In the dark days of the Cold War, the CIA considered using cats to spy on foreign dignitaries and the US almost went to war with North Korea over a poplar tree.

Forget the moon landing and the Space Race, SPYSCAPE has dug up 10 believe-it-or-not stories from one of the most bizarre eras in espionage history. 

10. Project Acoustic Kitty‍

Some of the CIA’s highly-trained agents in the 1960s were felines fitted with ear microphones and skull transmitters. The Agency was targeting an Asian head of state for surveillance and during the target’s long strategy sessions with his aides, cats wandered in and out of the meeting area, according to the book Spycraft written by two former-CIA agents.

Project Acoustic Kitty cost $20m but it was abandoned when researchers acknowledged what we all already knew - cats don’t always do as they’re told.

9. Project Iceworm

While it may sound like a villainous Bond plot, Project Iceworm was a US project to build a nuclear missile launch site under Greenland’s ice sheet, close enough to strike the Soviet Union with medium-range missiles. The plan was to bore a 2,500-mile-long tunnel system underneath the ice with the help of 200 or so engineers who were accommodated in an underground city. By the mid-1960s, the challenges of the project convinced the US to abandon it. Decades later, as a result of climate change, the melting ice has exposed Iceworm’s toxic past.

8. Operation Gold

American and British spies had an audacious plan in 1954 to tunnel under West Berlin so Allies could install wiretaps and listen in on Soviet HQ communications with East Germany. British traitor George Blake told Moscow before construction even started however. The USSR - anxious to protect Blake - allowed Operation Gold to proceed until April 1956, when they ‘accidentally’ discovered the tunnel. At that point, it was 1,476 feet long and 3,100 tons of soil had been removed. The CIA said intelligence collected during construction more than justified the operation. Both sides claimed victory. 

7. MK-Ultra‍

One of the most controversial CIA Cold War projects involved the MKUltra mind-control experiments and drug programs meant to eventually be weaponized against an enemy. The experiments were not always with the consent of participants, however, including those drugged with LSD in brothels and even while working for the US government. While most documents about the program were destroyed, some have resurfaced including The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception.

6. Bear test pilots‍

The B-58 Hustler was a Mach-2 jet created in the 1950s to deliver nuclear weapons to the USSR. The US Air Force wanted to include ejector seats but how could they test the equipment? Researchers first experimented on the ground with acceleration sleds and recruits from the unemployment lines, then moved onto chimps before settling on bears - drugged bears - according to Military.com. The animals were strapped in and ejected. While none died, some were injured before the program was discontinued.
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5. Rockall

A miserable rock 230 miles off the coast of Scotland was a major point of tension between Britain and neighboring Ireland during the Cold War. Even though Rockall is only 100-feet wide and uninhabitable, Britain feared it could be used to spy on a missile testing base in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. The UK sent a Royal Navy team out in 1955 to plant a flag, install a plaque, and officially claim the 70-ft high rock as British territory. Almost 70 years later, Britain and Ireland are still fighting over Rockall and the fishing rights surrounding it.
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4. The Russian Ekranoplan‍

Known as the sea monster, Russia’s Ekranoplan is part-ship, part-airplane, designed for military use in a program disbanded after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The 380-ton craft could ’float’ over the sea, skimming along at up to 340 mph powered by eight turbofans located on its stubby wings Is the Lun-class Ekranoplan making a comeback? Plans are afoot to turn the rusting craft into a tourist attraction but its wings are clipped.

3. An ex-Soviet officer may have saved the world

In September 1983, three weeks after the Soviets shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Soviet Air Defense Forces Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system. The system wrongly reported that the US had launched five missiles. Petrov judged the reports to be a false alarm, averting a large-scale nuclear war. Moscow didn’t see it quite that way, however. He’d embarrassed the Soviet government by highlighting the system’s failures and was denied promotions, eventually retiring early.

2. The US plotted to attack Fidel Castro’s beard

Among the many bizarre plots to topple or assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro - including exploding cigars and rigged sea shell ‘bombs’ - was a plan to attack his beard to make him less virile. One failed plot involved sprinkling thallium salt on Castro's shoes during an overseas trip so his hair would fall out. Castro canceled the visit, however. In all, he survived 634 attempts on his life, according to Castro’s former counterintelligence chief Fabián Escalante. He died of natural causes in 2016 at the age of 90.

1. Operation Paul Bunyan

The US and North Korea almost went to war in 1976 over the pruning of a poplar tree. The tree blocked visibility in the DMZ, the joint security area occupied by North and South Korea. The North, adamant that the US should not prune the tree, killed two American soldiers with axes and injured nine more. Rather than retaliate with force, a US and South Korean convoy drove to the middle of the DMZ and chopped down the poplar tree. North Korean President Kim Il-Sung conveyed a message of regret to the families of those murdered, a rare statement at the time.