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The Most Secret Military Operations in History · The Infographics Show Podcast

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Beyond Infographics.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Everybody.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: You know the deal. We take the topics you're digging into,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: dive deep into those fascinating details, and pull out the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: really interesting stuff so you can save some time and
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: get right to those aha moments' Right today, you've been
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: looking into the hidden history of secret military operations.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: So that's what we're diving into. Right.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: It's easy to think of, you know, this clandestine stuff
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: as something new, but it's actually been a part of
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: warfare and strategy for centuries, you know, happening both right
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: on the enemy's doorstep and sometimes a lot closer to home.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: And so much of this history is like still in
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the shadows, isn't it. Oh yeah, we only really get
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: glimpses of these operations much later on, you know, like
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: through declassified documents, great investigative journalism, or even just totally
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: by chance. It really makes you wonder what else is
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: out there still hidden?
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  Speaker 3: You know, precisely the stuff we know about now probably
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: only represents a tiny fraction of what actually happened. So
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: for our mission today on Beyond Infographics, what we're going
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: to do is we're going to explore a selection of
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  Speaker 3: some historically significant secret military operations. We want to understand
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: what the planners were hoping to achieve, how they actually
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: went about it, what happened as a result, and ultimately
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: what these stories tell us about conflict and the absolutely
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: vital role of intelligence.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, I'm ready, let's dive in great Let's start with
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a pretty remarkable operation from World War II, Operation Eiesha
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: in nineteen forty three. So this is a time when
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the Allies had already landed in Sicily, Rome had been
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: bombed huge shifts that led to Mussolini being ousted by
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: his own Grand Council.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, from Hitler's point of view, this was
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: this was really critical. Musolini was key to keeping Italy
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: in the war, and the idea of him falling into
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Allied hands was a huge threat. So his priority became,
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: you know, he had to rescue him.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Rescue mission. Okay, and that's where Otto Skorzeny comes into
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the picture, a Waffen SS officer who, as we'll see,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: had a bit of a a talent for these really
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: high stakes missions. But finding Mussolini couldn't have been as
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: easy as just you know, looking him up in the
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: phone book right now, Absolutely not they must have been.
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  Speaker 2: Moving him around.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was really really difficult to find out exactly
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: where he was. But Scorsney's team they finally tracked him
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: down to a pretty amazing spot, the Campo Imperatore hotel,
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: way up in the ground, sawso mountains. Wow, imagine trying
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: to hide there.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: That's a pretty dramatic setting.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the rescue itself.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Sounds like something out of a movie.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: It really does.
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  Speaker 1: September twelfth, nineteen forty three, Scorsney and just a small
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: group of commandos alongside German paratroopers, landed gliders right on
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the mountaintop.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, can you imagine the shock for whoever was
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: guarding him?
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  Speaker 3: I can't. I can't even imagine. And it was an
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: amazingly fast operation. Within minutes they'd taken control of the hotel,
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: cut off all communications, and overwhelmed something like two hundred
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: carabinieri guards. And the amazing thing is not a single
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: shot was fired. This really shows you the power of
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: surprise and the effectiveness of a well planned and executed rate.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely so, they get him out using a light aircraft,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: a feasal Or five one five six storch right bold
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: and a successful rescue. Yeah, So let's fast forward a
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: bit to two thousand and seven and a totally different
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: type of secret operation Orchard.
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  Speaker 3: So this was a covert strategic bombing operation carried out
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: by the Israeli Masade. Their target was a site called
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: Al key Bar in Syria. They suspected it was a
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: secret nuclear reactor being built in the Darrees Azor region.
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  Speaker 1: The objective, from what I understand, fits with something called
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the begin Doctrine. This policy states that Israel would act
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: to prevent hostile nations in their region from obtaining nuclear weapons,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: and the Israeli government seemed very determined to act, even
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: though there was a chance of some pretty serious consequences
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: from Syria. But the thing that really strikes me is
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: just how long the truth about this was kept on wraps.
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  Speaker 3: It's pretty amazing, isn't it. For eleven years after the
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  Speaker 3: bombing in two thousand and seven, the details were almost
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: completely unknown. Syria denied having any nuclear program, wouldn't cooperate
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  Speaker 3: with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and initially Israel didn't
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: claim responsibility for the attack. You can really see the
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: advantage of secrecy in this kind of super sensitive operation.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, it wasn't until two thousand and nine that we
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: started to see evidence of a nuclear reactor at the site,
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  Speaker 1: which was confirmed by later analysis in twenty eleven, but
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  Speaker 1: Israel only officially admitted their involvement in twenty eighteen.
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  Speaker 2: Over a decade later.
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  Speaker 3: A decade.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that's some serious commitment to silence.
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  Speaker 3: It really shows you how important and sensitive this mission was.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, let's go back to World War Two for
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: another incredible story. Operation gunner Side in nineteen forty three.
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  Speaker 1: This one has a bit of a you know, David
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and Goliath five to it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it really does.
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  Speaker 1: Nine Norwegian commandos trained by the British carried out this
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  Speaker 1: mission on February twenty seventh, nineteen forty three. Target was
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Nazie Germany's Vimork hydro electric plant in Rejuken, Norway. Now,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: this plant was super important to the German atomic bomb
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  Speaker 1: project because it was producing heavy water and that was
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: vital for their nuclear reactors. The Allied objective was pretty simple,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: stop Germany from getting.
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  Speaker 3: The bomb, and Operation gunner Side is pretty much universally
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  Speaker 3: considered a huge success. In that effort, the commandos actually
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  Speaker 3: managed to infiltrate the plant, which was heavily guarded and
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  Speaker 3: destroy the heavy water production. This completely crippled the German
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  Speaker 3: atomic program for months. What this shows is that really
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: targeted sabotage, even by a small team, can have a
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  Speaker 3: massive impact on a strategic goal as huge as developing
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  Speaker 3: nuclear weapons.
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  Speaker 1: It's incredible how they got past the defenses.
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  Speaker 2: Their bravery and ingenuity is remarkable.
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  Speaker 3: Oh.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, But the story it doesn't end there, does it.
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  Speaker 3: It doesn't. Later on, when the Germans were trying to
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: move the heavy water they had left to Germany, they
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: were transporting it across Lake ten and you know what,
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: Norwegian resistance fighters sank the ferry carrying it. So between
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: the raid on the plan and sinking the ferry, the
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: Germans entire supply of heavy water was basically gone. Operation
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  Speaker 3: Gunnerside is often considered the most successful sabotage operation of
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: the whole war.
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  Speaker 2: That's amazing, just incredible.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's shift gears a bit and talk about Operation
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Wrath of God, which started after the horrific events of
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: the nineteen seventy two Meanich Olympics.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, this was a covert assassination campaign that the Israeli
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: Massade launched in direct response to the murder of eleven
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  Speaker 3: Israeli Olympic athletes by Palestinian terrorists. What this shows us
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  Speaker 3: is that sometimes a country might choose to retaliate for
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  Speaker 3: acts of terrorism outside the normal rules of war.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and their goal was clear and probably in their
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: minds at least completely justified. Eliminate everyone who was identified
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  Speaker 1: as being involved in the massacre, especially members of the
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Palestinian Black September Organization and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 3: This mission got going in late nineteen seventy two, and
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  Speaker 3: the first assassination happened on October sixteenth. And what's really
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: interesting about Operation Wrath of God is how long it
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  Speaker 3: went on for. It's thought to have continued for more
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: than twenty years. What this really shows is the long
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  Speaker 3: term dedication and reach of intelligence agencies when they're after
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  Speaker 3: specific targets.
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  Speaker 1: It really underlines the impact those tragic events had and
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  Speaker 1: the desire for revenge. Let's move back to World War
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  Speaker 1: Two now and look at an example of strategic deception
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  Speaker 1: that was just brilliant, Operation Fortitude South. This was in
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  Speaker 1: the lead up to the D Day landings in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: forty four.
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  Speaker 3: Given how massive the D Day landings were. It was
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  Speaker 3: one of the biggest amphibious invasions ever. The Allies knew
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  Speaker 3: how important it was to trick the Germans about where
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  Speaker 3: the main attack was.
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  Speaker 1: Going to happen, and that's where Operation Fortitude South came in.
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  Speaker 1: The goal was to convince the Germans that the main
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  Speaker 1: Allied landing would be at Pas de Calais, which was
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  Speaker 1: a good distance away from the actual landing sites in Normandy.
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  Speaker 1: This would, they hoped, pull German troops away from the
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  Speaker 1: real target.
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  Speaker 3: And the level of trickery was remarkable. They literally, really
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: fabricated intelligence reports, made up an entire fake invasion force
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  Speaker 3: with realistic preparations and everything, and they even put General
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: George Patten, a respected and feared Allied commander, as the
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  Speaker 3: leader of this non existent army.
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  Speaker 1: They even went as far as putting inflatable dummy tanks
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  Speaker 1: M four Sherman's and decoy landing craft in harbors in
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  Speaker 1: southeastern England, all to make it look like there was
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  Speaker 1: a huge build up of troops and equipment there. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: it was like a massive stage production.
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  Speaker 3: That's a great way to put it, and it worked brilliantly.
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  Speaker 3: On D Day, a big chunk of the German forces
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  Speaker 3: were stuck at Pa Decla, waiting for an invasion that
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  Speaker 3: never came. This definitely played a huge part in the
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  Speaker 3: success of the actual landings in Normandy. What it shows
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  Speaker 3: is that tricking the enemy can be just as important
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  Speaker 3: as military strength, and that deception is a powerful tool
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  Speaker 3: in warfare.
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  Speaker 1: It's a real testament to strategic thinking. Okay, let's look
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  Speaker 1: at another operation involving our friend Otto Skorzeny. Oh he's back,
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  Speaker 1: he is this time it's during the Battle of the
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  Speaker 1: Bulge in nineteen forty four.
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  Speaker 3: Grief knew he'd show up again. Okay, So the Germans
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  Speaker 3: have launched their offensive in the Ardennes and Hitler gives
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: Scorseny a really important and risky job secure at least
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: one of the bridges over the Meuse River before the
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  Speaker 3: Allies could destroy them. This would help the German advance.
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  Speaker 3: Hitler clearly had a ton of faith in Scorseny after
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: all his successes.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so the plan for Operation Grief was super audacious.
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  Speaker 1: Skorzeny sent German soldiers who spoke perfect English disguised behind
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  Speaker 1: enemy lines.
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  Speaker 3: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: Can you imagine the confusion?
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: You can only imagine.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so their mission was basically to cause mayhem and
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: wreck Allied morale from the inside. They were supposed to
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: mess up communication lines, switch road signs, to send troops
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  Speaker 1: in the wrong direction, and spread false rumors. So this
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  Speaker 1: shows how using the enemy's language and taking advantage of
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  Speaker 1: their trust can really.
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  Speaker 2: Mess them up.
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  Speaker 3: It's brilliant but devious.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it sounds like they definitely caused some chaos,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: even though the main objective didn't quite workout. Even though
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Scores and He couldn't get those bridges, these guys caused
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: so much panic and confusion.
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  Speaker 2: Among the Allies.
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  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, absolutely, Allied operations were slowed down because they
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: were trying so hard to find these disguised German soldiers.
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  Speaker 3: Everyone was suspicious of each other, and sometimes Allied soldiers
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: even ended up detaining their own guys by mistake. This
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  Speaker 3: really shows how much of an impact covert operations can
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: have on the enemy's state of mind.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a big deal.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, let's go back a bit to nineteen forty two
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: and Operation Anthropoid. This was a really significant mission in
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the fight against Nazi Germany.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: So this was a secret operation that the Czechoslovak Army
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: in exile carried out in Prague on May twenty seventh,
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: nineteen forty two. The main goal was to assassinate Reinhardt Heidrich,
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: who was a very high ranking and powerful Nazi official.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: He was the Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. This
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: operation shows the incredible courage and determination of resistance movements
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: to hit back at oppressive regimes right at their center right.
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  Speaker 1: This was a really carefully planned mission. They had support
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: from the Czechoslovak government in exile and the British Special
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Operations Executive, which really highlights how the allies worked together
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: to resist during the war.
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  Speaker 3: It's a great example of cooperation. So the assassination attempt
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: itself worked, but Hydrich didn't die right away. He actually
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: died from his wounds on June fourth, nineteen forty two,
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: and this led to some horrible reprisals by the Nazis
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: against the Czech people. It's a stark reminder that actions
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: like this often come with huge risks and tragic consequences.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: It's a powerful reminder of the cost. Let's jump ahead
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: to the Cold War now and talk about Project Azorian
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy four. This operation was just massive, both
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: in what they tried to do and what they did
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: to make it happen.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was huge. The estimated cost was something like
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: eight hundred million dollars, making it one of the most expensive,
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: technologically advanced and secret operations of the entire Cold War.
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  Speaker 3: It really shows you how much countries were willing to
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: spend to get ahead.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So the CIA's goal was unbelievable, recover the sunken Soviet
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: submarine K one twenty nine, which had sunk in the
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Pacific Ocean in nineteen sixty eight.
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  Speaker 2: It was lying in.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: An incredible depth, which made it a huge technical challenge.
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  Speaker 3: Oh. Absolutely. To make this seemingly impossible task happen, the
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: CIA built a special ship, the USNS Hughes Glomar Explorer.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: The whole thing was this amazing combination of engineering, intelligence gathering,
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: and keeping everything top secret.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they actually pulled it off. They managed to
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: get a big chunk of the submarine along with tons
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: of valuable intelligence, including secret documents and even nuclear missiles.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: It's amazing at testament to the technology of the time
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: and how intense the intelligence rivalry was during the Cold War.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: Definitely sticking with the Cold War, our next operation takes
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: us somewhere completely different and just as secret, under the
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: massive ice sheet in Greenland. This was Project ice Worm.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: This was a super top secret US Army project. It
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: took advantage of Greenland's location, how close it was to
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: potential targets in the Soviet Union.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: The idea was to.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Make a network of hidden mobile medium arrangements launch sites
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: deep under the ice.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: It's crazy, right, And what's really incredible is that the
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: US Army put a bunch of medium range missiles in
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: this secret underground spot without Denimark even knowing, even though
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Greenland was a Danish territory. They even created a fake
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: project called Camp Century, pretending it was a scientific research base.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: That's wild, all to test if they could operate under
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: the ice for a long time.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: But what happened to this big plan in the end.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: Well, the ice sheet itself was too unstable, it was
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: too much of a challenge, so after about six years
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: they had to cancel Project ice Worm, and the details
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: of this whole thing stayed top secret for decades, only
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: coming out in nineteen ninety five because of an investigation
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: by the Danish Foreign Policy Institute. This shows that even
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: secret operations that fail can still have lasting effects on
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: global politics.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: So even when these operations don't work out, they can
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: still tell us a lot about the thinking and the
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: tensions of the time.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: Definitely.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's dig into another Cold War, this time about
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: spying in Berlin. This is Operation Gold.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: The British government has been super secretive about Operation Gold,
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: keeping most of the details classified right from the start,
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: so there's not a lot of official information out there,
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: but we do know that the main idea was a
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: joint effort between the British MI six and the American
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: CIA back in the nineteen fifties.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Their goal was to tap into the Soviet armies communication
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: lines in Berlin.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Pretty audacious, huh, it was.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: And how they planned to do it was pretty bold too.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: They were going to build a secret tunnel right under
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: the Soviet controlled part of the city, a really risky
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: and high stakes way to get intel.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: But like with many of these operations, things didn't go
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: quite as planned.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: Did they No, not at all. The mission was completely
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: blown because of a double agent in British intelligence named
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: George Blake. He told the Soviets all about the tunnel.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: It was a huge failure for intelligence gathering and showed
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: how dangerous spies within intelligence agencies can be.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: It shows that even when you have the best plans
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: and tons of money, you're always vulnerable to human error
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: and betrayal as a constant threat. All right, let's move
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: on to Operation Washtub in nineteen fifty four. This CIA
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: operation had a different kind of goal, maybe a bit
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: more manipulative.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: So Operation Washtub was all about discrediting the president of
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: Guatemala at the time, a Gagobo Arbans. The CIA wanted
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: to make it look like his government, which had been
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: democratically elected, had close ties to the Soviet Union. This
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: would justify getting involved and maybe even getting rid of
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: him hmm.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: And the way they wanted to do this was by
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: planting fake Soviet weapons in Nicaragua.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: Right exactly. They worked with the Nicaraguan government under President
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: Samosa Garcia, and in February nineteen fifty four, they planted
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: these Soviet made weapons on the coast. Somosa then announced
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: that they'd found them, claiming they belonged to Guatemala and
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: were proof of Communist influence. This really shows how propaganda
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: and fake news can be used in covert operations.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: It's pretty devious, but it didn't actually up being used
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: the way they plant did it.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: No, At the end, the CIA didn't actually use this
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: fake evidence directly, but they did back a coup that
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: same year which ended up overthrowing Arbins. So while Operation
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: Watchtub wasn't the only reason he was removed from power,
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: it was definitely part of a bigger plan to destabilize
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: the country and spread misinformation.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Finally, let's talk about Operation m Coffin, which is thought
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: to have started in nineteen sixty six. It's a more
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: recent operation and a pretty unsettling one.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this was a joint effort by the Department of
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: Defense and the CIA, a few years after the m
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Culture Program, which was super controversial. The official goal of
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: m Cofton was to research the effects of different drugs
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: on people and animals, looking at both behavior and toxicity.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: But this raises some serious ethical questions about doing this
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: kind of research in secret.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: It does sound like they were continuing some of that
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: ethically questionable research that happened with M Cultra, and there
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: have been some pretty disturbing and weird claims about em cofton, Haven't.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: There there have? In his book Secrets and Lies, Gordon
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: Thomas claims that this operation even involved using black magic
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: on the test subjects. It's really strange and then settling,
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: especially considering how secretive this program already was.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: It's pretty disturbing stuff. So as we wrap up this
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: deep dive into secret military operations here on beyond infographics,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: there are some major themes that really jump out. We've
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: looked at operations that range from daring rescues in the
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: middle of war to sabotage missions with global consequences, from
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: complex spying during the Cold War to sophisticated deception and
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: psychological manipulation.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: Absolutely and through all these different operations we see some
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: common threads. The risks involved, the need for secrecy and deception,
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: and the constant desire for an advantage in conflicts and
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: geopolitical struggles. These stories also show how ingenious, bold, and
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: sometimes even ruthless people can be when they're trying to
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: protect their country's interests.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: And these counts really make us think about some big questions,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: don't they. There are the ethical concerns of operating in secrecy,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: the balance between national security and accountability, and the unintended
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: long term consequences that can happen when actions are taken
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: in the shadows.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: It's a lot to think about. Here's a question for
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: everyone listening. How much do you think all these secret
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: operations have shaped the world we live in today? And
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: what are the lasting effects of these hidden actions on
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: trust and relationships between countries. It's a complex issue with
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: no easy answers.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: It's a big question for sure. This has been a
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: really fascinating look into the hidden world of secret military operations,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: and we hope this deep dive on Beyond Infographics has
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: given you some valuable insights into this part of history
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: that's often kept hidden. And hey, if you enjoyed this
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: exploration and found it informative, how about giving Beyond Infographics
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: of five star rating. It really helps other people find
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: these deep dives.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: It does. And remember what we've seen here, this look
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: into the world of espionage and covert action, it's really
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: just the tip of the iceberg. We encourage you to
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: keep exploring these fascinating and complex parts of history and
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: international relations. You might be surprised at what you find.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: That's great advice, and maybe it's a good reminder that
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: the official stories we hear are only part of the picture.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: There's a much bigger and more complex reality out there,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: and sometimes it's deliberately hidden from us. Thanks for joining
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: us on beyond infographics.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: Thanks everyone,