Operation Northwoods was a plan drafted by Lyman Lemnitzer in 1962, and made known to the public in May 2001, in James Bamford's book, "Body of Secrets".
Operation Northwoods was suggested by Lemnitzer, in response to an "Operation Mongoose" request for brief descriptions of pretexts which would provide justification for U.S. military intervention in Cuba. Operation Mongoose (also known as the "Cuban Project") refers to CIA covert operations and plans initiated by President Kennedy in November 2001, with the goal to help Cuba overthrow the Communist regime.[1]
The goal was to create perception of the Cuban government as "rash and irresponsible and as an alarming and unpredictable threat to the peace of the Western Hemisphere."
The suggestioned actions were intended to be "forwarded as a preliminary submission suitable for planning purposes, and together with similar inputs from other agencies, provide a basis for development of a single, integrated, time-phased plan to focus all efforts on the objective of justification of U.S. military intervention in Cuba."
The Operations Northwood plan was one of over thirty different plans that were considered under the Cuban Project.
Operation Northwoods was presented to Robert McNamara on March 13, 1962; three days later, President Kennedy told Lemitzer, "there was virtually no possibility of ever using overt force to take Cuba".[2]