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---
created: 2026-06-13
updated: 2026-06-13
title: Joint Chiefs of Staff
aliases:
- JCS
tags:
- Organization
- USGovernment
- Military
- ColdWar
category: "U.S. Government"
summary: "The Joint Chiefs of Staff are the senior uniformed leaders of the U.S. armed forces who advise the president and secretary of defense, a body whose Cold War proposals included the 1962 Operation Northwoods plan for staged provocations against Cuba."
start: 1942
location: "Arlington, Virginia"
---
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) are the body of senior uniformed leaders of the [[United States]] armed forces who serve as the principal military advisers to the president, the [[National Security Council]], and the secretary of defense. Formed during [[World War II]] and given statutory basis by the [[National Security Act of 1947]], the JCS comprise a chairman, a vice chairman, and the chiefs of the military services.[^1]
### Operation Northwoods
In March 1962 the Joint Chiefs, under Chairman [[Lyman Lemnitzer]], approved and forwarded to Secretary of Defense [[Robert S. McNamara]] a plan code-named Operation Northwoods, which proposed manufacturing pretexts for war with [[Cuba]], including staged terrorist attacks on American soil and the faked shoot-down of civilian aircraft to be blamed on the [[Fidel Castro|Castro]] government. The civilian leadership rejected the plan, and it remained classified until its release in 1997 through the [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] Assassination Records Review Board.[^2]
### Counterinsurgency Oversight
Through the Cold War the JCS sat at the center of covert-action oversight, providing military representation on the interagency bodies that supervised counterinsurgency policy and reviewed [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] paramilitary operations.[^1]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Records of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Record Group 218, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
[^2]: Bamford, James. *Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency*. Doubleday, 2001, Chapter 2 (reproducing JCS memorandum 1969/321, 13 March 1962).