The inner life
Operation Northwoods
Direct answer
Operation Northwoods was a 1962 proposal by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff to stage attacks and other incidents that could be blamed on Cuba as a pretext for invasion. It was never approved.
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At a glance
- Also called
- northwoods memo
- Found in
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Related
- False Flag, Gulf of Tonkin Incident, Primary Source, Conspiracy Theory
Operation Northwoods was a 1962 proposal by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff to stage attacks and other incidents that could be blamed on Cuba as a pretext for invasion. It was never approved.
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Was Operation Northwoods carried out?
Operation Northwoods is the name on a memorandum of 13 March 1962, headed Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba and signed by General Lyman Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It listed pretexts that could be manufactured: a staged attack on the base at Guantanamo, a ship blown up in its harbour, a faked shooting down of an airliner, and a campaign of incidents in Florida to be blamed on Havana.
The paper went to the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara. The civilian leadership did not adopt it and none of it was done. It is cited as proof that such plans can be drafted at the highest level, and equally as a case where the system refused one.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Conspiracies, examined.
What sets Operation Northwoods apart
Northwoods is unusual in that the whole case is one document. There were no operations to investigate, no victims and no cover story to unpick, only a signed set of proposals and the fact of their refusal. That makes it a clean exercise in reading: the text shows what was contemplated, the absence of any order shows what was not done, and nothing in it speaks to events before or after. The thirty-five years before release also show how long such a paper can stay closed.
- Date of memo: 13 March 1962
- Heading: Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba
- Signed by: General Lyman Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
- Sent to: the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara
- Outcome: not approved by the civilian leadership; nothing was carried out
- Declassified: November 1997, by the Assassination Records Review Board
Often mistaken for something else: The Gulf of Tonkin incident involved reports of one real engagement and one mistaken one; Northwoods was a set of proposals to invent incidents, and it stopped at the proposal.
The story behind Operation Northwoods
The memorandum was written during Operation Mongoose, the Kennedy administration's covert effort against Fidel Castro's government after the failed Bay of Pigs landing of 1961. Lemnitzer left the chairmanship later in 1962. The document stayed classified for thirty-five years and was released in November 1997 by the Assassination Records Review Board, the body Congress set up in 1992 to open files related to the Kennedy assassination.
Why Operation Northwoods matters
The memo is a primary source anyone can read in full, so claims about it can be checked line by line against the text.
How to read Operation Northwoods
Writers on false flags cite it for intent at a senior level, while noting that a proposal turned down is evidence of a proposal only.
Operation Northwoods in practice: an example
A reader told that a plan on paper proves a deed can point to Northwoods, which was planned in detail and never done.
Where readings of Operation Northwoods go wrong
It shows what some officers proposed in 1962; it is no evidence about any later event.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Aliases
- northwoods, operation northwoods 1962, northwoods memo, operation northwoods documents, what was operation northwoods
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
See Operation Northwoods in your personal almanac
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Common questions
Was Operation Northwoods carried out?
No. It was a proposal from the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the civilian leadership did not approve. No part of it is recorded as having been put into effect.
Is the Operation Northwoods document genuine?
Yes. It was declassified by the Assassination Records Review Board in 1997 and is held by the US National Archives. Its authenticity is not disputed.
What did the Northwoods memo propose?
It suggested staged incidents to justify invading Cuba, among them a mock attack on Guantanamo, the sinking of a ship, a faked airliner shoot-down and acts of sabotage that would be attributed to the Cuban government.
