Majestic 12 — CIA Director Hillenkoetter to Donald Menzel
CIA Director Hillenkoetter to Donald Menzel is a document pertaining to Majestic 12 (Operation Majestic-12, MJ-12, or Majic-12), a purported secret U.S. government program alleged to have investigated recovered unidentified flying objects and their occupants beginning in 1947.
Document Details
[edit | edit source]| Field | Information |
|---|---|
| Title | CIA Director Hillenkoetter to Donald Menzel |
| Date | 19 September 1963 |
| Era | 1960–1969 |
| Document Type | Personal Correspondence |
| Claimed Classification | TOP SECRET |
| Authenticity Rating | Medium |
| Related Program | Operation Majestic-12 (MJ-12 / MAJIC) |
Description
[edit | edit source]A letter from former CIA Director Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter to Donald Menzel, marked 'CIA Copy' in original ink with handwritten 'Top Secret' across the document. Hillenkoetter states he resigned from NICAP 'about 20 months ago' because it had become a 'bickering body about personalities.' He congratulates Menzel on his new book effectively dismissing the extraterrestrial hypothesis — which researchers interpret as praise for successful disinformation work, given that both Hillenkoetter and Menzel are listed as Majestic-12 members.
Authenticity Assessment
[edit | edit source]Researchers consider this document to have a medium authenticity rating; some details are verifiable but significant questions remain.
The United States government has officially denied the existence of any organization called Majestic 12, MJ-12, or Majic-12. The FBI declared the core MJ-12 documents "completely bogus" on November 30, 1988, after receiving information from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) that no such committee had ever been authorized or formed. Despite this, researchers including Stanton T. Friedman and Dr. Robert M. Wood have argued that individual documents within the Majestic corpus show evidence of authenticity through forensic analysis of paper, ink, typeface, format conventions, and verifiable historical references.
Historical Context
[edit | edit source]Majestic 12 is claimed to have been established by special classified executive order of President Harry S. Truman on September 24, 1947, upon recommendation by Secretary of Defense James Forrestal and Dr. Vannevar Bush. The core documents were first publicly circulated in 1984–1987 by ufologists Jaime Shandera, William L. Moore, and Stanton T. Friedman. The Eisenhower Briefing Document — the central MJ-12 document — was found on undeveloped 35mm film delivered anonymously to Shandera's mailbox in December 1984.
Sources and Archival Information
[edit | edit source]- Research and document catalog: MajesticDocuments.com (Dr. Robert M. Wood & Ryan S. Wood)
- FBI investigative file: FBI Vault — Majestic 12
- General UFO program records: National Archives — USAF UFO Records
See Also
[edit | edit source]- Majestic 12
- Eisenhower Briefing Document
- Roswell Incident
- Project Blue Book
- Vannevar Bush
- Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter
- Stanton T. Friedman
- Philip J. Klass
References
[edit | edit source]- Wood, Robert M. & Wood, Ryan S. Majic Eyes Only. Wood Enterprises, 2005.
- Friedman, Stanton T. TOP SECRET/MAJIC. Marlowe & Company, 1996.
- FBI Vault: Majestic 12, Part 1 of 1. [1]
- Klass, Philip J. "The MJ-12 Crashed-Saucer Documents." Skeptical Inquirer, Winter 1987–1988.
- Goldberg, Robert Alan. Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America. Yale University Press, 2008.
