All language subtitles for The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd s03e03 Shocking Missions.eng

- [Dan narrating]

[eerie music]

- Imagine trying to blast
a dictator out of hiding

using heavy metal music.

- The priests and
nuns of the embassy,

they can't take it.

They want Noriega there.

- They beg the US military
to turn off this racket.

Even the Pope gets involved.

- Or declaring war on emus.

- The emu is not a dumb bird.

They split up and they start
running in multiple directions.

- Some of them take
fire and keep going.

It's just so mind boggling.

- How about defeating a
squad of guerrilla fighters

with vampires?

- Lansdale has this idea of
really learning the enemy

and finding out about
the superstitions

that are popular
in this culture.

- Instead of having a direct
military confrontation,

they're going to use
psychological operations.

- These are the
missions so shocking,

they are truly unbelievable.

[dramatic music]

During the Cold War,

there seems to be no limit

to how far the US will
go to fight communism,

but once you turn
cats into super spies

or capture the enemy
using weaponized dolphins,

what's next?

- It's the 1950s and
somewhere deep inside Langley,

the CIA's headquarters,

the brain trust is
hatching a plan.

What better way to challenge

the masculine,
aggressive Soviet empire

than to hit 'em where it hurts?

- The plan is as
crazy as it is simple.

What they're gonna do

is take extra,
extra large condoms

that are clearly stamped
"Made in America,"

and they're gonna re
stamp them as size small.

Then they're gonna drop
them over Soviet territory.

- The idea is upon discovering

these American small condoms,

they will see an
extra extra large

and they'll say, "That's
an American small? Uh-oh."

And it will break the Soviet
fighting man's spirit,

knowing that they are not as
well endowed as the US of A.

- Overall, the idea is
actually not too bad.

It's cheap, it's
easy to execute.

This actually seems
like a pretty good plan.

- Reportedly, the
CIA is on the cusp

of launching this mission

when it finds its
way to the ears

of some of the higher ups

and they hit the brakes on this;

they pull the plug.

This just seems a
little too bonkers,

a little too crazy,

and Operation Condom Drop
is quickly put on the shelf.

- While this mission never
actually gets up and running,

the CIA does something
even stranger

to scare the hell out of
communists in Southeast Asia.

- The Philippines has a
somewhat complicated history

with the United States.

From 1898 to 1941, it's
an American territory.

But during World War
II, Japan invades

[plane engines roar]
[gunshots fire]

and they occupy the Philippines.

- In the aftermath of
the Second World War,

the country exists as a
free democratic republic,

but the United States
has influenced there

because the United States
has interests there.

- Even though America claimed

to give the Philippines
its independence,

they were still controlling
the resources of the country.

- The United States,

through the Central
Intelligence Agency,

is attempting to influence
Philippine elections

to ensure that they
elect the right people-

and the right people
means not communist.

- [Dan] But not everyone is
happy about this arrangement

and by 1950, all hell
is breaking loose.

- There is a guerilla
group, the Hukbalahap,

and they have an agenda.

- They want to create a
self-sufficient Philippines

with no external influence,

but they need to create
a fighting force.

The Huks start working their
way through the country,

going to villages
to recruit people;

saying, "You can either join
us or we will kill you."

So naturally most
people join up.

- And this method is
working quite well

because by 1950, there are
70,000 Huk revolutionaries

that are willing to take up arms

and they're going to take over

the central
government in Manila.

- [Dan] Fearing the Philippines
will turn communist,

the US decides to intervene.

- The man who oversees
this operation for the CIA

is named Edward Lansdale,

and he's an advertising guy.

And he starts to
think about creative,

outside the box ways

that they can maybe
solve this problem.

- Instead of having a direct
military confrontation,

they're gonna use
psychological operations.

- Lansdale has this idea of
really learning the enemy

and finding out about
the superstitions

that are popular
in this culture.

- [Dan] During their research,

Lansdale and his men
come across a being

known as the Aswang vampire.

- The Aswang vampire
presents itself

as a beautiful woman with wings

and a mouth full of
razor sharp teeth;

and she lives in the forests

among the people where she
can strike and get you.

- [Dan] In the early 1950s,

the US brings this
legend to life

and Project Aswang
officially kicks off.

- Just outside of
a small village,

there are 300 Huk fighters

that have started an encampment

with a mission to
convince and persuade

these villagers to
join their cause.

- This gives the CIA

the opportunity to
implement their plan.

They start spreading the
rumor among the villages

around this concentration
of Huk fighters

that there is an Aswang
nearby in the forest,

and they know that as the rumor

spreads through the villages,

it's also gonna spread
to the Huk fighters.

- A few days later,

once Lansdale feels
that the rumor

has spread enough
amongst the Huks,

it's time for him to strike.

- [Dan] CIA operatives
begin stalking

a Huk patrol in the dark forest.

- As the Huks are
moving along a trail,

the CIA operatives quietly
wait for them to pass.

As the last man in
the patrol passes by,

one of the operatives
sneaks up behind him,

snatches him off the
trail and into the bushes.

- They end up
killing this fighter

and they puncture two
holes in his neck.

And then they hang him
by his feet from a tree

and the blood in his body

drains out via these two holes.

- When his comrades
come looking for him,

what they find is someone
who, to all appearances,

has been killed by
an Aswang vampire.

- [Dan] Once the rest of
the squad gets wind of this,

all 300 fighters flee.

But then there's an even
bigger, unexpected outcome.

- The villagers
themselves feel like

if the Aswang is
targeting Huk fighters,

the last thing I want
to do is join the Huk.

And eventually, without the
support of the villagers,

the Huk dissolves away.

- Definitely an
effective strategy,

but sometimes
achieving a mission

means getting a little
more down and dirty.

[tense music]

- British spies are
often considered

the best of the best

and the creme de la
creme are known as MI6.

And during the Cold War,

MI6 is really at its peak.

- [Dan] Alongside NATO forces,

MI6 launches a secret mission

to gather information from
Soviet-controlled East Germany,

called Operation Tamarisk.

- It's not what you picture

when you imagine a conventional
espionage operation,

where a agent is slipping into

an office building at night

and secretly using one of
those little tiny spy cameras

to photograph vitally
important documents;

that's not what
happens in Tamarisk.

- [Dan] To steal intelligence,

MI6 exploits the struggling
East German economy;

especially a shortage in
one vital consumer product.

- The Soviets are in an arms
race with the United States.

This is a very
expensive arms race

and the last thing they
wanna spend money on

are household items
including toilet paper.

- [Dan] Thanks to this,

even soldiers are forced to
improvise when nature calls.

- They start to realize
that they're literally using

any type of paper they
can get their hands on.

Now sometimes this could
mean letters from home,

it could mean
receipts for supplies,

but then sometimes it might
also be classified documents.

- [Dan] Word spreads quickly.

The race is on to discover

the communists' dirty secrets.

- In one mission, you
have two British spies

who are hiding out
near a firing range

where the Soviet
soldiers are practicing.

They wait for the soldiers to
finish up and then take off.

- The two operatives
then move in

and they go through
the septic system.

- These British spies show

a whole new level of dedication.

They have to sort
through the muck soil

and everything else in
order to find documents.

- They find a lot of what

you would expect to be in there,

but they also find the paper

that the troops have been
using to wipe themselves.

- [Dan] The agents take these
papers back to an office

to be cleansed,
reassembled, and analyzed.

What they find is
a treasure trove.

- There are cipher
code translations,

there are reports
on troop morale.

You've even got detailed
instructions on troop movements.

- [Dan] The mission
is so successful,

MI6 doubles down and sends spies

to an abandoned Soviet military
encampment at Neustrelitz.

- These two MI6
spies start digging

their way through the latrine

and what they come across

is an entire military log.

- It contains
valuable information

about the latest
Russian tanks in service

and incredibly,
includes a report

on the weak points
inherent in those tanks.

- [Dan] Thanks to this
unlikely intelligence source,

the British create a
tank busting missile

that is still in use today.

But even the strangest missions
have an expiration date.

- Operation Tamarisk
cannot last forever.

As the eighties go on,

the Russians are able to solve

some of their economic problems,

the soldiers get some
comfy toilet paper

and no longer do British spies

have to crawl into
Soviet latrines.

- As crazy as stealing secrets

from Soviet toilets might sound,

Operation Tamarisk goes down

as the single most effective
intelligence operation

throughout the entire Cold War.

- In ancient Egypt,

cats are the embodiment
of all things sacred,

bringing good luck to
all they come across.

1700 years later,

one Pope disagrees
and takes action.

- It's the thirteenth century

and from 1227 until 1241,

Pope Gregory the ninth is
the ultimate religious leader

of the western world.

He's the head of
the Catholic church,

his word is infallible,

no one is closer to
God than Pope Gregory.

- And Pope Gregory is most
definitely not a cat person.

In fact, he believes that cats

are the reincarnation
of Satan himself.

- [Dan] Just where does the
Pope's strong opinion come from?

- Conrad von Marberg is Gregory
the ninth papal inquisitor

and his task is to extract
confessions and punish heretics.

Through the course of these
torture interrogations,

Conrad unearths a satanic
cult in Mainz Germany

that worships a half Lucifer,

half cat-like devil being.

- They conduct a black
mass in a satanic church

around a statue of a giant cat

who, after a while,
comes to life

and the followers go around

and kiss the cat on the butt

and then they have a giant orgy.

- [Dan] Once Pope Gregory learns

about this satanic cat cult,

he issues an official
decree in 1233

condemning all cats to hell.

- Some people take
this directive

to mean that cats
should be destroyed.

- [Dan] Priests
and peasants alike

are enlisted in the
shocking mission

and the great cat hunt begins.

- Entire communities go on

these brutal hunts to find cats

and when they catch them,

they burn them alive

or they toss them off
of tall buildings.

- [Dan] It's not just our furry
friends being slaughtered.

- People who are harboring cats

are branded Satan
worshiping cat lovers

and they too are subjected
to torture and even death,

simply for refusing
to kill the cats.

- [Dan] Pope Gregory's
cat killing mission

goes on for decades,

but it's the cats who
ultimately get the last meow.

- Around a century after
Pope Gregory's war on cats,

the bubonic plague
rages through Europe,

killing 25 million.

And the culprit? Rats.

[rats squeak and chitter]
[tense music]

But you know who's particularly
effective at catching rats?

These cats that have been
so mercilessly hunted,

so cats begin falling
back into favor.

- Lucky for all
us feline lovers,

cats make a
triumphant come back.

Today there are an estimated
600 million cats on the planet

and I'm sure only
some of them are evil.

Unbelievably, 700 years later,

another war is declared
on a different animal;

this time down under.

- It's just after World War I

and the Australian government
decides to do something

really special for
Australian fighters

that come home from the war.

They give the soldiers a plot
of land to become farmers

and the 1920s are a
great decade for that.

- [Dan] Soon these veterans
turned farmers are thriving

until an unexpected
rival swoops in.

- The emu is a flightless bird.

They're six feet tall,
about 120 pounds.

They're really fast, but
they're also really hungry.

- [Dan] Australia's
20,000 emus begin feasting

on the thriving new farmlands,

causing millions of
dollars in lost crops.

- If you're a farmer,
typically what you might do

is you might take your claim
to the agriculture department,

but these aren't only
farmers, they're veterans;

so they decide to go to
the Ministry of Defense.

- The farmers meet
with George Pierce

and their plan is to create
an army of well-armed men

to go out and significantly
deplete the emu population.

- [Dan] This doesn't exactly

sit well with the government

who reminds them that the emu

is Australia's national bird,

- But Pierce is
adamant and he says,

"No, no, no, no. I have a plan.

We're gonna use machine guns

because that'll make the
death quick and painless.

And on top of that, this
will be seen as a good act

to aid the veterans that
fought in World War I."

- [Dan] Apparently Pierce
makes a strong case

because parliament gets on board

and officially declares
war on emus in 1932.

- The program gets
off to a roaring start

when an Australian
artillery officer

by the name of G.P.W. Meredith

goes out into an
area called Campion

for the purposes
of exterminating

the emu population there.

- [Dan] With a herd of about

a hundred emus in their sights,

they begin firing.

[gunshots fire]
[tense music]

Then the emus do something
they're very good at.

- The emu is not a dumb
bird, they're smart,

and they split up and
they start running

in multiple directions
in smaller groups,

at 40 miles an hour!

- These emu are pretty
freaking hard to hit.

They blast into a pack of
a hundred, they hit five.

- A handful of emus
sadly do get shot,

but some of them take
fire and keep going.

It's just so mind boggling

that Major Meredith compares
these emus to tanks.

- [Dan] After the emus
outsmart them at Campion,

the army works on a
different approach.

They're going to mount
the Lewis machine gun

on the back of a Jeep,

so they can travel at
the same speed as the emu

and fire from the back.

- Problem with this:

it is rough terrain,

so the Jeep is just bouncing
up and down the whole way.

Bullets fly everywhere.

Emus are just like,
"That's stupid,"

and they scatter once again.

- And again, the outcome is
the same: mission failure.

- [Dan] It's now emus
two, Aussies nil.

But the soldiers aren't
ready to give up.

- Now, Major
Meredith and his men

think they've got
these emus figured out.

They know the guerrilla
tactics of these emus.

They know how they run,

they know where they rest,

they know what directions
they spread in.

And with this information

they start carrying
out these new missions

and they start to
show more success.

- [Dan] Pierce goes back to
parliament three weeks later,

proudly touting
that he and his men

have killed almost 1000 emus.

- Parliament just kind
of looks at him and goes,

"Didn't you say there
were 20,000 emus

and you've only managed to
kill a thousand of them?"

- They lambast him with insults,

going so far as to
even suggest that,

maybe medals should
be given to the emu?

- With an unbelievable
amount of ammunition

and manpower wasted,

Parliament ultimately decides

to give the victory to the emus

and the mission is declared
an unmitigated failure.

- After the emus
win the war of 1932,

they continue to
wreak havoc on farmers

and their crops for years.

That is, until a worthy opponent
appears: better fencing.

- On October 4th, 1957,

the Russians
successfully launched

the first satellite into space.

It's called Sputnik 1

and the United States is
not very happy about it.

- America at that time
doesn't really like it

when Russia beats us to
the punch on anything,

especially when it comes
to space and weaponry.

- [Dan] The biggest fear
among us military brass

is that next the Soviets will
beat America to the moon.

- America has to do something

to catch up with the Soviets,

so NASA turns to the
Air Force and said,

"Hey, let's work together.

We know it sounds crazy,

but let's just think of every
out of the box idea you can

and let's get 'em."

- [Dan] Instead of
sending a man to the moon,

the Air Force suggests something
much more unbelievable.

- So the idea from the Air Force

is to blow up an atomic
bomb on the moon.

- As crazy as it sounds,

the Air Force actually suggests

that we send a nuclear
weapon to the moon

and create a mushroom cloud

big enough for everyone
to see all over the world.

- The crater that
it leaves behind

is going to be ongoing
perpetual evidence of supremacy.

They want everyone on Earth

to look up at that thing

and know that it is
an American crater.

- What they want to do with this

is send a warning sign,

don't mess with us.

- [Dan] Incredibly,
NASA doesn't immediately

shoot down the idea.

In fact, they give
it the green light.

- They call this
mission Project A119,

and they bring together this
team of genius scientists,

including a young
graduate student

by the name of Carl Sagan.

They propose using a W25 warhead

that has a 1.7 kiloton yield

and they want to strap
it to a ballistic missile

and shoot it straight
up to the moon.

- [Dan] But before they can push

the launch button
on project A119,

the government abruptly
shuts down the mission.

- There are concerns that
the weapon might misfire

and come down somewhere
in the United States-

or worse yet, come down
somewhere in Russia,

triggering a nuclear response
from the Soviet Union.

- And then we're
in full scale war.

[explosion booms]
[ominous music]

- This mission was
obviously classified,

so for a very long time,

nobody knew how close we came

to detonating a nuclear
warhead on the moon.

- If trying to destroy the
moon to best your enemy

sounds a bit brash,

why not do something a
little more down to Earth?

This is the story of a
property line dispute

and a deadly mission
to have a better view.

- On August 18th, 1976,

over two decades after the
conclusion of the Korean War,

fifteen soldiers from the
United States and South Korea

enter the demilitarized
zone, the DMZ.

They enter a specific area
of the DMZ called the JSA,

Joint Security Area.

- The JSA is unique

because it's the only space
in the demilitarized zone

where soldiers from the north
and south can intermingle.

- [Dan] In the middle
of this neutral zone

is a sprawling 100
foot poplar tree.

- South Korea and
the United States

need clear line of
sight of the DMZ.

North Korea could try
to stage an invasion

or you could have a citizen
that's trying to defect.

Its blocking the view of this
particular area of the DMZ.

- The tree is an
obvious security issue,

so the South Koreans and
NATO decide to chop it down.

No big deal, right?

- [Dan] As it turns out,
to the North Koreans,

it is a big deal.

- Here come the North Koreans,

30 soldiers under the command
of Senior Lieutenant Pak Cheol

and he is known as
Lieutenant Bulldog

for his history
of starting fights

and scraps inside the JSA.

Bulldog tells the working
group they have to stop.

This is a special tree.

It was planted by their
current leader, Kim Ill Sung,

the founder of North Korea.

- Lieutenant Bulldog and his men

pull out crowbars,
clubs and axes.

The South Koreans and Americans
think they're bluffing,

so they go ahead and proceed
to cut down the tree.

- It isn't a bluff.

Lieutenant Bulldogs shouts,
[indistinct], or attack,

and the 30 North Koreans rush

the fifteen American
and South Korean allies,

and a brutal bloody
melee begins.

- [Dan] Two US Army officers,

Captain Arthur Bonifas and
First Lieutenant Mark Barrett,

are killed in the skirmish.

- This is the United
States of America

we're talking about here,

so there has to be a response,

but it can't be too
much of a response

because now we risk
sparking a full-fledged war.

However, we can't let
North Korea get away

with killing two
US service members.

- President Gerald
Ford decides on

an appropriate response,

Operation Paul Bunyan.

They're simply gonna go and
cut down the poplar tree,

but bring a little
security just in case.

- Sixteen US and South Korean
soldiers return with axes

and 60 special forces
soldiers follow behind them.

They also bring tanks

and seven AH1 Cobra
attack helicopters

that are circling overhead,

ready to strike.

- Gerald Ford also makes sure

that there are ten thousand
more soldiers stand in reserve

with 12,000 more on the way.

- At that point,

around 150 North Korean soldiers

just stand there in silence,

watching them from the
other side of the bridge.

Most notably,
Lieutenant Bulldog?

Nowhere to be found.

- About 42 minutes later,

engineers lop off
the top of the tree

and the whole crowd,

all of the assembled
soldiers erupt in cheers.

And as each
subsequent limb falls,

there's another cheer

from the South Korean
and American side

until all that remains
is a 20 foot stump.

They wanna leave this
stump to remind everyone

that there was a tree
here and we got rid of it.

- Today, the site of the tree

is marked by a stone memorial

to Captain Bonifas and
Lieutenant Barrett.

- And that's the story
of how World War III

was almost started over the
chopping down of a tree.

- For thousands of years,

music has been used
as a military tactic.

Drums, horns and singing
have all been implemented

to raise morale and even
intimidate the enemy.

But in Panama in 1989,

it gets turned up to
a whole new level.

[tense music]

- General Manuel Noriega
is a shady fellow.

Across the 1980s,

he more or less becomes the
defacto dictator of Panama.

- He begins to traffic
drugs via Panama's military

and he amasses a
sizable fortune.

[crowds shout indistinctly]

- By the late 1980s,

Noriega is beginning to threaten

the US monopoly over
the Panama Canal,

and the Panama Canal
is the linchpin

to American economic
activity in the hemisphere.

- [MJ] In 1989, when the
country holds elections,

he rigs the election and
chooses to remain in power.

- This is the last straw
for the United States

and they demand that
Noriega steps down.

Noriega resists and
now we have a showdown.

- [Dan] On December 19th, 1989,

President George H.W.
Bush orders 26,000 troops

to storm the capitol city
and seize the dictator.

- The mission is
called "Just Cause,"

and one of the first
things the troops do

is trying to choke off
Noriega's escape routes.

- They seize his
Lear jet, sees his boat,

he has nowhere to go.

He's cornered.

- [Dan] That's when the
general pulls a Hail Mary.

- Noriega is a very crafty
man, as we found out.

I'm not sure exactly
how it worked.

- General Noriega seeks
refuge in an embassy-

but not just any embassy,
the Vatican's embassy.

The troops can't enter

because the embassy is
part of the Catholic church

and they are
offering safe haven.

- [Dan] American forces
bang their heads together

and decide on a plan that is
as creative as it is loud.

- American intelligence knows

that he is a lover of the opera

and folks who love the opera

don't usually love heavy metal.

- [MJ] Operation Just Cause
changes its trajectory.

They roll in a fleet of Humvees

with giant speakers
mounted to them.

- [Dan] Then they start
blaring rock music

at deafening levels,

attempting to blast the
general out of hiding.

- The playlist is
pretty perfect.

It includes hits like "I
Fought The Law" by The Clash,

"We're Not Gonna Take
it" by Twisted Sister,

and of course,
"Panama" by Van Halen.

- The idea is that
Noriega is going

to be completely unnerved

by all the hardcore
metal screaming

that's coming out
of these songs.

They'll essentially
drive him nuts

and thereby drive him
out of the embassy,

and into the waiting
hands of the US military.

- After three days,

Noriega is not budging,

but there's a
second order effect

on the priests and
nuns of the embassy.

They can't take it,

they want Noriega outta there.

- They beg the US military
to turn off this racket.

Even the Pope gets involved,

asking President Bush
to knock this off.

- The Vatican
Embassy tells Noriega

that he needs to give up

and if he doesn't give up,

they're gonna simply
move the embassy

to a local Catholic high school,

and the US would be free
under these conditions

to just walk in and take him.

- [Dan] Finally, after 10
days of heavy metal torture,

the general comes out, Bible
in hand, and surrenders.

- Noriega is flown to Miami

where he stands trial
for drug trafficking.

He is convicted and essentially
is given a life sentence.

Noriega was a ruthless
authoritarian dictator,

he was a hard criminal,

but hard rock is what
brought him down.

- While days of musical torture

is enough to take
down one dictator,

there are other ways

governments can mess
with enemy minds.

[gentle music]

- There is a quiet little
hamlet in the south of France

and the local mail
carrier in this village,

Leon Armuniere is doing
his regular postal route.

Everything seems normal and
then he starts to feel unwell

and he falls off his bike.

[Leon crashes]

- He starts screaming.

[Leon screams]

He's yelling that
his body is on fire,

that he's physically
shrinking in size

and that massive snakes
are coiling around him.

- So when Leon is
taken to the hospital,

he's actually put
into a straight jacket

and confined for his own safety

because he is experiencing
hallucinations.

- [Dan] But it's not
just the mailman.

All across town
people are embarking

on this long strange trip.

- There's a report
of a 20-year-old man

who tries to drown himself,

screaming that his belly
is being eaten by snakes.

- You have a man who
says, "I'm a plane!"

And then just proceeds to
jump out of the window,

fall three stories and
break both of his legs.

- And by the time it's all over,

300 people have
been affected by it.

30 of them have been
committed to asylums

and seven are dead.

- [Dan] So what's behind
all this unusual behavior?

- Doctors believe it's
actually from bread

ingested by the townspeople,

from one bakery in particular.

They suspect that
some of the rye

was impacted by a
fungus called ergot,

and now they believe
that fungus is at work.

- Part of this
theory makes sense,

ergot does cause hallucinations.

What's strange, though,
is that there hasn't been

an ergot outbreak in
France since 1816,

so it's a little
suspect as a theory.

- [Dan] There's another
very strange possibility.

- In the early 2000s a
journalist named Hank Albarelli

is researching a book
about Edgewood Arsenal.

- Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland

was a US military test facility

that ran between 1948 and 1975.

- And normally, Edgewood is
conducting these experiments

on soldiers who volunteer.

- [Dan] The testing included

the effects of mustard
gas, PCP and LSD.

- During his research,
Albarelli claims

to find a top secret document

that was buried by the
director of Edgewood Arsenal.

The document states that
the Pont-St-Esprit incident

is not the result of a
hallucinogenic fungus,

but in fact, CIA placed LSD

inside the dough of this bread

to see what the result
would be on the people

of this small French town.

- [Dan] But why would the CIA

carry out a top secret mission

to make a bunch of French
people hallucinate?

- This is during the Cold War.

This is a time when there are

all kinds of
experiments happening

and Pont-St-Esprit
may have been a place

where they just thought

they could quietly
pull off an experiment

and see how it went.

- It is worth noting that
the skeptics say that,

well, if you ingest
that much LSD,

the effects should be immediate.

There shouldn't be
a delayed response.

So the jury's still
out as to whether

this is an example
of just tainted flour

or if it was some sort
of covert PSYOPs mission

that was carried out by the CIA.

We may never actually
find out the truth.

- On a cold February
morning in 1942, at 6:30 AM,

the Canadian city of Winnipeg

wakes up to what might just
be their worst nightmare.

[tense music]
[air raid sirens wail]

- Air raid sirens are blaring,

bombs are going off,

and as they leave their houses,

they hear a cacophony
of machine gun fire

that seems to be getting closer.

- By 9:30 AM, it
all turns quiet.

Over the Winnipeg radio,

it's announced that their
mayor, their government,

have just surrendered
to the Nazis.

- They see a sight
they never expected:

hobnailed jackboot Nazis

marching past Portage and Main,

the main intersection
in Winnipeg.

- This is a crazy moment.

You have tanks on
every street corner,

the Nazi flag
hanging at City Hall.

- [Dan] But don't worry,

this isn't something you missed

after you fell asleep
in history class.

The Nazis never really
invaded Winnipeg.

It's all part of a mission

to keep Canadians on their toes.

- It's part of a massive
Canadian propaganda operation

that's supposed to
awaken Canadians

to the potential
danger of Nazi threats.

They call it "If Day."

- This is actually the
largest military mobilization

in the history of the
province of Manitoba.

3,500 men in German uniforms
take to the city streets.

- The Nazis are actually
reservists and volunteers

dressed in costumes and gear
provided by Hollywood studios.

- [Dan] And these young soldiers

are taking their Nazi
acting seriously.

- They board up synagogues,
they burn books,

they go into shops, they
go into restaurants,

they go into schools

and they verbally abuse
and accost people.

This is what life would be
like under Nazi occupation.

- [Dan] By 5:30
PM, the prisoners

along with Winnipeg's mayor,

are released and the
staged occupation is over.

- The genesis of
this idea for If Day

comes from the Greater Winnipeg
Victory Loan Committee,

who believes that using fear

will be the best motivation
for getting people

to contribute to the war effort.

- And it works.

Within days, 3 million
Canadian dollars

are raised in war bonds.

Within weeks, you're
talking about $65 million.

- This is one of the
greatest fundraising schemes

ever put together.

- Not all missions need
to frighten or destroy.

Some missions are there to
make people feel good inside.

And for a mission
like this to work,

all it takes is a sweet tooth.

- It's post World War II.

Germany has been split in half

and so has the city of Berlin.

- In June of 1948,

Joseph Stalin orders the
closure of the transit road

which connects West Berlin,

across communist East Germany,

to West Germany.

Since nothing can be
delivered by rail or by truck,

the only means of
getting supplies

to 2 million people in the
city of Berlin is the air.

- The United States
needs to get supplies

to the people in Berlin,

so they create Operation
Berlin Airlift.

- A 27-year-old American pilot,

Colonel Hal Halverson,

is involved in Berlin Airlift;

and as Halverson is
reporting for duty

at Templehof Air Force Base,

he sees these kids on the
other side of a fence.

- The kids are poor,
they're hungry,

and they really
strike at Hal's heart;

so he wants to give
them something

to ease their suffering

and he reaches into his pocket

and all he has is
two pieces of gum.

So he gives that to them.

- They're so excited to
have these two pieces of gum

that it plants a
seed in his mind,

and he comes up with
a really unique idea.

- [Dan] Hal wants
to use his plane

to bomb the children with candy.

- So he talks to people

and spreads his
message around the base

about his mission to airdrop
treats to these children

and everybody is on board.

They give them all
the candy they have.

- So he and his fellow
servicemen get together

and they have a
little craft night.

They basically create these
little candy parachutes.

They use handkerchiefs
that they tie,

and at the bottom of
their little knot,

they have pieces of candy.

- [Dan] On July 18th, 1948
Operation Little Vittles,

or Little Food, takes flight.

- They see a group of
children down below

and then they start throwing

their little parachute
candies out of the window.

- And they drop onto absolutely
delighted children below.

They are screaming, "Candy
is falling from the sky."

This is like a rare moment
of joy in a time of war.

- [Dan] News of the heroic
mission reaches the US

and Halverson is quickly
dubbed the Berlin Candy Bomber.

- And when the candy
makers hear about this,

they want to join in.

So they begin making
candy for this mission

and donating it to Hal.

- By the end of the
Berlin Airlift in 1949,

American troops had dropped
250,000 handkerchiefs of candy,

totaling about twenty three
tons of sweet, sweet treats.

- Throughout history,
many leaders have demanded

victory at all costs.

In the case of one mission,

all costs translates to
something completely unexpected

and very expensive.

- It's March, 1968, and
Soviet submarine K-129

is on patrol around 1500
miles northwest of Hawaii,

when an unknown catastrophic
accident happens

and the submarine
and its wreckage

sink to the floor
of the Pacific,

three miles deep.

- [Dan] Using sonar,
the US picks up signals

from this sunken submarine

and becomes very intrigued.

- This is the height
of the Cold War.

It's a nuclear submarine,

it's armed with nuclear weapons.

If the United States could
somehow get to this submarine,

the intelligence they
could gather would be huge.

How they operate,

understanding what
their weaknesses are,

how they can be targeted,

this is a massive treasure
that they could plunder.

- President Nixon
approves a CIA task force

to begin work on getting
the sub out of the water.

So the CIA starts
building the plan

that they will dub
Project Azorian.

- The CIA goes out and hires
a company called Global Marine

and they put together
a terrific plan.

They want to essentially
build a giant claw

just like those arcade games

that reaches down
and picks up the toy,

and pulls it back up.

- [Dan] But this
is no stuffed toy

and retrieving a vessel
this big and deep

has never been done before.

- This is 1700 tons,

three hundred twenty feet long

that you have to
get in one grab.

You basically have to bring

the whole thing up to
the surface together.

- [Dan] To keep this
mission on the down low,

the CIA asks for help from
an unexpected patriot.

- For a cover story,

they enlist none other

than famed eccentric
billionaire Howard Hughes

to say that he's building
this ship in Long Beach

as a mining research vessel.

- Now using Hughes
is the perfect cover

considering that Hughes
has, in the past,

already spent millions
of his dollars

on a sea plane
that only flew once

and it earned the
nickname the Spruce Goose.

- And it works.

For five years, no one questions

why Hughes would be
building such a thing.

- [Dan] In the summer of 1974,

the Hughes Glomar
Explorer set sail

on her covert mission from
Long Beach, California.

- So the Glomar Explorer
gets to the spot

and they essentially
park right on top of it.

- [Dan] They slowly
begin lowering

the giant claw device
named the Clementine.

- It takes three weeks to
get just in the right spot

to pick up that sub.

And once they start to lift it,

it takes eight whole days

for them to bring this
sub to the surface.

- [Dan] Unfortunately,
the vessel breaks apart

before it's out of the water,

leaving just a 38 foot
section of the bow intact.

- But the CIA, not deterred.

They start making
plans to try to go back

and pick up the rest of the sub.

- The CIA is committed to
covering up this mission

because it doesn't want

another escalation
of the Cold War.

But a year later, the
mission is revealed.

- [Dan] In February, 1975,

the LA Times breaks the story

and it includes some
damning details.

- They pour $800
million into it,

and that's about five
billion dollars today.

- [Dan] With their cover
blown, Project Azorian,

one of the most expensive
missions of the entire Cold War,

is officially sunk.

- American taxpayers are irate.

Irate that the CIA wasted
so much of their money,

irate about the
failure of the mission

and irate about
the secrecy itself.

- It takes determination,
bravery, and commitment

to complete a mission no matter
what its intended purpose.

Whether it's
declaring war on emus

or blowing up the moon,

these missions are
all so shocking,

they are truly unbelievable.

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