# Is there a "Deep State" controlling U.S. foreign policy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 11, 2016, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deep-state-controlling-u-s-foreign-policy/745859 "2016-02-11T22:29:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deep-state-controlling-u-s-foreign-policy/745859/41 "2016-05-19T17:45:02Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > Historically, [false flag](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag) attacks are used to gin up public support for a war. Like when the Joint Chiefs of Staff authored the [Operation Northwoods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods) proposal to stage Cuban aggression as a pretext for war against Fidel Castro. President Kennedy rejected it, though just a few years later we settled for the [Gulf of Tonkin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident) charade to get us into Vietnam. By your own accounting, the first “false flag” attack never happened. In the second example, there actually _was_ an attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on an American ship (the affair was partially mischaracterized and misrepresented to Congress as a pretext for ramping up American involvement in Vietnam). But neither of these qualifies as actual “false flag” attacks. And certainly neither were “so-called “terrorist” attack”(s) that you previously alleged are used to steal our civil liberties. But what can you expect from someone who says > [@Stringbean](#): > > Did Bush perpetrate 9/11? **Probably** not. (bolding mine) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-deep-state-controlling-u-s-foreign-policy/745859.md?page=2)