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Operation Northwoods Essay

650 Words3 Pages

Operation Northwoods was one, in a series of proposals, by John F. Kennedy 's Joint Chiefs of Staff for the creation of a False Flag Operation against Fidel Castro 's government with the objective of destabilizing Cuba through the application of U.S. military forces. The proposal, approved under the authority of Joint Chiefs Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer, detailed several ideas to destabilize the Cuban Government to include the perception of an attack by Cuban Nationals against US forces stationed in Guantanamo. In reality, the attack would have been manufactured by covert US forces and would utilize the services of anti-Castro Cuban exiles as Cuban agitators (Davis, 2006) (Meeting with president, 1962). In 1962, the spread of Communism was …show more content…

Also, one must be mindful of the lens through which military leadership of that time scaled threats and problem solved. The saying, old generals fight the last war, comes to mind with the Cuban problem. Kennedy’s generals were Eisenhower holdovers and they had been very adept at proliferation on the conventional level. For example, before the first atomic weapons were dropped over Japan, resulting in Japan’s surrender, General Curtis Lemay was the architect of the relentless carpet bombing strategy over Tokyo, resulting in over a hundred thousand deaths. These military leaders were definitely old school in their approach to tactics, restraint and targeting. They were not afraid to exercise victory in any capacity, including use of the nuclear option against US adversaries. This sentiment was in contrast to Kennedy 's approach. Where President Kennedy was privately criticized by his military staff for his youth and inexperience, (compared to his predecessor and former Allied Commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower) Kennedy 's approach to Khrushchev was much different. Kennedy chose the path of safer alternatives - diplomacy over the use of clandestine and lethal operations (Davis, 2006). While Kennedy had asked his Joint Chiefs for options to counter the growing perceived threat from Cuba, there were no indications Kennedy took Lemnitzer 's options too

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