Cutler-Twining Memo

The Cutler-Twining memo, dated 14 July 1954, is the one MJ-12 document that was found in a government repository rather than delivered anonymously — located at the National Archives in Record Group 341, entry 267, folder T4-1846 [S1]. That provenance made it, for years, the strongest card in the MJ-12 case.

The National Archives has since published detailed objections, and they are specific: the memo carries no Top Secret register number where the series requires one; the folder contains no other MJ-12 material; the paper is onionskin lacking the eagle watermark found on genuine Cutler NSC documents; there is no NSC meeting record for the date referenced and no corresponding entry in Eisenhower's appointment books; the NSC Declassification Office has no record of declassifying it; and Robert Cutler was documented overseas in Europe and North Africa from 3 to 15 July, spanning the date the memo bears [S1].

NARA declines to draw the obvious conclusion itself, stating: "We do not authenticate documents or the information contained in a document" [S1].

The memo is also the subject of the best-known MJ-12 wager. Philip J. Klass bet Stanton Friedman that genuine 1950s White House documents used only Elite type, not the Pica of this memo; Friedman produced exemplars and Klass paid out $1,000 — though the terms specified letters and memoranda, and Friedman's initial batch was headings and dates [S2].

Sources

[S1] "NARA reference report on UFOs / the MJ-12 documents" / https://www.archives.gov/research/military/air-force/ufos / Accessed 2026-08-30

[S2] "War of the Words" / https://chicagoreader.com / Accessed 2026-08-30

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