Declassified: US Army Arctic Underground City

Constructed in the Late 1950s, During the Height of the Cold War

It's not every day the one has the opportunity to observe the construction of a secret underground base. This video is an actual declassified US Army film, documenting the nuclear-powered construction process of Camp Century, beneath the ice of central Greenland. 

The base was constructed in the late 1950s, during the height of the Cold War, for "research" purposes. 

To study the feasibility of working under the ice, a "cover" project, known as Camp Century was launched in 1960. However, unsteady ice conditions within the ice sheet caused the project to be canceled in 1966.

It eventually came out that the ultimate objective of Camp Century was of placing medium-range missiles under the ice - close enough to Moscow to strike targets within the Soviet Union. This was kept secret from the Danish government, which owns Greenland and which was legally a "nuclear free zone", in keeping with Danish policy.

Details of the missile base project were classified for decades, first coming to light in January 1997, when the Danish Foreign Policy Institute (DUPI) was asked by the Danish Parliament to research the history of nuclear weapons in Greenland during the Thulegate scandal.

A report confirmed that the U.S. stockpiled nuclear weapons in Greenland until 1965, contradicting assurances by Danish foreign minister, Niels Helveg Petersen that the weapons were in Greenland's airspace, but never on the ground. 

The DUPI report also revealed details of Project Iceworm, a hitherto secret United States Army plan to store up to 600 nuclear missiles under the Greenland ice cap.

Danish workers involved in the clean-up operation claimed long-term health problems resulting from their exposure to the radiation.

In 1986, Danish Prime Minister Poul Schlüter commissioned a radiological examination of the surviving workers. The Danish Institute for Clinical Epidemiology found a 50 percent higher cancer rate in the workers than in the general population.

In 1987, almost 200 former cleanup workers took legal action against the United States. The action was unsuccessful, but it resulted in the release of hundreds of classified documents, including this film.

The documents revealed that USAF personnel involved in the clean-up were not subsequently monitored for health problems, despite the likelihood of greater exposure to radiation than the Danes. 

The United States has since instigated regular examinations of its workers. In 1995, the Danish government paid 1,700 workers compensation of 50,000 kroner each.

Source: Humans Are Free