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President Kennedy’s deadly confrontation with the CIA & MJ-12
                                      over ET/UFO X-Files

                                   Michael E. Salla, M.A., Ph.D.


                                                Abstract
A number of documents and testimonies cast light on President Kennedy’s knowledge of UFO crash
retrieval operations, and his efforts to gain access to classified files concerning extraterrestrial life and
technology. There are two main phases to Kennedy’s efforts. The first is a series of executive actions
he began on February 19, 1961 to place cold war psychological warfare programs under the control of
his national security advisor, and later in June 1961 to implement Presidential executive oversight over
covert CIA operations through the Joint Chiefs of Staff. These executive actions coincided with
Kennedy’s efforts to gain access to the activities of a highly classified project dealing with UFOs and
extraterrestrial life – MJ-12 Special Studies Project. The second phase began on September 20, 1963
when Kennedy embarked on a high risk political strategy of getting NASA to cooperate with the USSR
on joint space and lunar missions. This brought to a climax a confrontation over the release of
classified UFO files with the CIA & those in control of the MJ-12 Special Studies Project. This article
reviews testimonies, documents and events concerning Kennedy’s interest in UFOs and extraterrestrial
life, and how this culminated in a deadly behind-the-scenes confrontation with the CIA and MJ-12 in
the final month of his life.


Introduction
Early in his Presidential administration John F. Kennedy had very strong interests in UFOs and
extraterrestrial life that directly influenced some of his policy initiatives. A number of documents and
testimonies cast light on his knowledge of highly classified UFO crash retrieval operations, and efforts
to gain access to classified UFO files. If leaked documents and testimonies are correct, President
Kennedy traveled to remote military locations to view retrieved extraterrestrial vehicles and bodies;
allegedly received messages from and even met with human looking extraterrestrials; and pressured the
CIA to give him access to classified UFO files.


There are two main phases to Kennedy’s attempts to gain access to files concerning extraterrestrial life
and technology. The first concerns a series of executive actions Kennedy took early in his
administration. On February 19, 1961, Kennedy issued an Executive Order to placing cold war
psychological warfare programs under the control of his national security advisor. This was followed
on June 28 by a series of Presidential Memoranda to implement Presidential executive oversight over
covert CIA operations through the Joint Chiefs of Staff. These executive actions coincided with
Kennedy’s efforts to gain access to the activities of a highly classified project dealing with UFOs and
extraterrestrial life – MJ-12 Special Studies Project. Kennedy’s executive actions led to a bitter conflict
with his outgoing CIA Director, Allen Dulles who was opposed to granting Kennedy access.


The second phase began on September 20, 1963 when Kennedy embarked on a high risk political
strategy of getting NASA to cooperate with the USSR on joint space and lunar missions. Less well
known is that this brought to a climax a confrontation over the release of classified UFO files with the
CIA & those in control of the MJ-12 Special Studies Project. This article reviews testimonies,
documents and events concerning Kennedy’s interest in UFOs and extraterrestrial life, and how this
culminated in a deadly behind-the-scenes confrontation with the CIA and MJ-12 in the final month of
his life.


Was Kennedy briefed about and witness extraterrestrial life and technology?
A leaked document from July 22, 1947 claims that John F. Kennedy, then serving in the U.S. Congress,
had learned about the Roswell UFO crash and the recovery of alien bodies. According to the
Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit Summary:


It has become known to CIC [U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps] that that some of the [Roswell
UFO] recovery operation was shared with Representative John F. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat
elected to Congress in 46…. Kennedy had limited duty as naval officer assigned to Naval intelligence
during war. It is believed that information was obtained from source in Congress who is close to
Secretary for Air Force. 1


Kennedy appeared to have been unofficially briefed about the Roswell UFO crash from an unnamed
Congressional source close to Stuart Symington who at the time was Assistant Secretary of War for
Air. Symington was certainly informed about the UFO crash near Roswell Army Airfield in July, 1947,
and two months later on September 18, 1947 became the first Secretary for the newly created U.S. Air
Force.2 Symington was a native of Massachusetts and was Kennedy’s favorite as a running mate for the
1960 Presidential election. It is very likely that after the Roswell flying saucer crash made front page
headlines on July 6, 1947, Symington took into his confidence the unnamed Congressional source. The
source then relayed this to newly elected Kennedy who began his first Congressional term in January
1947 after the November 1946 mid-term Congressional elections. As a former Naval Intelligence
officer and a serving Congressman, Kennedy was presumably deemed reliable to receive and keep
secret such highly classified information. While the authenticity of the document in question,
"Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit Summary," is disputed, the U.S. Army did finally acknowledge
through FOIA responses that the Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit did at one time exist and was
abolished in the late1950s.3 This admission supports the legitimacy of the leaked document.


The claim that Kennedy had knowledge of UFO crash retrieval operations is supported by British UFO
researcher Timothy Good. In his book Need to Know, Good cites a reliable military source that
Kennedy was taken to see the alien bodies from Roswell:


Around 1961/1962 President J.F. Kennedy expressed a wish to see the alien bodies associated with an
alien crash-site. He had obviously been informed of their existence and wished to see for himself the
evidence…. According to information received, the alien bodes were taken to Florida when Kennedy
went to see them [at] a medical facility.4


This is consistent with leaked documents concerning the death of Marilyn Monroe and her knowledge
of President Kennedy seeing alien bodies at a US Air Force base. A leaked top secret CIA wiretap
summary of conversations concerning Monroe and the Kennedy brothers, has been tacitly
acknowledged by the CIA as genuine.5 The transcript states:


Rothberg indicated in so many words, that she [Monroe] had secrets to tell, no doubt arising from her
trists [sic] with the President and the Attorney General. One such "secret" mentions the visit by the
President at a secret air base for the purpose of inspecting things from outer space. Kilgallen replied
that she knew what might be the source of visit [sic]. In the mid-fifties Kilgallen learned of secret effort
by US and UK governments to identify the origins of crashed spacecraft and dead bodies, from a
British government official. Kilgallen believed the story may have come from the New Mexico story
[Roswell] in the late forties.6


Significantly, the CIA document was signed by James [Jesus] Angleton, chief of counterintelligence
for the CIA. As will be discussed later, this reveals that Angleton’s CIA counterintelligence was
closely involved in events concerning classified UFO files. The document certainly points to Monroe’s
knowledge of Kennedy visiting an Air Force base to see remnants of a crashed UFO and dead
extraterrestrials.


Rare first hand witness evidence that Kennedy had certain knowledge of UFOs and extraterrestrial life
comes from a former flight steward on Air Force One. Bill Holden claims that Kennedy was aware
that UFOs were extraterrestrial in origin. In a June 2007 interview, Holden explained that in June 1963,
while flying to Germany on Air Force One, he placed two newspapers before Kennedy where UFOs
were clearly pictured on the front page. In response to Kennedy’s question of what he thought of
UFOs, Holden said: “For us to believe that we are the only intelligent beings in the world is
unbelievable. So, yes, I believe that there is such a thing as other human species as well as UFOs.”7 In
response President Kennedy said: “You're right, young man.” The unqualified nature of Kennedy’s
response revealed he had knowledge that UFOs interplanetary in origin. More significant was the
implication that Kennedy knew some extraterrestrials were human looking. This leads to the
extraordinary claims by George Adamski that President Kennedy received messages from and even
met with human looking extraterrestrials.


Did Kennedy receive messages from and meet with extraterrestrials?
George Adamski’s claims of having filmed flying saucers and having met with their human looking
extraterrestrial occupants have long been controversial despite supporting photographic, film and
witness testimonies. The testimonies of a number of first hand witnesses and investigators of Adamski
give credence to his claims of having secret meetings with European dignitaries including Pope John
XXIII and members of the Pentagon to secretly brief them about extraterrestrial life. Among the more
controversial of Adamski’s claims is that he privately met with President Kennedy in late 1961 and
again in 1962. Adamski claims that during his first visit, he passed on a message from his
extraterrestrial contacts about a future world crisis – thought to be the October 1962 Cuban Missile
crisis.


Desmond Leslie, a former Royal Air Force pilot, Irish Lord and cousin to Winston Churchill, closely
investigated Adamski’s claims. Adamski claimed he secretly visited Pope John XXIII and passed on a
message from extraterrestrials to him shortly before the Pope's death shortly after the completion of the
opening session of the Second Vatican Council which lasted from October 11 to December 8, 1962.
Leslie was subsequently able to confirm Adamski did meet Pope John XXIII and was given a papal
gold medallion for his service.


Adamski’s claim of having an ordnance pass which gave him access to U.S. military facilities was
confirmed by William Sherwood who at the time worked at Eastman Kodak as an optical physicist, and
Madeline Rodeffer who worked as personal secretary for the US Air Force. Sherwood himself had
previously worked for the U.S. Ordnance Department and possessed his own ordnance pass. Both
Sherwood and Rodeffer saw Adamski’s Ordnance pass thereby giving credence to Adamski’s claims
that he secretly briefed the Pentagon about his extraterrestrial contacts.


If Adamski did regularly brief the Pentagon and European VIPs, then this leads to his claim that he
secretly met with President Kennedy around October 1961 to deliver a message from the “space
brothers.” The message contained advice on a world crisis to occur in about a year that was later
revealed to be the October 1962 Cuban Missile crisis. If true, the contents of the message may have
helped Kennedy develop the right strategy for dealing with a conflict that could easily have escalated
into a Third World War. The extraterrestrial message, apparently, also contained an invitation for
Kennedy to meet with them in California. According to Adamski, President Kennedy accepted the
invitation.


Lou Zinstag, Carl Jung’s niece describes what she was told by Adamski concerning Kennedy’s alleged
meeting with extraterrestrials:


I still remember his [Adamski’s] White House story. He told me that he had been entrusted with a
written invitation for President Kennedy to visit one of the space people’s huge mother ships at a secret
airbase in Desert Hot Springs, California, for few days. In order to keep this visit absolutely secret,
Adamski was to take the invitation directly to the White House through a side door. Still glowing with
excitement and smiling happily, he explained how the row of cars in which his taxi was traveling had
to stop because of a red light just in front of this particular door where a man he knew - a spaceman, he
said - was standing ready to let him in. Adamski later learned that Kennedy had spent several hours at
the airbase after having canceled an important trip to New York, and that he had a long talk with the
ships crew, but that he had not been invited for a flight."8
The quality of witness testimonies, photos and film evidence all lead to the conclusion that George
Adamski was largely telling the truth about his flying saucer sightings and contacts with human
looking extraterrestrials.9 There is however no reliable independent evidence that Kennedy met with
the extraterrestrials Adamski claims he was in contact with. The only witness testimony related to
Adamski’s claim concerns President Kennedy secretly traveling to an undisclosed Air Force base to
watch UFOs in flight. A reliable source, according to UFO researcher Timothy Cooper, said that
Kennedy "did fly out to an air force base to personally watch an unidentified bogie track from an
aircraft under tight security which got no press coverage sometime in 1962."10 This event appears to be
different to Kennedy’s visits to view remnants of crashed UFOs and alien bodies. If Kennedy actually
traveled for a secret meeting with human looking extraterrestrials, no one other than Adamski has come
forward to make this claim.


Whatever the truth of claims that Kennedy had been unofficially briefed about the Roswell UFO crash
while a congressman in 1947; personally saw extraterrestrial vehicles and bodies early in his
administration; received extraterrestrial messages; or even met with human looking extraterrestrials,
there is little doubt that he attempted to gain official access to UFO files. An extensive set of
documents reveal that Kennedy ran into a powerful opposition from the Director of the CIA when he
tried to gain access to the files of the classified project created to handle UFOs and extraterrestrial
affairs – MJ-12 Special Studies Project.


Kennedy’s Efforts to Gain Access to MJ-12 Activities
The existence of a Top Secret classified project responsible for extraterrestrial life and technology is
supported by three official government documents. The first was a document found in 1985 in the U.S.
National Archives that explicitly referred to an “MJ-12 Special Studies Project”. It was found among a
group of declassified Air Force documents and copied by the archivist, Ed Reese, as part of official
records belonging to the National Archives.11 The July 14, 1954 memorandum was sent by President
Eisenhower’s National Security Advisor Robert Cutler to U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, General
Nathan Twining to schedule a meeting for the “MJ-12 Special Studies Project” briefing. The “Cutler-
Twining memo” is among the most authoritative documentary sources so far for the existence of an
MJ-12 Special Studies Project.12

The second government document referring to a Top Secret UFO control group is a Top Secret memo
from Wilbert Smith who at the time was a senior radio engineer with the Canadian Department of
Transportation. Dated November 21, 1951, Smith wrote the following to the Controller of
Telecommunications concerning flying saucer technologies being secretly studied in the U.S. by a very
highly classified group:

a. The matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States government, rating higher than
the H-bomb,
b.Flying saucers exist,
c. Their modus operandi is unknown but a concentrated effort is being made by a small group headed
by Dr. Vannevar Bush, and
d.The entire matter is considered by the United States authorities to be of tremendous significance.13

Smith’s memo confirms that in 1951 a small group headed by Dr Vannevar Bush was secretly studying
the technologies associated with the UFO issue. Bush had earlier headed the Office of Scientific
Research and Development (1941-1947) and the joint military services Research Development Board
(RDB).14 At the time of Smith’s memo, Bush was on the oversight committee of the RDB and a leading
scientific advisor to Truman. Bush’s role is significant for another leaked document, the Truman
Memo, shortly to be discussed.


The third document involves three 1952 Top Secret memos from the Joint Chiefs of Staff titled: "Joint
Logistic Plan for MAJESTIC." The memos were declassified in 1976 and state:


The following plans in support of MAJESTIC are now under preparation: A psychological warfare
plan, an unconventional warfare plan, cover and deception plans, a civil affairs/military government
plan, a command plan, a logistic plan, transportation guidance, to be included in the logistic plan, a
map and chart plan and a communications plan." 15


The significance of this set of memos is that it shows that in 1952 a project called Majestic was
underway and this involved significant support across a wide spectrum of areas that would be expected
for something involving UFOs and extraterrestrial life: psychological warfare, covert military
operations, civil affairs/military government, logistics, communications, etc. The Joint Chiefs memos
corroborate the 1954 Cutler Twining memo involving a project called Majestic-12, and what Smith
described as a UFO group headed by Vannevar Bush.
The three preceding official documents
                                                                 corroborate    a     number    of   leaked
                                                                 documents also describing a UFO
                                                                 control group called MJ-12, Majestic or
                                                                 similar variations. One leaked document
                                                                 is an alleged Top Secret memorandum
                                                                 written   by       President   Truman   to
                                                                 Secretary of Defense, Robert Forrestal
                                                                 on September 24, 1947. Referring to
                                                                 recent conversations on an undisclosed
                      nd
Secretary Forrestal (2 from right) with other alleged MJ-        matter [UFOs and extraterrestrial life],
12 members                                                       Truman writes: “[h]ereafter this matter
shall be referred to only as Operation Majestic Twelve.” 16 The Memorandum goes on to say: “future
considerations relative to the ultimate disposition of this matter should rest solely with the Office of the
President following appropriate discussions with yourself, Dr Bush and the Director of Central
Intelligence.” The Truman memo was described as a Special Classified Executive (#092447) and
attached to a larger leaked document called the Eisenhower Briefing document. Alleged to be a briefing
to President-Elect Eisenhower on 18 November 1952, the Eisenhower Briefing Document describes the
beginning of Majestic-12 operations and the twelve officials that sat on it.17 The Eisenhower Briefing
Document has been exhaustively researched, and found by some prominent UFO researchers to be
historically consistent with events, documents and officials of the time.18


Taken collectively, the Cutler-Twining Memo, the Smith Memo, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Memos, the
Truman Memo and the Eisenhower Briefing Document conclusively show the existence of a Top
Secret military scientific group responsible for dealing with extraterrestrial life and technology called at
the time – Majestic-12 or some variation. These documents reveal that MJ-12 operated in a clandestine
manner, was given enormous logistics support by the Pentagon, was closely associated with CIA covert
operations, and escaped direct Presidential oversight. When President Kennedy came to office in 1961,
he was aware of the existence of MJ-12, and its relationship to information concerning UFOs and
extraterrestrial life. He decided to find out more about its covert activities and reestablish Presidential
executive authority over it.
On June 28, 1961, President Kennedy wrote the following to Allen Dulles who was the Director of the
CIA:


National Security Memorandum
To: The Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Subject: Review of MJ-12 Intelligence Operations as they relate to Cold War Psychological Warfare
Plans
I would like a brief summary from you at your earliest convenience19


This leaked National Security Memorandum clearly shows that in June of 1961, Kennedy wanted to
learn about MJ-12 activities and the relationship with psychological warfare. While the leaked June
Memorandum has not been acknowledged by the CIA (it was classified TOP SECRET), other
documents from the period support its authenticity. Early in his administration, President Kennedy
showed that he desired to restructure the National Security Council and bring all intelligence and
psychological warfare activities under direct Executive control. On February 19, 1961, President
Kennedy issued Executive Order 10920 which abolished the Operations Coordinating Board.20 The
Operations Coordinating Board was the primary interagency organization responsible for Cold War
psychological warfare activities.21 Its responsibilities were handed over to Kennedy’s national security
advisor, McGeorge Bundy and the Department of State.


President Kennedy’s EO 10920 showed that he desired to gain control over all intelligence activities
related to psychological warfare. Abolishing the Operations Coordinating Board shows he was willing
to dismantle any government entity in order to bring its psychological warfare operations under the
direct control of his national security team. EO 10920 helps substantiate his later June 28, 1961
National Security Memorandum concerning a review of MJ-12 activities that Kennedy had learned
involved psychological warfare. EO 10920 also helps substantiate the very real concern, to be
discussed later, that Dulles believed that the future of MJ-12 was at stake.


The authenticity of the June 28, 1961 Memorandum is also supported by a declassified set of three
National Security Action Memorandums (NSAM) issued on the same day to the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
and also forwarded to Dulles. NSAM 55-57 placed Cold War operations firmly under the control of the
Joint Chiefs.22 According to Col Fletcher Prouty, they were Kennedy’s main means of gaining control
over covert CIA operations. Prouty wrote:
… shortly after the Bay of Pigs committee had completed its hearings, the White House issued three
NSAM of a most unusual and revolutionary nature. They prescribed vastly limiting stipulations upon
the conduct of clandestine operations. NSAM #55 was addressed to the chairman of the JCS, and its
principle theme was to instruct the chairman that the President of the United States held him
responsible for all "military type" operations in peacetime as he would be responsible for them in time
of war.… [T]here was no misunderstanding the full intent and weight of this document. Peacetime
operations, as used in that context, were always clandestine operations…. This NSAM therefore put
into the chairman's hands the authority to demand full and comprehensive briefings and an inside role
during the development of any clandestine operation in which the U.S. Government might become
involved.23


The three June 28 NSAM’s support the content of the CIA Memorandum issued the same day that
involved Cold War operations by MJ-12. As I will show later through a leaked burned document, the
three NSAMs explain why the Joint Chiefs were excluded from the most classified UFO information
by MJ-12.


Finally, I referred earlier to three 1952 Top Secret memos titled: "Joint Logistic Plan for MAJESTIC"
from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Prominent among the various “plans in support of MAJESTIC” was a
“psychological warfare plan.”24 Once again, this shows the relationship between MJ-12 (Majestic)
operations and psychological warfare. Kennedy therefore had good reason to issue his June 28 1961
memorandum to Dulles asking him for a review of MJ-12 psychological warfare operations.


Dulles response to Kennedy’s June 28 Memorandum was an alleged Top Secret letter issued on
November 5, 1961.25 Dulles’ letter gives an overview of the MJ-12 activities with regard to
psychological activities. It describes UFOs as part of “Soviet propaganda” designed “to spread distrust
of the government.”26 Dulles’ letter acknowledged that while it was possible some “UFO cases are of
non-terrestrial origin,” these did not “constitute a physical threat to national defense.”27 Most
significantly, Dulles’ letter said: “For reasons of security, I cannot divulge pertinent data on some of
the more sensitive aspects of MJ-12 activities.”28 If genuine, Dulles’ letter was giving President
Kennedy only minimal information in response to his June 1961 NSAM request for a brief summary of
MJ-12 activities.
Dulles and the Burned MJ-12 Memorandum
The leaked June 28, 1961 Memorandum; EO 10920; NSAM’s 55-57; and Dulles’ November 1961
letter reveal that a power struggle was occurring over Presidential Executive control of Cold War
psychological warfare programs and the covert activities of MJ-12. Up until his resignation as DCI on
November 29, 1961, Dulles was the pivotal figure in the power struggle with Kennedy over MJ-12
activities and its control of classified UFO files. This power struggle is reflected in a leaked draft of a
partially burned memorandum allegedly rescued from a fire burning the remainder of James Angleton’s
files after his death on May 12, 1987.


A former counterintelligence colleague of Angleton, who claimed to be present at the burning, sent it
on June 23, 1999 to Timothy Cooper, a UFO researcher best known for his role in making public
leaked MJ-12 documents.29 According to Dr Robert Wood and Ryan Wood, the burned document


is an original carbon with an Eagle watermark characteristic of government work,
but so far forensic laboratories have been unable to trace it…. Although no dated
is given, its content directly suggests the month of September. The year is
estimated to be in the early 1960s and is still under investigation.30


The burned document dates from the Kennedy era and has the characteristics of a
government document.31 If its contents are accurate, it provides smoking gun evidence of the power
struggle between Kennedy and MJ-12 over access to UFO information.


The classified Top Secret document with MJ-12 codeword access is a set of directives from the
Director of the CIA who simultaneously headed the MJ-12 Special Studies Project, to six other
members of the Project. It says on the cover page:


As you must know Lancer [Kennedy’s Secret Service codename] has made some inquiries regarding
our activities which we cannot allow. Please submit your views no later than October. Your action to
this matter is critical to the continuance of the group.32


The document clearly acknowledges that Kennedy’s efforts to gain access to UFO information soon
after coming into office on January 20, 1961, actually imperiled the existence of the MJ-12 Special
Studies Project/Group.
While the burned document has no date of issue, the authority of the writer and the political context
indicates it was written shortly after Kennedy had issued his June 26, 1961 National Security Action
Memorandum requesting a “Review of MJ-12 Intelligence Operations as they related to Cold War
Psychological Warfare Plans.”33 The burned document acknowledged that it had “become necessary to
review and evaluate duplication of field activities in light of the current situation.”34 This appears to be
a reference to the June 26 NSAM review Dulles was ordered to undertake.


The burned document appeared to be a draft for a series of MJ-12 directives from Allen Dulles, who
knew his time as DCI was limited due to the April 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco. He needed an answer from
the other MJ-12 members by October, a month before he was to retire as DCI on November 29, 1961.
The burned document contained a number of directives concerning how to control UFO information
and ensure that it would not be shared with the “Chief Executive [President Kennedy), National
Security Council Staff, department heads, the Joint Chiefs, and foreign representatives.” Basically,
Dulles secret directives proscribed Kennedy’s National Security team from gaining access to the most
sensitive UFO files possessed by the CIA and MJ-12.


While the response of other MJ-12 members is not found in leaked documents, Dulles November 5,
1961 letter to Kennedy indicates that his secret draft of MJ-12 directives was approved. Dulles letter
firmly suggests that MJ-12 had decided not to cooperate with Kennedy. Thus Kennedy’s efforts to
incorporate MJ-12 psychological warfare activities under the direct control of his National Security
Advisor had been dismissed.


To summarize so far President Kennedy’s activities towards MJ-12, documents reveal that in 1961
Kennedy was attempting to gain control over intelligence activities related to Cold War psychological
warfare operations. This is confirmed in Executive Order 10920 that placed interagency psychological
warfare plans under the control of McGeorge Bundy. It is further supported by declassified 1952
memos from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to provide logistic support for MAJESTIC (MJ-12) psychological
warfare programs, and three NSAM’s issued on June 28, 1961 to place covert Cold War activities
under the control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On the same day, June 28, Kennedy contacted Allen
Dulles to request a summary about MJ-12’s psychological warfare activities. Dulles November 5
response highlighted that these activities involved the UFO issue but declined to release sensitive
information. These events are consistent with the content of the burned document comprising eight
directives restricting access to UFO information from the President, his National Security Council
Staff, including Bundy, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It can therefore be concluded that Allen Dulles
was the official who drafted the burned document.


Some time shortly before his alleged November 5, 1961 letter to Kennedy, Dulles draft set of directives
had been responded to and approved by six other members of MJ-12. While Dulles and MJ-12
frustrated Kennedy’s efforts to gain access to classified UFO files in late 1961, less than two years later
Kennedy would embark on a course of action that would renew his conflict with MJ-12 and bring it to
a devastating climax.


To be continued in Part II.
                                                       ***

About the Author: Michael E. Salla, PhD., is the author of Exposing US Government Policies on
Extraterrestrial Life (2009) and Exopolitics: Political Implications of the Extraterrestrial Presence
(2004) He has held full time academic appointments at the Australian National University, and
American University, Washington DC. He has a PhD in Government from the University of
Queensland, Australia. He is the Founder of the Exopolitics Institute (www.exopoliticsinstitute.org )
and the popular internet website Exopolitics.Org; Chief Editor of the Exopolitics Journal, and Co-
Organizer of the Earth Transformation: New Science, Consciousness and Cosmic Contact conferences
in Kona, Hawaii. Main website: www.exopolitics.org



                                                     Endnotes
1
  “Counter Intelligence Corps/Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit Report,” has been given a medium-to-high authenticity
rating by the founders of the Majestic Documents website. Available online at:
http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/ipu_report.pdf
2
  Symington was Secretary of the USAF from September 18, 1947 to April 24, 1950. Biographical information at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Symington
3
  US Army FOIA response is available online at: http://www.cufon.org/cufon/foiasop.htm
4
  Timothy Good, Need to Know: UFOs, the Military, and Intelligence (Pegasus Books, 2007) 420-21.
5
   See “The Marilyn Monroe CIA Memo,” available online at: http://www.blackmesapress.com/page4.htm
6
  Document available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/marilynmonroe.pdf .
7
  Cited online at: http://projectcamelot.org/bill_holden_interview_transcript.html
8
  Cited online at: http://www.presidentialufo.com/johnf.htm
9
  Testimonies and film supporting Adamski’s claims are presented in video available online at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPvvz7O3CKk&feature=channel . See also Neil Gould, “Revisiting George Adamski’s
claims of Human looking Extraterrestrials,” Exopolitics Journal 3:2 (July 2009).
10
   Cited online at: http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/jfk_ufos.htm
11
   Even though the document was found in a box of official records at the National Archives, it does not have the standard
control number. This has led to some claiming it was planted in the National Archives and is a hoax, but that is unlikely
given NARA security procedures. See: http://www.ufoforhumanrights.com/mj-12.php . For a NARA statement on the
memo, go to: http://www.archives.gov/foia/ufos.html#mj12
12
   Available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/cutler_twining.pdf
13
   Smith’s memo is available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/smithmemo-21nov51.pdf
14
   Vannevar Bush’s biography available online at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush
15
   Available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/jointlogisticplan_majestic.pdf
16
   Truman Memo is available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/truman_forrestal.pdf
17
   Available online at: http://majesticdocuments.com/documents/pdf/eisenhower_briefing.pdf
18
   Stanton Friedman is the most prominent supporter of the legitimacy of the Eisenhower Briefing Document, see his Top
Secret/MAJIC: Operation Majestic-12 and the United States Government’s UFO Cover-Up (Marlowe and Co., 2005
[1996]. For discussion of the Eisenhower Briefing Document and MJ-12 more generally, see:
http://www.ufoforhumanrights.com/mj-12.php
19
   Available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/kennedy_ciadirector.pdf
20
   Available online at: http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/jfkeo/eo/10920.htm
21
   President Truman’s Executive Order 10483 - Establishing the Operations Coordinating Board, was issued on
September 2, 1953. Available online at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=60573
22
   Available online at: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/NSAMs.htm
23
   Fletcher Prouty, The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World (Skyhorse
Publishing, 2008) 134-35. Also available online at: http://www.bilderberg.org/st/SecretTeamChapter04.htm
24
   Available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/jointlogisticplan_majestic.pdf
25
   “Operations Review: The MJ-12 Project,” available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/mj12opsreview-
dulles-61.pdf
26
   “Operations Review: The MJ-12 Project,” available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/mj12opsreview-
dulles-61.pdf
27
   “Operations Review: The MJ-12 Project,” available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/mj12opsreview-
dulles-61.pdf
28
   “Operations Review: The MJ-12 Project,” available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/mj12opsreview-
dulles-61.pdf
29
   Available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/burnedmemocoverletter.pdf
30
   See prefatory comments for burned memo at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/documents/1960-1969.php
31
   The burned memorandum is available online at: http://majesticdocuments.com/documents/1960-1969.php#burnedmemo
32
   See page one of burned memorandum available at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/burnedmemo-s1-pgs1-2.pdf
33
   “John F. Kennedy to Director, CIA,” http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/kennedy_ciadirector.pdf
34
   See page one of burned memorandum available at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/burnedmemo-s1-pgs1-2.pdf

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Kennedy and MJ12_part1

  • 1. President Kennedy’s deadly confrontation with the CIA & MJ-12 over ET/UFO X-Files Michael E. Salla, M.A., Ph.D. Abstract A number of documents and testimonies cast light on President Kennedy’s knowledge of UFO crash retrieval operations, and his efforts to gain access to classified files concerning extraterrestrial life and technology. There are two main phases to Kennedy’s efforts. The first is a series of executive actions he began on February 19, 1961 to place cold war psychological warfare programs under the control of his national security advisor, and later in June 1961 to implement Presidential executive oversight over covert CIA operations through the Joint Chiefs of Staff. These executive actions coincided with Kennedy’s efforts to gain access to the activities of a highly classified project dealing with UFOs and extraterrestrial life – MJ-12 Special Studies Project. The second phase began on September 20, 1963 when Kennedy embarked on a high risk political strategy of getting NASA to cooperate with the USSR on joint space and lunar missions. This brought to a climax a confrontation over the release of classified UFO files with the CIA & those in control of the MJ-12 Special Studies Project. This article reviews testimonies, documents and events concerning Kennedy’s interest in UFOs and extraterrestrial life, and how this culminated in a deadly behind-the-scenes confrontation with the CIA and MJ-12 in the final month of his life. Introduction Early in his Presidential administration John F. Kennedy had very strong interests in UFOs and extraterrestrial life that directly influenced some of his policy initiatives. A number of documents and testimonies cast light on his knowledge of highly classified UFO crash retrieval operations, and efforts to gain access to classified UFO files. If leaked documents and testimonies are correct, President Kennedy traveled to remote military locations to view retrieved extraterrestrial vehicles and bodies; allegedly received messages from and even met with human looking extraterrestrials; and pressured the CIA to give him access to classified UFO files. There are two main phases to Kennedy’s attempts to gain access to files concerning extraterrestrial life and technology. The first concerns a series of executive actions Kennedy took early in his
  • 2. administration. On February 19, 1961, Kennedy issued an Executive Order to placing cold war psychological warfare programs under the control of his national security advisor. This was followed on June 28 by a series of Presidential Memoranda to implement Presidential executive oversight over covert CIA operations through the Joint Chiefs of Staff. These executive actions coincided with Kennedy’s efforts to gain access to the activities of a highly classified project dealing with UFOs and extraterrestrial life – MJ-12 Special Studies Project. Kennedy’s executive actions led to a bitter conflict with his outgoing CIA Director, Allen Dulles who was opposed to granting Kennedy access. The second phase began on September 20, 1963 when Kennedy embarked on a high risk political strategy of getting NASA to cooperate with the USSR on joint space and lunar missions. Less well known is that this brought to a climax a confrontation over the release of classified UFO files with the CIA & those in control of the MJ-12 Special Studies Project. This article reviews testimonies, documents and events concerning Kennedy’s interest in UFOs and extraterrestrial life, and how this culminated in a deadly behind-the-scenes confrontation with the CIA and MJ-12 in the final month of his life. Was Kennedy briefed about and witness extraterrestrial life and technology? A leaked document from July 22, 1947 claims that John F. Kennedy, then serving in the U.S. Congress, had learned about the Roswell UFO crash and the recovery of alien bodies. According to the Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit Summary: It has become known to CIC [U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps] that that some of the [Roswell UFO] recovery operation was shared with Representative John F. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat elected to Congress in 46…. Kennedy had limited duty as naval officer assigned to Naval intelligence during war. It is believed that information was obtained from source in Congress who is close to Secretary for Air Force. 1 Kennedy appeared to have been unofficially briefed about the Roswell UFO crash from an unnamed Congressional source close to Stuart Symington who at the time was Assistant Secretary of War for Air. Symington was certainly informed about the UFO crash near Roswell Army Airfield in July, 1947, and two months later on September 18, 1947 became the first Secretary for the newly created U.S. Air Force.2 Symington was a native of Massachusetts and was Kennedy’s favorite as a running mate for the 1960 Presidential election. It is very likely that after the Roswell flying saucer crash made front page
  • 3. headlines on July 6, 1947, Symington took into his confidence the unnamed Congressional source. The source then relayed this to newly elected Kennedy who began his first Congressional term in January 1947 after the November 1946 mid-term Congressional elections. As a former Naval Intelligence officer and a serving Congressman, Kennedy was presumably deemed reliable to receive and keep secret such highly classified information. While the authenticity of the document in question, "Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit Summary," is disputed, the U.S. Army did finally acknowledge through FOIA responses that the Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit did at one time exist and was abolished in the late1950s.3 This admission supports the legitimacy of the leaked document. The claim that Kennedy had knowledge of UFO crash retrieval operations is supported by British UFO researcher Timothy Good. In his book Need to Know, Good cites a reliable military source that Kennedy was taken to see the alien bodies from Roswell: Around 1961/1962 President J.F. Kennedy expressed a wish to see the alien bodies associated with an alien crash-site. He had obviously been informed of their existence and wished to see for himself the evidence…. According to information received, the alien bodes were taken to Florida when Kennedy went to see them [at] a medical facility.4 This is consistent with leaked documents concerning the death of Marilyn Monroe and her knowledge of President Kennedy seeing alien bodies at a US Air Force base. A leaked top secret CIA wiretap summary of conversations concerning Monroe and the Kennedy brothers, has been tacitly acknowledged by the CIA as genuine.5 The transcript states: Rothberg indicated in so many words, that she [Monroe] had secrets to tell, no doubt arising from her trists [sic] with the President and the Attorney General. One such "secret" mentions the visit by the President at a secret air base for the purpose of inspecting things from outer space. Kilgallen replied that she knew what might be the source of visit [sic]. In the mid-fifties Kilgallen learned of secret effort by US and UK governments to identify the origins of crashed spacecraft and dead bodies, from a British government official. Kilgallen believed the story may have come from the New Mexico story [Roswell] in the late forties.6 Significantly, the CIA document was signed by James [Jesus] Angleton, chief of counterintelligence for the CIA. As will be discussed later, this reveals that Angleton’s CIA counterintelligence was
  • 4. closely involved in events concerning classified UFO files. The document certainly points to Monroe’s knowledge of Kennedy visiting an Air Force base to see remnants of a crashed UFO and dead extraterrestrials. Rare first hand witness evidence that Kennedy had certain knowledge of UFOs and extraterrestrial life comes from a former flight steward on Air Force One. Bill Holden claims that Kennedy was aware that UFOs were extraterrestrial in origin. In a June 2007 interview, Holden explained that in June 1963, while flying to Germany on Air Force One, he placed two newspapers before Kennedy where UFOs were clearly pictured on the front page. In response to Kennedy’s question of what he thought of UFOs, Holden said: “For us to believe that we are the only intelligent beings in the world is unbelievable. So, yes, I believe that there is such a thing as other human species as well as UFOs.”7 In response President Kennedy said: “You're right, young man.” The unqualified nature of Kennedy’s response revealed he had knowledge that UFOs interplanetary in origin. More significant was the implication that Kennedy knew some extraterrestrials were human looking. This leads to the extraordinary claims by George Adamski that President Kennedy received messages from and even met with human looking extraterrestrials. Did Kennedy receive messages from and meet with extraterrestrials? George Adamski’s claims of having filmed flying saucers and having met with their human looking extraterrestrial occupants have long been controversial despite supporting photographic, film and witness testimonies. The testimonies of a number of first hand witnesses and investigators of Adamski give credence to his claims of having secret meetings with European dignitaries including Pope John XXIII and members of the Pentagon to secretly brief them about extraterrestrial life. Among the more controversial of Adamski’s claims is that he privately met with President Kennedy in late 1961 and again in 1962. Adamski claims that during his first visit, he passed on a message from his extraterrestrial contacts about a future world crisis – thought to be the October 1962 Cuban Missile crisis. Desmond Leslie, a former Royal Air Force pilot, Irish Lord and cousin to Winston Churchill, closely investigated Adamski’s claims. Adamski claimed he secretly visited Pope John XXIII and passed on a message from extraterrestrials to him shortly before the Pope's death shortly after the completion of the opening session of the Second Vatican Council which lasted from October 11 to December 8, 1962.
  • 5. Leslie was subsequently able to confirm Adamski did meet Pope John XXIII and was given a papal gold medallion for his service. Adamski’s claim of having an ordnance pass which gave him access to U.S. military facilities was confirmed by William Sherwood who at the time worked at Eastman Kodak as an optical physicist, and Madeline Rodeffer who worked as personal secretary for the US Air Force. Sherwood himself had previously worked for the U.S. Ordnance Department and possessed his own ordnance pass. Both Sherwood and Rodeffer saw Adamski’s Ordnance pass thereby giving credence to Adamski’s claims that he secretly briefed the Pentagon about his extraterrestrial contacts. If Adamski did regularly brief the Pentagon and European VIPs, then this leads to his claim that he secretly met with President Kennedy around October 1961 to deliver a message from the “space brothers.” The message contained advice on a world crisis to occur in about a year that was later revealed to be the October 1962 Cuban Missile crisis. If true, the contents of the message may have helped Kennedy develop the right strategy for dealing with a conflict that could easily have escalated into a Third World War. The extraterrestrial message, apparently, also contained an invitation for Kennedy to meet with them in California. According to Adamski, President Kennedy accepted the invitation. Lou Zinstag, Carl Jung’s niece describes what she was told by Adamski concerning Kennedy’s alleged meeting with extraterrestrials: I still remember his [Adamski’s] White House story. He told me that he had been entrusted with a written invitation for President Kennedy to visit one of the space people’s huge mother ships at a secret airbase in Desert Hot Springs, California, for few days. In order to keep this visit absolutely secret, Adamski was to take the invitation directly to the White House through a side door. Still glowing with excitement and smiling happily, he explained how the row of cars in which his taxi was traveling had to stop because of a red light just in front of this particular door where a man he knew - a spaceman, he said - was standing ready to let him in. Adamski later learned that Kennedy had spent several hours at the airbase after having canceled an important trip to New York, and that he had a long talk with the ships crew, but that he had not been invited for a flight."8
  • 6. The quality of witness testimonies, photos and film evidence all lead to the conclusion that George Adamski was largely telling the truth about his flying saucer sightings and contacts with human looking extraterrestrials.9 There is however no reliable independent evidence that Kennedy met with the extraterrestrials Adamski claims he was in contact with. The only witness testimony related to Adamski’s claim concerns President Kennedy secretly traveling to an undisclosed Air Force base to watch UFOs in flight. A reliable source, according to UFO researcher Timothy Cooper, said that Kennedy "did fly out to an air force base to personally watch an unidentified bogie track from an aircraft under tight security which got no press coverage sometime in 1962."10 This event appears to be different to Kennedy’s visits to view remnants of crashed UFOs and alien bodies. If Kennedy actually traveled for a secret meeting with human looking extraterrestrials, no one other than Adamski has come forward to make this claim. Whatever the truth of claims that Kennedy had been unofficially briefed about the Roswell UFO crash while a congressman in 1947; personally saw extraterrestrial vehicles and bodies early in his administration; received extraterrestrial messages; or even met with human looking extraterrestrials, there is little doubt that he attempted to gain official access to UFO files. An extensive set of documents reveal that Kennedy ran into a powerful opposition from the Director of the CIA when he tried to gain access to the files of the classified project created to handle UFOs and extraterrestrial affairs – MJ-12 Special Studies Project. Kennedy’s Efforts to Gain Access to MJ-12 Activities The existence of a Top Secret classified project responsible for extraterrestrial life and technology is supported by three official government documents. The first was a document found in 1985 in the U.S. National Archives that explicitly referred to an “MJ-12 Special Studies Project”. It was found among a group of declassified Air Force documents and copied by the archivist, Ed Reese, as part of official records belonging to the National Archives.11 The July 14, 1954 memorandum was sent by President Eisenhower’s National Security Advisor Robert Cutler to U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, General Nathan Twining to schedule a meeting for the “MJ-12 Special Studies Project” briefing. The “Cutler- Twining memo” is among the most authoritative documentary sources so far for the existence of an MJ-12 Special Studies Project.12 The second government document referring to a Top Secret UFO control group is a Top Secret memo from Wilbert Smith who at the time was a senior radio engineer with the Canadian Department of
  • 7. Transportation. Dated November 21, 1951, Smith wrote the following to the Controller of Telecommunications concerning flying saucer technologies being secretly studied in the U.S. by a very highly classified group: a. The matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States government, rating higher than the H-bomb, b.Flying saucers exist, c. Their modus operandi is unknown but a concentrated effort is being made by a small group headed by Dr. Vannevar Bush, and d.The entire matter is considered by the United States authorities to be of tremendous significance.13 Smith’s memo confirms that in 1951 a small group headed by Dr Vannevar Bush was secretly studying the technologies associated with the UFO issue. Bush had earlier headed the Office of Scientific Research and Development (1941-1947) and the joint military services Research Development Board (RDB).14 At the time of Smith’s memo, Bush was on the oversight committee of the RDB and a leading scientific advisor to Truman. Bush’s role is significant for another leaked document, the Truman Memo, shortly to be discussed. The third document involves three 1952 Top Secret memos from the Joint Chiefs of Staff titled: "Joint Logistic Plan for MAJESTIC." The memos were declassified in 1976 and state: The following plans in support of MAJESTIC are now under preparation: A psychological warfare plan, an unconventional warfare plan, cover and deception plans, a civil affairs/military government plan, a command plan, a logistic plan, transportation guidance, to be included in the logistic plan, a map and chart plan and a communications plan." 15 The significance of this set of memos is that it shows that in 1952 a project called Majestic was underway and this involved significant support across a wide spectrum of areas that would be expected for something involving UFOs and extraterrestrial life: psychological warfare, covert military operations, civil affairs/military government, logistics, communications, etc. The Joint Chiefs memos corroborate the 1954 Cutler Twining memo involving a project called Majestic-12, and what Smith described as a UFO group headed by Vannevar Bush.
  • 8. The three preceding official documents corroborate a number of leaked documents also describing a UFO control group called MJ-12, Majestic or similar variations. One leaked document is an alleged Top Secret memorandum written by President Truman to Secretary of Defense, Robert Forrestal on September 24, 1947. Referring to recent conversations on an undisclosed nd Secretary Forrestal (2 from right) with other alleged MJ- matter [UFOs and extraterrestrial life], 12 members Truman writes: “[h]ereafter this matter shall be referred to only as Operation Majestic Twelve.” 16 The Memorandum goes on to say: “future considerations relative to the ultimate disposition of this matter should rest solely with the Office of the President following appropriate discussions with yourself, Dr Bush and the Director of Central Intelligence.” The Truman memo was described as a Special Classified Executive (#092447) and attached to a larger leaked document called the Eisenhower Briefing document. Alleged to be a briefing to President-Elect Eisenhower on 18 November 1952, the Eisenhower Briefing Document describes the beginning of Majestic-12 operations and the twelve officials that sat on it.17 The Eisenhower Briefing Document has been exhaustively researched, and found by some prominent UFO researchers to be historically consistent with events, documents and officials of the time.18 Taken collectively, the Cutler-Twining Memo, the Smith Memo, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Memos, the Truman Memo and the Eisenhower Briefing Document conclusively show the existence of a Top Secret military scientific group responsible for dealing with extraterrestrial life and technology called at the time – Majestic-12 or some variation. These documents reveal that MJ-12 operated in a clandestine manner, was given enormous logistics support by the Pentagon, was closely associated with CIA covert operations, and escaped direct Presidential oversight. When President Kennedy came to office in 1961, he was aware of the existence of MJ-12, and its relationship to information concerning UFOs and extraterrestrial life. He decided to find out more about its covert activities and reestablish Presidential executive authority over it.
  • 9. On June 28, 1961, President Kennedy wrote the following to Allen Dulles who was the Director of the CIA: National Security Memorandum To: The Director, Central Intelligence Agency Subject: Review of MJ-12 Intelligence Operations as they relate to Cold War Psychological Warfare Plans I would like a brief summary from you at your earliest convenience19 This leaked National Security Memorandum clearly shows that in June of 1961, Kennedy wanted to learn about MJ-12 activities and the relationship with psychological warfare. While the leaked June Memorandum has not been acknowledged by the CIA (it was classified TOP SECRET), other documents from the period support its authenticity. Early in his administration, President Kennedy showed that he desired to restructure the National Security Council and bring all intelligence and psychological warfare activities under direct Executive control. On February 19, 1961, President Kennedy issued Executive Order 10920 which abolished the Operations Coordinating Board.20 The Operations Coordinating Board was the primary interagency organization responsible for Cold War psychological warfare activities.21 Its responsibilities were handed over to Kennedy’s national security advisor, McGeorge Bundy and the Department of State. President Kennedy’s EO 10920 showed that he desired to gain control over all intelligence activities related to psychological warfare. Abolishing the Operations Coordinating Board shows he was willing to dismantle any government entity in order to bring its psychological warfare operations under the direct control of his national security team. EO 10920 helps substantiate his later June 28, 1961 National Security Memorandum concerning a review of MJ-12 activities that Kennedy had learned involved psychological warfare. EO 10920 also helps substantiate the very real concern, to be discussed later, that Dulles believed that the future of MJ-12 was at stake. The authenticity of the June 28, 1961 Memorandum is also supported by a declassified set of three National Security Action Memorandums (NSAM) issued on the same day to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and also forwarded to Dulles. NSAM 55-57 placed Cold War operations firmly under the control of the Joint Chiefs.22 According to Col Fletcher Prouty, they were Kennedy’s main means of gaining control over covert CIA operations. Prouty wrote:
  • 10. … shortly after the Bay of Pigs committee had completed its hearings, the White House issued three NSAM of a most unusual and revolutionary nature. They prescribed vastly limiting stipulations upon the conduct of clandestine operations. NSAM #55 was addressed to the chairman of the JCS, and its principle theme was to instruct the chairman that the President of the United States held him responsible for all "military type" operations in peacetime as he would be responsible for them in time of war.… [T]here was no misunderstanding the full intent and weight of this document. Peacetime operations, as used in that context, were always clandestine operations…. This NSAM therefore put into the chairman's hands the authority to demand full and comprehensive briefings and an inside role during the development of any clandestine operation in which the U.S. Government might become involved.23 The three June 28 NSAM’s support the content of the CIA Memorandum issued the same day that involved Cold War operations by MJ-12. As I will show later through a leaked burned document, the three NSAMs explain why the Joint Chiefs were excluded from the most classified UFO information by MJ-12. Finally, I referred earlier to three 1952 Top Secret memos titled: "Joint Logistic Plan for MAJESTIC" from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Prominent among the various “plans in support of MAJESTIC” was a “psychological warfare plan.”24 Once again, this shows the relationship between MJ-12 (Majestic) operations and psychological warfare. Kennedy therefore had good reason to issue his June 28 1961 memorandum to Dulles asking him for a review of MJ-12 psychological warfare operations. Dulles response to Kennedy’s June 28 Memorandum was an alleged Top Secret letter issued on November 5, 1961.25 Dulles’ letter gives an overview of the MJ-12 activities with regard to psychological activities. It describes UFOs as part of “Soviet propaganda” designed “to spread distrust of the government.”26 Dulles’ letter acknowledged that while it was possible some “UFO cases are of non-terrestrial origin,” these did not “constitute a physical threat to national defense.”27 Most significantly, Dulles’ letter said: “For reasons of security, I cannot divulge pertinent data on some of the more sensitive aspects of MJ-12 activities.”28 If genuine, Dulles’ letter was giving President Kennedy only minimal information in response to his June 1961 NSAM request for a brief summary of MJ-12 activities.
  • 11. Dulles and the Burned MJ-12 Memorandum The leaked June 28, 1961 Memorandum; EO 10920; NSAM’s 55-57; and Dulles’ November 1961 letter reveal that a power struggle was occurring over Presidential Executive control of Cold War psychological warfare programs and the covert activities of MJ-12. Up until his resignation as DCI on November 29, 1961, Dulles was the pivotal figure in the power struggle with Kennedy over MJ-12 activities and its control of classified UFO files. This power struggle is reflected in a leaked draft of a partially burned memorandum allegedly rescued from a fire burning the remainder of James Angleton’s files after his death on May 12, 1987. A former counterintelligence colleague of Angleton, who claimed to be present at the burning, sent it on June 23, 1999 to Timothy Cooper, a UFO researcher best known for his role in making public leaked MJ-12 documents.29 According to Dr Robert Wood and Ryan Wood, the burned document is an original carbon with an Eagle watermark characteristic of government work, but so far forensic laboratories have been unable to trace it…. Although no dated is given, its content directly suggests the month of September. The year is estimated to be in the early 1960s and is still under investigation.30 The burned document dates from the Kennedy era and has the characteristics of a government document.31 If its contents are accurate, it provides smoking gun evidence of the power struggle between Kennedy and MJ-12 over access to UFO information. The classified Top Secret document with MJ-12 codeword access is a set of directives from the Director of the CIA who simultaneously headed the MJ-12 Special Studies Project, to six other members of the Project. It says on the cover page: As you must know Lancer [Kennedy’s Secret Service codename] has made some inquiries regarding our activities which we cannot allow. Please submit your views no later than October. Your action to this matter is critical to the continuance of the group.32 The document clearly acknowledges that Kennedy’s efforts to gain access to UFO information soon after coming into office on January 20, 1961, actually imperiled the existence of the MJ-12 Special Studies Project/Group.
  • 12. While the burned document has no date of issue, the authority of the writer and the political context indicates it was written shortly after Kennedy had issued his June 26, 1961 National Security Action Memorandum requesting a “Review of MJ-12 Intelligence Operations as they related to Cold War Psychological Warfare Plans.”33 The burned document acknowledged that it had “become necessary to review and evaluate duplication of field activities in light of the current situation.”34 This appears to be a reference to the June 26 NSAM review Dulles was ordered to undertake. The burned document appeared to be a draft for a series of MJ-12 directives from Allen Dulles, who knew his time as DCI was limited due to the April 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco. He needed an answer from the other MJ-12 members by October, a month before he was to retire as DCI on November 29, 1961. The burned document contained a number of directives concerning how to control UFO information and ensure that it would not be shared with the “Chief Executive [President Kennedy), National Security Council Staff, department heads, the Joint Chiefs, and foreign representatives.” Basically, Dulles secret directives proscribed Kennedy’s National Security team from gaining access to the most sensitive UFO files possessed by the CIA and MJ-12. While the response of other MJ-12 members is not found in leaked documents, Dulles November 5, 1961 letter to Kennedy indicates that his secret draft of MJ-12 directives was approved. Dulles letter firmly suggests that MJ-12 had decided not to cooperate with Kennedy. Thus Kennedy’s efforts to incorporate MJ-12 psychological warfare activities under the direct control of his National Security Advisor had been dismissed. To summarize so far President Kennedy’s activities towards MJ-12, documents reveal that in 1961 Kennedy was attempting to gain control over intelligence activities related to Cold War psychological warfare operations. This is confirmed in Executive Order 10920 that placed interagency psychological warfare plans under the control of McGeorge Bundy. It is further supported by declassified 1952 memos from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to provide logistic support for MAJESTIC (MJ-12) psychological warfare programs, and three NSAM’s issued on June 28, 1961 to place covert Cold War activities under the control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On the same day, June 28, Kennedy contacted Allen Dulles to request a summary about MJ-12’s psychological warfare activities. Dulles November 5 response highlighted that these activities involved the UFO issue but declined to release sensitive information. These events are consistent with the content of the burned document comprising eight
  • 13. directives restricting access to UFO information from the President, his National Security Council Staff, including Bundy, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It can therefore be concluded that Allen Dulles was the official who drafted the burned document. Some time shortly before his alleged November 5, 1961 letter to Kennedy, Dulles draft set of directives had been responded to and approved by six other members of MJ-12. While Dulles and MJ-12 frustrated Kennedy’s efforts to gain access to classified UFO files in late 1961, less than two years later Kennedy would embark on a course of action that would renew his conflict with MJ-12 and bring it to a devastating climax. To be continued in Part II. *** About the Author: Michael E. Salla, PhD., is the author of Exposing US Government Policies on Extraterrestrial Life (2009) and Exopolitics: Political Implications of the Extraterrestrial Presence (2004) He has held full time academic appointments at the Australian National University, and American University, Washington DC. He has a PhD in Government from the University of Queensland, Australia. He is the Founder of the Exopolitics Institute (www.exopoliticsinstitute.org ) and the popular internet website Exopolitics.Org; Chief Editor of the Exopolitics Journal, and Co- Organizer of the Earth Transformation: New Science, Consciousness and Cosmic Contact conferences in Kona, Hawaii. Main website: www.exopolitics.org Endnotes 1 “Counter Intelligence Corps/Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit Report,” has been given a medium-to-high authenticity rating by the founders of the Majestic Documents website. Available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/ipu_report.pdf 2 Symington was Secretary of the USAF from September 18, 1947 to April 24, 1950. Biographical information at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Symington 3 US Army FOIA response is available online at: http://www.cufon.org/cufon/foiasop.htm 4 Timothy Good, Need to Know: UFOs, the Military, and Intelligence (Pegasus Books, 2007) 420-21. 5 See “The Marilyn Monroe CIA Memo,” available online at: http://www.blackmesapress.com/page4.htm 6 Document available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/marilynmonroe.pdf . 7 Cited online at: http://projectcamelot.org/bill_holden_interview_transcript.html 8 Cited online at: http://www.presidentialufo.com/johnf.htm 9 Testimonies and film supporting Adamski’s claims are presented in video available online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPvvz7O3CKk&feature=channel . See also Neil Gould, “Revisiting George Adamski’s claims of Human looking Extraterrestrials,” Exopolitics Journal 3:2 (July 2009). 10 Cited online at: http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/jfk_ufos.htm
  • 14. 11 Even though the document was found in a box of official records at the National Archives, it does not have the standard control number. This has led to some claiming it was planted in the National Archives and is a hoax, but that is unlikely given NARA security procedures. See: http://www.ufoforhumanrights.com/mj-12.php . For a NARA statement on the memo, go to: http://www.archives.gov/foia/ufos.html#mj12 12 Available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/cutler_twining.pdf 13 Smith’s memo is available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/smithmemo-21nov51.pdf 14 Vannevar Bush’s biography available online at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush 15 Available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/jointlogisticplan_majestic.pdf 16 Truman Memo is available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/truman_forrestal.pdf 17 Available online at: http://majesticdocuments.com/documents/pdf/eisenhower_briefing.pdf 18 Stanton Friedman is the most prominent supporter of the legitimacy of the Eisenhower Briefing Document, see his Top Secret/MAJIC: Operation Majestic-12 and the United States Government’s UFO Cover-Up (Marlowe and Co., 2005 [1996]. For discussion of the Eisenhower Briefing Document and MJ-12 more generally, see: http://www.ufoforhumanrights.com/mj-12.php 19 Available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/kennedy_ciadirector.pdf 20 Available online at: http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/jfkeo/eo/10920.htm 21 President Truman’s Executive Order 10483 - Establishing the Operations Coordinating Board, was issued on September 2, 1953. Available online at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=60573 22 Available online at: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/NSAMs.htm 23 Fletcher Prouty, The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World (Skyhorse Publishing, 2008) 134-35. Also available online at: http://www.bilderberg.org/st/SecretTeamChapter04.htm 24 Available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/jointlogisticplan_majestic.pdf 25 “Operations Review: The MJ-12 Project,” available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/mj12opsreview- dulles-61.pdf 26 “Operations Review: The MJ-12 Project,” available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/mj12opsreview- dulles-61.pdf 27 “Operations Review: The MJ-12 Project,” available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/mj12opsreview- dulles-61.pdf 28 “Operations Review: The MJ-12 Project,” available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/mj12opsreview- dulles-61.pdf 29 Available online at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/burnedmemocoverletter.pdf 30 See prefatory comments for burned memo at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/documents/1960-1969.php 31 The burned memorandum is available online at: http://majesticdocuments.com/documents/1960-1969.php#burnedmemo 32 See page one of burned memorandum available at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/burnedmemo-s1-pgs1-2.pdf 33 “John F. Kennedy to Director, CIA,” http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/kennedy_ciadirector.pdf 34 See page one of burned memorandum available at: http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/burnedmemo-s1-pgs1-2.pdf