Ancient Aliens s15e12 Episode Script

NARRATOR:
Mysterious orbs of light
BILL BIRNES:
Reagan says, "I just saw a UFO."
He's not just being crazy.
He knows exactly what it is.
NARRATOR:
Strange visions
GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: George
Washington sees this glowing,
beautiful creature who describes
the future history
of the United States.
NARRATOR:
And glowing humanoid figures,
all reported by presidents
of the United States.
NICK POPE: We have an
extraordinary series of stories.
President after president
after president
being associated
with a sighting.
NARRATOR:
For decades,
the White House has denied
having any knowledge
of alien craft visiting Earth.
JOHN PODESTA:
Even discussing UFOs tends
to be viewed as a career-ender.
NARRATOR: But is it
possible that extraterrestrials
have been monitoring
and even influencing
America's presidents?
LAURA EISENHOWER: It's really hard for
people to wrap their heads around the fact
that there was
all this E. T. Contact going on.
DENNIS KUCINICH: There's a line,
"You shall know the truth,
and the truth
shall set you free."
NARRATOR:
There is a doorway
in the universe.
Beyond it is
the promise of truth.
It demands
we question everything
we have ever been taught.
The evidence is all around us.
The future is
right before our eyes.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.
In a wide-ranging interview,
Fox News commentator
Tucker Carlson asks.
President Donald Trump
his thoughts about UFOs.
You gave an interview
the other day
in which you said
you've been briefed
on unidentified flying objects.
Are they are they real?
Personally, I tend to doubt it.
We have had people saying
that they've seen things.
I don't assume
it's correct, but,
you know,
I have an open mind, Tucker.
NARRATOR:
To UFO experts,
the president's response
raises a key question.
If U. S. Intelligence officials
have secret knowledge
of alien visitations,
are American presidents informed
or kept in the dark?
In August 2019,
former British Ministry
of Defense UFO investigator
Nick Pope posed this question
to Tucker Carlson.
Do you think he knows more
than he's letting on?
Or do you think,
as some people say,
even the president doesn't know?
My impression was
that the president
does know more than he said.
Once in office,
every president
has become mum on the subject.
And what it tells you is
they likely know something
that they've decided
to keep from the public.
Look, I don't know
what they know.
And so perhaps they have
a good reason
to lie to the public about it,
but I doubt it.
NARRATOR:
Months later,
as the 2020 election year
begins to heat up,
several of Donald Trump's
presidential challengers
are asked by New Hampshire-based
reporter Daymond Steer
of The Conway Daily Sun
about where he or she stands
on the issue of UFOs
and government disclosure.
It's very unlikely that
we're alone in the universe.
I think one of the things
a president could do
is to look into what's there,
uh, in terms of what's the
What does the science say,
what does our military say.
Of course,
we have to explore that
and look at that, if it is true.
NARRATOR: Many people
would be surprised to discover
that 36% of all U. S. Presidents
have had encounters
with unidentified
or unexplained UFO phenomena.
This,
according to a recent poll,
is a full 20 points higher
than the number of
similar encounters experienced
by average Americans.
We have an extraordinary series
of stories.
President after president
after president
either seeing a UFO,
commenting on a UFO,
being associated
with a sighting.
MARTIN MORGAN: It's not
something that just flashed
in American culture briefly.
We can date it back to 1800.
We can date it earlier
than that.
This is not a new phenomenon.
Presidents throughout history
have been encountering this
during almost the entire history
of the American nation.
NARRATOR: Could aliens be
trying to steer the destiny of America
by influencing its presidents?
Perhaps the answer can be found
by examining the very first
presidential encounter
on record.
Amid freezing conditions,
epidemic disease
and shortages of food,
clothing and supplies,
General George Washington's
Continental Army
faces possible destruction.
MORGAN:
In late 1777,
George Washington
was kind of at his lowest point.
The Continental Army
had been driven out
of the national capital
of Philadelphia
to a winter encampment
at Valley Forge.
There was an optimism that
they would eventually be able
to push the British out
of Philadelphia.
But that optimism
was dim and bleak
in December 1777
at Valley Forge.
NARRATOR:
Years later,
an aide to General Washington
revealed what happened next.
BIRNES: Washington went out
into the woods at Valley Forge to pray.
And he saw this image
of this spirit garbed in white
that assured him,
"You will win this war."
And the spirit laid out
for Washington
the history of what would be
the United States of America.
After this meeting,
Washington was-was invigorated.
He was inspired.
And he realized
this is divine fate,
for the United States to exist.
But he first had to defeat
the British, which he did.
NARRATOR: Could George
Washington really have had
an otherworldly visitation
at Valley Forge?
If so, he isn't
the only Founding Father
associated
with an alien encounter.
In 1801,
Thomas Jefferson filed
one of the country's first
official UFO reports
after astronomer William Dunbar
told him
about an unexplained
aerial sighting
at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
In his report,
Jefferson wrote of
a fast-moving, luminous object
about 70 to 80 feet long
that flew by at about 200 yards
above the ground.
After it disappeared
over the horizon,
the witnesses heard a tremendous
impact in a nearby forest.
Upon investigating,
they found a crash site
where everything
had been burned and scorched.
Thomas Jefferson,
when he was vice president,
wrote up an official report
of a UFO sighting that
had happened in Baton Rouge.
He wrote it up for the American
Philosophical Association.
So that, arguably,
is the first case
where someone
who would go on to be president
made an official UFO report.
NARRATOR: The American
Philosophical Society
was founded
by Benjamin Franklin,
who, like Thomas Jefferson,
openly expressed his belief
in the existence of intelligent
extraterrestrial life.
MORGAN:
The Founding Fathers' worldview
accommodated the idea that there
would be people in other worlds.
And that was principled
upon this idea
that you cannot limit
God's creativity
just to the world
that you observe.
They literally had a vision
of not just the world
where we live
but the world beyond it.
And that-that world
beyond theirs,
um, was populated
by extraterrestrials.
NARRATOR: Could the
Founding Fathers have been aware
of an otherworldly presence
that was helping to ensure
the success
of the American experiment?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes
and suggest that so, too,
was the man who took office
at another crucial moment
in the nation's history,
Abraham Lincoln.
On April 14, 1865,
just hours before he would be
assassinated,
President Lincoln made
a shocking admission
to General Ulysses S. Grant.
WILLIAM HENRY:
Lincoln met with Grant,
who was awaiting news
from General Sherman
about a battle
in North Carolina,
and Lincoln assured
General Grant
that news would come
and it would be positive.
And Lincoln told him that, on
the eve of every great battle
Antietam, Gettysburg, Bull Run
He had the same dream.
He was in some kind
of indescribable vessel
that he was sailing
at a very rapid pace
and that this, in fact,
led him to understand
that this would be a positive
outcome for the Union forces
and lead to the doom
of the Confederacy.
POPE:
It's almost as if,
at these pivotal turning points
in human history,
the president
is shown how the United States
will ultimately triumph.
It's a sort of
galactic manifest destiny.
NARRATOR:
For many,
UFO sightings
and strange encounters reported
by U. S. Presidents may seem
like little more
than frivolous trivia.
But could such events indicate
that there is an unseen hand
guiding the course
of the nation?
And if so,
where is it leading us?
At the estate
of Theodore Roosevelt,
the 26th president
of the United States,
a giant orb of light is
witnessed by dozens of neighbors
hovering in the sky
for nearly two hours.
In 1907,
there was
a spectacular UFO sighting
over Sagamore Hill,
one of the residences
of President Teddy Roosevelt.
Now, Roosevelt, at the time,
was working on
a critically important speech,
and in this speech, he would
set out a strategic vision
for the United States
to develop a truly modern navy
that would propel
the United States
into the position
of a global superpower.
MORGAN:
As a part of his vision,
Roosevelt wanted to develop
Pearl Harbor.
It could be said that
were it not for Roosevelt
realizing that vision
for the future of the nation,
that American intervention
in the First World War
might not have been
as significant as it was.
BIRNES:
So
were the UFOs, were the strange
lights over Sagamore Hill,
at the same time
Theodore Roosevelt was coming up
with this vision of
a world consortium of nations,
are they somehow linked?
NARRATOR: Researchers find
this incident compelling,
not only because it is connected
with a U. S. President
at a critical moment in history,
but also because reports
of UFO sightings
were incredibly rare
at the beginning
of the 20th century.
After World War II, however,
this was no longer the case.
And it happened under the watch
of the country's 33rd president,
Harry S. Truman.
LARRY HOLCOMBE:
The Truman Administration
was really the golden years
of flying saucers,
as they were known then.
You had
Kenneth Arnold's sighting.
You had Roswell.
But then the great incident was
the great Washington
merry-go-round,
where, in two weekends
in July 1952,
Washington D. C. Was overrun
with strange objects
that were tracked
by the radar at National Airport
and radar
at Andrews Air Force Base.
This is David Brinkley
in the radar room
at Washington National Airport.
On these radar screens
last Saturday,
they saw
something strange and unusual
and, at the moment,
unexplainable.
It was not an airplane.
It was not a cloud.
Nobody knows what it was.
HOLCOMBE: The second weekend,
jets were scrambled
and one pilot called and said,
"What should I do?"
Meaning, should I fire on them?
And the strange objects
all of a sudden backed off
and disappeared.
NARRATOR: When President Truman
was questioned
about UFO incidents, like
the Washington D. C. Sightings,
he remarkably did not deny the
possibility of flying saucers.
Oh, yes, we discussed it
at every conference
that we had with the military,
and they never had been
never were able to make me
a concrete report on
There's always things like that
going on, uh, flying saucers.
NARRATOR:
Many researchers point out
that it was at this point
in history
The dawn of the Cold War
That Truman established a policy
of government secrecy
that has come to be known
as the National Security State.
MORGAN: President Truman
really sends us down the path
to the modern security state,
with the National
Security Act of 1947.
It created
the National Security Council,
and it created
the Central Intelligence Agency.
Truman is responding to what
is now the oncoming Cold War,
this new conflict that will
dominate our global politics
for the next five decades.
NARRATOR:
Whatever Truman's motivation
for drastically increasing
government secrecy,
the topic of UFOs
was caught in the web.
UFOs were something
that people were experiencing,
and right at the moment when
it appears that that activity
is kind of reaching a head,
suddenly we have the creation
of the modern
National Security State.
Truman clamps down on the
open discussion of such things.
STEVEN BASSETT: That's
a critical moment in history.
Truman made a decision
that was fateful,
and had he gone a different way,
it would have changed
the entire 20th century.
When we look at the relationship
between presidents and UFOs,
we can split this
into two categories.
The historic sightings
and encounters.
Washington, Lincoln,
Teddy Roosevelt.
We can say that there's almost
a benign element here.
It's almost
as if the United States
is being guided and helped.
But then the development
of atomic weapons seemed to be
the ultimate game changer.
NARRATOR:
Harry Truman's successor,
President Dwight D. Eisenhower,
is on a golfing vacation
when he fails to show up
for a scheduled public dinner.
The press corps
is given no explanation
until the president
finally reappears the next day,
at which time
his staff announces
that he had been at
an emergency dentist appointment
for a chipped tooth.
But curiously, Eisenhower's
medical and dental records
contain no reference
to this dentist visit.
Eisenhower goes to Palm Springs,
and he actually disappears.
There's no doubt about this
from the presidential records.
BIRNES:
It's really an astounding story.
He's secreted out
to this Air Force base
where he meets with aliens.
And he and the aliens
strike up a treaty.
And here's the treaty:
"You can stay in our skies,
surveil us.
"You can study us.
"In return,
"we want all of your technology,
and we agree
not to disclose your existence."
Why?
Because this is
after the 1952 invasion
of the UFOs over Washington,
so there's an urgency
to Eisenhower
striking a treaty with them.
NARRATOR: Numerous
whistleblowers later came forward
claiming that Eisenhower met
with extraterrestrial beings
not just once but three times.
And many who have researched
these events,
including Eisenhower's
own great-granddaughter,
are convinced
a treaty was actually signed.
I just feel like
I was just born into this family
to be the one willing to tackle
it, willing to give it a voice,
willing to
kind of disseminate it.
And I know it's really hard
for people to wrap their heads
around the fact that, during
Eisenhower's administration,
there was all this contact
going on.
And it's gotten to the point
where there's
so much information about it
that it-it
really can't be denied.
NARRATOR:
Is it possible
that, after World War II
and humankind's development
of atomic weapons,
alien visitors
communicated directly
with officials within
the United States government,
perhaps even Presidents Harry
Truman and Dwight Eisenhower?
Ufologists say yes
and suggest further evidence
of communication
between extraterrestrials
and the White House
can be found by examining
a strange incident
that involved
President Richard Nixon
and an alien body.
37th President of
the United States Richard Nixon
is entering
his fifth year in office,
mired
in a seemingly never-ending
military conflict
in Southeast Asia.
MORGAN: Richard Nixon was
under a great deal of pressure by 1973.
He was heralded into office
with the recognition
that he would be our savior
from Vietnam.
He gets into office basically
promising the American people,
"I'm gonna get you out of that."
But I do promise action,
a new policy for peace abroad,
a new policy
for peace and progress
and justice at home.
MORGAN: And then what does
he do when he gets into office?
He expands
the military mission in Vietnam.
NARRATOR: To escape the daily
rigors of his tumultuous presidency,
Nixon schedules a golf outing
with his friend Jackie Gleason,
the famous actor and comedian
who starred
in the 1950s hit TV series
The Honeymooners.
Nixon and-and Jackie Gleason
They were very good friends
and frequently played
golf together,
in Florida, usually.
And Nixon knew that
Jackie Gleason was known to be
a very, uh, big UFO buff.
He had probably one
of the largest libraries
on the subject in the world
at that time.
(whirring, shutter clicks)
EISENHOWER: His house
was designed to look like a-a UFO
and same with his guesthouse.
He was always asking,
you know, Nixon questions,
and Nixon, you know,
disclosed a lot to him.
NARRATOR: According to an
article written by Beverly Gleason,
who was Jackie Gleason's wife
at the time,
the actor's golf outing
with the president
led
to an extraordinary experience.
Hours after Gleason
returned home,
a limousine arrived unannounced.
Who's in the car?
It's President Richard Nixon.
And, by the way,
there's no Secret Service.
He tells Gleason to climb in.
"This is your dream."
They drive
to an Air Force base in Florida.
And what does Nixon show
Gleason?
He shows him alien artifacts,
pieces of a UFO
and a dead alien
in cold storage.
When he got home,
he told his wife all about it
What he had seen
and how Nixon
had taken him there.
And he told other people.
I actually got the interview
with Beverly Gleason.
We actually interviewed her.
She stayed to the story.
Jackie was very shaken up when
he came home after this thing.
And he was very angry
when she made public
the fact that he had seen
these bodies.
BASSETT:
This is extremely important,
because it indicates
that, almost certainly,
Nixon was fully briefed
on the E. T. Issue.
And if the president wants
to go see an E. T. Body,
by God,
he's gonna get to see one.
And if he's got Jackie Gleason
with him, fine.
NARRATOR: When his ex-wife's
story was published in 1983,
67-year-old Gleason
remained silent about it.
So, too, did Nixon.
Is it possible that
the incredible story is true?
UFO historians suggest
that Nixon's actions
led to a clampdown
on the information shared
with future presidents
and what they were allowed
to say publicly.
Attendees
of a local Lions Club meeting
spot a mysterious object
hovering in the night sky.
Among the witnesses
is future President of
the United States Jimmy Carter.
HOLCOMBE:
At the time,
Jimmy Carter was standing
outside with a group of men,
and they saw a great orb,
uh, in the sky.
Something very unusual
that changed color
from orange to a bluish color
and back again
and-and grew in size.
NARRATOR:
Nearly four years later,
Carter remained so intrigued
by what he witnessed
that he filed an official report
with the National Investigation
Committee on Aerial Phenomena,
or NICAP.
CAMERON:
Jimmy Carter,
when he was running
for president,
he had made the promise,
"If I become president,
I will release all the files."
POPE:
What happened?
He was elected president
and then he walked it back
and he said,
"Well, maybe there are
some UFO sightings that have
"national security implications,
and perhaps not everything
can be released."
BASSETT:
The question is,
what role have presidents played
in maintaining
this truth embargo,
authorizing it and so forth?
Well, that's somewhat dependent
upon whether they were briefed
or not.
Truman was briefed on everything
that happened at Roswell
and anything else E. T.-related.
Eisenhower absolutely would
have been briefed in full.
Kennedy, maybe not.
Nixon, we think, was briefed.
Carter, stonewalled
and so forth.
One of the stories
that's been floating
around the UFO community
is that the Democrats don't get
a proper briefing because
they don't have the connection
to the military
the way the Republicans
The Republicans know more.
So, the story has always been
that Jimmy Carter
didn't get told anything.
Bill Clinton
didn't get told anything.
But Ford, Reagan and Bush
all knew what was going on.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that there is a party bias
when it comes to what
an incoming president is told
about the UFO phenomenon?
Or could Jimmy Carter
have been denied access
to government UFO files
because he had promised
to release them to the public
during his campaign?
Perhaps further clues
can be found
by examining what happened
to a presidential candidate
after he admitted
to his own UFO sighting.
TIM RUSSERT:
Did you see a UFO?
During the Democratic primary
debate at Drexel University,
moderator Tim Russert turns
and addresses presidential
candidate Dennis Kucinich.
RUSSERT: Congressman Kucinich,
a serious question.
Shirley MacLaine
writes in her new book
that you sighted a UFO
-over her home in Washington State,
-(murmuring)
that you found
the encounter extremely moving,
that it was a triangular craft.
Now, did you see a UFO?
Uh, I-I did.
- And, uh, the rest of the account
- (murmuring)
Hold I-I didn't I
It was an unidentified
flying object, okay?
It's like It's unidentified.
I saw something. Now
And, also, you have
to keep in mind that more
That Jimmy Carter saw a UFO
and also that more people
in this country,
uh, uh, have seen UFOs
than I think approve
of George Bush's presidency.
NARRATOR: The debate
moment made national headlines.
Many political commentators
speculated
that this admission
damaged his campaign.
PODESTA: I think, uh,
for most people, it's been
the-the notion that you
are even discussing UFOs
tends to be viewed
as a career-ender.
You know, people think you're
a little bit wacky if you're
If you're, uh,
taking the phenomena seriously.
NARRATOR: But just what
did Dennis Kucinich experience?
Former British
Ministry of Defense.
UFO investigator Nick Pope
has arranged to meet with
Dennis Kucinich at the location
of his 1982 UFO encounter,
the former home
of Academy Award-winning actress
Shirley MacLaine.
The home,
which has since been sold,
overlooks Mount Rainier,
the site of the infamous Kenneth
Arnold flying saucer incident
that ignited the UFO craze
in 1947.
- Hey there! Welcome!
- Hi. - Hi.
NARRATOR: The current owner
agreed to allow Nick and Dennis
to take a look around.
- Come on in.
- Go ahead. - Thank you.
Wow.
- Yeah, really. (Chuckles)
- (chuckles)
What a fabulous view.
Oh, look,
there's nothing like this.
This is, of course, the location
where you had your UFO sighting.
Can you tell me about it?
Well, uh, Nick, I was seated
at a dinner table
with myself and two friends.
And I noticed a light
in the distance.
Came from the hill
directly over the house.
- Come on. Let me show you, okay?
- Okay.
- Wow. Fabulous.
- So, I was standing out here.
The-the scope was here.
I-I brought it up here
so that I could get a look
at the light.
And when I looked at it, I saw
it wasn't just, uh, one light.
It was a series of lights,
like a grid,
one stacked on another.
I went back and I looked
and then I saw something
that was extraordinary.
I-I said
the lights were separating.
They were definitely moving
in this direction.
So, at that point,
I came right to the edge here,
and I looked out into the hills
to watch
what proved to be three crafts
moving in this direction.
Just to be clear,
first seen over there
- to directly over the house.
- Right.
Right in the hills
in the distance
and then in a straight line.
That straight line would just go
right overhead here
and then above the house
and then
- and then quickly accelerating out of sight.
- Right. And then whoosh.
Just like that, gone.
- And that was the last you saw of them?
- Oh, yeah.
NARRATOR:
The next day,
Kucinich described the
experience to Shirley MacLaine.
He would say nothing more
about it for 26 years.
And then, when running for the
Democratic nomination in 2008,
his private UFO sighting
would become a public event,
affecting presidential politics
in a most unexpected way.
When the question was asked,
I-I think there was mention of,
you know, feeling almost a
an emotional connection,
that it spoke to you.
I mean, not in a literal sense
but feelings.
I don't know that I ever
communicated that to anyone.
But I will tell you this,
that it-it was extraordinary.
It was exciting.
How could it not be?
I mean, anybody who would see
anything like that
would have to be excited.
And was I?
Uh, yeah.
NARRATOR:
After the debate,
commentators like Chris Matthews
questioned
whether Kucinich's admission
had, in effect, disqualified him
from the presidential race.
But he was surprised by the
reaction of another candidate,
New Mexico Governor
Bill Richardson.
Is that disqualifying
for a presidential candidate,
- to say you've seen UFOs?
- (chuckles)
You know, I've never seen one.
Uh, you know, Roswell, New
Mexico, is the hotbed of UFOs,
- and I promote Roswell as a tourism issue.
- I know.
The federal government has not
come clean on all that issue,
and it should.
But, no, I've never seen one.
- It's an incredible
- Wait a minute! Stop the music!
- (laughing)
- Stop the music, Governor.
Did you say the United States
government is covering up
a history of the UFO sighting
in your state?
- You said the government hasn't cleared this up yet.
- Well, the answer there is
- What are they hiding, that you say about a UFO?
- No, they haven't.
Well, they-they don't produce
documents, Chris.
They should just get it all out.
- And there's a known history about this.
- What
- What is the conspir What is your belief that they're hiding?
- I think if they came clean,
if they released all documents
Look, I don't believe
there are UFOs,
but the government
has not handled this well
over the years.
That's a historical fact.
NARRATOR: Three months
after Kucinich's admission,
he withdrew
from the Democratic race,
but he remains committed
to a policy of disclosure.
KUCINICH: Information ought
to be open for people to see
so we know what our government's
actually about.
Let the people know.
Let the people know
what's going on with
unexplained aerial phenomenon.
NARRATOR: If extraterrestrials
have been monitoring
and perhaps guiding
the course of the United States
since the time
of George Washington,
where is it all leading?
Perhaps the answer can be found
by examining the president
who was most vocal
when it came to speculating
about an alien invasion,
Ronald Reagan.
California Governor
Ronald Reagan,
along with his security detail,
boards a Cessna aircraft bound
for a fundraising event
in Bakersfield.
As the aircraft reaches
an altitude of 35,000 feet,
Governor Reagan is startled
by a mysterious orb of light,
which appears to be flying
alongside his plane.
Ronald Reagan
was flying in an airplane
and had an encounter with
an unidentified flying object.
He asked the pilot to follow it.
They followed it
for a period of time.
Reagan is enthusiastic
about this.
When he lands,
he says, "I just saw a UFO."
He's not just being crazy.
He saw the UFO.
He knows exactly what it is.
NARRATOR: The pilot that
corroborated Reagan's sighting
was Air Force Colonel
Bill Paynter,
who claimed that the UFO
appeared to elongate
and then rapidly shoot up
into the sky.
HOLCOMBE:
Some years later,
the pilot was asked,
did he really think
that Reagan believed in UFOs?
And the pilot said,
"After what we saw
"in the sky that night,
how could anybody not believe
in them?"
NARRATOR:
According to historians,
it was this incident
that sparked Ronald Reagan's
lifelong interest
and belief in UFOs.
But unlike other politicians
who suffered ridicule
for such beliefs,
Reagan did not,
and for a very simple reason.
His closest aides kept him
from speaking publicly
about his UFO experience
and his belief
in extraterrestrials.
HOLCOMBE: The people
that worked for him really tried
to keep Reagan under control,
so to speak,
because they knew
that he was very interested
in this subject and wanted
to talk about it publicly.
So they had to kind of keep
the lid on it, if you will.
NARRATOR:
But did the UFO sighting
influence
Ronald Reagan's policies
after he became the 40th
president of the United States?
And, if so,
could this have also been due
to the fact that, once elected,
he was given even more
direct knowledge
of an extraterrestrial presence
here on Earth?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say "yes," and for proof,
they point to a mysterious
document that surfaced in 2005.
I became exposed
to a very,
very important document
that March 6 to 8, 1981,
then brand-new
President Ronald Reagan
was taken
by his new CIA director,
William Casey, to Camp David.
With them were analysts
from the CIA, the NSA, DIA.
And this briefing boiled down
to an introduction
to Ronald Reagan
of extraterrestrial species
that William Casey was saying,
"Sir, you need to understand
that we are dealing
with others on this planet."
NARRATOR:
Curiously,
throughout his presidency,
Ronald Reagan brought up
the subject of what would happen
in the case of an alien invasion
most famously in 1987,
when addressing
the United Nations
General Assembly in New York.
Perhaps we need
some outside universal threat
to make us recognize
this common bound.
I occasionally think,
how quickly our differences
worldwide would vanish
if we were facing an alien
threat from outside this world.
And yet, I ask you,
is not an alien force
already among us?
TSOUKALOS:
Reagan was the first one
who said publicly,
"It just needs one
extraterrestrial threat,
and that would bring together
the entire planet."
So, you have
to ask yourself the question,
"Did he know something?"
POPE:
Both in discussions
with the Soviet premier,
Mikhail Gorbachev,
Reagan alluded
to an alien presence.
And Gorbachev says
he was quite taken aback
when Reagan said this to him
at the critically-important
point of
pivotal arms negotiations.
And-and suddenly,
Ronald Reagan starts talking
about extraterrestrials.
NARRATOR:
Years later, during a symposium
in New York, President Gorbachev
recounted the incident.
(laughter)
(laughter)
NARRATOR:
Is it possible
that Ronald Reagan knew
the truth
about extraterrestrial activity
on Earth,
and then kept the facts a secret
for fear
of creating a global panic?
As far as many researchers
are concerned,
further evidence that
President Reagan had knowledge
of an alien presence
can be found
by examining
one of his most high-profile
and controversial initiatives
Star Wars.
NARRATOR:
On March 23, 1983,
U.S. President Ronald Reagan
launches the Strategic
Defense Initiative.
Nicknamed "Star Wars,"
its stated purpose is
to deter a Soviet attack
by basing defensive weapons
in outer space.
I have approved a research
program to find, if we can,
a security shield that will
destroy nuclear missiles
before they reach their target.
MORGAN:
Isn't it interesting
that this man
who had this encounter in 1974
is the man who then,
less than a decade later,
authorizes the Strategic
Defense Initiative,
also known as "Star Wars"?
If you will pardon
my stealing a film line,
"The force is with us."
NARRATOR: But was
defending the United States
against Soviet
nuclear aggression
Ronald Reagan's only motivation?
Some believe
that the real purpose
of the Star Wars campaign was
to fight extraterrestrials.
It's all about arming
planet Earth so that
if the extraterrestrial presence
suddenly turns hostile,
we have the military hardware
to resist.
NARRATOR:
While Ronald Reagan's.
Star Wars program was dissolved
in 1993,
some researchers believe
it set the nation on a course
for taking the next crucial step
towards connecting
with other intelligences.
President Donald Trump reveals
the official logo
for the newest branch of the
armed services Space Force.
With my signature today,
you will witness the birth
of the Space Force.
And that will be now
officially the sixth branch
of the United States
armed forces.
That is something
really incredible.
(applause and cheering)
NARRATOR:
The USSF,
an offshoot of the Air Force,
was established
by the Trump administration
to oversee military operations
beyond the Earth's atmosphere.
POPE:
One of President Trump's
most famous initiatives relates
to the Space Force.
Inevitably,
the UFO community have said,
"Well, this is
about the aliens."
This is almost a carbon copy
of what happened under Reagan's
presidency with Star Wars.
MORGAN:
Trump's announcement
that the United States is going
to have a Space Force
says something important
about what he knows
as the president
of the United States.
There have been disclosures
since he became president
that seem to suggest
that his move
in-in establishing
a Space Force has merit.
Space.
There'll be a lot of things
happening in space.
Because space is the world's
newest war-fighting domain.
NARRATOR: The final
push to create a Space Force
came just months after
three leaked military videos
of unidentified aerial phenomena
became widely circulated online.
CAMERON: The Navy goes in
and shows Trump three videos
The Go Fast, the Gimbal,
and the Tic Tac video,
and basically give him
the video.
So what is Trump gonna say?
"So what is it?"
And they had to have said,
"We don't know, Mr. President.
"We're working on it.
We're working on it.
We don't know.
We know it's for real."
NARRATOR: Could the
formation of Space Force indicate
that we are nearing the point
when an American president
will finally reveal
to the world
that aliens are among us?
BASSETT:
The escalation of the UFO
presence has stimulated
the awareness of the world,
driving the process forward
towards an announcement
or confirmation
by government,
which I call disclosure.
One of the fundamental purposes
of the modern era is
to get the world to the point
where it will confirm
the presence
of these extraterrestrials.
Once the world has had some time
to adjust to that new,
profound information,
open contact then becomes
not particularly dramatic.
HOWE:
In 2019 onward,
I think we're not in disclosure.
I think we're in confirmation.
Donald Trump, as president
of the United States,
is admitting
that we've got some of our best
military pilots
who are reporting UFOs,
and he in the White House
and the Department of Defense
They are watching what
the Navy pilots are reporting.
The human race is now more ready
than ever to accept the reality
of extraterrestrial involvement
in human affairs.
And I think this is ultimately
the end game
of the extraterrestrial plan.
And they're here
to guide us, to assist us
and to help us to manifest
a new future for humanity.
NARRATOR: George Washington
encountering a glowing being,
Ronald Reagan witnessing
an orb of light
through an airplane window.
Is it possible that America's
presidents have known
for centuries the truth
about
an extraterrestrial agenda?
If so, then perhaps we are
on the threshold of learning,
not only the full history
of the United States,
but also the hidden facts
about an alien presence
right here on Earth.