The Oppenheimer-Einstein Draft
The title of the first document is “Relationship with Inhabitants of
Celestrial Bodies.” “Celestrial” should have been “Celestial.” This is
probably a copy of a carbon copy of a draft prepared by a secretary from
dictation, and the secretary did not know how to spell this word. Generally,
forensic examiners find that errors present in documents tend to indicate
authenticity instead of lack of authenticity. Fakers usually try to make
sure they're perfect. This is a six-page document, single-spaced, pica
type. It has an elite type note with initials of Vannevar Bush at the
end. This is the first document to use the phrase Extraterrestrial Biological
Entities, or EBEs. It says the presence of unidentified spacecraft is
accepted as de facto by the military – and this is in June 1947. It deals
with the subjects that you'd expect competent scientists to deal with,
i.e., where do they come from, what does the law say about it, what should
we do, and why are they here? Those are the subjects of this six-page
document.
On the first page of the six-page document, note the top secret classification.
As you can see, there are not many extra marks on the document. The last
page shows no signatures, but it does show Vannevar Bush's initials after
the note that essentially says “I don't think that we should let Einstein
talk to the President and Gordon Gray agrees.” While the language usage
does not reflect the refined writing of Oppenheimer, it is easy to imagine
that Einstein, dictating with an accent, might have produced these words.
However, there is one unusual authentication feature that ensures they
are genuine, and it will be treated in a future release. The principal
factors favoring authenticity are:
- Literary analysis compares favorably with other Albert Einstein pieces during
period of interest, for example the use of Latin, German and Jewish
words is appropriate for Einstein.
- Period manual typewriter
- Authentic Bush initials in his hand on note on last page
- Einstein officially retired from the Institute of Advanced Studies
in 1945 but continued to live and work in Princeton, NJ when the draft
was written in 1947.
Field Order 862, The Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit
This document is also marked top secret. It came from the Office of the
Assistant Chief of Staff for G2 (counterintelligence), which was Chamberlin
and there's a big C, which is being compared with Chamberlin's initials.
It is Field Order 862. Basically, it says for the officer in charge (OIC)
to take a team down and report to the G2 at Condron Field, New Mexico,
which is at White Sands Proving Grounds. He is to take along an aeronautical
engineer, a scientist, a security officer and a medical doctor, provide
a report by the 28th of July. They beat the deadline, as we will see shortly.