Researching for my 4th book, I read about Operation Northwoods, Operation Mongoose and Operation Dirty Trick.
These were codenames for proposals created by the Department of Defense and Joint Chiefs that included " the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities."
The objective of these attacks was to implicate the Cuban government.
"The desired resultant from the execution of this plan would be to place the United States in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances from a rash and irresponsible government of Cuba and to develop an international image of a Cuban threat to peace in the Western Hemisphere."
From a science-fiction perspective, Operation Dirty Trick is the most interesting.
"It also includes Operation Dirty Trick, a plot to blame Castro if the 1962 Mercury manned space flight carrying John Glenn crashed, saying: 'The objective is to provide irrevocable proof that, should the MERCURY manned orbit flight fail, the fault lies with the Communists et al. Cuba [sic].' It continues, 'This to be accomplished by manufacturing various pieces of evidence which would prove electronic interference on the part of the Cubans.'
Kennedy rejected the proposals.
Here's the wiki link for additional reading.
