Majestic 12, also known as MJ-12 for short, is a purported organization that appears in
UFO conspiracy theories
UFO conspiracy theories are a subset of conspiracy theories which argue that various governments and politicians globally, in particular the Government of the United States, are suppressing evidence that unidentified flying objects are controlle ...
. The organization is claimed to be the
code name
A code name, call sign or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial c ...
of an alleged secret committee of scientists, military leaders, and government officials, formed in 1947 by an
executive order
In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of th ...
by
U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
to facilitate recovery and investigation of
alien spacecraft. The concept originated in a series of supposedly leaked secret government documents first circulated by
ufologists
This is a list of notable people who are ufologists (UFO researchers).
Argentina
* Juan Posadas, (1912–1981), Trotskyist theorist who blended together Trotskyism and Ufology. Posadas' version of Trotskyism is regarded as its own strai ...
in 1984. Upon examination, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
(FBI) declared the documents to be "completely bogus", and many ufologists consider them to be an elaborate
hoax
A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...
.
[ Majestic 12 remains popular among some UFO conspiracy theorists and the concept has appeared in popular culture including television, film and literature.
]
History
On May 31, 1987, it was widely reported that British Ufologist Timothy Good
Timothy Good ( Islington, London, July 28, 1942) is a British author on UFOs. His books include ''Above Top Secret: The Worldwide U.F.O. Cover-up'' (1987), ''Alien Liaison'' (1991) and ''Beyond Top Secret'' (1996), all published by Sidgwick & Jac ...
claimed to be in possession of 1950s-era UFO documents. The documents purported to reveal a secret committee of 12, supposedly authorized by United States President Harry S. Truman in 1952, and explain how the crash of an alien spacecraft at Roswell in July 1947 had been concealed, how the recovered alien technology could be exploited, and how the United States should engage with extraterrestrial life in the future.
According to researchers, ufologist Jaime Shandera had, in 1984, received an envelope containing film which, when developed, showed images of eight pages of documents that appeared to be briefing papers describing "Operation Majestic 12".
The concept of "Majestic 12" emerged during a period in the 1980s when ufologists believed there had been a cover-up
A cover-up is an attempt, whether successful or not, to conceal evidence of wrongdoing, error, incompetence, or other embarrassing information. Research has distinguished personal cover-ups (covering up one's own misdeeds) from relational co ...
of the Roswell UFO incident
The Roswell incident was an event that occurred in 1947, pertaining to the recovery of mundane metallic and rubber debris from a military balloon that crashed near Corona, New Mexico by United States Army Air Forces officers from Roswell Army ...
and speculated some secretive upper tier of the United States government was responsible. Shandera and his ufologist colleagues Stanton T. Friedman and Bill Moore say they later received a series of anonymous messages that led them to find what has been called the "Cutler/Twining memo" in 1985 while searching declassified files in the National Archives. Purporting to be written by President Eisenhower's assistant Robert Cutler to General Nathan F. Twining and containing a reference to Majestic 12, the memo is widely held to be a forgery, likely planted as part of a hoax. Historian Robert Goldberg wrote that the ufologists came to believe the story despite the documents being "obviously planted to bolster the legitimacy of the briefing papers".
Claiming to be connected to the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations, a man named Richard Doty told filmmaker Linda Moulton Howe
Linda Moulton Howe (born January 20, 1942) is an American investigative journalist and Regional Emmy award-winning documentary film maker best known for her work as a ufologist and advocate of a variety of conspiracy theories, including her in ...
that the MJ-12 story was true, and showed Howe unspecified documents purporting to prove the existence of small, grey humanoid aliens originating from the Zeta Reticuli star system. Doty reportedly promised to supply Howe with film footage of UFOs and an interview with an alien being, although no footage ever materialized.
Soon, distrust and suspicion led to disagreements within the ufology community over the authenticity of the MJ-12 documents, and Moore was accused of taking part in an elaborate hoax, while other ufologists and debunkers such as Philip J. Klass
Philip Julian Klass (November 8, 1919 – August 9, 2005) was an American journalist, and UFO researcher, known for his skepticism regarding UFOs. In the ufological and skeptical communities, Klass inspires polarized appraisals. He has be ...
were accused of being "disinformation agents".
Analysis
Klass's investigation of the MJ-12 documents found that Robert Cutler was actually out of the country on the date he supposedly wrote the "Cutler/Twining memo", and that the Truman signature was "a pasted-on photocopy of a genuine signature — including accidental scratch marks — from a memo that Truman wrote to Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush ( ; March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974) was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almost all wartime ...
on October 1, 1947". Klass dismissed theories that the documents were part of a disinformation campaign as "ridiculous", saying they contained numerous flaws that could never fool Soviet or Chinese intelligence. Other discrepancies noted by Klass included the use of a distinctive date format that matched one used in Moore's personal letters, and a conversation reported by Brad Sparks in which Moore confided that he was contemplating creating and releasing some hoax Top Secret documents in hopes that such bogus documents would encourage former military and intelligence officials who knew about the government's (alleged) UFO coverup to break their oaths of secrecy.
The FBI began its own investigation of the supposed "secret" documents and quickly formed doubts as to their authenticity. The United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations
The Department of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) is a U.S. federal law enforcement agency that reports directly to the Secretary of the Air Force. OSI is also a U.S. Air Force field operating agency under the administrative ...
stated that no such committee had ever been authorized or formed, and that the documents were "bogus". The FBI subsequently declared the MJ-12 documents to be "completely bogus".
Later in 1996, a document called the MJ-12 "Special Operations Manual" circulated among ufologists. It is also widely considered to be a fake and "a continuation of the MJ-12 myth".
Ufologists Linda Moulton Howe and Stanton T. Friedman believed the MJ-12 documents to be authentic. Friedman examined the documents and argued that the United States government has conspired to cover up knowledge of a crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft.
According to journalist Howard Blum
Howard Blum () (born 1948) is an American author and journalist. Formerly a reporter for ''The Village Voice'' and ''The New York Times'', Blum is a contributing editor at ''Vanity Fair'' and the author of several non-fiction books, including th ...
the name "Majestic 12" had been prefigured in the UFO community when Bill Moore asked ''National Enquirer
The ''National Enquirer'' is an American tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1926, the newspaper has undergone a number of changes over the years.
The ''National Enquirer'' openly acknowledges that it pays sources for tips, a common practice in tabl ...
'' reporter Bob Pratt in 1982 to collaborate on a novel called ''MAJIK-12''. Because of this, Blum writes, Pratt had always been inclined to think the Majestic 12 documents are a hoax.
Scientific skeptic
Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (also spelled scepticism), sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence. In practice, the term most commonly refe ...
author Brian Dunning investigated the history of the subject, and reported his findings in the 2016 Skeptoid podcast episode "The Secret History of Majestic 12". He cited ufologist Bill Moore's suspicion that, rather than a hoax perpetrated by the UFO community, the papers were actually part of a disinformation
Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate.
The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the L ...
campaign of the US government meant to deflect attention from secret Air Force projects.
Alleged members
The following individuals were described in the Majestic 12 documents as "designated members" of Majestic 12.
* Lloyd Berkner
Lloyd Viel Berkner (February 1, 1905 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – June 4, 1967 in Washington, D.C.) was an American physicist and engineer. He was one of the inventors of the measuring device that since has become standard at ionospheric stations ...
* Detlev Bronk
Detlev Wulf Bronk (August 13, 1897 – November 17, 1975) was a prominent American scientist, educator, and administrator. He is credited with establishing biophysics as a recognized discipline. Bronk served as president of Johns Hopkins Universi ...
* Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush ( ; March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974) was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almost all wartime ...
* James Forrestal
James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 – May 22, 1949) was the last Cabinet-level United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense.
Forrestal came from a very strict middle-class Irish Catholic fami ...
* Gordon Gray
* Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter
Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter (May 8, 1897 – June 18, 1982) was the third director of the post–World War II United States Central Intelligence Group (CIG), the third Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), and the first director of the Central In ...
* Jerome Clarke Hunsaker
Jerome Clarke Hunsaker (August 26, 1886 – September 10, 1984) was an American naval officer and aeronautical engineer, born in Creston, Iowa, and educated at the U.S. Naval Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His work with Gus ...
* Donald H. Menzel
* Robert M. Montague
* Sidney Souers
Sidney William Souers (March 30, 1892 – January 14, 1973) was an American admiral and intelligence expert.
Rear Admiral Souers was appointed as the first Director of Central Intelligence on January 23, 1946 by President Harry S. Truman, where ...
* Nathan F. Twining
* Hoyt Vandenberg
Hoyt Sanford Vandenberg (January 24, 1899 – April 2, 1954) was a United States Air Force general. He served as the second Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and the second Director of Central Intelligence.
During World War II, Vandenberg was t ...
References
Further reading
* Stanton T. Friedman, ''TOP SECRET/MAJIC'', 1997, Marlowe & Co.,
* Philip J. Klass
Philip Julian Klass (November 8, 1919 – August 9, 2005) was an American journalist, and UFO researcher, known for his skepticism regarding UFOs. In the ufological and skeptical communities, Klass inspires polarized appraisals. He has be ...
, The MJ-12 Crashed Saucer Documents, ''Skeptical Inquirer'', vol XII, #2, Winter 1987–88, 137–46. Reprinted (sans figures) as chapter 7 of ''The UFO Invasion''.
* Philip J. Klass, The MJ-12 Papers – part 2, ''Skeptical Inquirer'', vol XII, #3, Spring 1988, 279–89.
* Philip J. Klass, MJ-12 Papers "Authenticated"?, ''Skeptical Inquirer'', vol 13, #3, Spring 1989, 305–09. Reprinted as chapter 8 of ''The UFO Invasion''.
* Philip J. Klass, New Evidence of MJ-12 Hoax, ''Skeptical Inquirer'', vol 14, #2, Winter 1990, 135–40. Reprinted as chapter 9 of ''The UFO Invasion''. Also reprinted in ''The Outer Edge: *Classic Investigations of the Paranormal'', edited by Joe Nickell, Barry Karr
Barry Karr is an American skeptic and paranormal researcher, currently the executive director of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He has been consulted by the media on the paranormal. Karr has been involved in many investigations including f ...
, and Tom Genoni, CSICOP
The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the US non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to "prom ...
, 1996.
* Joe Nickell
Joe Nickell (born December 1, 1944) is an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal.
Nickell is senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and writes regularly for their journal, ''Skeptical Inquirer''. He is als ...
and John F. Fischer, The Crashed Saucer Forgeries, '' International UFO Reporter'', March 1990, 4–12.
* Curtis Peebles
Curtis Peebles (May 4, 1955 – June 25, 2017) was an American aerospace historian for the Smithsonian Institution, a researcher and historian for the Dryden Flight Research Center, and the author of several books dealing with aviation and aerial ...
, ''Watch the Skies: a Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth'', 1994, Smithsonian Press
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
, , pp. 264–68.
* Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ext ...
, ''The Demon-Haunted World
''The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark'' is a 1995 book by the astrophysicist Carl Sagan and co-authored by Ann Druyan, in which the authors aim to explain the scientific method to laypeople and to encourage people to learn c ...
: Science as a Candle in the Dark'', 1995, Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, , p. 90.
* Kathryn S. Olmsted, ''Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11''. Chapter 6: Trust No One: Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories from the 1970s to the 1990s. 2009 Oxford University Press.
Notes
Not to be confused with the Twining memo
''The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects'' is a 1956 book by then-retired Air Force UFO investigator Edward J. Ruppelt, detailing his experience running Project Bluebook. The book was noted for its suggestion that a few UFO sightings might be ...
of 1947 establishing Project Sign
Project Sign (Project Saucer) was an official U.S. government study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) undertaken by the United States Air Force (USAF) and active for most of 1948. It was the precursor to Project Grudge.
History
The project wa ...
External links
FBI site on Majestic 12
{{DEFAULTSORT:Majestic Documents
1984 hoaxes
Conspiracy theories in the United States
JFK-UFO conspiracy theories
Forgery controversies
Government responses to UFOs
Hoaxes in the United States
Roswell incident
12 (number)
Presidency of Harry S. Truman