vault backup: 2026-10-09 13:39:38

10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Dwight D. Eisenhower.md

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ aliases:
   - President Eisenhower
   - Dwight David Eisenhower
 created: 2026-05-14
-updated: 2026-10-05
+updated: 2026-10-09
 category: "Political Figure"
 tags:
   - KeyFigure
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ The journalist [[Seymour Hersh]] wrote that Eisenhower had been concerned about
 
 The published Eisenhower Library and National Archives record, assembled by the [[National Security Archive]] and the Wilson Center, dates the administration's discovery to the last months of 1960. In late July 1960 embassy officials in Tel Aviv learned from an American Machine and Foundry employee that French personnel were building what he described as a 60 megawatt power reactor near Beersheba; Professor Henry Gomberg of the [[University of Michigan]], a consultant to the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, reported on December 1, 1960 that Israel was building a large secret project; and Special National Intelligence Estimate 100-8-60, issued on December 8, 1960, determined that the complex included a reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium. The January 1961 CIA post-mortem stated that "information was available to some elements of the intelligence community as early as April 1958" and that information from "special intelligence sources in mid 1959" had been discounted. The Wilson Center editors wrote that it "is still a puzzle whether, and to what extent, U-2 overhead photographs were especially telling or whether they were being distributed within the intelligence community."[^6]
 
-On December 8, 1960, with Eisenhower presiding, the National Security Council heard [[Allen Dulles]] report that Israel was building with French assistance a complex including a reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, and passed around photographs taken by the United States Army attaché; Secretary of State [[Christian A. Herter]] said the Arab reaction would be "severe," and Under Secretary of the Treasury Fred Scribner suggested that "Jewish charitable organizations in the U.S." with tax-deductible contributions might have been a funding source. On December 19, 1960, after press reports partly based on leaks by Atomic Energy Commission chairman [[John McCone]], Eisenhower met Herter, Dulles, McCone, [[Thomas S. Gates]] (Secretary of Defense), the science adviser [[George Kistiakowsky]] and Gray. Gates said "our information is that the plant is not for peaceful uses"; McCone said his people believed there was a chemical separation plant; Herter said the plant had been built "through diversions from private and public [U.S.] aid to Israel"; and Eisenhower said "we had evidence" the cost was between $100 and $200 million and that "we do not know where they have obtained the funds." Eisenhower agreed that the American public statement should call on Israel, as an IAEA member, to allow inspection, said a visit to the site by the United States would be unnecessary if the agency inspected it, and the meeting ended with the decision that the State Department rather than the White House would handle the matter. Portions of the December 8 and December 19 records remained classified, and the editors noted that the classified portions of the December 8 record were the subject of a mandatory declassification review request filed in 2014.[^6]
+On December 8, 1960, with Eisenhower presiding, the National Security Council heard Allen Dulles report that Israel was building with French assistance a complex including a reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, and passed around photographs taken by the United States Army attaché; Secretary of State [[Christian A. Herter]] said the Arab reaction would be "severe," and Under Secretary of the Treasury Fred Scribner suggested that "Jewish charitable organizations in the U.S." with tax-deductible contributions might have been a funding source. On December 19, 1960, after press reports partly based on leaks by Atomic Energy Commission chairman [[John McCone]], Eisenhower met Herter, Dulles, McCone, [[Thomas S. Gates]] (Secretary of Defense), the science adviser [[George Kistiakowsky]] and Gray. Gates said "our information is that the plant is not for peaceful uses"; McCone said his people believed there was a chemical separation plant; Herter said the plant had been built "through diversions from private and public [U.S.] aid to Israel"; and Eisenhower said "we had evidence" the cost was between $100 and $200 million and that "we do not know where they have obtained the funds." Eisenhower agreed that the American public statement should call on Israel, as an IAEA member, to allow inspection, said a visit to the site by the United States would be unnecessary if the agency inspected it, and the meeting ended with the decision that the State Department rather than the White House would handle the matter. Portions of the December 8 and December 19 records remained classified, and the editors noted that the classified portions of the December 8 record were the subject of a mandatory declassification review request filed in 2014.[^6]
 
 On January 19, 1961 the State Department told the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy that Israel and France had given "unequivocal" official statements as to the non-military character of the Israeli program, that Israel had given "formal assurance that visitors from the United States or another friendly country will be received when the present intense public interest in the question has subsided," and that the Department would "take any feasible measures to damp down speculation."[^7]
 
@@ -87,11 +87,15 @@ On January 19, 1961 the State Department told the Joint Committee on Atomic Ener
 
 A document headed "Briefing Document: Operation Majestic 12 Prepared for President-Elect Dwight D. Eisenhower (Eyes Only), 18 November 1952," and a memorandum dated July 14, 1954 from the presidential assistant [[Robert Cutler]] to General [[Nathan Twining]] referring to an "NSC/MJ-12 Special Studies Project" and a briefing on July 16, 1954, are the two documents on which the Majestic-12 claims connect to Eisenhower; see [[Majestic-12]] and [[Cutler-Twining memorandum]].
 
-The National Archives' Military Reference Branch recorded on July 22, 1987, in a reference report signed by Jo Anne Williamson, that the Cutler memorandum in Record Group 341 lacks the top secret register number the series requires, is the only item in its folder about "NSC/MJ-12," carries a marking, "Top Secret Restricted Information," that the National Security Council and the Eisenhower Library said was not used in the Eisenhower administration, and bears no eagle watermark of the kind found on all Cutler documents in the Library's collection; that a search of National Security Council meeting minutes found no meeting on July 16, 1954 and no mention of MJ-12 or Majestic; and that a folder titled "Special Meeting July 16, 1954" held a notice that NSC members would be called to a civil defense exercise. The Eisenhower Library wrote on July 16, 1987 that the President's appointment books contain no entry for a special meeting on July 16, 1954, that Cutler was visiting overseas military installations on July 14, 1954 at Eisenhower's direction (a report to the President dated July 20, 1954 refers to visits between July 3 and 15), and that the NSC's declassification office had no record of declassification of the memorandum.[^8] The researchers who published the documents, [[William L. Moore]] and [[Jaime Shandera]], and later commentators including [[Stanton T. Friedman]] took positions on authenticity that are recorded on the [[Majestic-12]] page.
+The National Archives' Military Reference Branch recorded on July 22, 1987, in a reference report signed by Jo Anne Williamson, that the Cutler memorandum in Record Group 341 lacks the top secret register number the series requires, is the only item in its folder about "NSC/MJ-12," carries a marking, "Top Secret Restricted Information," that the National Security Council and the Eisenhower Library said was not used in the Eisenhower administration, and bears no eagle watermark of the kind found on all Cutler documents in the Library's collection; that a search of National Security Council meeting minutes found no meeting on July 16, 1954 and no mention of MJ-12 or Majestic; and that a folder titled "Special Meeting July 16, 1954" held a notice that NSC members would be called to a civil defense exercise. The Eisenhower Library wrote on July 16, 1987 that the President's appointment books contain no entry for a special meeting on July 16, 1954, that Cutler was visiting overseas military installations on July 14, 1954 at Eisenhower's direction (a report to the President dated July 20, 1954 refers to visits between July 3 and 15), and that the NSC's declassification office had no record of declassification of the memorandum.[^8] The researchers who published the documents, [[William L. Moore]] and [[Jaime Shandera]], and later commentators including [[Stanton T. Friedman]] took positions on authenticity that are recorded on the Majestic-12 page.
+
+### Wilhelm Reich and weather control
+
+[[Wilhelm Reich]]'s journal CORE (July 1954) states that "the legislative procedures of the Eisenhower administration which tended to secure safety in weather control were greatly appreciated," reproduces a New York Times report of July 11, 1953 of Eisenhower's remarks on drought, and records Army planes over Orgonon on July 8, 1953.[^9] Reich's Contact with Space states that Mr. Douglas of Tucson, described as a member of "President Eisenhower's advisory board," wrote in late 1954 requesting a personal discussion.[^10] On March 21, 1957 [[William Moise]] wrote to Senator [[Margaret Chase Smith]] that he faced the decision whether to use orgone energy "to storm and flood portions of the U.S.A." and that the responsibility for such a decision rests with "the few genuinely responsible government persons such as yourself and the President"; the Senator's administrative assistant gave the letter to the FBI on March 25, 1957.[^11]
 
 ### Farewell address, January 17, 1961
 
-In his farewell radio and television address on January 17, 1961, Eisenhower said: "This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government." He continued: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." On research he said that "a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity" and warned "that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."[^9]
+In his farewell radio and television address on January 17, 1961, Eisenhower said: "This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government." He continued: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." On research he said that "a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity" and warned "that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."[^12]
 
 ### Footnotes
 
@@ -103,4 +107,7 @@ In his farewell radio and television address on January 17, 1961, Eisenhower sai
 [^6]: "The U.S. Discovery of Israel's Secret Nuclear Project," sections "The Eisenhower Administration and the Discovery of Dimona," Documents 1 to 14, including the post-mortem on SNIE 100-8-60, the National Security Council meeting of December 8, 1960 and the meeting of December 19, 1960 (Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Christian Herter Papers; White House Office, Office of the Staff Secretary, International Series, box 8, Israel (3)); also National Security Archive, "Israel and the Bomb: Dimona Revealed." https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/israel/documents/reveal/
 [^7]: Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations William B. Macomber, Jr., to Executive Director of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, January 19, 1961, with enclosed summary of January 17, 1961, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, Volume XVII, Near East 1961-1962, Document 3. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v17/d3
 [^8]: National Archives and Records Administration, Military Reference Branch, "Reference Report on MJ-12," July 22, 1987 (Jo Anne Williamson, Chief), quoting the Eisenhower Library letter of July 16, 1987 to NNMR; text as transcribed at https://mirror.cyberbits.eu/textfiles.com/ufo/UFOBBS/2000/2437.ufo
-[^9]: Eisenhower, Dwight D. "Farewell Radio and Television Address to the American People," January 17, 1961, Public Papers of the Presidents. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/farewell-radio-and-television-address-the-american-people
+[^9]: Wilhelm Reich, CORE vol. 6 nos. 1 to 4 (July 1954), https://archive.org/details/contact-from-space-by-wilhelm-reich.
+[^10]: Wilhelm Reich, Contact with Space: Oranur Second Report, 1951-1956 (Core Pilot Press, 1957), p. 132, https://archive.org/details/wilhelm-reich-contact-with-space. Sole source.
+[^11]: Moise to Smith, March 21, 1957, and Nease to Tolson, March 25, 1957, Wilhelm Reich FBI file, Part 6, https://archive.org/details/WilhelmReichFBI.
+[^12]: Eisenhower, Dwight D. "Farewell Radio and Television Address to the American People," January 17, 1961, Public Papers of the Presidents. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/farewell-radio-and-television-address-the-american-people