Operation Ghost-Fox

The Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) was a US intelligence agency formed during WWI. It preceded the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.). It was formed with the purpose of coordinating espionage activities behind enemy lines. And all of the people with leadership positions in it had questionable sanity at best.

Here's an excellent example. So when the US was battling Japan, some OSS agents heard of a Japanese superstition surrounding fox spirits with shape-shifting abilities. So in reaction to the news, the OSS planned to release a bunch of glow in the dark foxes into Japan in hopes of... scaring them or something? But alas, sources revealed that the "spirit fox" folklore was fake. So the OSS, realizing the stupidity of the operation in the first place, abandoned the whole thin- Ha! No this is the OSS we're talking about, instead of abandonment, they moved on to developing their furry super weapon.

"Get our scientists working on shape-shifting foxes right away."

The OSS tested their assault of the coast of New York by dumping a bunch of foxes that had been dipped in phosphorus into the ocean. Predictably, all of the foxes swam in the wrong direction and promptly drowned. 

Tax dollars at work.

At that moment, someone realized that the whole project was incredibly silly. So the OSS scrapped the whole project, and moved on to bigger and better things. Things like shipping hundreds of barrels of yellow dye to Cambodia in order to dye one of the largest rivers in the world, only later to find that the dye didn't work. 

In my opinion the OSS' ideas were less based on whether or
not their idea would be effective, and more on whether or
not their idea would be something a cartoon supervillian would attempt.