All language subtitles for The UnXplained s08e09 Top Secret Projects.eng

[William Shatner] Covert
operations

hidden in plain sight...

...classified experiments
on unwitting test subjects...

and elaborate conspiracies

to conceal the truth.

It's common knowledge
that nations around the world

pursue top secret projects

in an attempt
to protect their citizens,

outmaneuver rival powers,

or develop new technology.

And throughout history,
we've learned

about some
of these black budget programs

through declassified documents
and whistleblowers

who have bravely come forward
from the shadows.

But how much do we really know?

What secret operations are
still hidden from us?

And what can we learn
from missions of the past

that were once deemed too
dangerous for the world to see?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

? ?

Since World War II,

the United States
has carried out

countless classified programs,

ranging
from intelligence gathering

to clandestine operations

to advanced weapons development.

Each designed

to create some type of
strategic edge over our foes-

and our friends-
on the world stage.

What is required
to deem a project

top secret?

[Russ Baker] The government
classification process

is very simple.
There are three levels.

There's confidential,

secret, and top secret.

Basically,
"confidential" are things

that could cause problems
if they were made public.

"Secret" could cause
big problems.

And "top secret"
usually refers to something

that, if publicly exposed,

could cause grave harm

to the American
national security.

[Paul Springer] If something's
top secret, typically,

not only can you not share the
information in those systems,

you can't even confirm or deny
that there is such a system

or a project or information.

Because by merely confirming
that it exists,

you're providing a useful clue
to any adversary

that might want to take
advantage of that fact.

So, for example,

if you were to create
a weapons system

that would create
an enormous advantage

versus any peer competitor
on Earth,

you would want to keep
that weapon system secret

until the time came
to actually utilize it.

Partially, this is
so you can achieve surprise

with the weapon system.

And, partially, it's so that
your adversaries don't build

their own versions
of that same idea.

[Richard Dolan] Ultimately,
"top secret" means

the public don't know
what is the truth.

That is how government wants it,

and that's why
it was designed that way.

If you're operating in secrecy,

in theory, that means you
may not be held responsible

for any of the actions,

so you've got room
to maneuver there.

[Shatner] In the United States,

it's estimated that more
than one million individuals

have the security clearance
to view top secret information.

Most of those people work for
one of the 18 different agencies

that comprise
the U.S. intelligence community.

And of those,

perhaps the most infamous

is the Central
Intelligence Agency.

The CIA is unique
as an intelligence agency

in that it is not part
of any other department.

The National Security Agency

is actually part of
the Defense Department.

The Defense Intelligence Agency

is part
of the Defense Department.

Department of Treasury has its
own small intelligence agency.

CIA is independent on its own

and has the authority
to conduct covert operations.

And these are operations

that offer the U.S. government
plausible deniability.

But there's a downside,

which is that there's
a relationship between

too much secrecy

and too little trust
from the American people.

[Dolan] When we think
of government secrecy,

sometimes we'll knee-jerk

and say, "Well,
it's sinister. It's evil.

They're trying to keep
important things from us."

Yes, I think sometimes
that is definitely true.

But any government
that has the responsibility

of protecting its nation,

it's not impossible to see that
there would be secrecy on things

that, at least in their mind,

would be for the protection
of the public.

[Shatner] Since its inception,

the CIA has been accused
of everything

from orchestrating coups
in foreign countries

to assassinating world leaders.

No one truly knows
the full extent

of the agency's activities.

But most experts believe
the CIA's biggest secret

is located somewhere inside
the mysterious facility

known as Area 51.

[Dolan] Area 51 is
in Southern Nevada.

It's the most famous
secret base in the world.

For many, many years,
it was completely secret

and no one knew about it.

It was created in the very early
1950s under CIA control.

And it was designed-

and still, I think,
functions today-

as a secret base
for the Air Force.

What is known is that
a lot of secret testing

of advanced aircraft
went on there.

You've got this massive,
dry, desert lake bed

that's ideal, uh, for aircraft

that need long runways,
for example.

And, more importantly,

it's just very remote.

It's not an easy place
for any person to get to.

So if you're gonna have
a secret base,

that is a good location
to have it.

Area 51 was established
as a direct consequence

of World War II
and the Cold War,

because we are continuing in
the development of a technology

that will become
the U-2 spy plane.

The introduction
of this technology

is a massive escalation
of the tensions of the Cold War.

And during the Cold War,

there are Soviet spies
throughout the United States.

And we continue to test
other aircraft at Area 51.

Because of this,
the secrecy must exist.

[Nick Pope] There are signs
at the border that say "Warning.

Use of lethal force authorized."

If you cross the line,
you will be arrested.

You might be shot.

The CIA kept the existence
of Area 51 secret for decades.

I mean, this was
not publicly acknowledged

until quite recently.

And, certainly, it's true

that some of America's
most iconic aircraft

were developed
and test-flown there.

So there are many,
many people who believe

that within this kind of
top secret program

of cutting-edge aerospace,

that there's an even bigger
secret at Area 51.

[Dolan] The crazy thing
about Area 51

is that we learned about it
in the world

through the subject of UFOs.

And that's through
the testimony of Bob Lazar,

who, back in 1989,
claimed to work at S4,

which is part of
the Area 51 complex,

on a series of flying saucers.

That was the context
in which we learned about it.

Now, um, Area 51 would make
a very, very excellent location

to do some studies of
flying saucer-type technologies,

because it's remote.

But I think it's
a reasonable supposition

that UFOs have been
studied there

or technology related to UFOs
have been studied at Area 51,

and probably
a few other places as well.

The U.S. government would want
to reverse engineer

any kind of alien technology
that it got its hands on.

Of course it would. And so...

it's possible.

But it's-it's absolutely not...

known or confirmed by anyone.

[Shatner] Could
the United States military

actually be studying
alien technology at Area 51?

While only a handful
of individuals

with the highest top secret
clearance know the truth,

some experts speculate
the rumors about aliens and UFOs

are precisely what the
government wants us to believe.

[Morgan] We do know that there's

a cover story wrapped
in a cover story

and that the U.S. government
absolutely adores the fact

that we are so distracted
with the-the narrative

of alien technology
and reverse engineering

at Area 51, because it means
we're not paying attention

to the things that are
actually happening there.

And so maybe the best way
to handle super secrecy

is to hide it in plain sight.

[Rick Beyer] If you have
a place like Area 51,

you can say
they're doing anything,

and the government's not gonna
say, "We're not doing that."

The government's gonna refuse
to comment on it.

So it becomes
this kind of suckhole

for conspiracy theories,

and maybe we'll never know.

[Shatner reads on-screen text]

[Shatner] Office of Naval
Intelligence analysts

monitoring the Pacific Ocean

for signs
of Soviet submarine activity

notice something quite alarming.

They identify a massive surge
of Soviet ships and aircraft

about 1,500 miles northwest
of Hawaii...

a clear indicator of
a search and rescue emergency.

[Bennett] The U.S. observed
dozens of ships

and aircraft that were
kind of looking for something,

but couldn't find it.

And so, at that point,
U.S. officials went back

and reviewed data
that had been collected.

The U.S. Navy
and the Air Force maintained

an array
of underwater microphones

and acoustic sensors around
the rim of the Pacific Ocean,

designed to track
Soviet missile launches

and also Soviet submarines,

and went back
and reviewed that data

and discovered acoustic
signatures that indicated

a sub that imploded and crushed

as it sank
to the bottom of the ocean.

[Springer] The Soviets were
absolutely determined

to either recover the sub
or make sure

that no one else
could get access to it.

Eventually, the Soviets
actually gave up

on locating the submarine.

It had sunk to a depth of three
miles below the ocean's surface,

and they thought it was
technologically impossible

for any of the contents
to be recovered.

I mean, obviously
there's no hope by that point

that anyone is still alive.

But the chance to acquire

a Soviet nuclear submarine-

and the weapons-
was priceless.

And so the intelligence agencies
went into absolute overdrive.

The United States figured out

exactly where the submarine
had gone down

and thought to themselves,

"Well, wouldn't it be great
if we could grab it?

How-how can we
possibly do this?"

[Shatner] Sharing the data
with the United States'

Central Intelligence Agency,

analysts determined the missing
vessel was designated K-129,

a state-of-the-art
Soviet submarine carrying

multiple nuclear warheads

and some of the most advanced,
valuable technology

of the Cold War.

However,

any attempt to recover it from
the bottom of the Pacific Ocean

would not only require
a massive feat of engineering

but also the utmost secrecy.

[Springer] Because
the Soviets were

heavily invested in submarine
technology during the Cold War,

the United States does not want
to be seen

as overtly seeking to capture
a Soviet sunken submarine.

So the United States turns
towards the idea

of sending out,
essentially, a surface ship

that supposedly is looking
for ways to drill for oil

or other resources
below the seabed

to carry out some form
of salvage program

to possibly gather all of
the material of the submarine.

And that would create
an enormous advantage

for the United States
government.

[Shatner] The CIA's
top secret plan

to recover the Soviet K-129

was code-named Project Azorian.

It involved the construction
of a fake deep-sea mining vessel

known as the Glomar Explorer

at a staggering cost of around
$2.8 billion in today's dollars.

And to complete the project,

the CIA recruited one of the
most famous men in the world,

billionaire Howard Hughes.

[Bennett] Howard Hughes was
reputed to be

one of the richest Americans
alive in the late 1960s.

He had a reputation
as someone who funded

and supported projects
that seemed improbable,

that seemed beyond
the realm of possibility.

At the center of his empire
was the Hughes Tool Corporation,

an oil services firm
that had some interest

in offshore drilling.
So it offered

a perfect black box

to hide
the financial transactions

that you had to have
to make this operation go forth.

[Shatner] According to files
later declassified

by the U.S. government,

the Glomar Explorer left
Long Beach, California,

in June 1974.

A few weeks later,
it arrived at its destination

1,500 miles northwest of Hawaii

to begin the recovery operation.

[Dolan] It was
an incredible operation.

This was one of the real
technological coups

of the 20th century.

They had a cable
that went three miles down

to the floor
of the Pacific Ocean,

and they were able
to pull the submarine up,

although they were not able
to retrieve it all.

But they got some of it,

and they brought it up
through the center

of the bottom of the ship.

And they were able to get it
to a secure facility

where they were able
to study this.

I mean, an incredible score.

[Shatner] The skillful creation
of Project Azorian

was a success,

and the mission appeared
to be a well-kept secret

until...

a robbery at Howard Hughes'
Los Angeles office in 1974,

in which a classified memo
about the project was stolen

and leaked to the press.

Despite the public scrutiny,

the full extent
of what the CIA recovered

from the K-129 submarine

remains unknown.

[Bennett] What did Azorian
actually recover?

There's a lot

that we don't officially know.

But we do know some things.

And one of those is that
the U.S. did recover

six sets of human remains,
according to published reports.

And we know that because those
sailors were buried at sea,

and a video of that ceremony
was released

in the early 1990s.

Otherwise, what do we know?

Well, this is where we get into,
uh, some uncertainty.

We don't have
a definitive answer on that.

[Dolan] All these years later,

there's a lot
about Project Azorian

that still remains classified
to this day.

There's a book in the late 1990s
called Blind Man's Bluff

that argued
that encrypted communications,

Soviet code books, missile
guidance system information,

and other sensitive
encrypted communications

were also recovered. Now,

that's not impossible.

If the U.S. did recover the-
that type of information,

that would be one of the major
scores of the entire Cold War.

So you could see why they would
not want to advertise that fact.

You know, in the aftermath of
the retrieval of this submarine,

questions were asked
of the U.S. government,

like what were
the results of this.

And, uh,

for the first time,
the U.S. government

issued the response of "We can
neither confirm nor deny."

And so anytime
you hear that today,

that is a legacy of
the Glomar Explorer operation

in which the U.S. acquired
a Soviet submarine.

The Project Azorian mission
was certainly a clever way

to collect top secret
information in plain sight.

But what happens

when an agency crosses the line

and turns a company party
with U.S. military personnel...

...into a dangerous
and radical experiment?

[Shatner reads on-screen text]

[Shatner] At approximately
2:00 a.m.,

the night manager of this hotel
in Midtown Manhattan

hears a dull thud out
on the street.

He heads outside to investigate,

where he discovers
a grisly scene.

There on the sidewalk
lay Frank Olson,

a respected CIA biochemist,

barely alive after falling
from a hotel window.

[Dolan] Frank Olson

was a civilian employee

working with the U.S. Army

and really very closely
with the CIA

in the late '40s, early 1950s

on biological weapons.

He was apparently
very, very good at his job.

But he started talking about
getting out of his career

and-and leaving
government service.

And the next thing you hear
about Frank Olson is that he...

ran through the window

of Room 1018A

and, um, fell to his death
to the sidewalk.

-[siren wailing] -[Shatner]
According to the police report,

when the night manager
rushed outside,

Olson was still alive

and trying to mumble something,

but passed away
before medical help arrived.

His case was ruled a suicide.

But many who knew
Frank Olson questioned

whether he had, in fact,
taken his own life.

The night of his "suicide"
is very suspicious.

He's staying in this hotel room
with another man

who, it turns out,
is another CIA officer.

He supposedly

runs across this room,
by two beds,

throws himself into the glass...

[glass shattering]

...and out onto the street.

They do an autopsy.

There's an unexplained wound
on his head.

-[grunting] -It looks like
he was bashed in the head

-and thrown out this window.
-[yells]

[Baker] The way
that Frank Olson died

was that his body
hurtled out of a window.

I believe the window
in the hotel was closed.

Now, how could that happen
unless the body

went out like a projectile?

According to... I believe
it was a manager of the hotel,

the switchboard operator had
heard Olson's roommate

on the phone, saying
something to the effect of,

"It's done. He's gone."

And so,
if we are to believe this story

that the hotel switchboard
operator heard this conversation

between his suitemate
and somebody else,

that was an assassination.

[Shatner] What really happened

inside that
tenth-floor hotel room

on that cold November night?

While no one can say for sure,

some believe
Olson's work for the CIA

likely played a role
in his untimely death.

[Beyer] Frank Olson,

first for the U.S. Army,

then for the CIA,

had been deeply involved
in top secret stuff,

much of it involving
biological warfare.

He had seen people who had
been injured or sometimes killed

in experiments with sarin gas
and other stuff.

And he was starting
to really doubt

his involvement, uh, at the CIA,

thinking that he should leave.

So I think there's
probably a good chance

that the CIA wanted him
out of the way

so that he wouldn't reveal
anything.

[Shatner] For decades, the idea
that the CIA was involved

in Frank Olson's death was
dismissed as conspiracy theory.

But then, in 1975,

a presidential commission
tasked with investigating

illegal CIA activities
inside the United States

revealed something
quite shocking.

Led by Vice President
Nelson Rockefeller,

the commission's final report

contained a brief
yet alarming account

of a unidentified
government scientist

who had been secretly drugged
with the hallucinogen LSD

days before he died

after falling from
a New York hotel room window.

[Jonathan Moreno] The official
story that was told later

was that

there was a...

group, uh, at what was
then called Camp Detrick,

in Frederick, Maryland,

who were part of a...

highly compartmentalized
set of activities

around biological
and chemical weapons.

Somehow, nine of these men
were taken on a retreat

in Deep Creek, Maryland.

And in the course
of having their meetings,

they decided to have
a cocktail party.

[Dolan] Without his knowledge-

certainly without his consent-

someone spiked his drink
with a massive hit of LSD.

And Frank Olson had
a very bad trip with this.

Uh, bad enough that it really
damaged him psychologically.

He went home.

His family noticed, like,

there's something wrong
with him.

He was not responsive.

He became very dark and moody.

[Shatner] After the Rockefeller
commission released

its final report in 1975,

the government conceded
that the man dosed with LSD

was indeed Frank Olson.

The U.S. government paid
a $750,000 settlement

to the Olson family.

They also received
a personal apology

from President Gerald Ford.

But the question remained:

did the CIA deliberately give
Frank Olson LSD?

Or was he dosed by accident?

What was later revealed
was the shocking news

Olson had been
an unwitting participant

in a top secret CIA program
known as MKUltra.

[Pope] MKUltra was a program

to try to influence
human behavior.

And they had
a number of techniques

that-that they used for this,

and-and a lot of them revolved
around chemistry, drugs,

truth serums.

They even used LSD
to influence people,

change their behaviors,

change their decisions.

And even to this day,

the whole thing
is shrouded in secrecy.

[Morgan] The era of LSD

and its merger with the politics
of the Cold War

and the politics, particularly,
of Project MKUltra,

will lead us
to a large number of people

receiving exposures to LSD.

And in many cases, overexposure
on a deliberate basis

as a means
of an evaluation of the drug

for the overall objectives
in Project MKUltra

of evaluating the drug's use
as mind control.

[Moreno] It's really hard
to know if people

died because of
these experiments.

And what's ironic
about the Deep Creek LSD dosing

in their cocktails is that

these were people who themselves

had pretty high
security clearances,

and yet they themselves
were not told

about what was
about to happen to them.

So when Frank Olson had
this LSD experience

without his knowledge
or consent,

we have an onion skin

of layers within layers
within layers of secrecy.

It's disturbing to know
that there have been

classified scientific programs

that have
dangerously manipulated

unsuspecting citizens.

But in a much more elaborate
top secret case,

an entire army was created
to help defeat the Nazis.

The fact is,
it was simply an illusion.

[Shatner] When most of us
think of war,

we think of troops
on the battlefield

and dangerous,
powerful weapons of destruction.

But in the world
of military might,

often the most effective tools

aren't guns, tanks or bombs...

...but instead, the top secret
techniques and operations

involving the element
of deception.

[Dolan] During warfare,

one thing, whether this is
a thousand years ago or today,

you are going to want
to deceive your enemy

with all kinds of things.

You're gonna want your enemy

not to know where
your most powerful forces are

or when you're going to attack.

If you throw people off
even for, like, a week,

even for a few days,
maybe that's all you need

to get your advantage.

[Beyer] Deception
creates surprise,

and surprise is huge
on the battlefield.

General Wesley Clark
said once to me

that every commander knows
he has to use deception,

and if he doesn't use deception,
he's going to lose.

And I think that that's
really a way of summing up

how important deception is
to the military art.

[Shatner] The very nature
of deception

means we may never truly know
what top secret operations

have been conducted
on the battlefield.

But there is one that we do
know about, and, incredibly,

it involved the use
of a "Ghost Army."

[Shatner reads on-screen text]

As World War II
rages across Europe,

Allied forces prepare
to launch the surprise assault

code-named Operation Neptune,

or more commonly known as D-Day,

the largest seaborne invasion
in military history.

And the attack's success
hinges on a secret plan

known as Operation Fortitude.

[Beyer] Operation Fortitude

is a deception
to fool the Germans

about where the D-Day landings
will take place.

So, we're gonna be landing
in Normandy,

but we want to make it seem
like the Allies

are gonna be landing
at the Pas-de-Calais,

which is the narrowest part
of the English Channel.

We recognize that we could
draw away some enemy strength

simply by deceiving the enemy.

And we would do this
by forming an entire Ghost Army,

by creating camps
that are empty,

but yet, you can see
a vehicle park

where there's a line of trucks

or maybe even Sherman
medium tanks,

except that they're not
real trucks or real tanks,

they're inflatable facsimiles

that are meant
to function as decoys.

[Springer] German aircraft
reported back

that an army was mustering
to cross the Channel

at a different point.

These individuals also engaged
in phony radio transmissions

so that the Germans
would pick them up

and believe that it was
the communications

of an entire army
that was being designated

for a different attack.

Essentially,
they keep trying to draw

German attention
in the wrong direction.

And quite frankly, the Germans
fall for it many, many times.

After the D-Day landings,
the Germans actually pull

most of their forces
back into reserve

to counter the expected thrust
at Pas-de-Calais,

and that allows the Normandy
invaders to establish a foothold

and start moving forward
on the Continent.

It's remarkable to think
that an inflatable ghost army

was key to the success of D-Day

and the Allies' eventual victory
in World War II.

But how is wartime deception
being used today?

[Shatner reads on-screen text]

Roughly three weeks
after the Russian invasion

of this neighboring country,

which escalates into
the largest European conflict

since World War II,

a video is uploaded
to the Internet

of Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy

delivering
an unexpected message.

What actually ended up
on screens was

what looked like
President Zelenskyy

basically instructing
his troops to surrender.

[speaking Ukrainian]

[Pope] This actually
turned out to be

what we would now call
one of these "deepfakes."

So, this was clearly
Russian intelligence.

They'd taken Zelenskyy's
appearance, his voice,

and they manipulated, perhaps,

a mix of some
genuine archival footage

with something else,

and they flipped the narrative.

And so, this is going to be
a whole new branch of warfare.

I mean, deception has always
been part of military doctrine,

but it's going to be
on a completely different level.

[Dolan] This deepfake video

of Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy,

I don't think it fooled
too many people,

and today,
even a few years later,

that would have been seen
as extremely crude.

So, the deepfake technology
is just getting better

and better and better
all the time.

And you really can see
that this could be a useful form

of deception and public
manipulation at certain times.

[Springer] One of the probable
futures

of disinformation warfare

is the use
of artificial intelligence

to generate phony pieces
of information.

Not only might that information

directly confuse
and cause chaos,

it will also cause
the recipients

of that information to question
everything that they see,

making it far harder
to maintain command and control.

[Beyer] When you're talking
about the Ghost Army,

people say, "Well,
you couldn't do that today

because of technology."
Well, you can,

because every day,
AI can do more and more.

The Allied Forces' Ghost Army

proved that clever deception
can shift the tide of war.

But another top secret project

attempted to transform
the battlefield

by turning weather
into a weapon.

[Shatner] The Vietnam War.

In the dense jungles
of Southeast Asia,

North Vietnamese forces
move men and supplies

along a vast network
of hidden routes

known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

For the United States military,

stopping that flow
becomes a critical objective.

But in a war defined
by dense jungle terrain,

conventional tactics
aren't enough.

[Morgan] A factor that emerges
during the war in Vietnam

is that North Vietnamese
communist forces

are constantly infiltrating
into South Vietnam to challenge

not just the army
of the Republic of Vietnam

but then, also,
the American forces

that are fighting with them.

They use infiltration routes

that go through
the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

But during the wet season,

all of the trails
get washed out.

They become almost
completely impassable.

And what the American military
eventually recognizes is,

"What if we make it-
the rainy season-

two months longer?"

Then we're denying the enemy

the easy and unfettered use
of the Ho Chi Minh Trail

for a greater period of time
during the calendar year,

and that will result
in the enemy's strength

being significantly weakened.

[Shatner] What would make
the U.S. military think

they could mess
with Mother Nature

and extend the monsoon season?

Well, in 1947,
the United States government

began experimenting
with weather modification

using a technique
known as cloud seeding,

or dispersing substances
like silver iodide

into clouds to trigger rainfall.

During the Vietnam War,

this controversial science
was deployed

in a highly classified program

code-named Project Popeye.

[James Fleming] Project Popeye

was really top secret.

It was, uh, restricted
to the president-

at the time, Johnson-

Secretary of Defense
Robert McNamara,

and General Westmoreland,
who was head of the military.

There was nobody in the Vietnam
theater that knew about it.

They'd say, "Oh, it was
just a big monsoon this year."

And so, uh, they thought
the stakes were so high

that they might tr-
want to try to make it work

and not tell anybody.

[Morgan] They are able
to mark success in this program,

Operation Popeye,

uh, through the use of aircraft

like the C-123 Provider
or the C-130 Hercules.

They are able to seed the clouds
and get them to rain

even when they're not raining.

And in this way, we manipulate
the weather as a weapon of war.

Much of this is still under
a top secret classification

that will eventually expire.

We'll learn more about
whether or not

we attempted to modify it
in other ways

to gain an advantage
on the battlefield.

[Shatner] While the true scope
of Project Popeye

remains unknown,

cloud seeding is
no longer a secret.

China used the technology

at the 2008 Beijing Olympics

to prevent rain from
interrupting outdoor events.

So, if countries are now openly
utilizing weather modification,

what new, top secret programs
are being developed

to change the atmosphere
on our planet?

Weather has always been
a critical factor

in warfare and-and battles.

Imagine, for example,

being able to create
a Category 5 hurricane

and have it hit a major city.

And then, you just put it down
to an act of God.

Tornadoes,

earthquakes.

I mean, the potential here
is frightening.

[Springer] In the modern era,
recently, the Russian Federation

has threatened
to develop and deploy

an atomic torpedo-

essentially, a torpedo
with a nuclear warhead.

And if it's detonated
a couple of miles

off of the coastline
near a city,

it might create a wave
40 to 60 feet high

that would slam into
and devastate that coastal city.

[Shatner] It's easy
to understand

how harnessing the power
of Mother Nature

could unleash unspeakable
destruction on your enemies.

It's disturbing to think
that world governments

are developing top secret
weather warfare technology

that could create
mass destruction.

Could signs
of these experiments

already be written in the sky?

[Fleming] If you've ever
looked up in the sky

and saw giant streaks of white,

really artificial clouds
that c-come from one side

of the horizon to the other,
these are contrails.

They're condensation
of water vapor

that comes
out of the jet engines.

There are some people
that believe

that those clouds
contain some chemicals

that are trying
to control our minds

or our health
or control the climate.

So, are there top secret
projects going on right now?

I'm not a conspiracy theorist.

It's possible that there are

speculative
weather-control ideas

trying to be put into operation

at very high levels today,
and we'd never know about them.

[Shatner reads on-screen text]

[indistinct radio chatter]

[Shatner] After
a 76-hour journey,

Apollo 11's landing module,
the Eagle,

touches down on the Moon.

Shortly thereafter,
astronaut Neil Armstrong

exits the spacecraft,
becoming the first human

to set foot
on another celestial body.

[Springer] The early Space Race

is a contest between
the United States

and the Soviet Union as for
not only who can get into space

but who can demonstrate
technological prowess.

In the early stages,
the Soviets are ahead.

They're the first ones to
launch an artificial satellite.

They're the first ones
to put an animal

and a human into orbit.

But the United States
is the only country

to ever put astronauts
onto the surface of the Moon.

This was a technological feat

that the Soviets knew
they could not accomplish.

[Shatner] Yet, despite
this monumental achievement

witnessed by millions
around the world,

a different narrative
began to take hold

that claimed the Moon mission

was all an elaborate hoax.

[Baker] In the annals
of secrecy, there's probably

little like the Moon landing,

and, of course,
the, um, widespread theories

that the U.S. never landed
on the Moon.

In fact, there were
a number of anomalies

that gave the impression
that, in fact,

this had been conjured up.

[Pope] Researchers
point to the flag

appearing to flutter
in very low gravity,

or the way in which
the astronauts move.

Some people take that
a step further and say, "Well,

maybe the U.S. pulled it off
by faking it in a film studio."

And then, there is the fact

that some of
the original footage,

which you think would
be in the National Archives

as some of the most
treasured footage anywhere,

has apparently gone missing.

And, of course,
secrecy breeds conspiracy.

Because when people don't

have information,

they struggle
to fill in the gaps.

[Shatner] The idea
that the Apollo 11 Moon landing

may have been staged
is hard to believe.

But in an era defined
by secrecy and propaganda,

if one superpower had reason
to claim victory,

the other had reason
to cast doubt.

[Springer] There are
individuals that argue

that the United States

wanted to intimidate
the Soviet Union

by pretending to have
the technological capacity

to reach the Moon,

even though it did not
actually possess that ability.

There is a die-hard segment
of the American public

that still believes
the Moon landings were faked.

[Baker] The Space Race was
fundamentally a propaganda war.

The U.S. Moon landing
might be seen

as the apex of the Cold War
propaganda battle.

And, of course,

it was a tremendous victory
for the U.S.,

tremendous defeat
for the Soviets.

One could understand

how the Soviets weren't
exactly unhappy

when all these rumors
began circulating

that the Moon landing
had been faked.

[Shatner] When it comes
to top secret warfare,

the battle is often fought
not with weapons

but with information.

And in that battle,

truth itself can
become the casualty.

[Beyer] When it's deception,

you never know exactly
where the truth lies.

The whole philosophy
of deception, it's like

a game of chess
between two sides,

and the winner is
the person who can

be the most convincing when
you get to the bottom of it.

[Pope] Secrecy sends
the message to people

that they're hiding something,
and, of course, they are.

With all of that,
you wonder what

we haven't got to hear about.

And they could be anything.

I mean, the sky's the limit.

Was the Moon landing
all just a masterful deception?

Whether one accepts
the conspiracy theory or not,

it shows how secrecy can
distort and cloud

even our greatest achievements.

But perhaps
that was the goal all along.

From covert missions
and mysterious technologies

to dangerous experiments
and even phantom forces,

there's no question
that top secret projects

have shaped world history

in ways that continue
to surprise us.

And for every operation
that's been revealed,

there are countless
clandestine plans

and mysterious missions
that may forever remain...

unexplained.

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