air and surface craft should be encouraged. 17.	It is possible to create an incident which will demonstrate convincingly that a Cuban aircraft has attacked and shot down a chartered civil airliner en route from the United States to Jamaica, Guatemala, Panama or Venezuela. The destination would be chosen only to cause the flight plan route to cross Cuba. The passengers could be a group of college students off on a holiday or any grouping of persons with a common interest to support chartering a non-scheduled flight. a. An aircraft at Eglin AFB would be painted and numbered as an exact duplicate for a civil registered aircraft belonging to a CIA proprietary organization in the Miami area. At a designated time the duplicate would be substituted for the actual civil aircraft and would be loaded with the selected passengers, all boarded under carefully prepared aliases. The actual registered aircraft would be converted to a drone. b. Take off times of the drone aircraft and the actual aircraft will be scheduled to allow a rendezvous south of Florida. From the rendezvous point the passenger-carrying aircraft will descend to minimum altitude and go directly into an auxiliary field at Eglin AFB where arrangements will have been made to evacuate the passengers and return the aircraft to its original status. The drone aircraft meanwhile will continue to fly the filed flight plan. When over Cuba the drone will begin transmitting on the international distress frequency a "MAY DAY" message stating he is under attack by Cuban MIG aircraft. The transmission will be interrupted by destruction of the aircraft which will be triggered by radio signal. This will allow ICAO radio[17] stations in the Western Hemisphere to tell the US what has happened to the aircraft instead of the US trying to "sell" the incident. 18.	It is possible to create an incident which will make it appear that Communist Cuban MIGs have destroyed a USAF aircraft over international waters in an unprovoked attack. a. Approximately 4 or 5 F-101 aircraft will be dispatched in trail from Homestead AFB, Florida, to the vicinity of Cuba. Their mission will be to reverse course and simulate fakir aircraft for an air defense exercise in southern Florida. These aircraft would conduct variations of these flights at frequent Intervals. Crews would be briefed to remain at least 12 miles off the Cuban coast; however, they would be required to carry live ammunition in the event that hostile actions were taken by the Cuban MIGs. b. On one such flight, a pre-briefed pilot would fly tail-end Charley at considerable interval between aircraft. While near the Cuban Island this pilot would broadcast that he had been jumped by MIGs and was going down. No other calls would be made. The pilot would then fly directly west at extremely low altitude and land at a secure base, an Eglin auxiliary. The aircraft would be met by the proper people, quickly stored and given a new tail number. The pilot who had performed the mission under an alias, would resume his proper identity and return to his normal place of business. The pilot and aircraft would then have disappeared. c. At precisely the same time that the aircraft was presumably shot down, a submarine or small surface craft would disburse F-101 parts, parachute, etc., at approximately 15 to 20 miles off the Cuban coast and depart. The pilots returning to Homestead would have a true story as far as they knew. Search ships and aircraft could be dispatched and parts of aircraft found.[18]

Kennedy looked over the proposed options and decided to stage airplane crashes in which Americans would die and the blame would be put on Cuba. Then, the U.S would follow this preemptive strike with a massive invasion of the Cuba and force the Soviets out of Cuba. The Navy would be on guard if the Russians were attack with their ships. Fidel Castro would be taken out power and replaced with a pro U.S ruler.

Reactions: Operation Northwoods was a success and the U.S successfully took Cuba. A naval battle took place between U.S and Russian ships, the U.S was victorious. The American people were outraged at the fact that the Cuban attacked and killed Americans. The majority of America called for war against Cuba. There was no draft needed to fight Cuba as many Americans enlisted to fight the Cubans. Patriotism boomed in America and nationalism was a as high as in the days of WW2. Some feared though that the naval clash with Russia would eventually lead to war between Russia and the U.S. However, the U.S and Russia met in a peace conference that took place in Zurich and was later called the Uppercut Affair and sorted out their problems. Russia and America leave Vietnam and Russia leaves Cuba. Kennedy’s approval rating skyrocketed because of the success of the operation.

Justification:

The U.S believed they were justified in using Operation Northwoods and that the taking of Cuba was justified. The U.S believed that Cuba being allied to Russia was a major breach in America’s national security as Cuba is close to America. Also, the U.S was enforcing its Monroe Doctrine and wanted to liberate the peoples of Cuba from the Communists and bring democracy to the island. Also, the U.S argued that the Cubans attacked America (technically not true) first, so America was just responding and was the good guy.