Managing Expectations | History · Sovereignty · Media literacy
Source review: October 22, 2026
A viral video traces American interest in Greenland through wartime airfields and a nuclear-powered camp beneath the ice. Its strongest point is real: Greenland’s strategic importance did not begin with recent political rhetoric. But an abandoned military installation, an unrealized missile proposal and a country’s constitutional future are three different stories.
The video, posted by Shot and Forgot as the first episode of a Greenland series, opens with scenes described as U.S. Army footage of Camp Century. The camp existed. Its remains are still buried in the ice. What that history does not establish is that an operational secret city survives there, that the proposed missile network was deployed, or that Greenland is simply property to be sold between governments.
The city under the ice was real
NASA’s November 2024 account describes Camp Century as a Cold War installation built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1959. Engineers cut tunnels into the near-surface ice and installed structures inside them. The camp was abandoned in 1967. By the time of NASA’s report, its solid remains lay at least 30 metres below the surface. [1]
A radar instrument flown over Greenland in April 2024 produced a striking new view of those remains. That was not the discovery of a previously unknown civilization or a newly operating base: earlier airborne surveys had already detected signs of Camp Century. NASA also cautions that the newer radar view is not straightforward to interpret. [1]
“Still there” is therefore defensible when it means buried remnants. It is misleading if it suggests intact, accessible facilities carrying on underground.
Camp Century was built; Project Iceworm was not
A 2017 GEUS Bulletin study puts the chronology plainly: Camp Century was constructed in 1959, occupied continuously until 1964, then operated seasonally before its abandonment in 1967. It primarily tested construction methods on the ice sheet. Project Iceworm—the U.S. Army ambition to deploy offensive missiles within the ice—was never realised. A real experimental camp is not evidence that the proposed missile network became operational. [2]
The Danish Institute of International Affairs (DUPI) inquiry connects Iceworm discussions in American military circles and at senior State Department levels with research at Camp Century and other ice-sheet camps. Its report was finalized on December 17, 1996, and submitted to Denmark’s foreign minister on January 17, 1997. That is a firmer reference point than the video’s loose description of documents simply “surfacing” in 1997. [2]
The inquiry also makes “Denmark knew nothing” too sweeping. On the broader U.S. nuclear presence in Greenland, it describes a small circle with direct knowledge, a much wider circle with suspicions, and a secret policy distinct from public assurances. That does not establish Danish approval of the specific Iceworm plan. What officials knew about nuclear weapons, what the public was told, and whether a particular missile scheme was authorized are separate questions. [2]
Why Greenland matters without a secret-base theory
Greenland’s geography places it between North America and Europe and alongside the polar approaches. Its military role is not merely historical.
The U.S. Space Force describes the mission of the 12th Space Warning Squadron at Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule, as missile warning, missile defence and space surveillance. Its radar detects and assesses ballistic-missile threats and tracks objects in orbit. The official history dates construction of the modern base to the summers of 1951 and 1952. [3]
That gives readers a documented explanation for continuing strategic interest. It also highlights a distinction often lost in political rhetoric: military access and territorial ownership are not the same thing. The existence of an American installation does not make Greenland American territory or establish that acquiring sovereignty is necessary to perform those missions.
Greenland is not an empty square on the map
The video’s “about 57,000 people” is a reasonable approximation. Statistics Greenland’s mid-year release reports 56,945 residents on July 1, 2026. These are people with communities, institutions and political choices—not a footnote beneath a map of military routes. [4]
Calling Greenland something Denmark “owns” compresses a complicated constitutional relationship into the language of real estate.
The Danish Prime Minister’s Office explains that Greenland’s Self-Government Act took effect in 2009, replacing home rule established in 1979. It expressly recognizes Greenlanders as a people with a right to self-determination under international law. Greenland has its own elected parliament and government. [5]
Denmark retains constitutional responsibilities in foreign policy, defence and security, but Greenland has international powers in areas it has assumed and consultation rights on matters of particular importance to it. The system has not simply remained unchanged since the colonial period. The Act also sets out a route to independence involving Greenlanders’ decision, negotiations and the required parliamentary and referendum approvals. [5]
Strategic importance does not cancel those rights.
Two ice sheets do not mean “almost all freshwater”
The video’s broad description of Greenland’s ice is largely sound. The National Snow and Ice Data Center says the ice sheet covers about 80 per cent of the island and exceeds three kilometres in thickness at its thickest point. Its complete melting would contribute approximately 7.4 metres to global mean sea level. That is a total-melt equivalent—not a forecast that this will happen imminently. [6]
But the narration blurs freshwater ice with all freshwater. Greenland and Antarctica together contain more than 99 per cent of Earth’s land ice, but about 68 per cent of its freshwater. Groundwater, lakes and other stores account for much of the rest. [6]
The comparison between the two places also needs restraint: Greenland is a self-governing inhabited island within a kingdom; Antarctica is a continent with a different legal framework and research-station populations. “Basically the same” is not a useful account of either geography or political status.
The expectation worth managing
The compelling story does not need exaggeration. Engineers really built beneath the Greenland ice. Military planners really considered using that environment for purposes beyond a public research mission. The island really remains important to North American defence.
The discipline is to stop each fact where its evidence stops: a buried camp is not an operating underground city; a proposal is not a deployed weapons network; strategic interest is not a title deed.
Greenland’s history deserves scrutiny. Greenlanders’ agency belongs in that history, not outside it.
Video and reporting note
Original lead: Shot and Forgot — Greenland, Episode 1. The captured video runs approximately four minutes. The captured source and branded review export are retained privately. Because footage reuse clearance has not been established, this article links the original uploader rather than hosting a new copy.
The transcript is machine-generated; it mishears “Thule” as “fuel” in places. The historical names in this article follow the cited records. Individual archival shots and the date of the inserted political soundbite have not been independently authenticated. This is a historical source review, not a report that a new acquisition agreement has been reached. Third-party footage is retained for editorial review; public reuse clearance has not been established.
Sources
- NASA Earth Observatory, “New View of the ‘City Under the Ice’,” November 25, 2024.
- Colgan et al., “New programme for climate monitoring at Camp Century, Greenland,” GEUS Bulletin 38 (2017), pp. 57–60, for camp chronology and Iceworm’s unrealised status; Danish Institute of International Affairs (DUPI), Greenland during the Cold War: Danish and American Security Policy 1945–68, English summary and conclusions, finalized December 17, 1996; submitted January 17, 1997, for Iceworm discussions and the distinctions in Danish knowledge and policy.
- U.S. Space Force, 12th Space Warning Squadron fact sheet.
- Statistics Greenland, Mid-Year Population, July 1, 2026 figures.
- Danish Prime Minister’s Office, Greenland: self-government, international affairs and access to independence.
- National Snow and Ice Data Center, Ice Sheet Quick Facts.