beings.
The group’s existence would have to be kept secret, even from Congress. For once the rest of the world learned of America’s possession of such awesome technology, they would jealously demand to be a part of its harvest.
The available evidence points exactly to this turn of events. During the mid-1980s, a seven-page document surfaced mysteriously—almost certainly leaked from within the U.S. intelligence community—which purported to be a briefing memo prepared in 1952 for President-elect Dwight Eisenhower. It described the recovery of crashed UFOs and alien bodies, and referred to “Majestic-12” or “MJ-12” as the group responsible for managing the secret.
Ufologists have argued over the authenticity of this document, as well as many similar documents subsequently leaked. Yet, following the event at Roswell, Truman would have been negligent had he not authorized some kind of group to respond. 5
The documents list the names of the alleged members of MJ-12. They included: the director of the CIA, a man who helped organize the Manhattan Project, the head of the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field, the Air Force Chief of Staff, the Chairman of the National Research Council, the head of MIT’s engineering department and leading aircraft designer, the Executive Secretary of the new National Security Council, the Director of the Harvard College Observatory, the head of the CIA’s Psychological Strategy Board, the base commander of the Atomic Energy Commission installation at Sandia Base, and the Secretary of the Joint Research and Development Board. All of them together would be the group one would want to examine the reality of flying saucers, to examine what happened at Roswell, except for one person: Harvard astronomer Dr. Donald Menzel. While it may seem reasonable to include an astronomer on a team to study presumed extraterrestrials, Menzel’s inclusion baffled UFO researchers. During the 1950s and 1960s, he was the world’s leading debunker of UFOs. For years, he maintained that UFOs were simply misidentifications of prosaic phenomena: stars, clouds, airplanes, balloons, etc. 6 This was surely true for some sightings of odd lights in the sky—people are fallible, after all. But many of Menzel’s so-called explanations of UFO phenomena were threadbare, even embarrassing. Yet, as a leading astronomer of his time, his presence in the debate prevented many other academicians from entering the field.
Menzel’s inclusion in the documents was odd. Were the forgers making a joke? His name raised doubts. The MJ-12 papers were volatile enough, and such doubts further undermined them. Then came the story’s twist.
UFO researcher Stanton Friedman—that dogged, inveterate burrower in government archives, that meticulously detail man—discovered that Donald Menzel had led a double life. Not even Menzel’s wife had known about it. It turned out that Menzel had been a prominent, classified consultant for the U.S. intelligence community.
Not just any part of the intelligence community, but the CIA and the code-making, code-breaking National Security Agency (NSA). This was when no one knew the NSA existed, despite its probably being the most powerful of the U.S. intelligence agencies. The spooks cared little about Menzel’s knowledge of the stars; they were more interested in another of his talents, for Menzel just happened to be a world-class cryptographer, an expert in codes and ciphers. In a 1960 letter to President-elect John F. Kennedy, he mentioned his Navy Top Secret Ultra Security Clearance, and his association with this activity for almost 30 years. He told Kennedy that he probably had “the longest continuous record of association of any person in the country.” 7
When considering that it just might come in handy to have a smart fellow who knows how to crack difficult communications, Menzel’s inclusion makes a great deal of sense. His stature as a Harvard astronomer was a bonus, enabling
The group’s existence would have to be kept secret, even from Congress. For once the rest of the world learned of America’s possession of such awesome technology, they would jealously demand to be a part of its harvest.
The available evidence points exactly to this turn of events. During the mid-1980s, a seven-page document surfaced mysteriously—almost certainly leaked from within the U.S. intelligence community—which purported to be a briefing memo prepared in 1952 for President-elect Dwight Eisenhower. It described the recovery of crashed UFOs and alien bodies, and referred to “Majestic-12” or “MJ-12” as the group responsible for managing the secret.
Ufologists have argued over the authenticity of this document, as well as many similar documents subsequently leaked. Yet, following the event at Roswell, Truman would have been negligent had he not authorized some kind of group to respond. 5
The documents list the names of the alleged members of MJ-12. They included: the director of the CIA, a man who helped organize the Manhattan Project, the head of the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field, the Air Force Chief of Staff, the Chairman of the National Research Council, the head of MIT’s engineering department and leading aircraft designer, the Executive Secretary of the new National Security Council, the Director of the Harvard College Observatory, the head of the CIA’s Psychological Strategy Board, the base commander of the Atomic Energy Commission installation at Sandia Base, and the Secretary of the Joint Research and Development Board. All of them together would be the group one would want to examine the reality of flying saucers, to examine what happened at Roswell, except for one person: Harvard astronomer Dr. Donald Menzel. While it may seem reasonable to include an astronomer on a team to study presumed extraterrestrials, Menzel’s inclusion baffled UFO researchers. During the 1950s and 1960s, he was the world’s leading debunker of UFOs. For years, he maintained that UFOs were simply misidentifications of prosaic phenomena: stars, clouds, airplanes, balloons, etc. 6 This was surely true for some sightings of odd lights in the sky—people are fallible, after all. But many of Menzel’s so-called explanations of UFO phenomena were threadbare, even embarrassing. Yet, as a leading astronomer of his time, his presence in the debate prevented many other academicians from entering the field.
Menzel’s inclusion in the documents was odd. Were the forgers making a joke? His name raised doubts. The MJ-12 papers were volatile enough, and such doubts further undermined them. Then came the story’s twist.
UFO researcher Stanton Friedman—that dogged, inveterate burrower in government archives, that meticulously detail man—discovered that Donald Menzel had led a double life. Not even Menzel’s wife had known about it. It turned out that Menzel had been a prominent, classified consultant for the U.S. intelligence community.
Not just any part of the intelligence community, but the CIA and the code-making, code-breaking National Security Agency (NSA). This was when no one knew the NSA existed, despite its probably being the most powerful of the U.S. intelligence agencies. The spooks cared little about Menzel’s knowledge of the stars; they were more interested in another of his talents, for Menzel just happened to be a world-class cryptographer, an expert in codes and ciphers. In a 1960 letter to President-elect John F. Kennedy, he mentioned his Navy Top Secret Ultra Security Clearance, and his association with this activity for almost 30 years. He told Kennedy that he probably had “the longest continuous record of association of any person in the country.” 7
When considering that it just might come in handy to have a smart fellow who knows how to crack difficult communications, Menzel’s inclusion makes a great deal of sense. His stature as a Harvard astronomer was a bonus, enabling
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