Declassified Daily

Declassified Daily Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Declassified Daily, Digital creator, 1960 W Main Street, Los Angeles, CA.

In March 1961, the Pentagon delivered a proposal to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara under the name Operation Northw...
08/06/2026

In March 1961, the Pentagon delivered a proposal to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara under the name Operation Northwoods.

It was signed by every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The plan proposed staging a series of false flag attacks on American soil and blaming them on Cuba — to create public justification for a U.S. invasion.

The proposals included sinking a boatload of Cuban refugees at sea. Staging terrorist bombings in Miami and Washington. Shooting down a drone aircraft disguised as a civilian passenger plane and announcing American passengers had been killed.

The document stated: "We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area."

President Kennedy rejected it immediately and was reportedly furious.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs who submitted it, General Lyman Lemnitzer, was quietly removed from his position later that year.

The documents remained classified for nearly forty years. They were declassified in 1997.

When France and Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, the French Army was considered the most powerful land...
08/03/2026

When France and Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, the French Army was considered the most powerful land force in the world.

They did almost nothing for eight months.

While Germany finished conquering Poland, French forces launched a token advance into German territory — the Saar Offensive — captured a few empty villages, then pulled back when German resistance stiffened slightly.

Then they went back to the Maginot Line and waited.

French commanders believed Germany would eventually attack that fortified line and be destroyed against it. They called this strategy — with complete seriousness — methodical battle.

British and French newspapers called this period the Phoney War.

German generals called it a gift.

In May 1940, Germany went around the Maginot Line through the Ardennes forest — terrain French commanders had decided was impassable for tanks.

France fell in six weeks.

The Maginot Line was never breached. It was simply irrelevant.

By April 1951, the tension between President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur had become impossible.MacArthur ...
08/03/2026

By April 1951, the tension between President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur had become impossible.

MacArthur kept publicly contradicting White House policy on Korea. He sent letters to Republican congressmen undermining Truman's strategy. He threatened China directly without presidential authorization.

Truman had warned him twice.

On April 11, MacArthur was at a luncheon in Tokyo when his wife received word before he did. A aide interrupted the meal and told him quietly.

He was relieved of every command he held simultaneously — Supreme Commander in Japan, UN Commander in Korea, Commander of U.S. Forces in the Far East — all at once, effective immediately.

He returned home to a ticker tape parade in New York larger than the one Eisenhower had received. Congress invited him to address a joint session. Polls showed the public sided with MacArthur over Truman.

Six months later, public interest in MacArthur had almost entirely faded.

Truman later said firing him was the right call and he'd do it again. He said a general who defied his commander in chief was a general who didn't understand what America was.

He was probably right.

Private Harry Farr served on the Western Front for two years. He was treated for shell shock multiple times and sent bac...
08/03/2026

Private Harry Farr served on the Western Front for two years. He was treated for shell shock multiple times and sent back each time.

In 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, he refused to return to the front line. He said his nerves were gone. He said he could not move his legs.

He was court-martialed for cowardice. The trial lasted 20 minutes. He was given no legal representation.

Harry Farr was shot at dawn on October 18, 1916.

His wife spent decades trying to clear his name. His daughter continued the fight after her.

In 2006 — ninety years later — the British government issued a blanket posthumous pardon to 306 soldiers executed for cowardice and desertion during World War One, acknowledging that many were suffering from what we now recognize as PTSD.

Harry Farr's name is on a memorial. His family received an apology.

It came 90 years too late.

On January 30, 1968, simultaneous coordinated attacks struck over 100 cities and outposts across South Vietnam.The U.S. ...
08/03/2026

On January 30, 1968, simultaneous coordinated attacks struck over 100 cities and outposts across South Vietnam.

The U.S. Embassy in Saigon was breached. The ancient city of Huế fell. Chaos erupted across the country.

In the first hours, some military spokesmen described the attacks as isolated and manageable.

General Westmoreland went before cameras and insisted the offensive was a military failure for the enemy — which, by strict battlefield metrics, was arguably true. The Viet Cong suffered enormous losses.

But the American public had been told for years that the war was nearly won.

Watching their television screens, they didn't see a failing enemy. They saw a war that had been misrepresented to them for years.

Walter Cronkite flew to Vietnam and came back to say, on air, that the war was a stalemate.

Johnson reportedly said: "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."

He did not run for re-election.

The planning for D-Day was one of the most complex logistical operations in human history — coordinating tides, moon pha...
08/03/2026

The planning for D-Day was one of the most complex logistical operations in human history — coordinating tides, moon phases, weather, and the movements of millions of men.

The date mattered enormously. Everything was calibrated around it.

According to accounts from within SHAEF's planning staff, a clerical error in one of the coordination documents created a date discrepancy that required a full 24-hour delay to reconcile before final orders could go out.

That 24-hour window happened to fall during a brief break in catastrophic weather over the English Channel.

Had the invasion gone as originally scheduled, it may have sailed into one of the worst storms of that summer.

The clerk was never identified. The error was quietly corrected. The invasion succeeded.

History sometimes turns on the smallest possible hinge.

In October 1950, President Truman flew to Wake Island to meet General MacArthur personally and ask about the risk of Chi...
08/03/2026

In October 1950, President Truman flew to Wake Island to meet General MacArthur personally and ask about the risk of Chinese intervention in Korea.

MacArthur told him the chance was slim to none. He said if the Chinese crossed the Yalu River, it would be the greatest slaughter in history. They wouldn't dare.

Three weeks later, 300,000 Chinese troops poured across the border.

American and UN forces were caught completely off guard and suffered one of the worst military reverses in U.S. history. Entire units were encircled in freezing temperatures.

MacArthur then pushed to bomb Chinese territory and potentially use nuclear weapons.

Truman fired him six months later.

At the Wake Island meeting, an aide had quietly transcribed the whole conversation. MacArthur's exact words were on the record.

He spent the rest of his life insisting he had been right.

American submariners kept reporting the same nightmare: their torpedoes weren't exploding.They would line up perfect sho...
08/02/2026

American submariners kept reporting the same nightmare: their torpedoes weren't exploding.

They would line up perfect shots on Japanese ships, fire, hear the impact — and nothing.

The Bureau of Ordnance insisted the torpedo was fine. They blamed the submariners.

For two years, sailors risked their lives on patrols armed with weapons the Navy's own engineers refused to admit were defective.

It took a submarine commander illegally testing his own torpedoes at great personal risk — dropping them from a crane onto a steel plate — to prove the firing pin was crushing itself on direct impact.

The Bureau had never bothered to test the weapon at full speed.

When the defect was finally fixed, submarine effectiveness increased dramatically almost overnight.

The men who died running defective weapons never got an official acknowledgment.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, a Soviet submarine was being depth-charged by U.S. Navy forces near Cuba.The captain ha...
08/02/2026

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, a Soviet submarine was being depth-charged by U.S. Navy forces near Cuba.

The captain had lost contact with Moscow for days. He believed war may have already started.

The sub carried a nuclear-tipped torpedo. Under Soviet protocol, it could be launched if three officers agreed. The captain and political officer both said yes.

Vasili Arkhipov said no.

He was the flotilla commander aboard by coincidence — his rank made his vote equal. He argued they had no confirmation of war. He argued they should surface and make contact.

The captain backed down.

Arkhipov was reportedly berated by the captain for the rest of the voyage home.

Decades later, when the story became declassified, former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara said simply: "We came that close."

Address

1960 W Main Street
Los Angeles, CA
97501

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Declassified Daily posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category

l="false"> Add listing
  • Login
    • Subscribe

    We will notify you when anything happens in Los Angeles.