The Joint Chiefs of Staff signed a memorandum proposing false flag terrorist attacks on American citizens to justify invasion of Cuba. President Kennedy rejected it. The document was classified for 35 years and declassified in 1997. It is not a theory — it is a primary source.
Operation Northwoods is not a theory. It is a memorandum dated March 13, 1962, signed by General Lyman Lemnitzer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressed to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Its subject line reads: "Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba."
The document was classified SECRET for 35 years. It was declassified in 1997 as part of the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board process and is currently available at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. Researcher James Bamford first brought it to wide public attention in his 2001 book "Body of Secrets."
The document proposed that the United States government conduct false flag operations — attacks on American citizens, military personnel, and assets — that would be blamed on Cuba, creating a pretext for U.S. military invasion of Cuba. Specific proposals included:
• Staging terrorist attacks in Miami, Florida and Washington D.C., to be blamed on Cuban agents
• Sinking a boatload of Cuban refugees (real or simulated) in Cuban waters
• Blowing up a U.S. ship in Guantánamo Bay and blaming Cuba
• Staging a "Communist Cuban terror campaign" in Florida cities
• Developing a "Remember the Maine" incident — a false flag attack designed to inflame public opinion (referencing the 1898 event that triggered the Spanish-American War)
• Shooting down a civilian aircraft and blaming Cuba — using a manufactured story about "Cuban MiG harassment"
President Kennedy rejected the proposal. He removed General Lemnitzer as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs shortly afterward. Lemnitzer was transferred to NATO command in Europe — a removal from Washington, though not a formal discipline. The plan was never implemented.
Kennedy's rejection of Northwoods occurred approximately six months after the Bay of Pigs disaster (April 1961), during a period of extreme tension with Cuba and the Soviet Union. The missile crisis was seven months away. The pressure on Kennedy to authorize aggressive action against Cuba was substantial. His rejection of a Joint Chiefs proposal to stage terrorist attacks on American soil is not a minor footnote.
Operation Northwoods does not establish that the U.S. government has actually carried out false flag attacks on its own citizens. What it establishes — from a primary source that cannot be disputed — is that the highest level of U.S. military leadership formally proposed doing so, in writing, with specific operational details, to the Secretary of Defense.
This documented reality is the appropriate context for evaluating claims that such things are impossible, that the government would never consider such operations, or that proposing them falls outside the range of institutional behavior. The primary record shows those claims are not accurate. Whether specific subsequent events involve false flag elements is a separate question that requires its own evidentiary analysis.
"We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington... We could sink a boatload of Cubans en route to Florida."
— Operation Northwoods Memorandum, Joint Chiefs of Staff, March 13, 1962Operation Northwoods is a declassified document — signed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — proposing false flag attacks on American citizens as pretext for military invasion of Cuba. It is not a theory. The document is available at the National Archives. President Kennedy rejected it. No Northwoods-style operations were implemented. The document establishes as documented historical fact that the U.S. military's highest command formally proposed staging terrorist attacks on American civilians. This is the primary source context for any discussion of false flag operations.