Operation Northwoods

The claim, in its accurate form: senior American military leadership put in writing a set of deception operations — fake terror incidents, a staged aircraft loss, blaming Cuba — as a route to public support for invasion.

The memorandum sat classified for 35 years. It was released in 1997 by the Assassination Records Review Board and given wide attention by James Bamford's 2001 book Body of Secrets.

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The document is genuine and reads as described. It is also, on the record, a proposal only: it was forwarded to Secretary of Defense McNamara in March 1962 and rejected, and Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer was replaced later that year. It is frequently cited as proof that a specific later event was staged; it establishes no such thing. Its actual weight is narrower and heavier — it shows that the idea was thinkable and writable at the top of the US military, which is why blanket assurances that such plans are unimaginable do not hold.