Alien Lore No. 39 - Presidents (And Near Presidents) Who Believe In Or Have Seen UFOs: Carter, Nixon, Reagan, Ford, Goldwater, Truman

"The evidence points to the fact that Roswell was a real incident and that indeed an alien craft did crash, and that material was recovered from that site. We all know that UFOs are real. All we need to ask is where do they come from, and what do they want?" - Capt. Edgar Mitchell Apollo 14 Astronaut

There have been several Presidential believers in, and Presidential witnesses to, UFOs. In the case of Richard Nixon, the information comes from Jackie Gleason's widow. The Nixon-Gleason tale is by far the most far-fetched, and the only one involving aliens. The stories and quotes of Presidents Carter, Nixon, Truman, Reagan, and near-President Goldwater (OK, not that near) all come from primary sources: the Presidents and candidates themselves.

President James Earl Carter saw a UFO on, as he said, "a very sober occasion." Howell Raines wrote about the sighting in The Atlanta Constitution, in 1973:

"Carter saw a blue, disc-shaped object during a campaign stop in Leary, a South Georgia town in the same general area where numerous UFOs have been reported recently."

"The object came into view as Carter and several members of the Leary Lions Club stood outside the hall where Carter was to speak. All the members of the group observed the object for about five to ten minutes, Carter said. He immediately went to a tape recorder and dictated a description of what he remembers as "a very remarkable sight."

"It was about 30 degrees above the horizon and looked about as large as the moon. It got smaller and changed to a reddish color and then got larger again."

"Carter speculated that the UFO "was probably an electronic occurrence of some sort," rather than a visitation from outer space. At any rate, the governor said, "it was obviously there, and obviously unidentified."

During his 1976 campaign Jimmy Carter went out of his way to say "If I become President, I'll make every piece of information this country has about UFO sightings available to the public and scientists. I am convinced that UFOs exist because I have seen one."

Senator Barry Goldwater spoke on the Larry King Radio show in 1988:

CALLER: Hello Senator Goldwater, I've heard in the past that you have an interest in UFOs. I just finished a book called, "Above Top Secret," by Timothy Goode, where three or four of your letters are quoted concerning your attempts to enter Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

SENATOR GOLDWATER: Uh-hum.

CALLER: Do you believe that the government is withholding information on UFOs?

SENATOR GOLDWATER: Yes I do. But I don't know enough about the subject involving Wright-Pat. to form any opinion. I remember when I first tried to get into that room out at Wright-Pat. and I went to General Curtis LeMay, an old friend of mine, and asked him. He used some pretty plain language and in effect, told me to "go to hell" and...

LARRY KING: That's the room where they are rumored to have aliens?

SENATOR GOLDWATER: Well, its a storage room where they are supposed to have some of the evidence they've collected relative to Unidentified Flying Objects. I have never...I wouldn't argue against them. I wouldn't argue for them. My only thinking on it is this planet of ours is one of several billion planets in this universe. I can't believe that God or whomever is in charge would put thinking bodies on only one planet. So I'm a firm believer that something can fly around here that the Wright Brothers didn't have anything to do with.

Richard Nixon, Jackie Gleason and UFOs. This story, from Jackie Gleason & The Little "Men From Mars by Timothy Green Beckley, appeared in All This Is That (August 23, 2005):

"Larry Warren was an Airman First Class stationed at Bentwaters Air Force Base in England (a NATO installation staffed mainly by US. Servicemen) when an incredible series of events took place over Christmas week of 1980. A UFO was picked up on radar and subsequently came down just outside the perimeter of the base in a dense forest."

"Later that night, matters changed radically, when Richard Nixon showed up at Gleason's house around midnight. "He was all alone for a change. There were no secret service agents with him or anyone else.

"I said, 'Mr. President, what are you doing here?' and he said he wanted to take me someplace and show me something." Gleason got into the President's private car and they sped off into the darkness - their destination being Homestead Air Force Base. "I remember we got to the gate and this young MPH came up to the car to look to see inside and his jaw seemed to drop a foot when he saw who was behind the wheel. He just sort of pointed and we headed off."

"Warren says that later Gleason found out that the secret service was going absolutely crazy trying to find out where Nixon was. "We drove to the very far end of the base in a segregated area," Gleason went on, "finally stopping near a well-guarded building. The security police saw us coming and just sort of moved back as we passed them and entered the structure. There were a number of labs we passed through first before we entered a section where Nixon pointed out what he said was the wreckage from a flying saucer, enclosed in several large cases." Gleason noted his initial reaction was that this was all a joke brought on by their earlier conversation on the golf course. But it wasn't, as Gleason soon learned. "

"Next, we went into an inner chamber and there were six or eight of what looked like glass-topped Coke freezers. Inside them were the mangled remains of what I took to be children. Then - upon closer examination - I saw that some of the other figures looked quite old. Most of them were terribly mangled as if they had been in an accident."

"According to Larry warrens testimony (regarding Gleason's lengthy conversation about UFOs and space visitors), "I forget whether he said they had three or four fingers on each hand, but they definitely were not human...Of this he was most certain!"

President Ronald Reagan described his 1974 UFO encounter to veteran newsman Norman C. Miller, Washington bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal.) "I looked out the window and saw this white light.It was zigzagging around. I went up to the pilot and said, Have you ever seen anything like that? He was shocked and he said, "Nope." And I said to him: "Let's follow it!" We followed it for several minutes. It was a bright white light followed it to Bakersfield, and all of a sudden to our utter amazement it went straight up into the heavens. When I got off the plane I told Nancy all about it."

President Reagan later speculated, at the U.N., of all places, on how life on earth might change of we did indeed know of visitors from another place: "I think about how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And I ask you, does not this threat already exist?"

President Harry S. Truman, in 1950 said "I can assure you that flying saucers, given that they exist, are not constructed by any power on earth." It's not clear whether or not President Truman had ever seen a UFO. However, if you believe the Majestic documents published earlier in All This Is That 10/22/2005), you may also believe that President Truman witnessed both UFOs and alien corpses.

Following hundreds of UFO sightings in Michigan in 1966, future President Ford said: "In the firm belief that the American public deserves a better explanation than that thus far given by the Air Force, I strongly recommend that there be a committee investigation of the UFO phenomena. I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFOs and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment of the subject."

"I have taken special interest in these (UFO) accounts because many of the latest reported sightings have been made in my home state of Michigan...Because I think there may be substance to some of these reports and because I believe The American People are entitled to a more thorough explanation than has been given them by the Air force to date, I am proposing either the Science and Astronautics Committee or the Armed Services Committee of the House, schedule hearings on the subject of UFOs and invite testimony from both the executive branch of the Government and some of the persons who claim to have seen UFOs..."

"In the firm belief that the American public deserves a better explanation than that thus far given by the Air Force, I strongly recommend that there be a committee investigation of the UFO phenomena. I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFOs and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment on this subject."
---o0o---