Operation Popeye
Did America truly use rain as a weapon of war?
4.4 (30)
35 mins
Uncover Operation Popeye, the secret U.S. program that used cloud seeding to extend monsoons over Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Explore how the operation was exposed, denied by the government, and eventually helped inspire an international ban on environmental warfare.
Ep 1:
Make Mud, Not War
The Pentagon's audacious plan to weaponize monsoon rains against the Ho Chi Minh Trail—and the strange science of cloud seeding that made it possible.
Ep 2:
The Secret Rainmakers Expand
Inside the covert flights, expanding battlefields, and unwitting soldiers who ran America's secret rainmaking war—plus the unanswerable question of whether it actually worked.
Ep 3:
Weather Warfare Comes Undone
Leaks, denials, and a Watergate-era reckoning expose Operation Popeye, sparking a global treaty against weather warfare.
Discussions (5)
Glen
Level 2 · 1 week agoThe podcast says Laird denied it in 1972 then admitted it in a private letter. That checks out. He testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee and flat out lied under oath.
Daniel
Level 6 · 1 week agocalling it a weapon when we cant even prove it worked is a stretch
Dell
Level 8 · 1 week agoNixon denied a weather war while drowning in Watergate lol
