Overview
Operation Northwoods was a classified proposal drafted by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff in March 1962 and submitted to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. It called for the CIA and US military to stage fake terrorist attacks against American citizens and infrastructure — then attribute them to Cuba — to create a public pretext for a full military invasion of the island.
Proposed Actions
The signed document proposed a range of false-flag scenarios:
- Sinking a US Navy vessel in Guantánamo Bay and blaming Cuba for the attack
- Staging attacks on Cuban exiles in Miami to simulate Cuban aggression
- Shooting down a drone aircraft disguised as a civilian airliner and claiming Cuba was responsible
- Bombing buildings in Washington D.C. and Miami
- Creating a fake “Communist Cuban Terror Campaign” in American cities to manipulate public opinion
- Fabricating evidence of Cuban military actions using staged media and planted operatives
Rejection
President Kennedy rejected the proposal. Documents indicate McNamara declined to forward the plan, finding it wholly unacceptable. General Lyman Lemnitzer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs who signed the proposal, was subsequently removed from his position and reassigned to NATO command in Europe.
Declassification
The Northwoods documents were declassified in 1997 as part of the Assassination Records Review Board’s investigation into the JFK assassination. They were first brought to wide public attention by journalist James Bamford in his 2001 book Body of Secrets.
Status
Confirmed — proposed but never executed. The original signed documents are publicly available through the National Security Archive and the US National Archives. The proposal was real; the attacks were not carried out.