obsidiae2ad2…lrg5rgvad.onion · read-onlyVault status: open unseal the Archive
THE OBSIDIAN REGISTRY

CASE RECORD · REAL HISTORY · ALL RECORDS

Operation Northwoods: The 1962 Plan to Stage Attacks and Blame Cuba

A declassified proposal from the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, what it actually said, and what happened to it.

Quick answer

What was Operation Northwoods?

Operation Northwoods was a March 1962 proposal by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff to create staged incidents, including fake attacks and a simulated airliner shootdown, that could be blamed on Cuba to justify a US invasion. The Kennedy administration rejected it and it was never carried out. The memo stayed secret until it was declassified in 1997.

Timeline

  1. 1961The failed Bay of Pigs invasion leaves the Kennedy administration searching for other ways to remove Fidel Castro.
  2. March 13, 1962Joint Chiefs Chairman General Lyman Lemnitzer sends the proposal, titled "Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba," to Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.
  3. 1962The Kennedy administration rejects the plan. Later that year Lemnitzer leaves the chairmanship and is sent to command NATO forces in Europe.
  4. 1997The memo is declassified and released by the Assassination Records Review Board, created by the JFK Records Act.
  5. 2001Journalist James Bamford's book Body of Secrets brings the document to wide public attention.

What is documented, and what is not

On the record

  • The memo exists, is signed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and was released by the US government.
  • It proposed pretexts such as staged attacks near Guantanamo Bay, a staged ship sinking, a fake terror campaign in the US, and a faked shootdown of a civilian airliner using a drone.
  • The proposal was rejected by the civilian leadership.

Disputed or unproven

  • Claims that parts of the plan were secretly carried out later have no documentary support.
  • How seriously senior officials outside the Joint Chiefs considered it is debated by historians.

Common questions

Was Operation Northwoods carried out?

No. The proposal was rejected by the Kennedy administration and none of the staged incidents it described took place.

Who signed Operation Northwoods?

The cover memo was signed by General Lyman Lemnitzer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and sent to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on March 13, 1962.

Where can I read the Operation Northwoods memo?

The National Security Archive at George Washington University publishes a scan of the declassified document. The original is part of the JFK Assassination Records Collection at the US National Archives.

Read the record yourself

Links go to official archives, museums, agencies and published research. Search links open the archive's own search for this topic.

THE FICTION BUILT ON THIS RECORD · FILE 042 · VOLUME VIIThe Joint Chiefs Signed a Plan to Kill Americans and Blame CubaThe worst ideas are never secret because they are rare. They are secret because they are ordinary.Read the first pages free →

Last reviewed 2026-10-13. This page covers the public record only. Archive files are dramatized and always marked as files.

Signal

Get the next file before everyone else.

New files drop without warning. Leave an address and we'll tell you first. We email rarely. Suspiciously rarely.