False flag
A Template:False flag is a political or military action carried out with the intention of blaming an opponent for it. Nations have often done this by staging a real or simulated attack on their own side and saying the enemy did it, as a pretext for going to war. The term was first used in the 16th Century to describe how pirates flew the flag of a friendly nation to deceive merchant ships into allowing them to draw near. False flag attacks have a long and ignoble history.[1][2][3][4][5]
Known false flag attempts
Operation Northwoods
Operation Northwoods is a known false flag attempt in which the US Department of Defense in 1962 concocted a scheme to try to enter into war with Cuba. At the height of the cold war, the US government came up with the idea to fabricate attacks on its own military, attack and kill Cuban immigrants, blow up buildings, and destroy the boats of Cuban migrants attempting to cross the Straights of Florida to escape Castro's communist regime. All of these actions were to be blamed on Cuba as an impetus to draw the US into an unpopular war with the island nation, which at that point in time had not signed onto the Warsaw pact. The US government was hungry to start a war with Cuba before any attachments to the Soviet Union had been made.
Operation Northwoods emphasized hitting civilian soft targets as a way to enrage the American people and drum up support for a war against Cuba. These actions where suggested all throughout Florida, and even as far reaching as Washington DC. The plan was concocted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, including its chairman at the time, Lyman Lemnitzer, whose last name belongs to exactly the tribe that you think it does. The proposal was ultimately rejected by then President John F. Kennedy.
References
- ↑ O'Conner, Patricia; Kellerman, Stewart (11 May 2018). "The True History of False Flags". Grammarphobia.com.
- ↑ "How the term 'false flag' migrated to the right". Columbia Journalism Review.
- ↑ "False flags: What are they and when have they been used?". BBC News. 18 February 2022. Politakis, George P. (2018).
- ↑ "Modern Aspects of the Laws of Naval Warfare and Maritime Neutrality". Taylor & Francis. pp. 281–. ISBN 978-1-136-88577-8.Faye Kert (30 September 2015).
- ↑ "Privateering: Patriots and Profits in the War of 1812" JHU Press. pp. 62–. ISBN 978-1-4214-1747-9.