Cold War-era Arctic plan fuels distrust of U.S., Trump

As the threat of nuclear conflict loomed during the Cold War, the U.S. Army hatched a top secret plan to conceal hundreds of missile launchers on rail lines hidden beneath the thick ice sheets of Greenland.

- BY PEDRO NAKAMURA

In case of a Soviet attack, nukes dispersed in thousands of miles of cut-and-cover tunnels could be launched within 20 minutes. The name for the effort was worthy of a Hollywood action movie: Project Iceworm.

“Iceworm formed part of the broader U.S. ‘polar strategy,’ which saw the Arctic as a crucial arena for Cold War nuclear deterrence — a direct route for both Soviet attack and U.S. strategic defense,” said Kristian Nielsen, a historian of science at Aarhus University in Denmark and coauthor of the book “Camp Century: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Arctic Military Base Under the Greenland Ice.”

American fascination with Greenland as a forward military position is not new. Neither are Danish and Greenlandic doubts about the trustworthiness of the United States.

During the Cold War, a number of military initiatives were kept secret and never disclosed to Greenlanders or the Danes.“When the Iceworm documents were declassified in 1996, they caused tension and unease because they suggested the U.S. had explored major military plans in Greenland without informing Denmark,” Nielsen said.

The Danish government has repeatedly rejected President Trump’s call to take over, or buy, Greenland, an autonomous territory that is part of the kingdom of Denmark. Opinion polls show that Greenlanders overwhelmingly oppose American control.

Though Project Iceworm never became reality, its history and that of U.S. military activity in Greenland do a lot to explain wariness over Trump’s plans for the island.

Just what those plans might entail is unclear. “Greenland may still play a role in emerging U.S. missile-defense initiatives, such as [the] Golden Dome, early-warning systems, or hosting interceptor capabilities, though nothing resembling Iceworm’s underground missile network,” Nielsen said.