I recently stumbled upon a declassified document named "Operation Northwoods" that details a proposed plan in 1962 by the US Department of Defense to commit acts of terrorism against American civilians and military bases to make it appear as though they had been carried out by Cuba, thus drawing public support for military intervention in Cuba. Among such proposed plans were:

1- Use of drone (unmanned) aircraft to simulate air-related catastrophes
"An aircraft at Eglin AFB would be painted and numbered as an exact duplicate for a civil registered aircraft belonging to a CIA proprietary organization in the Miami area. At a designated time the duplicate would be substituted for the actual civil aircraft and would be loaded with the selected passengers, all boarded under carefully prepared aliases. The actual registered aircraft would be converted to a drone."

2- Staging “hijacking attempts” of civilian vessels
"Hijacking attempts against civil air and surface craft should appear to continue as harassing measures condoned by the government of Cuba"

3- Creation of “terror campaigns” inside the U.S. with legitimate victims
"We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington.

The terror campaign could be pointed at refugees seeking haven in the United States. We could sink a boatload of Cubans en route to Florida (real or simulated). We could foster attempts on lives of Cuban refugees in the United States even to the extent of wounding in instances to be widely publicized. Exploding a few plastic bombs in carefully chosen spots, the arrest of Cuban agents and the release of prepared documents substantiating Cuban involvement, also would be helpful in projecting the idea of an irresponsible government"

4- Staging fires and mortar attacks on U.S. military bases to cause actual damage to installations and potentially personnel

• Blow up ammunition inside the base; start fires.
• Burn aircraft on air base (sabotage).
• Lob mortar shells from outside of base into base. Some damage to installations

The list goes on and on! Doesn't anyone find this astonishing?!

Here's the original declassified document:
[nsarchive2.gwu.edu]

Wikipedia:
[en.wikipedia.org]