Editing Majestic 12 (section)

==History==
On May 31, 1987, it was widely reported that British ufologist [[Timothy Good]] claimed to be in possession of 1950s-era UFO documents. The documents purported to reveal a secret committee of 12, supposedly formed in 1947 by an executive order by U.S. President Harry S. Truman, and explain how the crash of an alien spacecraft at [[Roswell, New Mexico|Roswell]] in July 1947 had been concealed, how the recovered alien technology could be exploited, and how the U.S. should engage with [[extraterrestrial life]] in the future.<ref name="Goldberg2008" /><ref name="Knight2003" /><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94301319/ufo-memo-aliens-crashed/ |title=UFO memo: Aliens crashed |newspaper=The Bismarck Tribune|date=1987-05-31 |page=1}}</ref>

According to ufologist [[Bill Moore (ufologist)|William L. Moore]], his friend, Los Angeles television writer-producer Jamie Shandera, received documents that appeared to be briefing papers describing "Operation Majestic-12" in mid-December 1984. The documents were found on an undeveloped roll of [[135 film|35 mm film]] in a brown paper package that had been dropped through Shandera's mail slot.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Klass |first=Phillip J. |author-link=Philip J. Klass |date=Winter 1987–1988 |title=The MJ-12 Crashed-Saucer Documents |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/1988/01/the-mj-12-crashed-saucer-documents/ |journal=[[Skeptical Inquirer]] |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=137–138}}</ref> The package bore no additional information other than a New Mexico postmark.<ref name=":1">{{Cite thesis |last=Wood |first=Stacy Elizabeth |title=Making Secret(s): The Infrastructure of Classified Information |date=2017 |access-date=2024-12-20 |degree=Ph.D. |publisher=University of California, Los Angeles |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1925343204 |page=133 |location=United States -- California|id={{ProQuest|1925343204}} }}</ref>

When developed, the roll of film revealed the Truman-Forestall memo, a "[[Classified information|Top Secret]]" memorandum from President Truman to Defense Secretary Forrestal, dated September 24, 1947, authorizing him and Dr. [Vannevar] Bush to proceed with Operation Majestic-12 and the Eisenhower Briefing Document, a seven page "Top Secret/Eyes Only" Majestic-12 document used to brief President-Elect Eisenhower, dated November 18, 1952.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

The concept of "Majestic 12" emerged during a period in the 1980s when ufologists believed there had been a [[cover-up]] of the [[Roswell incident]] and speculated some secretive upper tier of the U.S. government was responsible.<ref name="Goldberg2008">{{citation |author=Goldberg |first=Robert Alan |title=Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America |pages=189–231 |year=2008 |editor-link=Robert Alan Goldberg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8e5YELGGFAC&pg=PA189 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13294-6 |author-link=Robert Alan Goldberg}}</ref> Shandera and his ufologist colleagues [[Stanton T. Friedman]] and [[Bill Moore (ufologist)|Bill Moore]] say they later received a series of anonymous messages that led them to find what has been called the "Cutler/Twining memo"{{ref label|reference_name_A|a|a}} in 1985 while searching declassified files in the [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]]. Purporting to be written by [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|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.<ref name="Frazier">{{citation |author=Frazier |first=Kendrick |title=The Hundredth Monkey: And Other Paradigms of the Paranormal |date=2010 |pages=338– |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iJ1v3bggyr8C&pg=PA338 |publisher=Prometheus Books, Publishers |isbn=978-1-61592-401-1 |author-link=Kendrick Frazier}}</ref> Historian [[Robert Alan Goldberg|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".<ref name="Goldberg2008" />

Claiming to be connected to the [[Air Force Office of Special Investigations|United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations]], a man named Richard Doty told filmmaker [[Linda Moulton Howe]] that the MJ-12 story was true, and showed Howe unspecified documents purporting to prove the existence of small, gray 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.<ref name="Goldberg2008" />

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 [[Debunker|debunkers]] such as [[Philip J. Klass]] were accused of being "[[disinformation]] agents".<ref name="Knight2003">{{citation |author=Knight |first=Peter |title=Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia |date=2003 |pages=490– |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qMIDrggs8TsC&pg=PA490 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-57607-812-9}}</ref>

On October 14, 1988, the syndicated television broadcast ''[[UFO Coverup? Live]]'' introduced Americans to the Majestic 12 hoax.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=81LpCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA20 |title=The Paranormal and the Paranoid: Conspiratorial Science Fiction Television |first=Aaron |last=Gulyas |date=2015-06-11 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-5114-4 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Peebles |first=Curtis |author-link=Curtis Peebles |date=1995-12-12 |title=Watch the Skies!: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zjI4X7ZOvOIC |publisher=Berkley Books |isbn=978-0-425-15117-4 |via=Google Books}}</ref> It featured the first public mention of Nevada's [[Area 51]] as a site associated with aliens.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H9ij_QAvyEEC |title=Before and After Roswell: The Flying Saucer in America, 1947-1999 |first=David A. |last=Clary |date=2001-01-22 |publisher=Xlibris Corporation |isbn=978-1-4628-4129-5 |via=Google Books}}</ref>