“It lays the predicate and foundation for the development of a weather satellite that will permit man to determine the world’s cloud layer and ultimately to control the weather; and he who controls the weather will control the world” – Vice President Johnson at Southwest Texas State University (1962) [1]

“In his subcommittee’s detailed summary statement Johnson proclaimed that our very future depended on being the ones who first seized ownership of space. “Control of space means control of the world,” Johnson declared.

“From space, the masters of infinity would have the power to control the earth’s weather, to cause drought and flood, to change the tides and raise the levels of the sea, to divert the gulf stream and change temperate climates to frigid.” Johnson continued: “In essence, the Soviet Union has appraised control of space as a goal of such consequence that achievement of such control has been made a first aim of national policy. [In contrast], our decisions, more often than not, have been made within the framework of the Government’s annual budget. Against this view, we now have on record the appraisal of leaders in the field of science, respected men of unquestioned competence, whose valuation of what control of outer space means renders irrelevant the bookkeeping concerns of fiscal officers.” – Vice President Johnson [2][3]

President Johnson would go on to authorize weather warfare over Vietnam.

Operation Popeye first came to public light in March 1971, when reporter Jack Anderson published a story [4] based on a secret 1967 memo [5] from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to President Johnson. The memo read:

ACTIONS: “LAOS OPERATIONS – Continue as at present plus Operation POP EYE to reduce the trafficability along infiltration routes” & AUTHORITIES/POLICY CHANGE: “Authorization required to implement operational phase of weather modification process previously successfully tested and evaluated in same area”. (US Senate, Subcommittee on Oceans and International Environment; 26 July 1972; p. 5). [6]