The U.S. Once Proposed Faking an Attack to Justify Invading Cuba
The Joint Chiefs approved it in 1962, but President Kennedy rejected it.
Who Killed JFK? · Who Killed JFK?America's military leaders once proposed faking an attack on Americans to justify invading Cuba.
The plan was called Operation Northwoods. It called for an attack on a U.S. target that would be blamed on Cuban leader Fidel Castro, to build public backing for an invasion.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff approved the idea in 1962, but President John F. Kennedy rejected it, so it was never carried out. No attack was staged under the plan, and no invasion followed from it. The memo laying out the proposal was later declassified, which is how the plan became public.
Questions people ask
How do we know about this plan?
The plan was laid out in a memo from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It was declassified in the late 1990s through the review board created to reexamine Kennedy assassination records. Historians now treat the document as authentic.
Why did planners want to invade Cuba?
American leaders wanted to remove Fidel Castro, Cuba's communist leader, especially after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. Planners believed that anger after an apparent Cuban attack would make a full invasion politically possible.