Kennedy MJ-12 memo of June 1961
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Document | Alleged memorandum from President John F. Kennedy to the Director of Central Intelligence |
|---|---|
| Date on document | 28 June 1961 |
| Subject | A review of "MJ-12" activities (as described) |
| Source | The 1990s "Majestic documents", many received by Timothy Cooper and published by Robert and Ryan Wood |
| DCI at the time | Allen Dulles (until autumn 1961) |
| Status | Widely considered a forgery; Cooper later disowned all the MJ-12 documents he received |
| Date | 28 June 1961 |
| Topics | Disinformation & hoaxes (topic) |
| People | John F. Kennedy, Ryan Wood, Allen Dulles |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 64 |
| Year | 1961 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1961 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 5 |
The Kennedy MJ-12 memo is an alleged memorandum from President John F. Kennedy to the Director of Central Intelligence, dated 28 June 1961. As it has been described, it asks for a review of "MJ-12" activities.[1][5] It belongs to the batch of "Majestic documents" that circulated from the 1990s and were promoted by Robert and Ryan Wood. Like the rest of the MJ-12 papers, it is widely regarded as a forgery.[1][2]
The Majestic papers
"MJ-12" entered UFO lore in the early 1980s through a deception campaign against the researcher Paul Bennewitz.[1] The papers then arrived in several batches:[1]
- 1984. A roll of film was sent to Jaime Shandera, containing the "Eisenhower Briefing Document".
- 1985. A memo was found planted in the National Archives.
- 1994. A "Special Operations Manual" was sent to Don Berliner.
- From 1992. Over 100 documents reached the researcher Timothy S. Cooper.
All existed only as copies or photographs. In 1988 the FBI called the original documents "completely bogus".[1] The researcher Karl Pflock wrote that he suspected Cooper of authoring bogus documents himself. The CIA judged one Cooper-supplied MJ-12 document, linking Marilyn Monroe's death to UFO knowledge, to be fraudulent.[1] The Woods published the Cooper material and other papers on their Majestic Documents website.[2]
Kennedy and MJ-12
The June 1961 memo is one of several Majestic papers tying Kennedy to MJ-12:[2]
- The "Burned Memo". A nine-page document "sent to" Cooper in 1999 was said to have been rescued from incineration after the death of the CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton. Its cover letter came from a "Source-1". It reads: "As you must know LANCER [JFK] has made some inquiries regarding our activities which we cannot allow."
- November 1963. A memo from Kennedy to the CIA is dated days before his assassination.
- 1947. A "Counter Intelligence Corps/Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit Report" claims that Congressman Kennedy knew of the Roswell crash in July 1947.
Together they suggest that Kennedy's inquiries into UFOs led to his death.[2] In a 2008 interview with Linda Moulton Howe, Robert Wood suggested that the Burned Memo was dictated to a secretary and was really saying "We ought to kill JFK".[2]
The Dulles meeting
Allen Dulles was Director of Central Intelligence on the memo's date. He oversaw the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, and in autumn 1961 Kennedy forced him to resign. Kennedy presented him with the National Security Medal on 28 November 1961, and John McCone replaced him.[3] Supporters of the memo say Kennedy's schedule shows a meeting with Dulles on 28 June 1961, consistent with the memo. That claim could not be checked here: the Majestic Documents copy of the memo now returns "not found".[5] Even if the meeting took place, it would say nothing about what was discussed.
Criticism
The writer Seamus Coogan, in a multi-part critique of the Kennedy-related Majestic papers for the site Kennedys and King, called them a hoax and "disinformation".[2] His main points:[2]
- Disowned. Cooper "has disowned every MJ-12 document he was ever sent".
- The wrong cryptonym. Kennedy's CIA cryptonym was GPIDEAL. "Lancer" was his well-known Secret Service code name, so the forger "was hardly in command of a secret".
- Autopen. On one memo bearing Kennedy's signature, the Majestic Documents site remarked that he "often used an autopen". Coogan replied that autopens were used for mass mailings, not top-secret correspondence.
- Too many in the know. The papers' cast of insiders is implausibly large for a secret group.
- Little interest. The researcher Larry Hancock noted that UFOs were not a major news story during Kennedy's term, and there is "no evidence it was a subject that he was actively involved with".
None of the sources reports a copy of the memo in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library or in released CIA files. An Atlas Obscura article on the FBI's handling of the MJ-12 papers is also listed among the sources, but it refused automated access.[4]
Assessment
The memo has no documented provenance beyond the Majestic papers, whose original recipient has disowned them.[2] The wider MJ-12 corpus has been shown to contain a photocopied Truman signature, a date format matching Bill Moore's notes, and a memo dated when its supposed author was abroad, and the FBI called it "completely bogus".[1] The memo is generally treated as part of a later hoax linking UFOs to the Kennedy assassination.[1][2]
People and topics
- John F. Kennedy — 35th U.S. president, named in disputed MJ-12 memos.
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- MJ-12 — Disputed documents describing a secret committee managing crashed saucers.
- Ryan Wood — Researcher who published the Majestic documents with his father Robert Wood.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation — The U.S. federal police agency, which helped check flying disc reports from 1947 to 1950.
- Allen Dulles — CIA director from 1953 to 1961.
On the Timeline
- Air Force proposals to improve UFO work (1961) (17 March 1961) — Asked how to improve UAP work, the Air Force suggests a raise for adviser J. Allen Hynek and a new camera.
- Moon Dust, Blue Fly and UFO draft policy (1961) (13 November 1961) — An Air Force draft policy names intelligence teams for Projects Moon Dust, Blue Fly and 'UFO'.
See every 1961 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Majestic 12 file — FBI Vault · vault.fbi.gov · archived copy
- John F. Kennedy — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- Majestic 12 — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Seamus Coogan, "JFK and the Majestic Papers: The History of a Hoax", Kennedys and King (Aug 2011) · kennedysandking.com · archived copy
- Allen Dulles — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- How the FBI debunked the MJ-12 papers — Atlas Obscura · atlasobscura.com · archived copy
- majesticdocuments.com · majesticdocuments.com · archived copy
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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