Operation Washtub was a secret United States Air Force and Federal Bureau of Investigation operation during the Cold War to ensure that there would be spies in the then-territory of Alaska should the Soviet Union invade the territory.
The plans were drafted in 1950 and were put into place in the early 1950s. A total of 89 agents were then recruited and paid a stipend of $3,000 for training and to be available for covert service after an invasion of Alaska by the Soviet Union.
In addition, caches of food, winter weather equipment, and radios were placed for use by the agents after an invasion. The agents would have been used to gather intelligence and report on the activities of the invading enemy. In addition, some agents would have been tasked with the evacuation of military crews stranded in Soviet-held territory. The plan remained in place until 1959, the same year Alaska became a state.
Details of the plan became public in 2014 as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Government Attic, a website specializing in publishing documents.