Joint Chiefs of Staff

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) are the body of senior uniformed leaders of the United States armed forces who serve as the principal military advisers to the president, the National Security Council, and the secretary of defense. Formed during World War II and given statutory basis by the National Security Act of 1947, the JCS comprise a chairman, a vice chairman, and the chiefs of the military services.¹

Operation Northwoods

In March 1962 the Joint Chiefs, under Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer, approved and forwarded to Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara a plan code-named Operation Northwoods, which proposed manufacturing pretexts for war with Cuba, including staged terrorist attacks on American soil and the faked shoot-down of civilian aircraft to be blamed on the Castro government. The civilian leadership rejected the plan, and it remained classified until its release in 1997 through the Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board.²

Counterinsurgency Oversight

Through the Cold War the JCS sat at the center of covert-action oversight, providing military representation on the interagency bodies that supervised counterinsurgency policy and reviewed CIA paramilitary operations.¹