By Paul and Phillip Collins
The third installment of this series took an in-depth look at the UFO deception’s contribution to the militaristic trend that began with American businessman and government official Paul Nitze and his Manichaean brainchild: National Security Council (NSC) Policy Paper 68 (NSC-68).
The writers of this series also explored how proponents of Nitze’s Cold War philosophy manipulated the UFO community with wild extraterrestrial threat narratives that remain a part of the UFO lore to this very day. Nitze and his NSC-68 monstrosity certainly helps contextualize earlier manifestations of the UFO deception. The enigmatic Nitze, however, may also help one discern what is to come in the realm of UFO trickery. Sleuths and researchers hoping to predict the next phase of UFO manipulation would benefit richly from an examination of Nitze’s role in an infamous, albeit aborted, false flag plan.
Nitze’s role in this nefarious false flag plan is found in a May 1963 proposal that the Cold War intellectual wrote and sent to the White House when he was Assistant Secretary of Defense (Bamford 89). The proposal suggested “a possible scenario whereby an attack on a United States reconnaissance aircraft could be exploited toward the end of effecting the removal of the Castro regime” (89). Investigative journalist James Bamford summarizes Nitze’s scheme:
“In the event Cuba attacked a U-2, the plan proposed sending in additional American pilots, this time on dangerous, unnecessary low-level reconnaissance missions with the expectation that they would also be shot down, thus provoking a war. “[T]he U.S. could undertake various measures designed to stimulate the Cubans to provoke a new incident,” said the plan. Nitze, however, did not volunteer to be one of the pilots. (89-90)
While the White House was not supportive of such acts of provocation, one of Nitze’s ideas gained traction in Pentagon circles. That idea employed low altitude flights meant to antagonize. Bamford elaborates:
“One idea involved sending fighters across the island on “harassing reconnaissance” and “show-off” missions “flaunting our freedom of action, hoping to stir the Cuban military to action.” “Thus,” said the plan, “depending above all on whether the Cubans were or could be made to be trigger happy, the development of the initial downing of a reconnaissance plane could lead at best to the elimination of Castro, perhaps the removal of Soviet troops and the installation of ground inspection in Cuba, or at least to our demonstration of firmness on reconnaissance.” About a month later, a low-level flight was made across Cuba, but unfortunately for the Pentagon, instead of bullets it produced only a protest. (90)
Nitze’s insane proposals were part of an even larger collection of morally reprehensible recommendations known as Operation Northwoods. This operation has been described as “what may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. Government” (82). Conceived by Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) chairman General Lyman L. Lemnitzer and the other demented minds that comprised the JCS, Operation Northwoods:
“…. called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere. People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war.” (82)
Operation Northwoods was a response to President John F. Kennedy’s attempts to ease tensions with Castro’s Cuba (83). The President’s intentions to reduce hostility between America and Cuba were made known during a White House meeting on February 26, 1962 (83). During the meeting, the President had his brother, Robert Kennedy, order General Edward Lansdale, a United States Air Force officer who specialized in counterinsurgency, “to drop all anti-Castro efforts” (83). Robert directed Lansdale “to concentrate for the next three months strictly on gathering intelligence about Cuba” (83). This development indicated to Lemnitzer that the Kennedy brothers were stepping away from the hawkish position (83). The JCS chairman decided it was time to concoct an extremely immoral version of the noble lie to prevent peace from breaking out. Lemnitzer and his cohorts on the JCS determined that they “would have to trick the American public and world opinion into hating Cuba so much that they would not only go along, but would insist that he and his generals launch their war against Castro” (83).
A secret JCS document obtained by Bamford revealed the Chiefs’ intentions to transform Cuba into a boogeyman that would set off the overt war they wanted. It stated: “World opinion and the United Nations forum should be favorably affected by developing the international image of the Cuban government as rash and irresponsible, and as an alarming and unpredictable threat to the peace of the Western Hemisphere” (83). Operation Northwoods was born.
The Northwoods plans “called for a war in which many patriotic Americans and innocent Cubans would die senseless deaths – all to satisfy the egos of twisted generals back in Washington, safe in their taxpayer-financed homes and limousines” (83). The plans advocated killing innocent people and then placing the blame for the loss of life on Castro, hoping to capitalize on the subsequent public outrage. One target proposed was Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6), the NASA mission that became astronaut John Glenn’s claim to fame. While Glenn was planning to become the first American to orbit the earth, the JCS was contemplating turning the famed astronaut into a martyr. Bamford explains:
“One idea seriously considered involved the launch of John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth. On February 20, 1962, Glenn was to lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on his historic journey. The flight was to carry the banner of America’s virtues of truth, freedom, and democracy into orbit high over the planet. But Lemnitzer and his Chiefs had a different idea. They proposed to Lansdale that, should the rocket explode and kill Glenn, “the objective is to provide irrevocable proof that… the fault lies with the Communists et al Cuba [sic].” This would be accomplished, Lemnitzer continued, “by manufacturing various pieces of evidence which would prove electronic interference on the part of the Cubans.” Thus, as NASA prepared to send the first American into space, the Joint Chiefs of Staff were preparing to use John Glenn’s possible death as a pretext to launch a war.”
Glenn lifted into history without mishap, leaving Lemnitzer and the Chiefs to begin devising new plots which they suggested be carried out “within the time frame of the next few months.” (84)
Operation Northwoods suggested the Guantanamo Bay Navy Base as the setting for a series of synthetic terrorist acts employing Cubans who were American assets. These “friendly” Cubans would assume the role of Castro loyalists and raise all sorts of hell. The acts of violence and mayhem would help create the illusion that the American Naval base in Cuba was besieged by the Communist menace. Bamford elaborates:
“Among the actions recommended was “a series of well coordinated incidents to take place in and around” the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This included dressing “friendly” Cubans in Cuban military uniforms and then have them “start riots near the main gate of the base. Others would pretend to be saboteurs inside the base. Ammunition would be blown up, fires started, aircraft sabotaged, mortars fired at the base with damage to installations.” (84)
The recommendations made in the Operation Northwoods documents, according to Bamford, “grew progressively more outrageous” (84). Indeed, they did. The sinking of the Maine, a historical precedent that may have been a false-flag operation, appears to have acted as a source of inspiration. Bamford writes:
“Another [Northwoods proposal] called for an action similar to the infamous incident in February 1898 when an explosion aboard the battleship Maine in Havana harbor killed 266 U.S. sailors. Although the exact cause of the explosion remained undetermined, it sparked the Spanish-American War with Cuba. Incited by the deadly blast, more than one million men volunteered for duty. Lemnitzer and his generals came up with a similar plan. “We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba,” they proposed; “casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation.” (84)
Bamford provides a listing of the various acts of mayhem devised to stir national outrage and anti-Castro sentiments:
- “Exploding a few plastic bombs in carefully chosen spots, the arrest of Cuban agents and the release of prepared documents substantiating Cuban involvement also would be helpful in projecting the idea of an irresponsible government.”
- “Advantage can be taken of the sensitivity of the Dominican [Republic] Air Force to intrusions within their national air space. ‘Cuban’ B-26 or C-46 type aircraft could make cane-burning raids at night. Soviet Bloc incendiaries could be found. This could be coupled with ‘Cuban’ messages to the Communist underground in the Dominican Republic and ‘Cuban’ shipments of arms which would be found, or intercepted, on the beach. Use of MiG type aircraft by U.S. pilots could provide additional provocation.”
- “Hijacking attempts against civil air and surface craft could appear to continue as harassing measures condoned by the Government of Cuba. (85)
Bamford also shares a Northwoods scheme that was extremely complex and, if carried out, would have employed a civil registered aircraft from a CIA proprietary company and an aircraft at Elgin AFB (85).
A paint job and changing of numbers on the Elgin AFB aircraft would have transformed it into an exact duplicate of the CIA’s civil registered aircraft (85). The duplicate aircraft would have been loaded with passengers who possessed “carefully prepared aliases” (86). It would have subsequently begun a journey to a destination “chosen only to cause the flight plan route to cross Cuba” (85). During the trip, the duplicate and the actual civil aircraft would meet at a rendezvous point south of Florida (86). There, the duplicate plane would have landed at one of Elgin AFB’s auxiliary fields where the passengers were to be unloaded (86).
The actual registered aircraft, now converted into a remote-controlled drone, would have continued on with the filed flight plan (86). Once in Cuban airspace, the drone would have begun transmitting a “May Day” message (86). International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) radio stations were the message’s intended recipients (86). The message would have stated that the aircraft was being attacked by a Cuban MiG (86).
As the “May Day” message would be transmitted, a radio signal would trigger the destruction of the drone (86). This convoluted plot would have created the illusion that Cuban MiG aircraft had engaged in an unprovoked attack on an American plane, thereby resulting in casualties (86).
Another plan shared by Bamford was a manufactured confrontation between Cuban MiGs and a USAF aircraft over international waters (86). In this fake incident, the Cuban MiGs would, of course, be the aggressors (86). Americans would have been led to believe the USAF aircraft was destroyed, which, according to Bamford, “was a particularly believable operation given the decade of shootdowns that had just taken place” (86).
Lemnitzer submitted Operation Northwoods to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara for consideration (86). His final recommendation to McNamara was that Operation Northwoods and the subsequent invasion of Cuba be assigned to the JCS (86).
On Tuesday, March 13, 1962, Lemnitzer “went to a ‘special meeting’ in McNamara’s office” (86). Following his meeting with the Secretary of Defense, Leminitzer “met with Kennedy’s military representative, General Maxwell Taylor” (86). These meetings did not conclude with Kennedy Administration’s approval of Operation Northwoods.
Bamford writes: “What happened during those meetings is unknown. But three days later, President Kennedy told Lemnitzer that there was virtually no possibility that the U.S. would ever use overt military force in Cuba” (87).
McNamara was a man of many flaws and can hardly be described as a political “dove” who endeavored to avert war at all costs. That being said, he did effectively represent the Kennedy Administration’s non-interventionist stance on Cuba when dealing with Lemnitzer. McNamara’s resistance to plans for a military invasion of Cuba seemed to only make Lemnitzer and the other chiefs more determined. Bamford elaborates:
“Undeterred, Lemnitzer and the chiefs persisted, virtually to the point of demanding that they be given authority to invade and take over Cuba. About a month after submitting Operation Northwoods, they met in the “tank,” as the JCS conference room was called, and agreed on the wording of a tough memorandum to McNamara. “The Joint Chiefs of Staff believe that the Cuban problem must be solved in the near future,” they wrote. “Further, they see no prospect of early success in overthrowing the present communist regime either as a result of internal uprising or external political, economic or psychological pressures. Accordingly they believe that military intervention by the United States will be required to overthrow the present communist regime.”
Lemnitzer was virtually rabid in his hatred of communism in general and Castro in particular. “The Joint Chiefs of Staff believe that the United States can undertake military intervention in Cuba without risk of general war,” he continued. “They also believe that the intervention can be accomplished rapidly enough to minimize communist opportunities for solicitation of UN action.”
However, what Lemnitzer was suggesting was not freeing the Cuban people, who were largely in support of Castro, but imprisoning them in a U.S. military-controlled police state. “Forces would assure rapid essential military control of Cuba,” he wrote. “Continued police action would be required.”
Concluding, Lemnitzer did not mince words: “[T]he Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend that a national policy of early military intervention in Cuba be adopted by the United States. They also recommend that such intervention be undertaken as soon as possible and preferably before the release of National Guard and Reserve forces presently on active duty.” (87)
Lemnitzer’s repeated attempts to start a war with Cuba destroyed his legitimacy. According to Bamford, “McNamara had virtually no confidence in his military chief and was rejecting nearly every proposal the general sent to him” (87). Perhaps the rejected proposals, with their extreme and dangerous ideas, caused McNamara to view Lemnitzer as a mentally unbalanced individual who was no longer fit to head up the JCS. Whatever the case maybe, Bamford reports, “Within months, Lemnitzer was denied a second term as JCS chairman and transferred to Europe as chief of NATO” (88).
While Operation Northwoods died in the womb, its spirit has lived on in a number of iterations. Numerous false flags that have taken place subsequent to Operation Northwoods reveal that the concepts authored by Nitze and other likeminded madmen have remained in vogue. Reviewing Operation Northwoods leads researchers to ask an important question: are there any plans for a false flag involving fake extraterrestrial hostiles that invade our airspace in advanced craft? Is a cosmic Operation Northwoods in the works?
Every so often, influential people within the power structure will say something that raises suspicion. Remarks made by New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman in the summer of 2011 are a good example. While speaking with journalist Fareed Zakaria, Krugman offered up an alien invasion as the solution for an economic slump that was holding the country in its grip (Sanburn). Krugman stated, “If we discovered that space aliens were planning to attack, and we needed a massive build-up to counter the space alien threat, and inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months” (ibid).
Krugman’s affinity for an alien invader-driven economic stimulus may be just one more indication that he is actually a very poor economist. No one should be fooled by Krugman’s Nobel Prize.
In early 2021, Krugman was among the economists who were pressing Biden to considerably amp up federal spending (Miltimore). Krugman argued that the inflation problem was “greatly exaggerated,” and admonished Biden to “go big and ignore the worriers” (ibid). Krugman and his ilk won the day, and the Biden team threw all caution to the wind. The result? Eight months after Krugman promoted a spending orgy, the country was hit with 30-year highs in inflation (ibid). The Nobel laureate spent much of the disastrous Biden years turning a blind eye to the economic hardships that beset most Americans. His elitist insensitivity was best captured during an interview with Christiane Amanpour. During that interview, Krugman described the nation’s economic health as “surreally good,” while expressing bewilderment at the fact that polls were showing a staggering 71 percent of Americans felt the economy was “not so good or poor” (ibid).
Clearly, Krugman’s performance during the Biden years demonstrated that he is little more than the economic equivalent of a snake oil salesman. Still, he carries clout in elite circles, where his reputation seems to remain unscathed. When he made his strange remarks concerning an alien invasion, he may have been expressing a desire held by his elite sponsors. Krugman and his friends in high places may wish to see a cosmic Operation Northwoods conducted to bail them out of messes they have made. If the fake whistleblowers examined in the first three installments of this series are any indication, then covert political circles are not dismissing the proposal as bad comedy. On the contrary, they may be doing their best to oblige.
Seventy-three years prior to Krugman’s weird remarks regarding an alien invasion, the plan for faux extraterrestrial hostilities may have been put to paper. It did not appear first in the esoteric scribblings of secret societies or in the policy papers of some obscure think-tank. Instead, it seems to have initially appeared in the pages of fiction.
In 1948, Bernard Newman published a novel entitled The Flying Saucer (Pilkington 42). According to author Mark Pilkington, the novel has “the singular distinction of being the world’s first UFO book” (42). The book presents readers with a cabal of scientist and intelligence operatives pursuing the all-too-familiar goal of ending war and establishing a utopia. In order to realize their globalist dream of a united planet, the scientists manufacture a threat from space.
Newman’s novel, according to Pilkington, “seems deliberately to merge fiction and fact” (43). Newman may have become aware of desires within elitist and intelligence circles to create an alien menace during his work with the British Ministry of Information (MOI), which “was the central government department responsible for publicity and propaganda in the Second World War” (“Learn About the Art: The Ministry of Information, INF series and INF 3”). Located in Senate House at the University of London during World War II, the MOI supposedly acted as the model for the Ministry of Truth, Oceania’s propaganda ministry in George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. According to independent researcher Jackie Jura, Orwell’s wife, Eileen, “worked at the Ministry of Information in the Censorship Department from 1939 to 1942” (Jura). Jura asserts that the MOI prevented Orwell’s book from being published during the war due to its strong anti-communist and anti-Stalinist message. At the time, the MOI was spreading pro-Soviet propaganda so that the British population would view Stalin “as a benevolent ally” (ibid). Jura writes:
“Orwell came up against “the anonymous directing brains” at the Ministry of Information in March 1944 when he couldn’t find a publisher for Animal Farm. It was considered too anti-Stalin and anti-Communist for Britain, and America didn’t want it either. Then when he finally did find a publisher, Frederick Warburg, it still wasn’t printed due to the wartime shortage of paper. It wasn’t until August 1945 – a year and a half after he’d finished writing it – that Animal Farm was finally published. By that time Eileen had been dead for five months and wasn’t able to share in the happiness of its success. She had been a major help to Orwell in the planning of it. She used to sit up in bed at night to read what he had produced during each day. The trauma Orwell endured over the suppression of Animal Farm contributed to the emotions so powerfully expressed by Winston in 1984, published four years later in June 1949. And like Eileen before him, Orwell didn’t live to enjoy the worldwide acclaim that followed. (Ibid; italics in original)
Newman, according to author Robert Calder, joined the MOI as a staff lecturer following Britain’s crushing defeat at Dunkirk in 1940 (Calder 85). During his time with the ministry, Newman “produced a number of books to promote the British cause,” including The Story of Poland (1940), Siegfried Spy (1940), Savoy! Corsica! Tunis! (1940), Death to the Fifth Column (1941), One Man’s View (1941), Secret Weapon (1942), and The New Europe (1942) (85).
Newman travelled to the United States to spread pro-British propaganda after “a director of the Ministry of Information asked him in the summer of 1942 to tour the United States to help dispel some of the American ignorance of the British” (85). With the MOI paying for his travel expenses, Newman conducted an extensive tour of America (85). Calder provides details concerning Newman’s visit to the United States:
“After consulting the British high commissioner in Ottawa, Malcolm McDonald, and being invited to speak across Canada, he [Newman] began his American visit in Washington. There he met with President Roosevelt and lectured at a forum for senators, members of Congress, senior officials, and civil servants on matters such as India, the Second Front, Churchill, censorship, sabotage, British communism, air power, and Europe after the war. As well, a radio program he did with Henry Baukhage reached an audience estimated at eleven million and led to many more invitations to broadcast over more local networks throughout the country.
From Washington, Newman travelled across the United States to Alabama, Kansas City, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Hollywood, San Francisco, and other points. In Chicago he spoke to an audience of four thousand, and at one army camp there were a thousand soldiers present and many more thousands listening around loudspeakers.” (85-86)
Newman’s stateside propaganda mission suggests that the writer was at least marginally familiar with the techniques of semiotic manipulation pioneered by communication theoreticians. Such theoreticians would have populated the MOI. As a persuasive writer and a skilled propagandist, Newman may have appreciated the potential that an extraterrestrial threat narrative possesses for the purposes of propaganda and social engineering. Therefore, his book The Flying Saucer, which reached the shores of America in 1950, may constitute a novelized recommendation for or prediction of the effective exploitation of humanity’s fear of things otherworldly or unknown. It may even be a mixture of both, a blending of prophesied events and suggested courses of action. The last possibility is probably the most likely and, if it is correct, then The Flying Saucer is the cosmic Operation Northwoods hiding in literary garb.
The novel kicks off with a conversation between the three principal conspirators. First is Drummond, a brilliant scientist whose “science is a generation ahead” of the rest of the world (Newman 181). Second is Pontivy, described by Newman as “once the leading operative – to Americans, the ace – of the French Deuxieme Bureau and Surete Generale, one of the most famous counter-spies in Europe” (5). Finally, there is Newman, the cabal’s chief propagandist and, of course, the author of the novel (5). The trio are drawn to a newspaper article regarding a speech given by Prime Minister Anthony Eden (6).
One paragraph catches their eyes. It reads: “In his speech Mr. Eden said that it seemed to be an unfortunate fact that the nations of the world were only really united when they were facing a communist menace. What we really needed was an attack by Mars” (6). Pontivy expresses the cabal’s affinity for the idea: “It is clever, is it not? Figure to yourself, here are Russia, America, England, and France, squabbling as usual over some trifle. Then comes a message. The men in the Moon have invaded the Earth. How petty arguments of our politicians now seem! How petty they are” (6-7;italic in original)! Pontivy’s words bear striking resemblance to those spoken by a more recent head of state: Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States. While speaking before the United Nations General Assembly on September 21, 1987, Reagan entertained the idea of an alien menace acting as the catalyst for the cessation of Cold War tensions, the abolition of war, and possible world unification. Reagan said:
“I have spoken today of a vision and the obstacles to its realization. More than a century ago a young Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, visited America. After that visit he predicted that the two great powers of the future world would be, on one hand, the United States, which would be built, as he said, “by the plowshare,” and, on the other, Russia, which would go forward, again, as he said, “by the sword.” Yet need it be so? Cannot swords be turned to plowshares? Can we and all nations not live in peace? In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And yet, I ask you, is not an alien force already among us? What could be more alien to the universal aspirations of our peoples than war and the threat of war? “
(“Address to the 42nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, New York”)
Reagan’s desire to see an end to east-west enmity cannot be faulted. If anything, it was a very noble goal to pursue. Reagan’s subtle allusions to world government and universal disarmament, however, set off alarm bells with anti-authoritarian people the world over. Justifiably so, given the fact that the loss of the right to self-defense and centralization of power tend to precede serfdom. Furthermore, the fact that America’s 40th chief executive invoked such a bizarre impetus to bring about radical social and political changes raises eyebrows. One cannot help but wonder if, in 1987, there were real life counterparts to the conspirators in Newman’s novel, carefully influencing the thinking of an American president.
There is evidence that suggests that Reagouan’s thinking was shaped by UFO-themed social engineering. During the 1985 Geneva Summit, Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev was taken aback when Reagan asked him if the Soviet Union would discard its Cold War animosity and team with the United States in the event of an extraterrestrial invasion (Blazeski). Subsequent to the summit, Reagan repeated the alien invasion scenario to Maryland high school students (Carter). A mortified Colin Powell, who was Deputy national security advisor at the time, expunged any mention of aliens or UFOs from future Presidential speeches (ibid). The New York Times reported that Powell believed that the 1951 classic science fiction movie The Day the Earth Stood Still was a source of inspiration for Reagan’s alien invasion scenario (Blazeski).
For many years, it has been the conviction of not a few researchers that The Day the Earth Stood Still is little more than a psychological operation wrapped in a cinematic garb. Researcher Robbie Graham went so far as to describe the 1951 film as a “CIA UFO acclimation project,” and with good reason (Graham). Back in 1983, Emmy award-winning filmmaker and journalist Linda Moulton Howe’s preparation and research for a UFO documentary led to a conversation with Air Force Intelligence officers in which it was revealed to her that The Day the Earth Stood Still was “inspired by the CIA” (ibid). The Air Force Intelligence officers also claimed that the movie was “one of the first government tests of public reaction to such an event” (ibid).
The production of The Day the Earth Stood Still included individuals with very interesting backgrounds. The movie’s screenwriter, Edmund H. North, had been a major in the Army Signal Corps (ibid). While with the Corps, North made training and educational documentaries (ibid).
When North moved on to Hollywood, he wrote a number of films that were intended to whip up patriotic fervor in audiences, including Sink the Bismark! (1960) and Submarine X-1 (1968) (ibid). It could be argued that his crowning achievement was the script for Francis Ford Coppola’s Patton, for which he shared an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (ibid). All of this, according to Graham, “raises the possibility that [North] maintained an official or quasi-official role in the government’s cinematic propaganda campaigns throughout his career” (ibid).
The individual who oversaw the production of The Day the Earth Stood Still was 20th Century Fox production chief Darryl Zanuck (ibid). Like North, Zanuck was an Army Signal Corps veteran, and actually in charge of that particular branch of the Army (ibid).
At the time that The Day the Earth Stood Still was in production, Zanuck was serving on the board of the National Committee for Free Europe (NCFE) (ibid). The committee was created by the CIA “ostensibly as a private anti-Soviet organization” (ibid). Graham writes:
“As a star member of the NCFE, Zanuck was directly associated with the organization’s executive committee, which included future CIA Director Allen Dulles and future President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1951 – when The Day the Earth Stood Still was being written, produced and released – the President of the NCFE was General Charles Douglas (C.D.) Jackson, who served as Deputy Chief of the Psychological Warfare Division of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) during WWII, and would later be appointed as special advisor to President Eisenhower on Psychological Warfare. He was, in the words of historian Frances Stoner Saunders, “one of the most influential covert strategists in America.” Jackson referred to Darryl Zanuck as being among a group of Hollywood “friends” – including Cecil B. DeMille, Jack Warner and Walt Disney – on whom the government could rely “to insert in their scripts and in their action the right ideas with the proper subtlety.” (ibid)
The film’s producer, Julian Blaustein, was also an Army Signal Corps veteran (ibid). The collaboration between Zanuck, Blaustein, and North on The Day the Earth Stood Still was quite interesting. The three seemed to want the movie to have a certain psychological impact on audiences, one that would stay with viewers long after they had left the movie theater. An August 10, 1950 memo from Zanuck to Blaustein and North seems to support this contention. Graham shares some of that memo’s contents:
“In the memo, dated August 10, 1950, Zanuck stresses that every effort should be made to “compel the audience to completely accept [emphasis in original] this story as something that could possibly happen in the not too distant future.” Zanuck placed particular emphasis on the now iconic scene in which the alien Klaatu lands his flying saucer in Washington, D.C. before emerging to address the public. Zanuck advised Blaustein and North to “treat it as realistically as you possibly can,” even suggesting that the scene play out documentary style: “You should suddenly hear radio programs being interrupted with startling flash announcements from Washington, New York, Los Angeles, etc. The whole nation is ‘listening in.’ This should be dramatized like the opening of a documentary film.” The audience must “’accept’ our entire project,” said Zanuck. (ibid)
Blaustein and North took Zanuck’s recommendations seriously. Graham writes: “Virtually all of [Zanuck’s] suggestions were followed” (ibid). The end result, released to the public on January 1, 1951, was a hard-hitting, realistic presentation of frightening and otherworldly events. Reagan’s impressionable mind soaked up the film like a sponge, leaving little wonder as to why his UN speech bore such a resemblance to Pontivy’s and Anthony Eden’s remarks in The Flying Saucer.
In The Flying Saucer, Newman has the fictional version of himself using cultural artifacts to advance a UFO acclimation project not unlike the one that appears to have transpired with The Day the Earth Stood Still. More will be said of the social engineering that takes place within the pages of The Flying Saucer later in this article.
Pontivy’s musings regarding Eden’s statement strike a responsive chord with Drummond and Newman. With that, the three start plotting in “casual fashion” to fake an alien invasion (Newman 11). The cosmic Operation Northwoods has begun. The conspirators unleash a series of rocket crashes. The first falls in Leicestershire, a ceremonial county in England (11). The third rocket lands on a Russian peasant village (30). The rockets are found to contain hieroglyphics (33). Code experts produce “an intelligent guess” regarding the strange collection of pictures and symbols: “The British Rocket had given warning of that which fell in America: this in its turn had warned that one would fall in Russia, north of the Black Sea” (34). A Chinese Professor of Oriental Literature and Languages named Lai Kan plays a pivotal role in deciphering the hieroglyphics (34-35). Little does the world know, Lai Kan is one of the conspirators and the hieroglyphics are his inventions (41).
Meanwhile, Newman, the conspiracy’s propagandist, is hard at work seeding the culture with artifacts that encourage a belief in extraterrestrials. Newman writes:
“I had been very busy. Indeed, long before Drummond’s plans were complete I was the first to get into action. My task was to prepare the mind of the people well in advance – to make it receptive to ideas about other planets. To this end I stimulated articles in the popular press all over the world. I revived old controversies about canals on Mars and even the unexplained white streaks on the Moon. I got books like Wells’ War of the Worlds and the American ‘Scientifiction’ pulp magazines, reissued in most countries, including Russia. And, as will have been noted, I prompted a film so that it appeared at exactly the right moment. (42)
A people now conditioned for extraterrestrial contact are then told that the aliens are not completely altruistic creatures. Professor Lai Kan informs the people of Earth that the extraterrestrials have demands. These visitors from another world, according to Lai Kan, suffer from what they call the “wasting disease” (41). A certain element, scarce on the alien world but plentiful here, can cure the wasting disease (41). This element, says Lai Kan, is gold (41). The aliens are energized by a mixture of desperation and greed. They do not desire just a portion of Earth’s gold. These extraterrestrials demand all of the world’s yellow metal (41). Newman explains why the conspirators included gold confiscation in their alien threat narrative: “Gold is a universal commodity. Nothing else would so arouse opposition – or unity against the people who demanded it” (63).
The conspiracy’s campaign of panic and fear now takes on a life of its own. Newman observes: “now the scheme was advancing under its own momentum, and I contented myself with occasional hints” (67). Calls for world unification start to emerge. The drive for unification is on full display in the United Nations. The combining of forces is entertained as the only way to repel the aliens, now determined to most likely be Martians and described by the American spokesman as “gangsters or bank-robbers” (68). The British Foreign Secretary stands and expresses what seems to be the sentiments of the entire General Council:
“At all costs we must be united. Any division or weakness would be fatal. We can learn from recent history as well as from ancient. Had the democratic peoples stood firmly side by side in 1939, there would have been no Hitler war.” (Loud applause from all except the Russian bloc.) “On behalf of H.M. Government, I pledge the support of Britain to any action the Assembly may decide on.” (72; italics in original)
Newman provides more clarity regarding the cabal’s phantom menace. He disseminates the work of Percival Lowell (77). From a revolving dome observatory, Lowell “mapped and measured, published and proclaimed, continually fanning the flames of public interest” (Taylor 193). Among one of those who were enraptured by the prospect of Martian life was none other than the infamous advocate of the British Empire, H.G. Wells.
Ian Taylor writes:
“The life-on-Mars thesis caught the attention of England’s science fiction writer of the day H.G. Wells, who wrote War of the Worlds in 1898, a classic to this day. Interest was revived a generation later when a radio drama based on Wells’s book was broadcast in New York in 1938 and caused a minor panic among the listeners. (193)
Of course, the “minor panic” induced by the War of the Worlds broadcast was studied intensely by the Princeton Radio Research Project. This project was a Rockefeller-funded enterprise. The Rockefellers are but one of several dynasties whose scions have populated the global oligarchical establishment. The fanatical eschatological vision that informs the endeavors of such men is a technocratic world order. Wells envisioned a similar eschaton within history and Martian war machines acted as its harbinger. Lowell was the theoretician who provided the scientific affirmation for such a narrative.
However, Lowell’s observations may not have been reliable enough to hinge such a grand narrative upon. According to Taylor, Lowell’s telescopic view of Mars lacked the requisite clarity to verify the presence of canals. He states:
“Mars, as it appeared in Lowell’s telescope under the best viewing conditions, is quite a small disc, and observation of detail is just about at the limit of resolution of the human eye. But over the years the number of canals reported and named by Lowell rose to more than seven hundred. (193)
Given Lowell’s substantially restricted view of Mars, one must wonder how he managed to identify over seven hundred canals. Perhaps Lowell’s observations were not filtered through the eye, but through the imagination. If this contention holds sway, then it necessitates an examination of the imaginative influences on Lowell. According to Taylor, Lowell’s “imagination was fired by a report, in 1877, of the Italian astronomer Schiaparelli who said he had seen ‘canali’ on the planet Mars” (191). Elaborating on this report, Taylor writes:
“It was a very cautious report, and the “canali” were simply meant as straight lines. A later report from Schiaparelli indicated that these were double lines, and in English “canali” became canals. Popular imagination took this to mean a sign of intelligent life, and there followed a public controversy almost as sharp as that which followed the publication of Darwin’s Origin. The objections came from theologians who saw the proposal of extraterrestrial life as a threat to the doctrine of Special Creation. Their argument held that God had created life only on earth and nowhere else. Man, so the logic ran, was the only reasoning creature, uniquely favored among all of God’s creations and the center of his attention. (191)
While some might characterize such arguments as capriciously anthropocentric, Schiaparelli’s theologian counterparts understood that his “findings” held significant creatological implications. With the doctrine of Special Creation successfully undermined, certain other propositions could be insinuated into the vacuum left by the banished doctrine of imago Dei.
If intelligent life existed elsewhere, then man was no longer a “reasoning creature” who was “uniquely favored” by God. In fact, God Himself was no longer a necessity. With the doctrine of imago Dei deemed untenable, it was only a matter of time until the modern mind concluded that there was never a God whose image was mirrored by mankind. At least that would be the case for the God of Christianity. Of course, nature abhors a vacuum and the most immediate surrogate for God was the intramundane divinity of the Earth Goddess. Darwin’s evolutionary ideas had already intimated such an immanent deity. Not surprisingly, Lowell was familiar with Darwinism. Taylor elaborates:
“Educated in Europe and then at Harvard, he was able to enjoy the privileged life of the financially independent intellectual, traveling and keeping company with New England’s affluent industrial aristocracy, who were generally keen practitioners of social Darwinism. Later in life, the psychologist William James and Ernst Haeckel in Germany became his personal friends. Darwin’s influence reached into the very wellsprings of Lowell’s thoughts, and the latter applied the idea of evolution broadly in both science and society, as may be seen throughout his many writings. (190)
Lowell expressed some conspicuously Darwinian sentiments in The Soul of the Far East, which seizes upon the differentiation of species as an affirmation of evolutionary theory (190-91). Lowell’s evolutionism harmonized rather well with his cosmic presuppositions concerning Martian life. Darwin’s immanent divinity, hypostatized as the Earth Goddess, is commonly interpreted as a ubiquitous generative force that animates the causa sui universe. Thus, the fingers of the Goddess allegedly extend themselves throughout the cosmos, touching the primordial soups of other worlds. From these stews are birthed beings who, in toto, constitute a pantheon of intramundane deities. The Earth Goddess gives rise to alien “gods.” Commenting on the harmonious relationship between evolutionary theory and the belief in extraterrestrials, Taylor states:
“If it [the extraterrestrial proposition] were true, it would greatly support the theory of evolution, for it was argued that if life could evolve from nonlife on earth, then it was also possible to have evolved under similar circumstances anywhere else throughout the universe. More important, however, was the possibility that life could have evolved on a distant planet first and subsequently been brought to earth. Moreover, each of the millions of stars in the visible universe was a potential sun to a planetary system like our own, and by sheer weight of numbers it was reasoned, principally by Lowell, that there must be many with conditions suitable for life. (193)
Schiaparelli’s “canali” were viewed as an empirical confirmation of evolutionarily precipitated organisms on Mars. Yet, did such “canali” even exist? Just four years before the Viking Mars landings, reconnaissance of the planet revealed that there were “no canals, no sign of intelligent life” (193). In the absence of the canals, Lowell’s theory “promptly died” (193). Nevertheless, the Lowellian proposition concerning Martian is central to Newman’s narrative. Newman reveals:
“I had taken the precaution to have ready for publication a new edition of Professor Lowell’s original study, Mars as the Abode of Life. It appeared in fourteen different languages.
The combined effects were decisive. Within a few weeks of the arrival of the latest rocket, all speculation was stilled. The Moon and Venus were dismissed from conjecture; Mars only remained, and by this time there were comparatively few doubters. (Newman 77)
The human race refuses the Martians’ demands. The Martians, however, intend on convincing the Earth to capitulate with a demonstration of strength. This demonstration involves a warning rocket targeting the Forest of Bialowieza on the Polish-Belarussian border (80). Newman describes this false flag as the conspiracy’s “first experiment in fear” (83). The fake aliens deploy a very real weapon, causing the Forest of Bialowieza to disappear (105). Newman provides his readers with a description of the demonstration: “It was eerie, fantastic, incredible. Within a space of two minutes, the spinney literally disappeared before our eyes. A black cloud seemed to be absorbed by the earth” (106).
Drummond determines that the weapon deployed was a “protonic bomb” (107). This protonic bomb, asserts Drummond, proves that the Martians “have advanced beyond the atomic bomb” (107). Russian scientist Bogulov, an observer of the demonstration, agrees with this assessment (107). What no one knows, however, is that Bogulov is a “leading member” of the conspiracy (90). Those who examine the protonic bomb’s aftermath are profoundly affected. Newman writes: “The scene was eerie, incredible. The vast expanse of trees had simply disappeared, leaving a brown desert behind. The ground was hard, cracked as if with intense heat, and occasionally discoloured, as in volcanic districts” (111). He continues:
“Now I had seen Hiroshima, where concrete buildings had survived the atomic bomb – though their interiors had been completely burned out. Here it was quite different. Slabs of concrete were twisted into fantastic shapes. The first we encountered had completely collapsed, with irregular lumps of concrete lying as they fell, flecked with strange colours, and sometimes fused one into the other. (111-12)
Concerning the destruction, one American grimly states: “Compared with this, the Hiroshima atomic bomb was like a kid bursting a paper bag” (114). The conspiracy’s false flag is a resounding success. A terrified humanity seeks an effective response. Thankfully, Drummond has a ready-made solution. The scientist tells the world that he intends on bringing the fight to the Martian hostiles by constructing a rocket capable of reaching a target on Mars (122). The world takes the bait, as Newman observes: “Rattled men, devoid of ideas themselves, will always rally round an idea firmly held” (122). The people of Earth embrace Drummond’s idea, completely oblivious to the fact that the disease and the cure are being cooked up in the same lab.
The world’s blissful ignorance compensates for the fact that the conspiracy’s plan is anything but fail-safe. What if humanity had chosen not to fight? What if the world, having learned the Martians’ demands, had simply ran up the white flag of capitulation? Newman contemplates an outcome that, fortunately, never comes to pass:
“If the United Nations at the last moment funked the issue, and decided to give up their gold to the ‘Martians,’ we should be in a fix. I could just imagine us shooting off rockets of gold into the atmosphere! True, it might do as much good floating about in space as it did in the cellars of the American Fort Knox or the Russian Ural Block-houses. (134)
After weighing and considering all the logistical nightmares of a fake gold confiscation that never was, Newman flatly admits: “It was obvious that our plan had really no more than a shallow foundation, and a serious investigation would expose it” (134). The shallow foundation, however, seems to suffice. The last moment calls for surrender at the United Nations never came and never will come, providing the conspirators with an opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief. Following the sigh, a significant victory is secured for the cabal. Energized by Drummond’s plan to strike back at Mars, the Soviet Union’s delegate appears at the United Nations and endorses collective resistance to the Martians. Newman writes:
“This is the voice of the people of the Soviet Union,” he thundered. “Never will we submit to menaces. We call upon the peoples of the world to rally round us. The die is cast. The issue is crystal clear. This is life or death for the world. Shall the earth belong to its peoples, or shall it become a Martian satellite state? The peoples of the Soviet Union decide for freedom – they will give their all so that government of the people, for the people, from the people shall not perish from the earth.”
In the applause, his slight mis-quotation passed almost unnoticed.
“We call upon the peoples of the world to fight with us against the common enemy,” he went on. “With unity of purpose and endeavour, victory must be ours. Then the Martian Fascists shall pay for their criminal folly. Since their first act of aggression was committed on Russian territory, it follows that the Soviet Union will have a first claim on any reparations which may be exacted. And now, to the battle! Freedom is in peril – we must defend it with all our might. We must fight in the plains, on the oceans, in the sky. We will never give in.” (136)
The representative from Haiti is also emboldened by Drummond’s counterattack idea. He, too, beats the drum for unity, drawing parallels between the Martian invasion and World War Two. Newman shares the Haitian’s speech:
“How often we have listened to hours of vituperation and recrimination,” he went on. “How often has this rostrum acted as a soap-box for the proclamation of ideological or national interests. More than once the friends of the United Nations have found themselves facing conditions of despair.
“The situation is different to-day. I may be wrong, but the atmosphere of the moment is reminiscent of those days when so many of us united to face a Fascist menace of the earth – a unity which we lost all too soon. If we can regain it, then the Martian rockets may prove a boon rather than a disaster.” (137)
Drummond strikes while the iron is hot. Subsequent to the speeches promoting unity, the brilliant scientist takes the stand and provides an update regarding his proposed response to the Martian aggression:
“In the meantime, as I have previously reported, I have worked out plans of a rocket which I am quite confident can reach Mars. I can now announce that it is powered by atomic energy, at long last under control. The rocket can carry an atomic charge, which might be even more effective on Mars than on the earth. Or, in the first instance, it might be as well to send only a message. This would indicate to the Martians that we can reach their planet, so could reply to any threat or deed.” (137; italic in original)
The news is greeted with great enthusiasm. Newman states: “One after the other delegates pledged the support of their governments, and all their resources, to the defence of the earth” (138). Drummond then cleverly uses the false Martian invasion as a pretext for a monopoly over lethal force. Newman:
“If I may intervene, Mr. President,” said Drummond, “I ought perhaps to have made this point clearer. It is understood that I must prepare not one rocket, but many, in case inter-planetary conflict results. Thus I must warn delegates that I shall need, not agreed proportions, but all the Uranium 235 in the world, wherever it is held.”
For a moment the effect of this pronouncement was sobering. (“That is clever,” Papa Pontivy whispered. “You see it, bien? If Drummond gets all their uranium, they cannot make atomic bombs to blow each other up.”)
The American delegate, after hasty consultations with his colleagues, promptly announced that U.S.A., which held probably the largest store of Uranium 235 in the world, would place it all at Drummond’s disposal. The Canadian representative followed. The Russian would have to consult his government, he said, but he gave an unusually strong hint that its decision would be favourable. (138)
The nations of the world engage in a very dangerous transaction, sacrificing sovereignty and self-determination on an altar of security. The conspiracy has successfully facilitated a migration away from a world of nation-states with a separation of powers. In the name of staving off the most outrageous of all fugazis, a new global authority is being erected. What’s worse is that those who stand to lose the most are crying the loudest for the new global authority. The Dutch delegate in Newman’s novel pleads for it. Newman writes:
“One moment, Mr. President!” The Dutch delegate was on his feet. “More than once reference has been made in the debate to the fact that the Martians are obviously one body, under a single leadership. I believe that we shall be at a great disadvantage if we do not enter the battle as one world, under a leader with supreme authority.” (143)
When delegates are that eager to cede power, sovereignty, and self-determination, world government is just on the horizon. Newman makes it clear throughout his novel that the fast-approaching world government will be technocratic in nature. At one point, the wily Pontivy boldly asserts that “without scientists, the politicians could not make war; therefore, scientists must control the politicians. That is logic, and I am always logical” (50). Speaking before the United Nations, Drummond makes the following declaration: “Science is international. It owes its power neither to political ideologies nor constitutions: it is founded upon facts, which are far more important than the ideas of men” (140). The term “democracy” is bandied about quite a bit in The Flying Saucer. However, just how democratic is a world government where scientists have nudged the people’s elected representatives to one side?
Alas, the question is never broached by Newman. Instead, Newman moves his readers on to the next phase of the conspiracy. The readers are permitted to eavesdrop on a conversation between Newman and Drummond. The scientist expresses a desire to keep the world psychologically off balance. He states: “I want to keep the world nervy or jumpy for a few weeks. I’ve got to go into a huddle with my scientists preparing my rocket. People have been so worked up over the Martian rockets that waiting could be a dangerous anti-climax” (138). Then the following exchange takes place:
“I see. Right; it shouldn’t be difficult. My flying saucers are popping up again. You know, what I really need is a Man from Mars.”
“That’s an idea,” [Drummond] smiled.
“With one man – or even a bit of him – I could have every tongue in the world jabbering.” (158-59)
With that, a plan is hatched to drop a chimera from the sky. If an alien body is required to sustain the shock therapy, then one shall be provided.
Sadly, the UFO community is well-acquainted with fake alien corpses that were supposed to be the “smoking guns” that sweep away all the skepticism. Probably the most notorious emerged in 1995, when a 17-minute black-and-white film of an alleged alien postmortem appeared in a “documentary” that aired on the Fox television network (Nickell).
It was immediately attacked as a hoax by skeptics and Ufologists alike (ibid). Joe Nickell elaborates:
“Among numerous observations, they noted that the film bore a bogus, non-military codemark, that the injuries sustained by the extraterrestrial were inconsistent with an air crash, and that the person performing the autopsy held the scissors like a tailor rather than a pathologist (who is trained to place his middle or ring finger in the bottom of the scissors hole and use his forefinger to steady the blades).
Hollywood special effects expert Trey Stokes (whose film credits include “The Blob,” “Batman Returns,” and “Tales from the Crypt”) said that the alien corpse behaved like a dummy, seeming lightweight, “rubbery,” and therefore moving unnaturally when handled. (ibid)
The case for a hoax was reinforced in 2006, when a Manchester man came forward claiming to have created the body that appeared in the film. Nickell provides the details:
“Belatedly, a Manchester sculptor and special-effects creator, John Humphreys, now claims the Roswell alien was his handiwork, destroyed after the film was made. He made the revelation just as a new movie, “Alien Autopsy,” was being released, a film for which he recreated the original creature. As he told the BBC, “Funnily enough, I used exactly the same process as before. You start with the stills from the film, blow them up as large as you can. Then you make an aluminum armature, which you cover in clay, and then add all the detail.” The clay model was used to produce a mold that yielded a latex cast.
Humphreys also admitted that in the original autopsy film he had himself played the role of the pathologist, whose identity was concealed by a contamination suit. (ibid)
Nickell sees the alien autopsy myth as a multi-generational effort that involved a rogue gallery of cranks, hustlers, and charlatans. He writes:
“The alien-autopsy hoax represented the culmination of several years’ worth of rumors, myths, and outright deceptions purporting to prove that saucer wreckage and the remains of its humanoid occupants were stored at a secret facility—e.g., a (nonexistent) “Hangar 18” at Wright Patterson Air Force Base—and that the small corpses were autopsied at that or another site. (ibid)
Nickell provides a detailed list of scam artists who contributed to the alien autopsy hoax. That list includes American science fiction author Robert Spencer Carr, an individual who, in 1974, claimed to have “firsthand knowledge of where the pickled aliens were stored” (ibid). In the construction of his claim, Carr turned to writer Frank Scully as a source of inspiration (ibid).
In 1950, Scully “reported in his book ‘Behind the Flying Saucers’ that the U.S. government possessed no fewer than three Venusian spaceships, together with their humanoid corpses” (ibid). Scully’s sources for this claim were “two confidence men who had hoped to sell a petroleum-locating device allegedly based on alien technology” (ibid). The fact that Scully’s allegation was clearly false did not prevent Carr from using it as a foundation to build myth upon. Carr declared that he knew the location of bodies that had been recovered from one of the crashes that appeared in Scully’s book (ibid). Eventually, Carr’s son revealed to the public that this story was entirely a product of his father’s imagination (ibid).
Was Carr simply a charlatan, or is there something more to his story? In 1932, Carr moved to the Soviet Union “apparently to take part in the ‘Utopian society’ Stalin was creating” (Snider). After six years, Carr returned to the United States, supposedly disillusioned with the Soviet system (ibid). It was 1938, and the fear and suspicion surrounding communism was riding high (ibid). In spite of this fact, there is no indication that any investigation of Carr was carried out by agencies tasked with national security (ibid). It leads one to ask if Carr was working as some kind of intelligence asset at the time. Researcher S. William Snider astutely observes:
“Despite having spent over half a decade living in the Soviet Union, he does not appear to have ever elicited serious scrutiny from the national security state. Given the political climate in these United States at the onset of the Cold War when McCarthyism was at its peak, this could indicate that Carr was carrying out some state-sanctioned function in the USSR. Certainly many lives were ruined during this era over far less dubious connections to the Soviets than spending six years in the USSR. (ibid)
Carr could very well have been working for covert political circles during his time in the Soviet Union. His UFO mythmaking may have been part and parcel of his work on behalf of hidden powers.
Some researchers might detect a bond between Carr and Newman. Carr certainly seemed to share a lot in common with Newman’s fictional depiction of himself. Both Carr and the fictional Newman were writers determined to make the world believe in aliens. Carr also shared much in common with the real-life Newman. Like Carr, Newman (the one of reality, and not of fiction) possessed a background that raised suspicions of espionage (“Bernard Newman (writer)”). If the allegations are true, then these two enigmatic men may have been using their spycraft in service to a long-running UFO deception effort. Newman seemed to believe that no good alien PSYOPS is complete without a corpse, and he seemed to want covert powers to know that as well when he penned The Flying Saucer.
The dreaded corpse from beyond is unleashed on mankind in rather dramatic fashion. The sight of the monumental event is a little American town named Fairfield (Newman 190). A Martian craft comes crashing down “in the middle of cultivated fields” (193). The craft’s occupant attempts to deploy his parachute, but it fails to open properly (193). The first humans to roll up on the scene, a journalist named John P. Marquis and a newspaper photographer named Betty Hoffman, discover a mangled body with bluish and green skin (195).
The world is in shock, but Newman’s readers are let in on an even more shocking secret: the body is yet another product of Drummond’s brilliance. Newman writes: “The Man from Mars was certainly the happiest of Drummond’s inspirations” (195). Drummond and another conspirator, Dr. Aygard Rossiter, make sure that the chimera is designed to rapidly disintegrate (197). The accelerated decomposition successfully conceals the crime, making it impossible for more suspicious and skeptical scientists to subject the corpse to any meaningful scrutiny. The biggest giveaway, the Martian’s internal organs, is the first thing to disappear. Newman reveals: “The internal organs had defied reconstruction, and had been the first to disintegrate” (198). To sustain the fraud, Rossiter and others publish a farcical report, which Newman describes as “a model of misleading information” (197). Readers learn what the fake alien remains really were when Rossiter jokes:
“It’s been amusing,” he admitted. “I felt like adding a footnote to the Report – ‘Special acknowledgement is given to the gorilla, the two chimpanzees, the five gibbons, the whale, the octopus, the Chinaman, the Egyptian and the Malay, to say nothing of the Galapagos tortoise, whose bodies, suitably dissected, went to provide the remains of the Man from Mars.” (200)
The conspiracy’s hideous mixture of human and animal body parts has made the world even more eager for Drummond to deploy his Mars-bound rocket. Drummond launches the rocket with the Martian response already in mind (231). That response, Drummond discloses to his cohorts, will involve aircraft fitted with silencers (231). A plan for a full-blown Martian invasion starts to materialize.
The Martian invasion begins to emerge a few months later, in an area of Central Africa “where the Sudan shades off into the Belgian Congo” (231). There are sightings of a “strange pylon” in the sky (234). Jets attempting to approach the bizarre object experience engine failure (233-34). Once again, a mystified and scared people are completely unaware of the role played by Drummond’s ingenuity behind the scenes. Drummond is deploying a terrestrial technology that has already been in existence for several years! Newman elaborates: “For years scientists have known how to stop an engine, by interference with its electrical processes, by means of the emission of a charge, or ‘ray’” (235). While it is a human device disabling engines, a terrified public believe their vehicles have fallen prey to a superior alien technology. The silencers that Drummond has installed in his strange aircraft also add a dark, mythic, and foreboding quality to the Martian presence. The Martian aircraft move about almost undetected, making “no more than the ‘humming sound’ which the natives had reported” (235). Central African natives and other witnesses, energized by a mixture of superstition and fear, refer to the aircraft as “the mysterious ‘iron trees’” (235).
Some might surmise that a strange craft armed with a weapon that can disable engines was purely the product of Newman’s imagination. A November 7, 1957 memo from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), however, appears to contradict that conclusion. The memo shares the account of a former Prisoner of War (POW) from Poland who had experienced a wartime UFO sighting (Fawcett and Greenwood 177). The Polish POW believed that his UFO sighting would help Robert Cutler, an American government official who was America’s first National Security Advisor to the President, unravel the mystery surrounding a UFO sighting in Texas (177).
The Texas UFO incident involved a craft that caused vehicles’ engines to stall out (177). The story told by the Polish POW allegedly took place in 1944, before the final shots of WW2 were fired (178). Researchers Lawrence Fawcett and Barry J. Greenwood share the FBI memo’s contents:
“In response to a letter directed by him to Mr. Robert Cutler, Special Assistant to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, reflecting that he “might have some information about the rocket in Texas,”… Detroit, was interviewed November 7, 1957, and furnished the following information:
Born February 19, 1926 in the State of Warsaw, Poland, … was brought from Poland as a Prisoner of War to Gut Alt Golssen, approximately 30 miles east of Berlin, Germany, in May 1942, where he remained until a few weeks after the end of World War II. He spent the following years at Displaced Persons Camps at Kork, Strasburg, Offenburg, Wilheim and Freiburg and about a year was employed in a textile mill at Laurachbaden, Germany. He arrived in the United States at New York, May 2, 1951, via …, Hamtramck, Michigan; his alien registration number – ….
Since May, 1951, he has been employed at the Gobel Brewery, Detroit. New report of mysterious vehicle in Texas causing engines to stall prompted him to communicate with the United States Government concerning a similar phenomenon observed by him in 1944 in the area of Gut Alt Golssen.
According to …, during 1944, month not recalled, while enroute to work in a field a short distance north of Gut Alt Golssen, their tractor engine stalled on a road through swamp area. No machinery or other vehicle was then visible although a noise was heard described as a high-pitched whine similar to that produced by a large electric generator.
An “S.S.” guard appeared and talked briefly with the German driver of the tractor, who waited five to ten minutes, after which the noise stopped and the tractor engine was started normally. Approximately 3 hours later in the same swamp area, but away from the road where the work crew was cutting “hay,” he surreptitiously, because of the German in charge of the crew and “S.S.” guards in the otherwise deserted area, observed a circular enclosure approximately 100 to 150 yards in diameter protected from viewers by a tarpaulin-type wall approximately 50 feet high, from which a vehicle was observed to slowly rise vertically to a height sufficient to clear the wall and then move slowly horizontally a short distance out of his view, which was obstructed by nearby trees.
This vehicle, observed from approximately 500 feet, was described as circular in shape, 75 to 100 yards in diameter, and about 14 feet high, consisting of dark gray stationary top and bottom sections, five to six feet high. The approximate three foot middle section appeared to be a rapidly moving component producing a continuous blur similar to an aeroplane propeller, but extending the circumference of the vehicle so far as could be observed. The noise emanating from the vehicle was similar but of a somewhat lower pitch than the noise previously heard. The engine of the tractor again stalled on this occasion and no effort was made by the German driver to start the engine until the noise stopped, after which the engine started normally. Uninsulated metal, possibly copper, cables one and one half inch to two inches in diameter, on and under the surface of the ground, in some places covered by water, were observed on this and previous occasions, apparently running between the enclosure and a small concrete column-like structure between the road and enclosure.
This area was not visited by … again until shortly after the end of World War II, when it was observed the cables have been removed and the previous locations of the concrete structure and the enclosure were covered by water…. stated he has not been in communication since 1945 with any of the work crew of 16 or 18 men, consisting of Russian, French and Polish POW’s, who had discussed this incident among themselves many times. However, of these, … was able to recall by name only …, no address known, described as then about 50 years of age and presumed by … to have returned to Poland after 1945.” (177-78)
If the Polish POW’s story is true, then a technology like the one described by Newman was invented by Nazi scientists and, after World War Two, brought to the United States. The importation a Nazi scientists by elements of the American government is, of course, a well-established fact. Those Nazi scientists shared a number of inventions with the United States government. Perhaps Newman had one of those inventions in mind when he wrote of airborne “iron trees” stalling jets and cars.
Through the years, technology like the one described in Newman’s The Flying Saucer and the 1957 FBI memo has become a centerpiece of UFO lore. The UFO cases involving a craft that stalls human vehicles are legion. The majority of ufologists seem to adopt an extraterrestrial interpretation when looking at such reports. However, one of the most well-known of these cases, the 1948 Mantell incident, seems to conform more to the interpretation provided by Newman’s work of fiction and the 1957 FBI memo. According to researcher Mark Pilkington, a technology similar to the one Newman wrote about “was implicated in the death of Kentucky National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell, who died on 7 January 1948 pursuing a UFO that turned out to be a secret Navy Skyhook aluminum balloon” (Pilkington 44). The Edward Mantell case of 1948 demonstrates how the understated or unpublicized details of a sighting or a UFO incident can cause researchers to stop looking to the stars and fix their gaze on terra firma for the answers. This particular event involved the aerial pursuit of a UFO that would result in the crash and death of Captain Thomas F. Mantell, a 25-year-old Kentucky Air National Guard pilot. Historian David Michael Jacobs contends that this case brought about a major shift in the way the public and the government perceived UFOs. In his book The UFO Controversy in America, Jacobs states: “the fact that a person had dramatically died in an encounter with an alleged flying saucer dramatically increased public concern about the phenomenon. Now a dramatic new prospect entered thought about UFOs: they might be not only extraterrestrial but potentially hostile as well” (Jacobs 45). The Mantell case helped to spread a UFO threat narrative not unlike the one created by the fictional conspiracy in Newman’s The Flying Saucer.
The hidden dimension of the Mantell case, however, suggests that both the government and the public had little to fear from hostile aliens. In their book Man-Made UFOs 1944-1994: 50 Years of Suppression, Renato Vesco and David Hatcher Childress document the underreported aspects of the Mantell case. Childress and Vesco write:
At 2:30 P.M. on January 7, 1948, a high-flying, shiny, flat, circular object passed over the town of Madison at a speed of at least 500 miles per hour.
A series of telephone calls from Elizabethtown, Lexington, and Fort Knox – the famous national safe-deposit box – shortly after alerted Godman Field, a military air base. A gigantic shining object was, in fact, moving swiftly through the skies of the area, giving the impression that it was carrying out a methodical exploratory mission. At 3:00 P.M. this object, or perhaps another of the same type, appeared directly above the base.
Observing it through binoculars, Colonel F.G. Hix concluded that it was a flaming disc of gigantic size – in all probability its diameter was about 150 feet.
Three F-51 Mustang fighters were returning to the base under the command of Captain Thomas Mantell. The squadron received radio orders to identify this object, which in the meantime had begun to move away. Shortly thereafter two of the fighters had to return to the field, having run out of fuel. Captain Mantell continued in pursuit and at 3:15 P.M. he reported: “I’ve sighted the thing. It looks metallic and of tremendous size. It’s rotating rapidly and surrounded by reddish streamers. It looks like an ice-cream cone topped with red, intermittently flashing at the top.”
According to official sources his last radio message said: “It’s still above me, making my speed or better. I’m going up to 20,000 feet and if I’m no closer, I’ll abandon chase.”
However, one of the personnel at the Godman control tower later revealed to a member of the British Flying Saucers Bureau, a private association dedicated to the investigation of UFOs, that there was a sequel to the story. Shortly afterward, Captain Mantell did manage to get within closer distance of the UFO when it made a brief stop in the air.
“My God!” he then exclaimed on the radio. “There are men in it!” The rest of his words, if there were any, were drowned out by an indescribable crescendo of noise. Then came a terrible crash and radio contact was broken. (Vesco and Childress18-19)
Mantell’s last known words are significant because he referred to the object’s occupants as “men” and not aliens or otherworldly beings. Downplaying this aspect of what is considered a major case in the field of Ufology has led to many researchers only considering the alien interpretation when contemplating the origins of unidentified flying objects. If many of these UFO true believers were to read Newman’s The Flying Saucer, they might hold a radically different opinion.
Humanity’s encounter with the Martian aircraft is described by Newman as “a triumph of suggestion” (Newman 241). Indeed, it is. The world now believes that the Martians can back up their threats. Another Martian rocket lands, this one containing a message expressing the Martian’s intention to take the world’s gold by force (242). In the name of collective security and defense, a world government gradually takes shape. The Russian representative to the United Nations promotes a global military force. He boldly declares: “An international army, equipped with the most modern devices, must deliver the world from its threatened doom” (243). The British statesman Worton Spender follows up the Russian representative’s proposal with what is probably the most audacious speech delivered in Newman’s novel:
“We are matched with the hour. Often we have used the phrase ‘the end of the world.’ It seemed fanciful, fantastic. But now it is revealed as a frightening possibility. Everything which we hold dear is endangered – love, life and the pursuit of happiness.
“Had we failed to meet this challenge there would have been an end of all things. We face a new tyranny, before which all earthly dictators in history appear as miserable puppets. Yet this overwhelming threat must be, can be, defeated.
“I call upon the peoples of the world. Every man and every woman to the battle! The Martians must be not merely repelled, but annihilated, so that never again will they attempt to dominate the world – our world, with all its faults and follies, but with all its glorious traditions and immense potentialities.
“We will fight in the forests of Africa or the snows of Greenland, and wherever else these monsters may strike. Since old weapons will not suffice, we will invent new ones. Our effort must be gigantic. Great highways must be built to the heart of tropical Africa and through the northern wastes, to support and supply the gallant men who will grapple with the fiends who have invaded our world. As once before in history, I can promise nothing more than blood and toil, tears and sweat. Aye, but I would add, I can promise one thing more – victory.
“It is a united world which faces the Martians. Germans and Japs will march beside Russians, Americans, French and British. The small nations will contribute the best from among their sons. These men will vie, not to destroy each other, as of old, but to outdo each other in valorous onslaught on the common enemy.
“Let us gird ourselves for the combat. There may be setbacks, even shocks, for we are mortal, and know not the mind or ways of our foes. But this is certain, that if we are united, we can rid our earth of this dread menace. To the battle – all of us!” (244)
Spender’s fiery and impassioned oration has the desired effect. The United Nations acquires teeth and starts to take on the features of an embryonic world government. Newman elaborates: “The response was emphatic. The Assembly of the United Nations was no longer a debate of senior wranglers, but a practical committee of ways and means” (245). The international army, so longed for by the Soviets, begins to take form “in the four corners of Africa,” where soldiers from all over the world are sent for “training with the new weapons which Drummond’s genius supplied to face the novel menace” (245). Wrathful Martians, incensed by human resistance, destroy two more uninhabited areas with their dreaded protonic bombs (245). Of course, these attacks, like the first, are products of the conspiracy. The fake Martian aggression only serves to strengthen humanity’s resolve to form the long-awaited world government. Newman writes: “federalist movements the world over gained momentum. For the first time the nations had surrendered part of their authority. We were nearer to a world government than we had ever been. And the idea was found to work” (246). Also found to be working is the establishment of the world government’s technocratic center. Newman elaborates:
Drummond’s League of Scientists had come into existence, and within a few weeks had recruited hundreds of thousands of members from all countries of the world. When two South American nations, comfortably aloof from the conflict, revived an ancient quarrel, Drummond’s League showed its hand. It simply instructed all scientists and technicians in both countries to withdraw their services – and in twenty-four hours the local politicians were on their knees. Far-sighted men took keen note of this new development. (246)
There are also hints of syncretism in the rising world government. Newman explains:
“Jerusalem, now an international city under the guardianship of the United Nations, was the scene of a remarkable conference which was eventually to lead to a union of the Christian Churches – a decisive step which went far to recover the ground lost during the preceding generation. (247)
One cannot help but wonder if the ecumenism that has begun with the union of Christian churches will give way to a more radical and comprehensive blending of world religions, pagan and anti-Christian ones included.
Newman’s propagandist background and engrossing storytelling style helped him to effectively capture the desire of elitist cliques to bring about drastic societal changes through the introduction of an otherworldly menace. The Flying Saucer, however, seems to do far more than just that. Some of the schemes hatched to advance the shared vision of the novel’s conspirators seem to suggest foreknowledge on Newman’s part.
In other words, the author was able to accurately forecast some of the moves being made today as UFO deception efforts move into the faux disclosure phase. Newman anticipated a large-scale alien invasion PSYOP sometime in the future and even used his fiction to make suggestions to the participants in that coming cosmic Operation Northwoods. Consider, for instance, some of the more suspicious activities of Loeb, the theoretical physicist and participant in UFO deception who readers became acquainted with in the last installment of this series. Among those suspicious activities is the release of a paper in the summer of 2025 that Loeb authored with two other Harvard scientists, Adam Drowl and Adam Hibberd. In the paper, Loeb and his coauthors suggest that 3I/ATLAS, a very large interstellar object discovered by NASA on July 1, 2025, is an alien craft (Galvin).
The paper, which was published in part as a “pedagogical experiment,” gained a considerable amount of media attention for advancing the “Dark Forest” hypothesis. The “Dark Forest” hypothesis, according to reporter Shane Galvin, “assumes that other intelligent life would likely view Earthlings as a threat to be snuffed out” (ibid). Galvin shares the paper’s contents:
“The hypothesis in question is that [3I/ATLAS] is a technological artifact, and furthermore has active intelligence. If this is the case, then two possibilities follow,” Dr. Loeb, Adam Drowl, and Adam Hibberd, wrote in a paper published on July 17.
“First, that its intentions are entirely benign and second, they are malign,” the experts opined, suggesting ETs. (ibid)
Are Loeb and his cohorts attempting to cast doubt on their credibility, to say nothing of their sanity? Or is there a deeper agenda at play?
Loeb’s extensive ties to the Mellons, an oligarchical family deeply involved in the world of intelligence, were explored in the third installment of this series. The third installment also focused in on the special relationship between Loeb and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Christopher Mellon, the member of the Mellon dynasty most involved in UFO deception efforts. It is not a stretch, therefore, to say Loeb would disseminate an alien threat narrative on behalf of covert political circles. Newman’s The Flying Saucer may help contextualize Loeb’s bizarre scare tactics. Loeb appears to be a real-life Drummond, feverishly endeavoring to convince mankind that space is a scary place where interplanetary villains are lurking around every corner.
“To what end?” one might ask. Mostly, to facilitate an infernal transaction of freedom for the illusion of security.
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