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The Unbelievable with Dan Aykroyd - Season 3 Episode 3 -
Shocking Missions
Shocking Missions
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00:00Viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.
00:09Imagine trying to blast a dictator out of hiding using heavy metal music.
00:15The priests and nuns of the embassy, they can't take it. They want Noriega out of there.
00:22They beg the U.S. military to turn off this racket. Even the Pope gets involved.
00:30Or declaring war on emus.
00:34The emu is not a dumb bird. They split up and they start running in multiple directions.
00:39Some of them take fire and keep going. It's just so mind-boggling.
00:44How about defeating a squad of guerrilla fighters with vampires?
00:48Lansdale has this idea of really learning the enemy and finding out about the superstitions that are popular in this culture.
00:57Instead of having a direct military confrontation, they're going to use psychological operations.
01:03These are the missions so shocking, they are truly unbelievable.
01:07During the Cold War, there seems to be no limit to how far the U.S. will go to fight communism.
01:25But once you turn cats into super spies or capture the enemy using weaponized dolphins, what's next?
01:34It's the 1950s and somewhere deep inside Langley, the CIA's headquarters, the brain trust is hatching a plan.
01:42What better way to challenge the masculine, aggressive Soviet empire than to hit them where it hurts?
01:50The plan is as crazy as it is simple.
01:54What they're going to do is take extra, extra large condoms that are clearly stamped, made in America,
02:00and they're going to re-stamp them as size small.
02:03Then they're going to drop them over Soviet territory.
02:07The idea is upon discovering these American small condoms, they will see an extra, extra large,
02:14and they'll say, that's an American small? Uh-oh.
02:18And it will break the Soviet fighting man's spirit, knowing that they are not as well endowed as the U.S. of A.
02:24Overall, the idea is actually not too bad. It's cheap, it's easy to execute.
02:30This actually seems like a pretty good plan.
02:35Reportedly, the CIA is on the cusp of launching this mission when it finds its way to the ears of some of the higher-ups,
02:42and they hit the brakes on this. They pull the plug.
02:45This just seems a little too bonkers, a little too crazy, and Operation Condom Drop is quickly put on the shelf.
02:52While this mission never actually gets up and running,
02:58the CIA does something even stranger to scare the hell out of communists in Southeast Asia.
03:05The Philippines has a somewhat complicated history with the United States.
03:09From 1898 to 1941, it's an American territory.
03:14But during World War II, Japan invades,
03:18and they occupy the Philippines.
03:21In the aftermath of the Second World War, the country exists as a free, democratic republic.
03:28But the United States has influence there because the United States has interests there.
03:32Even though America claimed to give the Philippines its independence,
03:37they were still controlling the resources of the country.
03:39The United States, through the Central Intelligence Agency,
03:42is attempting to influence Philippine elections to ensure that they elect the right people.
03:48And the right people means not communist.
03:50But not everyone is happy about this arrangement.
03:53And by 1950, all hell is breaking loose.
03:56There is a guerrilla group, the Hukbalahap, and they have an agenda.
04:02They want to create a self-sufficient Philippines with no external influence.
04:08But they need to create a fighting force.
04:12The Hukes start working their way through the country,
04:14going to villages to recruit people, saying,
04:17you can either join us or we will kill you.
04:19So, naturally, most people join up.
04:23And this method is working quite well,
04:25because by 1950, there are 70,000 Huked revolutionaries that are willing to take up arms,
04:31and they're going to take over the central government in Manila.
04:34Fearing the Philippines will turn communist, the U.S. decides to intervene.
04:39The man who oversees this operation for the CIA is named Edward Lansdale,
04:44and he's an advertising guy.
04:46And he starts to think about creative, outside-the-box ways that they can maybe solve this problem.
04:52Instead of having a direct military confrontation,
04:55they're going to use psychological operations.
04:58Lansdale has this idea of really learning the enemy
05:02and finding out about the superstitions that are popular in this culture.
05:07During their research, Lansdale and his men come across a being known as the Aswang Vampire.
05:13The Aswang Vampire presents itself as a beautiful woman with wings
05:19and a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth.
05:23And she lives in the forest, among the people where she can strike and get you.
05:30In the early 1950s, the U.S. brings this legend to life,
05:34and Project Aswang officially kicks off.
05:37Just outside of a small village, there are 300 Huked fighters
05:41that have started an encampment with a mission to convince and persuade these villagers to join their cause.
05:48This gives the CIA the opportunity to implement their plan.
05:52They start spreading the rumor among the villages around this concentration of Huked fighters
05:57that there is an Aswang nearby in the forest.
06:01And they know that as the rumor spreads through the villages,
06:06it's also going to spread to the Huked fighters.
06:10A few days later, once Lansdale feels that the rumor has spread enough amongst the Hukes,
06:16it's time for him to strike.
06:18CIA operatives begin stalking a Huked patrol in the dark forest.
06:24As the Hukes are moving along a trail, the CIA operatives quietly wait for them to pass.
06:30As the last man in the patrol passes by,
06:33one of the operatives sneaks up behind him, snatches him off the trail, and into the bushes.
06:39They end up killing this fighter, and they puncture two holes in his neck.
06:47And then they hang him by his feet from a tree, and the blood in his body drains out via these two holes.
06:56When his comrades come looking for him, what they find is someone who, to all appearances,
07:03has been killed by an Aswang vampire.
07:07Once the rest of the squad gets wind of this, all 300 fighters flee.
07:11But then, there's an even bigger, unexpected outcome.
07:16The villagers themselves feel like if the Aswang is targeting Huked fighters,
07:22the last thing I want to do is join the Huked,
07:25and eventually, without the support of the villagers, the Huked dissolves away.
07:31Definitely an effective strategy,
07:35but sometimes, achieving a mission means getting a little more down and dirty.
07:42British spies are often considered the best of the best,
07:47and the creme de la creme are known as MI6.
07:50And during the Cold War, MI6 is really at its peak.
07:55Alongside NATO forces, MI6 launches a secret mission
07:58to gather information from Soviet-controlled East Germany,
08:02called Operation Tamarisk.
08:05It's not what you picture when you imagine a conventional espionage operation,
08:09where an agent is slipping into an office building at night
08:13and secretly using one of those little tiny spy cameras
08:16to photograph vitally important documents.
08:18That's not what happens in Tamarisk.
08:21To steal intelligence, MI6 exploits the struggling East German economy,
08:25especially a shortage in one vital consumer product.
08:29The Soviets are in an arms race with the United States.
08:33This is a very expensive arms race,
08:34and the last thing they want to spend money on
08:37are household items, including toilet paper.
08:39Thanks to this, even soldiers are forced to improvise when nature calls.
08:44They start to realize that they're literally using any type of paper
08:48they can get their hands on.
08:49Now, sometimes this could mean letters from home,
08:51it could mean receipts for supplies,
08:54but then sometimes it might also be classified documents.
08:58Word spreads quickly.
09:00The race is on to discover the communists' dirty secrets.
09:03In one mission, you have two British spies
09:06who are hiding out near a firing range
09:09where the Soviet soldiers are practicing.
09:12They wait for the soldiers to finish up and then take off.
09:16The two operatives then move in,
09:18and they go through the septic system.
09:20These British spies show a whole new level of dedication.
09:24They have to sort through all the muck, soil, and everything else
09:27in order to find documents.
09:29They find a lot of what you would expect to be in there,
09:32but they also find the paper
09:33that the troops had been using to wipe themselves.
09:37The agents take these papers back to an office
09:39to be cleansed, reassembled, and analyzed.
09:42What they find is a treasure trove.
09:45There are cipher code translations.
09:47There are reports on troop morale.
09:50You've even got detailed instructions on troop movements.
09:55The mission is so successful, MI6 doubles down
09:57and sends spies to an abandoned Soviet military encampment
10:01at Neustrelitz.
10:02These two MI6 spies start digging their way through the latrine,
10:06and what they come across is an entire military log.
10:11It contains valuable information
10:13about the latest Russian tanks in service
10:15and incredibly includes a report
10:18on the weak points inherent in those tanks.
10:21Thanks to this unlikely intelligence source,
10:23the British create a tank-busting missile
10:25that is still in use today.
10:27But even the strangest missions
10:29have an expiration date.
10:32Operation Tamaris cannot last forever.
10:34As the 80s go on,
10:36the Russians are able to solve
10:37some of their economic problems,
10:39the soldiers get some comfy toilet paper,
10:41and no longer do British spies
10:43have to crawl into Soviet latrines.
10:48As crazy as stealing secrets
10:50from Soviet toilets might sound,
10:52Operation Tamarisq goes down
10:54as the single most effective intelligence operation
10:57throughout the entire Cold War.
10:59In ancient Egypt,
11:03cats are the embodiment of all things sacred,
11:05bringing good luck to all they come across.
11:081,700 years later,
11:10one pope disagrees and takes action.
11:15It's the 13th century,
11:17and from 1227 until 1241,
11:21Pope Gregory IX is the ultimate religious leader
11:24of the Western world.
11:26He's the head of the Catholic Church.
11:28His word is infallible.
11:30No one is closer to God than Pope Gregory.
11:34And Pope Gregory is most definitely not a cat person.
11:38In fact, he believes that cats
11:41are the reincarnation of Satan himself.
11:45Just where does the pope's strong opinion come from?
11:49Conrad von Marburg is Gregory IX's papal inquisitor,
11:54and his task is to extract confessions
11:57and punish heretics.
12:00Through the course of these torture interrogations,
12:04Conrad unearths a satanic cult in Mainz, Germany
12:08that worships a half-Lucifer,
12:11half-hat-like devil being.
12:14They conduct a black mass in a satanic church
12:17around a statue of a giant cat
12:22who, after a while, comes to life.
12:27And the followers go around and kiss the cat on the butt.
12:33And then they have a giant orgy.
12:36Once Pope Gregory learns about this satanic cat cult,
12:40he issues an official decree in 1233,
12:43condemning all cats to hell.
12:46Some people take this directive to mean
12:49that cats should be destroyed.
12:53Priests and peasants alike are enlisted in this shocking mission,
12:56and the great cat hunt begins.
13:00Entire communities go on these brutal hunts to find cats,
13:05and when they catch them,
13:06they burn them alive,
13:08or they toss them off of tall buildings.
13:10It's not just our furry friends being slaughtered.
13:12People who are harboring cats
13:15are branded Satan-worshipping cat lovers,
13:19and they, too, are subjected to torture
13:21and even death
13:23simply for refusing to kill the cats.
13:27Pope Gregory's cat-killing mission goes on for decades,
13:30but it's the cats who ultimately get the last meow.
13:33Around a century after Pope Gregory's war on cats,
13:38the bubonic plague rages through Europe,
13:40killing 25 million,
13:43and the culprit?
13:45Rats.
13:47But you know who's particularly effective
13:49at catching rats?
13:52These cats that have been so mercilessly hunted,
13:56so cats begin falling back into favor.
14:00Lucky for all us feline lovers,
14:02cats make a triumphant comeback.
14:04Today, there are an estimated 600 million cats on the planet,
14:08and I'm sure only some of them are evil.
14:11Unbelievably, 700 years later,
14:14another war is declared on a different animal,
14:16this time Down Under.
14:21It's just after World War I,
14:22and the Australian government decides to do something
14:25really special for Australian fighters
14:27that come home from the war.
14:28They give the soldiers a plot of land to become farmers,
14:32and the 1920s are a great decade for that.
14:36Soon, these veterans-turned-farmers are thriving
14:38until an unexpected arrival swoops in.
14:41The emu is a flightless bird.
14:45They're six feet tall, about 120 pounds.
14:48They're really fast.
14:50They're also really hungry.
14:53Australia's 20,000 emus begin feasting
14:55on the thriving new farmlands,
14:57causing millions of dollars in lost crops.
15:00If you're a farmer,
15:01typically what you might do is you might take your claim
15:03to the agriculture department.
15:05But these aren't only farmers.
15:07They're veterans.
15:08So they decide to go to the Ministry of Defense.
15:12The farmers meet with George Pierce,
15:14and their plan is to create an army of well-armed men
15:17to go out and significantly deplete the emu population.
15:21This doesn't exactly sit well with the government,
15:24who reminds them that the emu is Australia's national bird.
15:29But Pierce is adamant, and he says,
15:30no, no, no, no, I have a plan.
15:32We're going to use machine guns,
15:33because that'll make the death quick and painless.
15:36And on top of that, this will be seen as a good act
15:39to aid the veterans that fought in World War I.
15:44Apparently, Pierce makes a strong case,
15:46because Parliament gets on board
15:48and officially declares war on emus in 1932.
15:54The program gets off to a roaring start
15:57when an Australian artillery officer
15:59by the name of GPW Meredith
16:01goes out into an area called Campion
16:03for the purposes of exterminating the emu population there.
16:07With a herd of about 100 emus in their sights,
16:10they begin firing.
16:13Then the emus do something they're very good at.
16:16The emu is not a dumb bird.
16:19They're smart, and they split up,
16:20and they start running in multiple directions
16:22in smaller groups at 40 miles an hour.
16:27These emu are pretty freaking hard to hit.
16:30They blast into a pack of 100.
16:31They hit five.
16:33A handful of emus sadly do get shot,
16:35but some of them take fire and keep going.
16:38It's just so mind-boggling
16:40that Major Meredith compares these emus to tanks.
16:43After the emus outsmart them at Campion,
16:47the army works on a different approach.
16:50They're going to mount the Lewis machine gun
16:52on the back of a jeep
16:54so they can travel at the same speed as the emu
16:58and fire from the back.
17:00Problem with this,
17:01it is rough terrain.
17:04So the jeep is just bouncing up and down the whole way.
17:07Bullets fly everywhere.
17:09Emus are just like,
17:10that's stupid.
17:10Then they scatter once again.
17:12And again, the outcome is the same.
17:15Mission failure.
17:17It's now emus two,
17:19Aussies nil.
17:20But the soldiers aren't ready to give up.
17:23Now, Major Meredith and his men
17:25think they've got these emus figured out.
17:27They know the guerrilla tactics of these emus.
17:29They know how they run.
17:30They know where they rest.
17:31They know what directions they spread in.
17:34And with this information,
17:35they start carrying out these new missions,
17:37and they start to show more success.
17:40Pierce goes back to Parliament three weeks later,
17:43proudly touting that he and his men
17:44have killed almost 1,000 emus.
17:47Parliament just kind of looks at him and goes,
17:49didn't you say there were 20,000 emus?
17:52And you've only managed to kill 1,000 of them.
17:56They lambast him with insults,
18:00going so far as to even suggest
18:02that maybe metal should be given to the emu?
18:05With an unbelievable amount of ammunition
18:08and manpower wasted,
18:10Parliament ultimately decides
18:12to give the victory to the emus,
18:14and the mission is declared
18:15an unmitigated failure.
18:17After the emus win the war of 1932,
18:21they continue to wreak havoc
18:22on farmers and their crops for years.
18:24That is, until a worthy opponent appears.
18:27Better fencing.
18:31On October 4, 1957,
18:33the Russians successfully launched
18:35the first satellite into space.
18:37It's called Sputnik 1,
18:39and the United States is not very happy about it.
18:41America at that time
18:46doesn't really like it
18:48when Russia beats us to the punch on anything,
18:50especially when it comes to space and weaponry.
18:53The biggest fear among U.S. military brass
18:56is that next,
18:57the Soviets will beat America to the moon.
19:01America has to do something
19:03to catch up with the Soviets.
19:04So, NASA turns to the Air Force
19:07and said, hey, let's work together.
19:09We know it sounds crazy,
19:10but let's just think of every out-of-the-box idea you can,
19:13and let's get them.
19:15Instead of sending a man to the moon,
19:17the Air Force suggests something much more unbelievable.
19:21So, the idea from the Air Force
19:23is to blow up an atomic bomb on the moon.
19:29As crazy as it sounds,
19:32the Air Force actually suggests
19:33that we send a nuclear weapon to the moon
19:35and create a mushroom cloud big enough
19:39for everyone to see all over the world.
19:42The crater that it leaves behind
19:43is going to be ongoing perpetual evidence of supremacy.
19:47They want everyone on Earth to look up at that thing
19:50and know that it is an American crater.
19:54What they want to do with this
19:56is send a warning sign.
19:58Don't mess with us.
20:00Incredibly, NASA doesn't immediately shoot down the idea.
20:03In fact, they give it the green light.
20:06They call this mission Project A-119,
20:10and they bring together this team of genius scientists,
20:13including a young graduate student
20:15by the name of Carl Sagan.
20:17They propose using a W-25 warhead
20:21that has a 1.7 kiloton yield,
20:24and they want to strap it to a ballistic missile
20:27and shoot it straight up to the moon.
20:29But before they can push the launch button
20:32on Project A-119,
20:33the government abruptly shuts down the mission.
20:37There are concerns that the weapon might misfire
20:39and come down somewhere in the United States,
20:42or worse yet, come down somewhere in Russia,
20:45triggering a nuclear response from the Soviet Union.
20:47And then, we're in full-scale war.
20:52This mission was obviously classified,
20:55so for a very long time,
20:57nobody knew how close we came
20:59to detonating a nuclear warhead on the moon.
21:03If trying to destroy the moon to best your enemy
21:05sounds a bit brash,
21:07why not do something a little more down-to-earth?
21:11This is the story of a property-line dispute
21:13and a deadly mission to have a better view.
21:18On August 18, 1976,
21:21over two decades after the conclusion of the Korean War,
21:2415 soldiers from the United States and South Korea
21:27enter the demilitarized zone, the DMZ.
21:30They enter a specific area of the DMZ
21:33called the JSA, Joint Security Area.
21:37The JSA is unique because it's the only space
21:39in the demilitarized zone
21:41where soldiers from the north and south can intermingle.
21:44In the middle of this neutral zone
21:46is a sprawling 100-foot poplar tree.
21:50South Korea and the United States
21:51need clear line of sight of the DMZ.
21:54North Korea could try to stage an invasion
21:56or you could have a citizen that's trying to defect.
21:59It's blocking the view of this particular area of the DMZ.
22:03The tree is an obvious security issue,
22:06so the South Koreans and NATO decide to chop it down.
22:09No big deal, right?
22:11As it turns out to the North Koreans,
22:13it is a big deal.
22:15Here come the North Koreans,
22:1630 soldiers under the command of Senior Lieutenant Pak Chul,
22:19and he is known as Lieutenant Bulldog
22:21for his history of starting fights and scraps inside the JSA.
22:25Bulldog tells the working group they have to stop.
22:28This is a special tree.
22:29It was planted by their current leader, Kim Il-sung,
22:32the founder of North Korea.
22:34Lieutenant Bulldog and his men pull out crowbars, clubs, and axes.
22:39The South Koreans and Americans think they're bluffing,
22:41so they go ahead and proceed to cut down the tree.
22:45It isn't a bluff.
22:46Lieutenant Bulldog shouts chukyu, or attack.
22:51And the 30 North Koreans rush the 15 American and South Korean allies,
22:56and a brutal, bloody melee begins.
23:00Two U.S. Army officers, Captain Arthur Boniface
23:03and First Lieutenant Mark Barrett, are killed in the skirmish.
23:07This is the United States of America we're talking about here,
23:10so there has to be a response.
23:12But it can't be too much of a response,
23:14because now we risk sparking a full-fledged war.
23:17However, we can't let North Korea get away
23:20with killing two U.S. service members.
23:22President Gerald Ford decides on an appropriate response,
23:26Operation Paul Bunyan.
23:27They're simply going to go and cut down the poplar tree,
23:30but bring a little security just in case.
23:3316 U.S. and South Korean soldiers return with axes,
23:36and 60 Special Forces soldiers follow behind them.
23:40They also bring tanks and seven AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters
23:45that are circling overhead, ready to strike.
23:49Gerald Ford also makes sure that there are 10,000 more soldiers
23:53stand in reserve, with 12,000 more on the way.
23:56At that point, around 150 North Korean soldiers
23:59just stand there in silence,
24:01watching them from the other side of the bridge.
24:03Most notably, Lieutenant Bulldog nowhere to be found.
24:06About 42 minutes later, engineers lop off the top of the tree,
24:11and the whole crowd, all of the assembled soldiers,
24:14erupt in cheers.
24:15And as each subsequent limb falls,
24:19there's another cheer from the South Korean and American side,
24:22until all that remains is a 20-foot stump.
24:25They want to leave this stump to remind everyone
24:27that there was a tree here, and we got rid of it.
24:30Today, the site of the tree is marked by a stone memorial
24:33to Captain Boniface and Lieutenant Barrett.
24:38And that's the story of how World War III
24:40was almost started over the chopping down of a tree.
24:46For thousands of years, music has been used as a military tactic.
24:52Drums, horns, and singing have all been implemented
24:54to raise morale and even intimidate the enemy.
24:58But in Panama, in 1989,
25:01it gets turned up to a whole new level.
25:06General Manuel Noriega is a shady fellow.
25:09Across the 1980s, he more or less becomes
25:11the de facto dictator of Panama.
25:14He begins to traffic drugs via Panama's military,
25:18and he amasses a sizable fortune.
25:20By the late 1980s,
25:24Noriega is beginning to threaten
25:27the U.S. monopoly over the Panama Canal.
25:30And the Panama Canal is the linchpin
25:33to American economic activity in the hemisphere.
25:37In 1989, when the country holds elections,
25:41he rigs the election and chooses to remain in power.
25:44This is the last straw for the United States.
25:47And they demand that Noriega steps down.
25:52Noriega resists.
25:54And now we have a showdown.
25:57On December 19, 1989,
26:00President George H.W. Bush
26:01orders 26,000 troops
26:03to storm the capital city
26:05and seize the dictator.
26:07The mission is called Just Cause.
26:09And one of the first things the troops do
26:11is trying to choke off Noriega's escape routes.
26:14They seize his Learjet, seize his boat.
26:18He has nowhere to go.
26:19He's cornered.
26:21That's when the general pulls a Hail Mary.
26:24Sir, he's a very crafty man, as we found out.
26:26I'm not sure exactly how it worked.
26:27General Noriega seeks refuge in an embassy,
26:32but not just any embassy,
26:33the Vatican's embassy.
26:36The troops can't enter
26:37because the embassy is part of the Catholic Church,
26:41and they are offering safe haven.
26:43American forces bang their heads together
26:46and decide on a plan
26:47that is as creative as it is loud.
26:50American intelligence knows
26:52that he is a lover of the opera.
26:54And folks who love the opera
26:56don't usually love heavy metal.
27:00Operation Just Cause changes its trajectory.
27:04They roll in a fleet of Humvees
27:06with giant speakers mounted to them.
27:07Then they start blaring rock music
27:11at deafening levels,
27:13attempting to blast the general out of hiding.
27:15The playlist is pretty perfect.
27:18It includes hits like
27:19I Fought the Law by The Clash,
27:22We're Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister,
27:24and, of course, Panama by Van Halen.
27:28The idea is that Noriega
27:30is going to be completely unnerved
27:31by all the hardcore metal screaming
27:34that's coming out of these songs.
27:35They'll essentially drive him nuts
27:36and thereby drive him out of the embassy
27:38and into the waiting hands of the U.S. military.
27:41After three days, Noriega is not budging,
27:45but there's a second-order effect
27:48on the priests and nuns of the embassy.
27:52They can't take it.
27:53They want Noriega out of there.
27:55They beg the U.S. military
27:58to turn off this racket.
28:00Even the Pope gets involved,
28:02asking President Bush to knock this off.
28:06The Vatican Embassy tells Noriega
28:09that he needs to give up.
28:11And if he doesn't give up,
28:12they're going to simply move the embassy
28:14to a local Catholic high school.
28:16And the U.S. would be free under these conditions
28:19to just walk in and take him.
28:22Finally, after 10 days of heavy metal torture,
28:25the general comes out,
28:27Bible in hand, and surrenders.
28:30Noriega is flown to Miami,
28:32where he stands trial for drug trafficking.
28:34He's convicted and essentially
28:35is given a life sentence.
28:37Noriega was a ruthless authoritarian dictator.
28:40He was a hard criminal,
28:41but hard rock is what brought him down.
28:43While days of musical torture
28:46is enough to take down one dictator,
28:49there are other ways governments
28:50can mess with enemy minds.
28:52There is a quiet little hamlet
28:58in the south of France.
29:00And the local mail carrier in this village,
29:03Léon Armunier,
29:04is doing his regular postal route.
29:08Everything seems normal,
29:09and then he starts to feel unwell.
29:12And he falls off his bike.
29:14He starts screaming.
29:19He's yelling that his body is on fire,
29:22that he is physically shrinking in size,
29:24and that massive snakes are coiling around him.
29:27So when Léon is taken to the hospital,
29:30he is actually put into a straitjacket
29:32and confined for his own safety
29:34because he is experiencing hallucinations.
29:37But it's not just the mailman.
29:40All across town,
29:41people are embarking on this long, strange trip.
29:45There's a report of a 20-year-old man
29:48who tries to drown himself,
29:50screaming that his belly is being eaten by snakes.
29:52You have a man who says,
29:56I'm a plane!
29:57And then just proceeds to jump out of the window,
30:00fall three stories,
30:01and break both of his legs.
30:04And by the time it's all over,
30:06300 people have been affected by it,
30:0830 of them have been committed to asylums,
30:11and seven are dead.
30:12So what's behind all this unusual behavior?
30:16Doctors believe it's actually from bread
30:18ingested by the townspeople
30:20from one bakery in particular.
30:22They suspect that some of the rye
30:25was impacted by a fungus called ergot,
30:29and now they believe that fungus is at work.
30:32Part of this theory makes sense.
30:33Ergot does cause hallucinations.
30:36What's strange, though,
30:36is that there hasn't been an ergot outbreak
30:38in France since 1816.
30:41So it's a little suspect as a theory.
30:44There's another very strange possibility.
30:47In the early 2000s,
30:49a journalist named Hank Alvarelli
30:51is researching a book about Edgewood Arsenal.
30:54Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland
30:56was a U.S. military test facility
30:58that ran between 1948 and 1975.
31:02Normally, Edgewood is conducting these experiments
31:04on soldiers who volunteer.
31:06The testing included the effects of mustard gas,
31:10PCP, and LSD.
31:13During his research,
31:14Alvarelli claims to find a top-secret document
31:17that was buried by the director of Edgewood Arsenal.
31:20The document states that the Ponce-en-Esprit incident
31:24is not the result of a hallucinogenic fungus.
31:27But in fact,
31:28CIA placed LSD inside the dough of this bread
31:32to see what the result would be
31:34on the people of this small French town.
31:37But why would the CIA
31:38carry out a top-secret mission
31:39to make a bunch of French people hallucinate?
31:43This is during the Cold War.
31:45This is a time when
31:46there are all kinds of experiments happening.
31:48And Ponce-en-Esprit may have been
31:49a place where they just thought
31:51they could quietly pull off an experiment
31:53and see how it went.
31:55It is worth noting that the skeptics say that,
31:58well, if you ingest that much LSD,
32:00the effects should be immediate.
32:02There shouldn't be a delayed response.
32:04So the jury's still out
32:06as to whether this is an example
32:07of just tainted flour
32:09or if it was some sort of covert psyops mission
32:12that was carried out by the CIA.
32:13We may never actually find out the truth.
32:19On a cold February morning in 1942 at 6.30 a.m.,
32:24the Canadian city of Winnipeg wakes up
32:26to what might just be their worst nightmare.
32:30Air raid sirens are blaring.
32:34Bombs are going off.
32:35And as they leave their houses,
32:36they hear a cacophony of machine gun fire
32:39that seems to be getting closer.
32:41By 9.30 a.m., it all turns quiet.
32:46Over the Winnipeg radio,
32:48it's announced that their mayor,
32:49their government,
32:50have just surrendered to the Nazis.
32:54They see a sight they never expected.
32:56Hobnailed jackboot Nazis
32:58marching past Portage in Maine,
33:00the main intersection in Winnipeg.
33:02This is a crazy moment.
33:04You have tanks on every street corner,
33:06the Nazi flag hanging at City Hall.
33:09But don't worry,
33:10this isn't something you missed
33:11after you fell asleep in history class.
33:13The Nazis never really invaded Winnipeg.
33:15It's all part of a mission
33:17to keep Canadians on their toes.
33:21It's part of a massive Canadian propaganda operation
33:24that's supposed to awaken Canadians
33:26to the potential danger of Nazi threats.
33:28They call it IFDE.
33:29This is actually the largest military mobilization
33:33in the history of the province of Manitoba.
33:353,500 men in German uniforms
33:37take to the city streets.
33:40The Nazis are actually reservists and volunteers
33:44dressed in costumes and gear
33:46provided by Hollywood studios.
33:49And these young soldiers
33:50are taking their Nazi acting seriously.
33:52They board up synagogues.
33:55They burn books.
33:57They go into shops.
33:58They go into restaurants.
33:59They go into schools.
34:00And they verbally abuse and accost people.
34:03This is what life would be like
34:04under Nazi occupation.
34:07By 5.30 p.m.,
34:08the prisoners,
34:09along with Winnipeg's mayor,
34:10are released.
34:11And the staged occupation is over.
34:14The genesis of this idea for IFDE
34:16comes from the Greater Winnipeg Victory Loan Committee,
34:19who believes that using fear
34:21will be the best motivation
34:23for getting people
34:24to contribute to the war effort.
34:26And it works.
34:27Within days,
34:283 million Canadian dollars
34:30are raised in war bonds.
34:31Within weeks,
34:32you're talking about 65 million dollars.
34:34This is one of the greatest fundraising schemes
34:37ever put together.
34:40Not all missions need to frighten or destroy.
34:43Some missions are there
34:44to make people feel good inside.
34:46And for a mission like this to work,
34:48all it takes is a sweet tooth.
34:51It's post-World War II.
34:54Germany has been split in half,
34:56and so is the city of Berlin.
34:59In June of 1948,
35:01Joseph Stalin orders
35:02the closure of the transit road,
35:04which connects West Berlin
35:06across communist East Germany
35:08to West Germany.
35:10Since nothing can be delivered
35:12by rail or by truck,
35:14the only means of getting supplies
35:16to 2 million people
35:17in the city of Berlin
35:18is the air.
35:19The United States
35:21needs to get supplies
35:22to the people in Berlin,
35:24so they create
35:24Operation Berlin Airlift.
35:27A 27-year-old American pilot,
35:30Colonel Hal Halverson,
35:32is involved in Berlin Airlift.
35:34And as Halverson
35:35is reporting for duty
35:36at Templehof Air Force Base,
35:38he sees these kids
35:39on the other side of a fence.
35:40The kids are poor,
35:43they're hungry,
35:44and they really strike
35:45at Hal's heart.
35:46So he wants to give them something
35:48to ease their suffering.
35:49And he reaches into his pocket,
35:51and all he has
35:52is two pieces of gum.
35:54So he gives that to them.
35:56They're so excited
35:57to have these two pieces of gum
35:59that it plants a seed
36:00in his mind,
36:01and he comes up
36:01with a really unique idea.
36:04Hal wants to use his plane
36:05to bomb the children
36:06with candy.
36:08So he talks to people
36:11and spreads his message
36:12around the base
36:13about his mission
36:14to airdrop treats
36:16to these children.
36:17And everybody's on board.
36:19They give them
36:19all the candy they have.
36:21So he and his fellow servicemen
36:24get together,
36:25and they have
36:25a little craft night.
36:26They basically create
36:27these little candy parachutes.
36:29They use handkerchiefs
36:30that they tie,
36:31and at the bottom
36:32of their little knot,
36:33they have pieces of candy.
36:36On July 18, 1948,
36:38Operation Little Vittles,
36:40or Little Food,
36:42takes flight.
36:43They see a group
36:43of children down below,
36:45and then they start
36:46throwing their little
36:47parachute candies
36:48out of the window.
36:50And they drop onto
36:51absolutely delighted
36:53children below.
36:55They are screaming,
36:56candy is falling
36:56from the sky.
36:58This is like a rare moment
36:59of joy in a time of war.
37:01News of the heroic mission
37:02reaches the U.S.,
37:03and Halverson
37:04is quickly dubbed
37:05the Berlin Candy Bomber.
37:07And when the candy makers
37:09hear about this,
37:10they want to join in.
37:11So they begin making candy
37:13for this mission
37:13and donating it to Hal.
37:15By the end
37:16of the Berlin airlift
37:17in 1949,
37:19American troops
37:19had dropped
37:20250,000 handkerchiefs
37:22of candy,
37:23totaling about 23 tons
37:25of sweet, sweet treats.
37:27Throughout history,
37:32many leaders have demanded
37:33victory at all costs.
37:35In the case of one mission,
37:37all costs translates
37:38to something
37:39completely unexpected
37:40and very expensive.
37:44It's March 1968,
37:47and Soviet submarine
37:48K-129 is on patrol
37:50around 1,500 miles
37:52northwest of Hawaii
37:54when an unknown
37:55catastrophic accident
37:57happens,
37:58and the submarine
37:59and its wreckage
38:00sink to the floor
38:01of the Pacific
38:01three miles deep.
38:03Using sonar,
38:04the U.S. picks up signals
38:06from this sunken submarine
38:07and becomes very intrigued.
38:10This is the height
38:10of the Cold War.
38:12It's a nuclear submarine.
38:13It's armed
38:14with nuclear weapons.
38:15If the United States
38:16could somehow
38:17get to this submarine,
38:18the intelligence
38:19they could gather
38:19would be huge.
38:20How they operate,
38:21understanding
38:21what their weaknesses are,
38:22how they can be targeted.
38:24This is a massive treasure
38:26that they could plunder.
38:28President Nixon
38:28approves a CIA task force
38:30to begin work
38:31on getting the sub
38:33out of the water.
38:34So the CIA
38:35starts building the plan
38:36that they will dub
38:37Project Azorian.
38:38The CIA goes out
38:40and hires a company
38:42called Global Marine
38:43and they put together
38:45a terrific plan.
38:46They want to essentially
38:47build a giant claw
38:49just like those arcade games
38:51that reaches down
38:53and picks up the toy
38:54and pulls it back up.
38:56But this is no stuffed toy
38:58and retrieving a vessel
39:00this big and deep
39:01has never been done before.
39:03This is 1,700 tons,
39:06328 feet long
39:08that you have to get
39:09in one grab.
39:10You basically have to bring
39:11the whole thing up
39:12to the surface together.
39:14To keep this mission
39:15on the down low,
39:16the CIA asks for help
39:17from an unexpected patriot.
39:19For a cover story,
39:21they enlist none other
39:23than famed eccentric billionaire
39:25Howard Hughes
39:26to say that he's building
39:28this ship in Long Beach
39:29as a mining research vessel.
39:31Now using Hughes
39:33is the perfect cover
39:34considering that Hughes
39:36has in the past
39:37already spent millions
39:38of his dollars
39:39on a seaplane
39:40that only flew once
39:41and it earned the nickname
39:42the Spruce Goose.
39:44And it works.
39:46For five years,
39:47no one questions
39:48why Hughes would be
39:49building such a thing.
39:50In the summer of 1974,
39:53the Hughes Glomar Explorer
39:54sets sail
39:55on her covert mission
39:56from Long Beach, California.
39:58So the Glomar Explorer
39:59gets to the spot
40:00and they essentially
40:02park right on top of it.
40:04They slowly begin lowering
40:06the giant claw device
40:07named the Clementine.
40:08It takes three weeks
40:10to get just in the right spot
40:12to pick up that sub
40:13and once they start
40:14to lift it,
40:15it takes eight whole days
40:16for them to bring
40:17this sub to the surface.
40:19Unfortunately,
40:20the vessel breaks apart
40:21before it's out of the water,
40:23leaving just a 38-foot section
40:25of the bow intact.
40:27But the CIA,
40:27not deterred.
40:29They start making plans
40:30to try to go back
40:31and pick up the rest
40:32of the sub.
40:33The CIA is committed
40:35to covering up
40:36this mission
40:36because it doesn't want
40:38another escalation
40:39of the Cold War.
40:40But a year later,
40:41the mission is revealed.
40:43In February 1975,
40:45the L.A. Times
40:46breaks the story
40:47and it includes
40:48some damning details.
40:49They pour 800 million dollars
40:53into it
40:53and that's about
40:545 billion dollars today.
40:56With their cover blown,
40:58Project Azorian,
40:59one of the most expensive
41:00missions of the entire
41:01Cold War,
41:02is officially sunk.
41:04American taxpayers
41:05are irate.
41:06Irate that the CIA
41:07wasted so much
41:08of their money.
41:09Irate about the failure
41:11of the mission
41:11and irate about
41:12the secrecy itself.
41:14It takes determination,
41:18bravery and commitment
41:19to complete a mission,
41:20no matter what
41:20its intended purpose,
41:22whether it's declaring war
41:23on emus
41:23or blowing up the moon.
41:25These missions
41:26are all so shocking.
41:28They are truly
41:28unbelievable.
Recommended
28:33
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