Conspiracy stories have existed throughout history. In modern times especially, the world has been privy to several conspiracy stories some shocking and some too fantastic to be true. The world loves a good conspiracy as it provides a sense of awe and excitement especially when it involves some famous personality or the other. Here are 6 shocking conspiracies that made headline news in modern history.
Known as the US Maddox incident, The US military had fired 300 shells at Vietnamese torpedo boats that weren’t there. The incident took place during the war with Vietnam. It was August 2nd 1964 when the US destroyer Maddox was on an intelligence patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin and was reported to have been pursued by three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats. When the Maddox fired warning shots, the torpedo boats attacked with gunfire and torpedoes. The Maddox retaliated resulted in the North Vietnamese boats being damaged, four North Vietnamese sailors killed and six wounded. Although a US aircraft was damaged there were no US casualties except for a single Bullet hole in the Maddox from a Machine gun round.
However in 2005 a declassified report of the Internal National security agency reported that there was no enemy boats in the vicinity and the US Maddox was shooting at phantoms. President Lyndon B Johnson commented that “For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there.”. A navy Pilot James Stockdale who was supposedly a witness to the incident said that there were no Vietnamese PT boats but just black weather and American fire power.
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A secret project called COINTELPRO (counter intelligence program) was initiated by the FBI which illegally formed projects to infiltrate domestic political organizations just to disgrace them. The activity included slander and fictitious accusations through forged documents, psychological warfare, false media reporting, wrongful imprisonment and intimidation. Some of the victims were Vietnam War critics and activists against it, civil rights groups led by leaders such as Martin Luther King and various journalists.
A book titled The United States of Paranoia stated how the FBI got targets fired from jobs, break up of marriages, publishing inflammatory literature against activist and leaders. One example was when a wedge was driven between the Students Democratic Society who was falsely accused of being a cowardly group that exploited the Black Panther social rights group making them do dirty work but reaping its benefits. The operation was successful when the Black Panther members were instructed not to associate themselves with members of the SD group. Martin Luther King’s hotel room was bugged; an attempt was made to break his marriage and sending him anonymous letters to push him to suicide. The facts such FBI conspiracies were revealed when anti war activists broke into an FBI office and discovered documents relating to such programs.
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Among shocking controversies US Military leaders of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had devised a plan named Operation Northwood which allowed terrorist attacks on US soil and subsequently brainwashing Americans into believing it was Cuba’s fault. Documents proved the immortal and appalling conspiracy.
President Kennedy ultimately rejectyed the devious –plan which involved innocent Americans getting killed, bombed, and acts of terrorism in Washington DC. Documents revealed how plans were afoot of devising terror campaign sin parts of Miami and Florida and blame it on Cuban agents. Such activities would project an irresponsible Cuban government.
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In the 1950’s during the height of the cold war, the CIA had formulated a plan called Operation Mockingbird that recruited American journalists to influence the public and gather intelligence. The program continued for three decades until it was exposed by the church committee. A report by Congress revealed how the CIA maintained a network of hundreds of foreign journalists who provided Intel for the CIA and to spread propaganda. Such operatives provided the CIA with access to a huge number of periodicals, newspapers, press services, radio and TV stations commercial book publishers and foreign media outlets.
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From the 1950s until 1973 The CIA ran a program called MKULTRA which developed biological and chemical weapons during the Cold War. It was revealed that the CIA used the project to take advantage of electronics, drugs, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, verbal abuse and torture to conduct experiments on subjects. The program also included 80 institutions such as universities, hospitals prisons and pharmaceutical companies.
The majority of MKULTRA files was destroyed in 1973 by CIAQ director Richard Helms and no official was implicated or brought to justice either. In 1995, President Clinton issued a formal apology on behalf of the US Government.
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Perhaps what was the most interesting shocking conspiracy was the rumor that Adolf Hitler had not committed suicide in the Berlin Bunker in 1945 but died several years later after escaping allied forces and leading a normal life in Argentina. Certain theories and evidence supported this fact through documents which suggested that the FBI were aware if his fact the whole time yet allowed the, lie to live on through history books and official records. The document is also available on the FBI’s website.
British Journalist Gerrard Williams and Simon Dunstan claimed in a book ‘Grey World, The escape of Adolf Hitler” claims that evidence suggests Hitler died an old man in South America after living for 17 more years after the war and raising two daughters. Moreover, the skull with the gunshot wound which was supposed to be of Hitler was actually that of a young woman as proved by forensics.
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