By Grant Cameron
Barack Obama recently returned from a trip to Poland where part of his job was as a salesman for the military-industrial-complex trying to sell the Poles on a new missile defense shield to protect the country from “rogue states,” such as Iran. To the logical and sane of the world, this “2011 model of Star Wars” proposed purchase by Poland makes no sense. Perhaps the Poles will help to lower the very high unemployment rate in the United States by buying the latest and greatest war weapon to match their status as the leading economy in the former eastern bloc.
Whatever the reason for the Polish government even considering the idea, those who may get these new high-tech research and development jobs in Poland and the United States will have the aliens to thank.
The shooting-down of incoming missiles had been visualized since the late 1950s but not much happened to develop it. Reagan was seriously pitched the idea in 1983 by Dr. Edward Teller, a scientist from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and – if the rumors are to be believed – a key mover and shaker in the cover-up of the extraterrestrial presence on earth. Teller announced the development of the X-ray laser to Reagan, thus proposing that a defensive shield against incoming missiles was feasible with a few billion a year in research funds.
The general opinion in the scientific and military world was that the concept was unrealistic, even unscientific. Reagan, however, bought into the idea and began to lobby for the funds to begin development. Billions of dollars began to flow into the idea, which never did achieve any concrete operational success.
More importantly, against the advice of advisors, Reagan promised to share the Star Wars technology with the Soviet Union. Reagan reasoned that in this way he and U.S.S.R. General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev could rid the world of nuclear weapons and live in peace forever.
Colin Powell, Reagan’s national security advisor, was firmly convinced that the offer made to Gorbachev had been inspired by concepts raised in one of Reagan’s favorite movies – the 1951 flying saucer movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Reagan knew movies. He acted in 54 films, and he had watched 377 movies while President. He loved movies and The Day the Earth Stood Still remained a favorite of his throughout his Presidency.
It was this concept of aliens, and a Star Wars defense that could put an end to nuclear weapons, that Reagan proposed during a November 1985 Geneva Summit with Gorbachev. “At our meeting in Geneva,” recalled Gorbachev, “the U.S. President said that if the earth faced an invasion by extraterrestrials, the United States and the Soviet Union would join forces to repel such an invasion. I shall not dispute the hypothesis, though I think it's early yet to worry about such an intrusion...”
In reply to Reagan’s alien invasion scenario, Gorbachev had supplemented Reagan’s idea stating we should never forget the biblical passage “[God] hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” The two men became friends and agreed that the world needed a lasting peace.
World peace and aliens were never far from Reagan’s mind. He used to walk around the White House asking people if they had seen the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, and uttering the phrase “Klaatu barada nikto.” These were the words that Klaatu had given in the film to the character of Helen, the heroine in the movie. These words were to be uttered to the alien robot, Gort. If spoken, the words would stop Gort from destroying the world. In the movie, Helen had uttered the words and, in the nick of time, had saved the world. Reagan planned to do the same.
To the dismay of the White House Reagan then went public with his notion of world peace based on alien invasion. On five occasions he raised the alien invasion/united world concept: he did so with Russian leaders; at the United Nations; and even at schools such as Fallston High School in Harford County, Maryland. It was at the Fallston high school in May 1985 where Reagan described his “fantasy” (as he called it) even though it was not in the prepared speech:
"I couldn't help but - one point in our discussion with General Gorbachev - when you stop and think we are all God's children, wherever we may live in the world, I couldn't help but say to him, just think how easy his task and mine might be in these meetings that we held if suddenly there was a threat to this world from some other species, from another planet, outside in the universe. We'd forget all the little local differences that we have between our countries, and we would find out once and for all that we are really are all human beings here on this Earth together. Well, I don't suppose we can wait for some alien race to come down and threaten us, but I think that between us we can bring about that realization."
General Colin Powell, Reagan’s national security advisor, went on the record stating that it was part of his job to keep the alien remarks – especially the alien invasion remarks – out of Reagan’s speeches. He feared that people would actually get the idea that there was a real concern in the White House that there was going to be an alien invasion. Every time Reagan would bring up the aliens, Powell would role his eyes and tell his staff, “Here come the little green men again.” In the case of the Fallston speech there was little Powell could do if Reagan chose to ad lib.
Reagan’s decision to tell the students of the alien invasion was an example of why the White House staff chose to keep him from student events. It was hard to control him. Question and answer sessions were cancelled as he would be “too loose” and “speak too freely.” Judi Buckalew, a presidential aide, spoke of the fear of allowing students around the President. “The staff was always trying to keep him away from these high school groups that would come in to have their pictures taken,” she said, “because he would stand around and answer all their questions, saying all kinds of things. The staff would literally tug him away from these kids.”
It can even be surmised that the alien invasion notion that Reagan got from The Day the Earth Stood Still may actually have led to the end of the Cold War. In 1989, inspired by Klaatu’s words, “There must be security for all, or no one is secure,” Reagan stood at the Berlin Wall and asked his friend Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Gorbachev removed the wall which separated the two Germanys, and there has been peace between the West and the Eastern bloc countries ever since.
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| Reagan and Gorbachev at the Geneva Summit in Switzerland, 19 November, 1985. |
The idea of an alien invasion and world peace was an idea that went on to inspire others, most notably President Clinton and his wife Hillary. In 1996 Bill and Hillary screened Independence Day. The blockbuster movie was a movie depicts an alien invasion that destroys much of the United States, including the White House. In the end however, the President and the people come together to destroy the aliens.
Clinton spoke of the movie saying, in part, “I loved it… and I was glad we won.” He stated later that many in his administration came to actually believe that – as depicted in the movie – there really was a recovered flying saucer at Area 51, so he sent someone to the base to check it out.
Like Reagan before him, the movie inspired Clinton think of a united world. “The good thing about Independence Day is there’s an ultimate lesson for that – for the problems right here on Earth,” said Clinton. “We whipped that problem by working together with all these countries. And all of a sudden the differences we had with them seemed so small once we realized there were threats that went beyond our borders. And I wish that we could think about that when we deal with terrorism and when we deal with weapons proliferation – the difference between all these others problems. That's the lesson I wish people would take away from Independence Day.” In total, Bill Clinton would talk publicly about Independence Day on five occasions.
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| The Clintons, June, 1998. |
Like Bill, Hillary also was inspired by the movie. She spoke about it during her campaign for President in December 2007. It might have helped that Roland Emmerich, the director of Independence Day, had hosted a fundraiser for Hillary’s campaign at his home earlier in the year.
“Remember that movie Independence Day,” said Hillary, as she campaigned in Iowa, “where invaders were coming from outer space and the whole world was united against the invasion? Why can't we be united on behalf of our planet? And that's what I want to do.” Hillary would talk publicly about Independence Day and the concept of alien invasion on four occasions.
Klaatu would be pleased, no doubt, but would still see much room for improvement in our politicians. Klaatu, barada, nikto. Long live the dream of a united world, and long live alien invasion movies.
Copyright © 2011, Grant Cameron
Grant Cameron is the world’s leading researcher on the subject of UFOs and the Presidency. He has written extensively on this and related subjects including the Canadian government's early investigations into flying saucers; UFO disclosure politics; and the Rockefeller UFO Initiative. He has lectured widely in Canada and the United States and has been interviewed for numerous radio, TV news and documentary programs.
He has made 20+ trips to the National Archives and most of the various Presidential archives looking for presidential UFO material. One highlight of his presidential UFO research was the chance to question Vice-President Dick Cheney on his knowledge of the UFO subject. Another significant achievement was a FOIA to the White House Office of Science and Technology which yielded 1,000 pages of UFO documents from the Clinton Administration. Many of these findings – as well as the rest of Cameron’s research – can be accessed through The Presidents UFO Website, Barack Obama UFO, and Hillary Clinton UFO.
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