Inuit communities in Greenland were previously endangered by the interests of the United States

The history of the Thule military base is not only one of the darker chapters of Cold War geopolitics, but also a dramatic turning point that fundamentally transformed the lives of Greenland’s Indigenous population. The secret American base, built in the space of a single summer, triggered a process that has caused a lasting crisis within local Inuit communities.

As The Conversation reports, one of the expeditions of French researcher Jean Malaurie, who in 1951 travelled by dog sled along Greenland’s north-western coast. Officially, with support from the CNRS, he was studying periglacial landscapes, but in reality he was far more interested in the world of Inuit communities.

One day, through his binoculars, he was stunned to notice a half-finished facility seemingly appearing out of nowhere: hangars, metal structures, tents, and vast clouds of smoke and dust. This was particularly shocking because just three months earlier, untouched tundra had stretched across the area where this industrial monster now stood.

The Thule military base, created as part of Operation Blue Jay, was constructed in a single summer, at a time when Greenland’s total population barely exceeded 23,000. The United States mobilised 120 ships and 12,000 people to establish a technological hub beyond the Arctic Circle, with the aim of preparing for a potential Soviet nuclear attack.

The relationship between the Thule base and Inuit communities

Malaurie immediately recognised that the operation could amount to the annexation of an entire, previously isolated culture. A system built on machines, speed and accumulation was intruding into a world where hunting, waiting and cyclical time had been central.

The tragic consequences of establishing the Thule military base became truly apparent in 1953, when, in the name of security, the entire local Inuit community was forcibly relocated to Qaanaaq, some 100 kilometres further north. There was no consultation: the community was torn away from its ancestral hunting grounds without question, simply to make room for a runway.

This moment marked the beginning of the collapse of traditional Inuit communities, where hunting had not merely been a means of subsistence, but the very foundation of social life.

The consequences of intervention

Today, more than a third of Greenland’s population lives in Nuuk; society is largely urbanised and settled. Concrete housing estates built in the 1960s and 1970s as alternative accommodation are often overcrowded and in poor condition. The economy is primarily based on export-oriented industrial fishing, while traditional hunting has become more of an identity marker than a way of life.

This rapid transformation has had severe social consequences. Greenland now has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, particularly among young Inuit men. Alcoholism, domestic violence and other problems are closely linked to forced settlement.

A nuclear accident near the base

On 21 January 1968, a US B–52G bomber crashed onto sea ice near the Thule military base, carrying four thermonuclear bombs. Although there was no nuclear detonation, the explosion of conventional charges scattered radioactive materials – plutonium, uranium, americium and tritium – across a vast area.

As part of Project Crested Ice, 1,500 Danish workers were deployed to clean up the contaminated ice. However, because they worked without adequate protection, many later filed lawsuits, citing hazardous conditions and sudden deterioration in their health. Legal proceedings dragged on until 2019 without any real accountability, and no comprehensive health studies were ever conducted among the local Inuit population.

The significance of the Thule base today

Today, the base operates under the name Pituffik Space Base, as part of the United States Space Force, and plays a key role in missile warning systems and space surveillance. As early as 1953, Malaurie articulated what the history of the facility clearly reflects: Indigenous peoples have never held real significance in Western strategic thinking.

The case of the Thule military base can still be seen as a warning today: not only territories, but entire cultures can be lost due to irresponsible human intervention. As we have previously written here, Greenland is also a key area from the perspective of climate research.

Moreover, all of this is especially relevant today, as the world’s largest island has once again become strategically important within the American sphere of interest, as discussed in this article.