Dulles–Kennedy meeting of 28 June 1961
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 28 June 1961 |
|---|---|
| People | CIA Director Allen W. Dulles and President John F. Kennedy |
| Record | Dulles appointment calendar in the JFK assassination records (discussed December 2022) |
| Linked document | "Operations Review by Allen W. Dulles — The MJ-12 Project", dated 5 November 1961 |
| Real records that day | NSAMs 55, 56 and 57, on Cold War and paramilitary operations |
| Status of memo | Part of the disputed Majestic document set; unauthenticated |
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Nuclear & missile sites (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 213 |
| Year | 2022 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2022 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 11 |
According to some accounts, a calendar of CIA Director Allen Dulles's appointments shows that he met President Kennedy twice on 28 June 1961. The calendar was released with the John F. Kennedy assassination records.[1][7] That is the date cited in a disputed "MJ-12 operations review" memo attributed to Dulles, and the calendar entries attracted attention in UFO circles when they were discussed in December 2022.[1] Kennedy did sign real national security directives that day, but none concerns UFOs.[2][3] The memo itself belongs to the Majestic document set, which the FBI called "completely bogus".[5]
The memo
The document is circulated as a one-page PDF by the Majestic Documents website.[1] Its layout:[1]
- Markings. It is headed "TOP SECRET" and "SENSITIVE" and dated 5 November 1961. A "RECEIVED" stamp in the corner gives the date 21 July, with the year obscured.
- Title. "Operations Review by Allen W. Dulles — The MJ-12 Project".
- Ending. It closes "(Signed) Allen W. Dulles", above a standard Espionage Act warning and an exemption from automatic regrading under DoD 5200.10.
Its sections say:[1]
- The Overview. "In pursuant to the Presidential National Security Memorandum of June 28, 1961", U.S. intelligence operations against the Soviet Union were active in two areas. These were aircraft launch vehicles with electronic and signals intelligence (ELINT and SIGINT) capabilities, and "balloon borne decoys" with electronic countermeasures.
- The Situation. U.S. intelligence could not give "a true picture of how Soviet air defenses perceive unidentified flying objects". It added that "Future psychological warfare plans" were being made for "more sophisticated vehicles" resembling phenomena collected by Air Force and NSA elements.
- Basis for Action. Americans had earlier seen UFO sightings as Soviet propaganda. The CIA had conducted three reviews and found that 80 per cent of the Air Force's Project Blue Book cases were explainable, with the rest "classified for security reasons". True UFOs might be "of non-terrestrial origin" but posed no physical threat. Some MJ-12 activities had been classified under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.
- Closing. Current operations must be kept from "official disclosure", with updates to come through National Intelligence Estimates.
A second PDF on the same website, with "kennedy ciadirector" in its file name, is also listed as a source. Its link now returns an error.[8]
What happened on 28 June 1961
On that day Kennedy signed several real National Security Action Memoranda (NSAMs) following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.[2][3]
- NSAM 55. It dealt with the "Relations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the President in Cold War Operations". Kennedy wrote that he expected the Chiefs' advice "to come to me direct and unfiltered". The State Department's historians note that it closely paraphrases a recommendation of the Cuban Study Group led by General Maxwell Taylor, which reviewed the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy had appointed Taylor his Military Representative two days earlier.
- NSAMs 56 and 57. These concerned paramilitary requirements and responsibilities.
None of them concerns UFOs.[2][3] The Federation of American Scientists' list of Kennedy NSAMs is cited for these titles, but the file could not be retrieved directly.[2] The memo speaks of a "Presidential National Security Memorandum" rather than using the real name, National Security Action Memorandum.[1][3]
Kennedy forced Dulles out after the Bay of Pigs.[4][11] His departure went as follows:[11]
- 28 November 1961. Kennedy presented him with the National Security Medal at CIA headquarters.
- 29 November. The White House released his resignation letter, and John McCone replaced him.
The CIA's reading room holds the exchange of letters between Kennedy and Dulles, though the page could not be read in full.[4] The memo's date of 5 November 1961 thus falls during Dulles's last weeks in office.[1][11] The National Archives holds the more than six million pages of the JFK assassination records collection. It has released them in batches, including in 2017–2018, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025.[7]
A second November 1961 document
A different document with the same date has also circulated: a "Special Estimate of the Situation" of 5 November 1961.[10] It came up in these accounts:[9][10]
- Vallée. His journals described it as dealing mainly with "the threat from nuclear-powered Russian space devices" while mentioning possible nuclear material aboard "crashed unidentified devices". He took it to reveal "a real Intelligence committee called MJ Twelve".
- Puthoff. In 2018 Hal Puthoff referred to "one leaked document" about crashes that had been verified as real.
- Murgia's identification. The researcher "UFO Joe" Murgia identified the Special Estimate as that document. He said an anonymous source with clearances had authenticated it, even though it contains spelling errors such as "intellegence".
- The doubters. Two of the three people Murgia showed it to thought it was fake. The writer Paul Dean is among those who consider it fake.
- Its origin. Danny Silva of the Silva Record noted that it first appeared on UFOConspiracy.com, whose contributors included Richard Doty, Robert Collins, Timothy Cooper and Robert and Ryan Wood.
Doty and Cooper both figure in the history of the MJ-12 papers.[5]
Assessment
The memo belongs to the Majestic document set. In 1988 the FBI declared an MJ-12 document "completely bogus" after the Air Force said no such committee had existed. Researchers have shown that the set contains forged material, and that over 100 documents passed through Tim Cooper alone.[5] An Atlas Obscura article on how the FBI dismissed the papers could not be read because the site blocked access.[6] A genuine meeting date and real NSAMs on that day do not authenticate the memo, since anyone fabricating it could draw on the public record.[3][5] Its non-standard name for the directive is a small point against it. So is its redundant phrase "the 1954 Atomic Energy Act of 1954".[1]
People and topics
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Allen Dulles — CIA director from 1953 to 1961.
- John F. Kennedy — 35th U.S. president, named in disputed MJ-12 memos.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- MJ-12 — Disputed documents describing a secret committee managing crashed saucers.
On the Timeline
- December 2022 Pentagon UAP briefing (17 December 2022) — Pentagon officials say they've seen no evidence that crashed UAP are from another world.
- Committees told more than the public (2022) (18 December 2022) — A journalist says certain congressional committees have been told more than the public.
See every 2022 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Majestic 12 file — FBI Vault · vault.fbi.gov · archived copy
- Harold E. Puthoff — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- John F. Kennedy — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- "Operations Review by Allen W. Dulles: the MJ-12 Project" (5 Nov 1961), Majestic Documents (PDF) · majesticdocuments.com · archived copy
- National Security Action Memoranda list, Federation of American Scientists (PDF) · irp.fas.org · archived copy
- "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume VIII: National Security Policy", Office of the Historian · history.state.gov · archived copy
- "Exchange of letters between the President and the Honorable Allen W. Dulles", CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- Majestic 12 — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- How the FBI debunked the MJ-12 papers — Atlas Obscura · atlasobscura.com · archived copy
- JFK Assassination Records Collection — National Archives · archives.gov · archived copy
- majesticdocuments.com · majesticdocuments.com · archived copy
- silvarecord.com · silvarecord.com · archived copy
- web.archive.org · web.archive.org · archived copy
- Allen Dulles · en.wikipedia.org
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Majestic 12”, “Allen Dulles”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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