The Report from Iron Mountain

"The Report From Iron Mountain" is a book, published in 1967 (during the Johnson Administration) by Dial Press, that states that it is the report of a government panel. The book claims that it was authored by a Special Study Group of fifteen men whose identities were to remain secret and that it was not intended to be made public. The best selling book purportedly reported on a government panel that concluded war is necessary for the proper functioning of an economy. It is now generally believed to be a hoax authored by one man, Leonard Lewin. [Jon Elliston, “Report from Iron Mountain: Highbrow Hoax Mocks National Security Speak,” Copyright 1996, Parascope, Inc.]

Publishing history

As currently understood, the idea for the "Report" came from Victor Navasky. In 1966, Navasky, then editor of the satiric "Monocle" magazine, read an article in the "New York Times" about a stock market downturn due to a "peace scare". This gave him an idea for a report that would get people thinking about a peacetime economy and the futility of the arms race. With these aims in mind, Lewin wrote the hoax.

The book was first published in 1967 by Dial Press, and went out of print in 1980. E. L. Doctorow, then an editor at Dial, and Dial president Richard Baron agreed with Lewin and Navasky to list the book as nonfiction and to turn aside questions about its authenticity by citing the footnotes. [John Kifner, "L. C. Lewin, Writer of Satire Of Government Plot, Dies at 82" (obituary), "New York Times" Late Edition (East Coast), Jan 30, 1999. pg. A.11.]

Simon & Schuster later brought out another edition under their Free Press imprint. Liberty Lobby also put out an edition, claiming that it was a U.S. government document, and therefore inherently in the public domain; Lewin sued them for copyright infringement, which resulted in a settlement. According to the "New York Times", "Neither side would reveal the full terms of the settlement, but Lewin received more than a thousand copies of the bootlegged version." (Kifner, 1999)

Contents of the report

According to the report, a 15-member panel, called the Special Study Group, was set up in 1963 to examine what problems would occur if the U.S. entered a state of lasting peace. They met at an underground nuclear bunker called Iron Mountain (as well as other, worldwide locations) and worked over the next two years. A member of the panel, one "John Doe", a professor at a college in the Midwest, decided to release the report to the public.

The heavily footnoted report concluded that peace was not in the interest of a stable society, that even if lasting peace "could be achieved, it would almost certainly not be in the best interests of society to achieve it." War was a part of the economy. Therefore, it was necessary to conceive a state of war for a stable economy. The government, the group theorized, would not exist without war, and nation states existed in order to wage war. War also served a vital function of diverting collective aggression. They recommended that bodies be created to emulate the economic functions of war. They also recommended "blood games" and that the government create alternative foes that would scare the people with reports of alien lifeforms and out of control pollution. Another facet of the supposed report was the reinstitution of slavery.

Reactions

After the report's release, "Report from Iron Mountain" was on the "New York Times" bestseller list and was translated into fifteen different languages. From the first there was controversy over whether it was real or a hoax. "U.S. News and World Report" claimed in its November 20 1967 issue to have confirmation of the reality of the report from an unnamed government official, who added that when President Johnson read the report, he 'hit the roof' and ordered it to be suppressed for all time. Additionally, sources were said to have revealed that orders were sent to U.S. embassies, instructing them to emphasize that the book had no relation to U.S. Government policy. ["Hoax of Horror? A Book That Shook White House, U.S. News & World Report," November 20, 1967] "Trans-Action" devoted an issue to the debate over the book. "Esquire" magazine published a 28,000-word excerpt. (Kifner, 1999)

Revelation

In the March 19 1972 edition of the "New York Times Book Review", fretting how the Pentagon Papers and other documents about the Vietnam War "read like parodies of "Iron Mountain" rather than the reverse" [http://www.hermes-press.com/lewin2.htm] , Lewin took credit for writing the report. It was also listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "Most Successful Literary Hoax."

Even after this admission, there are people who believe the so-called hoax is indeed a real government work and was called a hoax to discredit the report. In 1991, Oliver Stone used a quote from the alleged hoax in the movie, "JFK"; one of Stone's story consultants, former Intelligence officer L. Fletcher Prouty, believed the alleged hoax was real. Many believers cite the Hegelian Thesis model as a theory behind its disclosure.

On November 26, 1976, the report was reviewed in the book section of the Washington Post by Herschel McLandress, which was the pen name for Harvard professor John Kenneth Galbraith. Galbraith, who also had been a member of the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations), said that he knew firsthand of the report's authenticity because he had been invited to participate in it. Although he was unable to be part of the official group, he was consulted from time to time and had been asked to keep the project a secret. Furthermore, while he doubted the wisdom of letting the public know about the report, he agreed totally with its conclusions.

He wrote:'As I would put my personal repute behind the authenticity of this document, so would I testify to the validity of its conclusions. My reservation relate only to the wisdom of releasing it to an obviously unconditioned public.' ["News of War and Peace You're No Ready For.", by Herschel McLandress. Book World, in The Washington Post, November 26, 1967, p. 5.]

Six weeks later, in an Associated Press dispatch from London, Galbraith went even further and jokingly admitted that he was a member of the conspiracy. ["The Times Diary', The Times, February 5, 1968, p. 8.] That, however, did not settle the issue. The following day, Galbraith backed off. When asked about his 'conspiracy' statement, he replied: 'For the first time since Charles II The Times has been guilty of a misquotation... Nothing shakes my conviction that it was written by either Dean Rusk or Mrs. Clare Booth Luce. ' ["Gailbraith Says He Was Misquoted,' The Times, February 6, 1968, p. 3.]

The original reporter reported the following six days later: 'Misquoting seems to be a hazard to which Professor Galbraith is prone. The latest edition of the Cambridge newspaper Varsity quotes the following (tape recorded) interchange:'Interviewer: 'Are you aware of the identity of the author of Report from Iron Mountain?'Galbraith: 'I was in general a member of the conspiracy, but I was not the author. I have always assumed that it was the man who wrote the foreword - Mr. Lewin" ["Touche, Professor,' The Times, February 12, 1968, p. 8.]

So, on at least three occasions, Galbraith publicly endorsed the authenticity of the report, but denied that he wrote it.

ee also

*Futurist Manifesto
*The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

References

External links

* [http://www.jfk-online.com/jfk100lewin.html A Debunking of the scene in "JFK" where the hoax is quoted by Kennedy Assassination researcher Dave Reitzes]
* [http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Report_From_Iron_Mountain/ Article from the Museum of Hoaxes]
* [http://www.freedomforceinternational.org/pdf/Report_from_Iron_Mountain.pdf Report From Iron Mountain PDF]