In 1962, the Pentagon’s highest brass drafted a plan that reads today like madness on paper. They called it Operation Northwoods. The logic was simple, the methods monstrous: stage terrorist attacks on American soil, blame Cuba, and unleash the cry for war.

The proposals were not scribbles from a shadowy fringe. They were signed at the top. Blow up a U.S. ship in Guantánamo Bay. Hijack airliners, switch them for drones, then script fiery crashes on live television. Plant bombs in Miami. Even sink a boatload of refugees. Each idea cold, clinical, typed in black and white.

The plan climbed to the Oval Office. And there, President John F. Kennedy said no. His refusal buried Northwoods—but not forever. Decades later, the files surfaced, signatures intact, proof that the unthinkable had once sat on America’s desk.

This episode of Things I Want to Know: Voices drags that ghost back into the light. We move from the ashes of the Bay of Pigs to the thunder of the Cuban Missile Crisis, tracing how close the republic came to devouring itself in the name of war.

Because history’s darkest truths are rarely foreign inventions. Sometimes, they are born at home.

Get full access to Paul G's Substack at paulgnewton.substack.com/subscribe