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this was a struggle of Cuban Patriots against a Cuban dictator on March 13 1962 The Joint Chiefs of Staff put this document in front of the secretary of defense for approval from the president this is a memo prepared by the most senior leaders in the U.S military some of the most powerful men in the country and they're asking for permission to execute a plan a plan to lob mortar shells into their own military bases with some damage to installations and then to make hijacking attempts against civilian air and surface craft they're proposing to blow up a U.S ship in the U.S naval base Guantanamo Bay and even to conduct a terror campaign on American soil exploding a few plastic explosives and carefully chosen spots we're looking at a plan to blow things up on American soil and then to blame it all on Cuba Cuban people have not yet [Music] operation never happened but it almost did and that gets to a big question why would some of America's most powerful leaders charged with safeguarding our nation think that their Duty would require them to lie to and terrorize the American people in other words why were they planning operation northwards we did not the first time the Communist tanks have rolled over again rain is not inexhaustible before we dive into today's kind of insane video I need to thank the sponsor who I'm very grateful for think you better help for sponsoring today's video for three years maybe I've been in therapy and I can say it has truly changed my life it has changed my mind it has changed how I see the world and I've become a huge fan of therapy as a very very important part of my happiness betterhelp is a place that makes therapy more accessible to people using technology is a platform where you sign up you fill out a quick survey and you get matched with a therapist they have a huge network of tens of thousands of licensed therapists and you can start therapy in as little as 48 hours and you can choose how you do it you can do it as a phone call or as a video chat or even as texting the beauty about this model is that it doesn't bind you to the therapists who are available in your local geographical area and it makes it so easy to schedule your therapy to change your schedule or even to change your therapist for free finding a therapist can be hard and emotional and difficult and better help makes it easier for you so if you are somebody who wants to try therapy out betterhelp is a fantastic way to try it and see if it could change your life as much as it has changed mine because they sponsored today's video they're giving 10 off the first month for my audience who tries out better help there's a link in my description it's betterhelp.com Johnny Harris thank you better help for sponsoring today's video Let's dive back into operation Northwoods [Music] operation Northwoods was a response to a problem the U.S government had they called it the Cuba problem Cuba became a problem for the CIA when they watched this young activist with an affinity for cigars lead a Communist Revolution on the island throwing out the American friendly dictator and nationalizing all the valuable land and industries that American businesses had been getting rich off for decades this was the Cold War and communism was now 90 miles away threatening to spread to other countries in Latin America countries that American businesses also wanted to continue controlling and exploiting and any day this new leader could align with the Soviet Union giving the US's biggest geopolitical rival a military base within breathing distance of Florida so this was what the Joint Chiefs called their Cuba problem [Music] us had a few solutions to their problem first they put an embargo on Cuba blocking all U.S exports to the country except for food and Medicine second they stopped buying Cuba's largest export sugar this actually ended up backfiring when the Soviet Union stepped in to buy Cuban sugar kicking off an economic alliance between these two communist countries exactly what the U.S didn't want and third the U.S started making plans [Music] lots of plans plans to somehow get rid of Castro to turn Cuba back into the American Business friendly client State through whatever means necessary in one of the secret plans called operation Zapata the CIA recruited 1500 Cuban Exiles who fled to Miami during the Cuban Revolution it was this little cia-funded army called Brigade 2506 and the goal was to have them invade Cuba and remove Castro from power so the CIA trains them at this camp in the mountains of Guatemala where they had just recently executed a coup and installed a US friendly dictator and right in the middle of the planning stages of this operation JFK wins the presidency can do for you ask what you can do for your country and he inherits this scheme to invade Cuba using exiled Cubans the CIA briefs him on it this plan to fix the Cuba Problem by forcibly unseeding Castro using Cuban Exiles and after some debate JFK approves the plan so on the 17th of April 1961 they launched their Invasion Brigade 2506 landed on Playa giron with the plan to invade the island and Spark a popular revolution against Castro leadership of Fidel Castro Landings were affected by rebels at several but it was a complete failure Castro had found out about the invasion ahead of time a radio station on the beach had spotted the invading ships arriving and called for help several of the invading ships sank on the coral reef and the invading forces were met with immediate resistance from Cuban Armed Forces who defeated them within three days most of them were captured nine U.S servicemen actually flew combat missions in support of this Invasion four of which were shot down and killed in the process something the U.S government and the CIA would go on to deny for almost 30 years but the point is that this Invasion failed miserably and JFK and his administration were to blame on traditional military needs on armies prepared to cross borders on missiles boys for flight now it should be clear that this is no longer enough JFK would later fire the CIA director holding him responsible for the disastrous Invasion plan that we know as the Bay of Pigs but this didn't change anything the US government was still obsessed with removing Castro from power they just needed a new plan so JFK initiates his own plan called the Cuba project AKA operation Mongoose over the next year the CIA employs hundreds of spies to collect Intelligence on Cuba they send submarines on recon missions to Cuban Waters they fund anti-castro protest movements spreading propaganda throughout the country they sabotaged Cuban infrastructure to create chaos and they make dozens more plans to assassinate Castro directly including preparing poisonous pills to be planted in a beverage to be drunk by Castro they even hired the American Mafia to deliver the pills knowing that the mafia had their casinos kicked out of Havana During the Revolution and would want revenge but none of this worked the assassination attempts all fell apart Fidel Castro still remained in power his support wasn't wavering and the U.S military was getting desperate they needed to solve the Cuba problem before the Soviets could get more involved on the island so after all these botched assassination attempts and failed invasions The Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded that the only way to get rid of Castro was for the U.S military itself to invade Cuba and take him out but they knew that the U.S public would not support an outright invasion they needed to create a reason a justification and this gets us back to our document the one that went to the Secretary of Defense for the president's approval this cover and deception plan to make attacks on American targets fake attacks that will be blamed on Cuba to raise tensions between the U.S and Cuba to justify an invasion a legitimate provocation as the basis for a U.S military intervention in Cuba in other words a lie to the American public in the International Community a series of false Flags to get what they wanted and all detailed in this classified document that was only meant for a few people with hopes that the president would approve in the spring of 1962. if the nations of this hemisphere should fail to meet their commitments against outside communist penetration then I wanted clearly understood that this government will not hesitate in meeting its primary obligations which are to the security of our nation so let's see what this plan actually says it starts with the U.S military base at Guantanamo Bay where they would start rumors using fake radio stations and get american-friendly locals to Stage fake attacks on the base starting riots in the surrounding area another proposed part of the plan was to blow up a U.S ship and blame it on Cuba this was specifically called out as a quote remember the main incident referencing the sinking of an American warship in Cuba in the late 1800s that the U.S used to justify intervening in Cuba back then to fight the Spanish this is often thought of as a planned sabotage to justify the intervention and here was the U.S military in the 60s at it again the document predicts that the newspapers would start reporting on the casualties causing a helpful wave of national indignation they also wanted to create a fake terrorist campaign on American soil in Miami or Washington they wanted to sink boats of Cuban refugees and Stage the shooting of ref Refugee targets and even suggested exploding a few plastic bombs in American cities these weren't all going to be pretend they even say in the document that they would go to the extent of wounding people and then making fake arrests with prepared documents so it could all be widely publicized making Cuba look like an irresponsible government worthy of American intervention they thought through having American Air Force pilots fly over places like Nicaragua and drop bombs on Cane fields to burn them down using weapons from the Soviet Union but for this to work they would have to be flying Cuban military-style aircraft they would need to ensure that their planes were properly painted they would also use these planes to harass American civilian aircraft making it look like it was the Cubans doing this they planned a fake hijacking of commercial planes to blame the Cuban government or to fake shooting down a civilian airliner and if that wasn't enough The Joint Chiefs planned to create an incident which will make it appear that communist Cuban Jets have destroyed a U.S Air Force aircraft while it was flying over international waters in an unprovoked attack operation Northwoods was a reckless plan to lie and hurt people proposed by top government leaders who were more and more desperate to invade Cuba and they wanted to move fast they say in just a few months they needed to do this so that this attack wouldn't involve the Soviet Union who still hadn't established any defense pact or military bases in Cuba so what we're looking at here is the increasing desperation of the U.S military to achieve its goal to solve the Cuba problem if JFK would just approve this plan then the military would get to work blowing things up attacking their bases and terrorizing the American people but he rejected it operation Northwoods never happened JFK's rejection of this plan is one reason that there was a rift between him and the military with the military wanting to take a hard line on Cuba and JFK feeling the sting of the Bay of Pigs invasion thinking that something like this was too much of a risk a month later another document came to him the Joint Chiefs following up with another memo saying that the only way to remove the Communist Regime was military intervention by the United States and that Cuba was a vital base of operations for Espionage sabotage and subversion against other countries in the region the fear was that communism would spread across Latin America because of this and time is running out the rift between JFK and the military continued during the Cuban Missile Crisis when the Joint Chiefs hoped to deploy nuclear missiles against the Soviets and invade Cuba but JFK stood up to the military once again and said no JFK eventually went on to deny General Leeman lemnitzer another term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff likely because of his leading role in planning operation Northwoods and looking at this bizarre episode in American history you might feel like this is a moment where our system worked military leaders tried to abuse their power to launch an unprovoked and illegal invasion of another country and the president stopped them checks and balances right but the reality is all these men have the same goal Castro out of power and Cuba under their control again their disagreement was one of just a few degrees the means not the ends the reality is that the US was one man just one person away from this operation happening from a full-scale Invasion if JFK had lost the presidency to Nixon would operation Northwoods have happened we can't say conclusively but it certainly raises the probability but what's more startling is that outside of a few norms and some ideas about government nothing fundamentally has changed in our government the political military machine still runs on the same software it did in the 60s if the US government felt like it and had a big enough enemy a big enough threat to American interests it could happen again the Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of Evil arming to threaten the Peace of the world