Dr. Mary Thompson-Jones: ‘The Project Failed Because the Ice Tunnels They Crafted Caved In and Moved’

In the height of World War II, Denmark was invaded and conquered by the Nazis, making the Danes unable to help and supply Greenlanders for four years, according to Dr. Mary Thompson-Jones. During that time, the U.S. “kept the Greenlandic people supplied, kept sending food, kept sending other supplies of material during the course of the war.”

Thompson-Jones is a professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College. Before being a professor at Northeastern University and the U.S. Naval War College, Thompson-Jones was a Career Foreign Service Officer and Public Diplomacy Specialist for the U.S. Department of State for over 22 years. She has written two books, one of which is “America in the Arctic, Foreign Policy and Competition in the Melting North.”

Thompson-Jones said the views she expressed to Media Milwaukee “do not represent the U.S. Navy or the U.S. government,” and spoke on her own behalf.

Thompson-Jones said that the United States military’s involvement in the history of the Arctic, specifically Greenland, is “extensive” and dates back to World War II; however, there was “a bit of activity” before then. She says Greenland, a Danish territory, was “a closed colony with minimal opportunities for engagement with outsiders” prior to WWII.

“The United States did not really have an accurate sense of the coastline, of the charts, of the maritime boundaries, or much else, and the United States had to scramble to understand that once the Nazis had invaded Denmark, and Denmark lost control of its colonies, including Greenland,” Thompson-Jones said.

The U.S. has had an operational base, the Pituffik Space Base, previously known as Thule Air Base, since 1951, following an agreement reached between the U.S. and the Kingdom of Denmark, as outlined in the Defense of Greenland Agreement. Thompson-Jones said “Pituffik” is an Inuit word, and the name of the base was changed in 2023 to honor the Inuit native people of Greenland.

“This was a way of honoring the fact that native people had been displaced many, many years ago when the base was first installed, and also a recognition that 57,000 people live in Greenland and work alongside the relatively small U.S. presence,” Thompson-Jones said. “We have about 150 people [service members] at any given time there, so it’s not a large base by any means.”

The original mission of the base in Greenland was to prevent Nazi access to Greenland after it had conquered Denmark, according to Thompson-Jones. She said the territory was important in the war effort because of weather stations and how most weather affects the North Sea and shipping. Additionally, the U.S. was concerned about protecting a cryolite factory in southwestern Greenland.

“Back then, airplanes were made with aluminum, and cryolite was a key ingredient in producing aluminum for aircraft,” Thompson-Jones said. “During the war, the United States was trying to produce about one aircraft a day, so cryolite was extremely important.”

In 1946, following the end of WWII, the U.S. attempted to buy Greenland from Denmark, in what would become the first of three attempts. President Harry Truman offered the Danes $100 million in gold.

During the Cold War, the Pituffik Space Base was used as missile defense against the then-Soviet Union and to limit threats coming from the north. Greenland is also part of a larger region, including the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GIUK) gap. This gap, which has a history of Russia harassing Baltic states, faced a Soviet submarine threat, according to Thompson-Jones.

“Russia continues to operate its northern fleet out of Murmansk, in the Arctic, and it sails its submarines through the GIUK gap,” Thompson-Jones said.

At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. considered conducting a top-secret operation of building and storing a network of nuclear missiles under the Greenland ice sheet, known as Project Iceworm. However, the project was later disbanded.

“The reason the project failed is because the ice tunnels that they crafted caved in and moved,” Thompson-Jones said.

Knowing how a nuclear weapon ended WWII in Japan, Thompson-Jones said there was an idea to have railroad tracks under the ice and move missiles from one location to another to keep the Soviets guessing, but it came to no avail.

Thompson-Jones acknowledges that one of the best ways to avoid an attack is to ensure an adversary understands there is deterrence, such as the U.S. base in Greenland, but she doesn’t think missile defense is the most pressing aspect driving U.S. interest.

“[President Donald] Trump has not offered a lot of justifications or rationale for why he wants it or what he wants in addition to what the Danes and the Greenlandic people have already offered,” Thompson-Jones said. “Others who are associated with the administration have talked about critical minerals and rare earths. I’m a little skeptical because my sense of American entrepreneurs is that they don’t wait for the government. They go where they believe there is an opportunity.”

Thompson-Jones doesn’t believe there is a lot of mining activity happening at this time, saying “the Danes discouraged the Chinese.” However, she does believe the Chinese presence in the Arctic has “increased dramatically,” and China has used scientists to “disguise dual-purpose activities and research in the Arctic.” Above all, she said, the more important angle is presence, leading to navigation freedom voyages, building icebreakers to access more land and having domain awareness.

Russia’s preoccupation and lack of success in Ukraine have dampened Thompson-Jones’ thoughts on Russia potentially making a move on Greenland. She thinks that Russia doesn’t have the resources to mount an operation or the means to sustain Greenland if it were to make a move. Thirty-two of 69 bases along the Arctic Ocean coastline belong to the Russians, according to a March 2024 report from The Simmons Foundation Canada.

“Russia’s territory comprises more than 50% of the Arctic,” Thompson-Jones said. “They are indeed the archetypal Arctic nation, and whether we like it or not, they have Arctic territory.”

Russia and the U.S. are two of eight nations that founded the Arctic Council in 1996. Thompson-Jones made a point that the council had non-military mandates that looked into sustainability and environmental issues. At first, there was “a lot” of collaboration and cooperation, but it has now moved away from Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev’s quote of the Arctic being the “zone of peace and security.”

As of June 17, 2025, Greenland is part of the U.S. Northern Command area, known as NORTHCOM, according to a press release. It doesn’t mean anything to the Greenlandic people, but it redefines the area of responsibility of the Western Hemisphere, which has a renewed emphasis from the Trump Administration, Thompson-Jones said. The purpose of NORTHCOM is homeland security and has a functional combatant command.

“Their missions and focus are different, depending on the threats perceived in whatever part of the globe they’re stationed,” Thompson-Jones said. “They answer to Congress, as well as to the President. The combatant commander, the person in charge, overall testifies and all that.”

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This story is part of a semester-long investigative reporting project into Greenland’s people, history, and culture. It was created by an advanced reporting class in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies program at UW-Milwaukee. Other stories from the project are available on Edge of the Arctic: Greenland, the Land of the People.

This work was made possible through the support of MPC Endowment Ltd., the philanthropic affiliate of the Milwaukee Press Club, and a private donor.