7. Operation Paul Bunyan (1976, Korea)
After North Korean soldiers killed two U.S. officers over trimming a tree in the Korean DMZ, the U.S. launched a massive military operation to cut it down. Tanks, helicopters, and hundreds of soldiers guarded engineers as they chopped the tree.
Why it’s bizarre:
- All this over a single tree.
- The show of force was unnecessary, but worked.
- The tree became a Cold War symbol.