Project Controlled Weather - Operation Popeye

As the Vietnam War reached a crossroads, the U.S. army had important decisions to make if they wanted to tip the scale back to their side. All options were on the table - both conventional and unconventional. And among the most unusual plots was Operation Popeye, launched in an attempt to weaken the Ho Chi Minh trail, the Viet Cong’s most vital mechanism supply flow tool. To accomplish this, the U.S. would turn the weather into a weapon of war. Operation Popeye utilized cloud seeding technology - a type of weather modification that artificially creates rain or snow. With it, the U.S. military extended at least five monsoon seasons, causing detrimental effects to the unknowing Vietnamese citizens and soldiers. The mission spanned five years and cost taxpayers over 15 million dollars. Despite multiple hearings in Congress, military officers, even President Nixon himself, denied it existed at all. --- Dark Docs brings you cinematic short military history documentaries featuring the greatest battles and most heroic stories of modern warfare, covering World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and special forces operations in between. As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect and soundtracks for emotional impact. We do our best to keep it as visually accurate as possible. All content on Dark Docs is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas.
Back to Top