Area 51 The Revealing Truth of Ufos, Secret Aircraft, Cover-Ups & Conspiracies
In the December 1960/January 1961 issue of NICAP’s UFO Investigator journal, a small article was published under the heading “Space-Life Report Could Be Shock.” It read as follows: “The discovery of intelligent space beings could have a severe effect on the public, according to a research report released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The report warned that America should prepare to meet the psychological impact of such a revelation. “The 190-page report was the result of a $96,000 one-year study conducted by the Brookings Institution for NASA’s long-range study committee.
“Public realization that intelligent beings live on other planets could bring about profound changes, or even the collapse of our civilization, the research report stated. ‘Societies sure of their own place have disintegrated when confronted by a superior society,’ said the NASA report. ‘Others have survived even though changed. Clearly, the better we can come to understand the factors involved in responding to such crises the better prepared we may be.’ “Although the research group did not expect any immediate contact with other planet beings, it said that the discovery of intelligent space races ‘could nevertheless happen at any time.’”
NICAP—the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, which was a public UFO research study group—continued: “Even though the UFO problem was not indicated as a reason for the study, it undoubtedly was an important factor. Fear of public reaction to an admission of UFO reality was cited as the main reason for secrecy in the early years of the AF [Air Force] investigation. “Radio communication probably would be the first proof of other intelligent life, says the NASA report.
It adds: ‘Evidences of its existence might also be found in artifacts left on the moon or other planets.’” NICAP further noted that the document gave weight to “previous thinking by scholars who have suggested that the earth already may be under close scrutiny by advanced space races. In 1958, Prof. Harold D. Lasswell of the Yale Law School stated: ‘The implications of the UFOs may be that we are already viewed with suspicion by more advanced civilizations and that our attempts to gain a foothold elsewhere may be rebuffed as a threat to other systems of public order.’”
NICAP concluded: “The NASA warning of a possible shock to the public, from the revelation of more advanced civilizations, supports NICAP’s previous arguments against AF [Air Force] secrecy about UFOs. All available information about UFOs should be given to the public now, so that we will be prepared for any eventuality.”
The document to which NICAP was referring was titled “Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs.” It was a document written by an employee of the Brookings Institution named Donald N. Michael. The report was contracted by the Committee on Long Range Studies, which was an arm of NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The document was completed and provided to the House of Representatives in the 87th U.S. Congress on April 18, 1961.
What is particularly intriguing, though, is that a copy of this particular document—on extraterrestrial life—was made available to personnel at the Nevada Test and Training Range. We know this, as a photocopy of the NT&TR document is now in the public domain. This raises a very important question: if the personnel at Area 51 are only working on programs relative to high-tech weaponry and secret aircraft, why, in the early 1960s, did they have a seemingly pressing need to learn all about the latest theories and data on extraterrestrial activity? With that important question in mind, let us now take a closer look at the document at issue.
More than half a century after it was completed, the document is still noted for its intriguing and controversial content, much of which has potential impact on the UFO phenomenon. One of the most notable entries reads: “While face-to- face meetings with it will not occur within the next twenty years (unless its technology is more advanced than ours, qualifying it to visit earth), artifacts left at some point in time by these life forms might possibly be discovered through our space activities on the Moon, Mars, or Venus.” It has been suggested by UFO theorists that this “artifacts” statement might imply that Brookings and NASA had already uncovered data on—and secured photographs of—the controversial “Face on Mars.”
The report then makes what can only be interpreted as a thinly veiled threat regarding what the future might bring if the presence of intelligent, extraterrestrial life in our midst was confirmed: “Anthropological files contain many examples of societies, sure of their place in the universe, which have disintegrated when they have had to associate with previously unfamiliar societies espousing different ideas and different life ways; others that survived such an experience usually did so by paying the price of changes in values and attitudes and behavior.”