Secrets Declassified With David Duchovny

From deception to survival to espionage, these hidden sites reveal the lengths nations go to when the stakes couldn't be higher.

Some deals are made to announce headlines, while others are steered in the shadows; when the CIA wants to take out the Iraqi Prime Minister, they turn to a 20-year-old law student named Saddam Hussein.

Some targets are taken by force - others require a game of cat and mouse played out across continents and years of relentless chase.

When conventional tactics fail, governments have been known to test the boundaries of reality; in the darkest days of World War II, Britain turns to an astrologer who claims he can alter the course of war using the power of the stars.

When the KGB sets its sights on a NATO missile, they enlist a smooth-talking German playboy armed with only a wheelbarrow, a carpet, and a postage stamp.

Some missions are so risky, they're denied before they even begin.

To outmaneuver the enemy, you have to sell the illusion. An FBI agent goes so deep undercover he's the best man at a Mafia wedding, while the Stasi deploys a covert network of charmers across borders to win trust and steal secrets.

Some rescues read like Hollywood - except they were real. In Operation Halyard, villagers and resistance fighters built an airstrip by hand to spirit stranded airmen out of Nazi territory.

From the CIA's decades-long pursuit of the perfect truth serum to the U.S. Army's secret PsyOps in Vietnam, mind games have long been at play among countries, its enemies and even its own citizens; every one a more alarming deception than the next.

Some of history's boldest missions succeeded because the world was looking the wrong way; the CIA concealed covert missions behind Air America's civilian façade, British intelligence planted a falsified invasion plan on a corpse to mislead Hitler.

When science meets national security.

Behind official policy often stands unofficial actors.

When secrecy can be the key to survival, codebreaking becomes a battlefield of its own.

In the risky calculus of war, nothing is too strange to try.

A French Resistance operative hides explosives in baguettes to cripple a Nazi factory.

From the seemingly innocuous children's toy engineered to save an informant, to hirsute-inspired movie disguises, the government's most clandestine inventions are never what one would suspect, and that's exactly why no one never saw them coming.

David Duchovny exposes a clandestine nuclear blast set off deep below Mississippi soil, secret experiments conducted on citizens in the New York subway system, and a wartime bunker built to trap British spies underground during a Nazi invasion.

Step inside hidden areas where history was steered in secret, from Churchill's wartime bunker, complete with a direct line to FDR concealed inside his private bathroom, to a Soviet weapons base in the desert exposed only by a daring U-2 spy mission.

A NATO war game spooks the Soviets toward a potential nuclear strike, while a daring Cold War project produces a drone-bomber hybrid capable of carrying 16 nuclear weapons.

Some rescues read like Hollywood - except they were real. In Operation Halyard, villagers and resistance fighters built an airstrip by hand to spirit stranded airmen out of Nazi territory.

David Duchovny exposes a clandestine nuclear blast set off deep below Mississippi soil, secret experiments conducted on citizens in the New York subway system, and a wartime bunker built to trap British spies underground during a Nazi invasion.

Uncovering a plane crash in North Carolina that almost triggered nuclear Armageddon; the story of a UFO attack on a U.S. missile base that was suppressed for decades; a daring Israeli heist to steal a cutting-edge fighter jet.

From the depths submarine divers have plunged to tap a secret Soviet communication line to the Special Ops team of suicidal soldiers sent to hand-deploy A-bombs in enemy territory, when is ``Mission: Impossible`` more than just a movie?

Undercover smokescreens driven by daring agents in service of executing a greater purpose.

When governments strike dark deals with cults, mobs and even sworn enemies, frosty relationships and mounting tensions are tested head on.

In the risky calculus of war, nothing is too strange to try.

Step inside hidden areas where history was steered in secret, from Churchill's wartime bunker, complete with a direct line to FDR concealed inside his private bathroom, to a Soviet weapons base in the desert exposed only by a daring U-2 spy mission.

When governments strike dark deals with cults, mobs and even sworn enemies, frosty relationships and mounting tensions are tested head on.

From the seemingly innocuous children's toy engineered to save an informant, to hirsute-inspired movie disguises, the government's most clandestine inventions are never what one would suspect, and that's exactly why no one never saw them coming.

Glimpses into NASA's covert plan to blow up the moon with a nuclear warhead, the Soviet Union's cover-up of history's deadliest space disaster, and how U.S. attempts to put spies in orbit paved the way for the first space station.

Stalin's gruesome trials to create a hybrid human-ape super army; the eerie reason East Germany's Stasi collected the scents of dissidents in airtight jars; how the CIA uncovered a secret Soviet island devoted to developing deadly bioweapons.

Undercover smokescreens driven by daring agents in service of executing a greater purpose.

From the CIA's decades-long pursuit of the perfect truth serum to the U.S. Army's secret PsyOps in Vietnam, mind games have long been at play among countries, its enemies and even its own citizens; every one a more alarming deception than the next.

The top secret weapons programs that attempted to bring down the world.

From the depths submarine divers have plunged to tap a secret Soviet communication line to the Special Ops team of suicidal soldiers sent to hand-deploy A-bombs in enemy territory, when is ``Mission: Impossible`` more than just a movie?

Discovering a deadly poison lab operated by the Soviet Union's infamous ``Doctor Death,`` a vast nuclear missile site buried beneath the Greenland ice sheet, and the U.S. government's doomsday bunker concealed inside a hollowed-out mountain.

Uncovering a plane crash in North Carolina that almost triggered nuclear Armageddon; the story of a UFO attack on a U.S. missile base that was suppressed for decades; a daring Israeli heist to steal a cutting-edge fighter jet.

Discovering a deadly poison lab operated by the Soviet Union's infamous ``Doctor Death,`` a vast nuclear missile site buried beneath the Greenland ice sheet, and the U.S. government's doomsday bunker concealed inside a hollowed-out mountain.

Glimpses into NASA's covert plan to blow up the moon with a nuclear warhead, the Soviet Union's cover-up of history's deadliest space disaster, and how U.S. attempts to put spies in orbit paved the way for the first space station.

Some of history's boldest missions succeeded because the world was looking the wrong way; the CIA concealed covert missions behind Air America's civilian façade, British intelligence planted a falsified invasion plan on a corpse to mislead Hitler.

Stalin's gruesome trials to create a hybrid human-ape super army; the eerie reason East Germany's Stasi collected the scents of dissidents in airtight jars; how the CIA uncovered a secret Soviet island devoted to developing deadly bioweapons.

When secrecy can be the key to survival, codebreaking becomes a battlefield of its own. A stranded American pilot in Vietnam is rescued through a code built around familiar golf courses, while Navajo Code Talkers transmit messages that help turn the tide in the Pacific during World War II. David Duchovny breaks down every breakthrough where a strategist turned language into leverage.

In the razor's-edge theater of global brinkmanship, the world has come closer to annihilation than most ever knew. A NATO war game once spooked the Soviets toward a potential nuclear strike, while a daring Cold War project produced a drone-bomber hybrid capable of carrying 16 nuclear weapons. From experimental war machines to the Presidential "Doomsday Plane" built to command America through apocalypse, these are the plans that reveal how near we've stood to the unthinkable.

Teetering between the apocalyptic and absurd, declassified records will unveil the top secret weapons programs that attempted to bring down the world, uncovering the Soviet atomic test that shook the Earth with a force 1,500 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, the CIA's creation of a gun that fired a shellfish-harvested toxin, and the Allies' bizarre secret plan to end World War II by feminizing Hitler.

A French Resistance operative hides explosives in baguettes to cripple a Nazi factory, an American soldier parachutes behind enemy lines to destroy critical supply routes, and Ukrainian forces deploy AI-guided drones to strike a Russian bomber fleet. Across generations, David Duchovny takes us behind these covert operations propelled by the courage and calculation meant to alter the course of history.

To outmaneuver the enemy, you have to sell the illusion. An FBI agent goes so deep undercover he's the best man at a Mafia wedding, while the Stasi deploys a covert network of charmers across borders to win trust and steal secrets. And in Egypt, a German-born Jewish spy poses as a high-flying, champagne-soaked ex-Nazi to infiltrate its missile program for Israel. Different missions, one rule: if they believe you, you're already inside.

When science meets national security, the results can be staggering; the secretive flights of Project Argus, that sent nuclear warheads into space to test whether radiation could cripple Soviet weapons, while Operation LAC covertly released chemical agents over American communities to simulate biological warfare; inside Stalin's secretive laboratory, even human waste became intelligence, analyzed to decipher the minds of adversaries - proof that no angle was too extraordinary to explore.

Some missions are so risky, they're denied before they even begin. From a covert Mossad operation to abduct a Nazi war criminal in Argentina-identified through the smallest detail, the shape of his ears-to a chilling CIA plot that used a jazz tour as cover for an assassination attempt in the Congo; to one resistance fighter volunteering to be captured and sent to Auschwitz to reveal the horrors within-these operations are proof that the most dangerous missions are often the most unthinkable.

Behind official policy often stand unofficial actors. Discover the audacious operations of Red Cell, the covert Navy SEAL team that staged attacks on U.S. bases to expose deadly weaknesses; "The Shop," the CIA's clandestine cadre of expert thieves and lock pickers who stole secrets worldwide; and the Alamo Scouts, the elite World War II special forces whose exploits remained a hidden chapter of history for decades. These units thrived where denial was policy, kept in the dark.

Sometimes when governments can't negotiate their way to victory, they steal it; when the KGB sets its sights on a NATO missile, they enlist a smooth-talking German playboy armed with only a wheelbarrow, a carpet and a postage stamp; an Israeli covert operation hijacks 200 tons of uranium on the high seas to fuel a secret nuclear arsenal, while during WWII, the Allies deploy a female agent to steal top-secret naval codes, solely with seductive charm.

Some targets are taken by force, others require a game of cat and mouse played out across continents and years of relentless chase; when the DEA fails to corner an international arms dealer, they turn not to a spy, but to a retired bush pilot to lure him out; the CIA hunts an insider from within its own headquarters, and across Europe, the world's most wanted warlord hides in plain sight as a reinvented mystic healer; while the prey changes, the pursuit never does.

When conventional tactics fail, governments have been known to test the boundaries of reality; in the darkest days of World War II, Britain turns to an astrologer who claims he can alter the course of war using the power of the stars; in the jungles of Vietnam, U.S. forces turn to dowsing rods and ancient mystical practices to locate enemies hidden underground.

Some deals are made to announce headlines, while others are steered in the shadows; when the CIA wants to take out the Iraqi Prime Minister, they turn to a 20-year-old law student named Saddam Hussein, while in Guatemala, a banana company colludes with the CIA to topple the country's leader to protect its profits; decades later in Ukraine, a top-secret unit of CIA operatives thwarts Russia's invasion plans, before the world even knows the battle has begun.