

Such masquerades promoted confusion not just of the enemy but of historical accounts. Auxiliary cruisers operated in such a fashion in both World Wars, as did Q-ships, while merchant vessels were encouraged to use false flags for protection.

Similarly, in naval warfare such a deception is considered permissible, provided the false flag is lowered and the true flag raised before engaging in battle. In land warfare, such operations are generally deemed acceptable under certain circumstances, such as to deceive enemies, provided the deception is not perfidious and that all such deceptions are discarded before opening fire upon the enemy. 3 As a tactic to undermine political opponents.Similarly deceptive activities carried out during peacetime by individuals or nongovernmental organizations have been called false flag operations, but the more common legal term is a " frameup", "stitch up", or "setup". The term today extends to include countries that organize attacks on themselves and make the attacks appear to be by enemy nations or terrorists, thus giving the nation that was supposedly attacked a pretext for domestic repression or foreign military aggression.

It later was deemed an acceptable practice during naval warfare according to international maritime laws, provided the attacking vessel displayed its true flag once an attack had begun. The tactic was originally used by pirates and privateers to deceive other ships into allowing them to move closer before attacking them. The term was famously used to describe a ruse in naval warfare whereby a vessel flew the flag of a neutral or enemy country in order to hide its true identity. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misrepresentation of someone's allegiance. This US Douglas A-26 C Invader located at Tamiami Executive airport was painted in Cuban Air Force colors for the military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 in April 1961.Ī false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party.
