Within Typography
Why the Truman Memo's Date Looks Mixed
Different-looking portions of the Truman memo's date may indicate multiple typewriters, but that alone cannot distinguish office practice from fabrication.
On this page
- The apparent mismatch within the typed date
- How critics interpreted a second typing operation
- Why multiple office typewriters offer a competing explanation
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Introduction
One of the more specific typographical oddities in the alleged 24 September 1947 Truman-to-Forrestal memorandum is inside the date itself. Researchers on both sides of the MJ-12 dispute have argued that the numerical portion — “24, 1947” — does not sit exactly in line with “September” and appears to have been produced separately, potentially on another typewriter.[The Black Vault]theblackvault.comThe Black Vault Update on Operation Majestic 12 DocumentsThe Black VaultUpdate on Operation Majestic 12 Documents - The Black Vault Case FilesJanuary 17, 2024…
That observation matters, but its meaning is much less certain than the observation itself. Philip J. Klass treated the mixed typing as evidence compatible with fabrication: a modern counterfeiter might have assembled the date in separate operations. Stanton Friedman accepted that the date looked separately typed but reversed the inference, arguing that genuine offices sometimes added dates later and used multiple machines.[Bluebook Files]files.bluebookfiles.orgBluebook Files Bill Moore File 5Bluebook Files Bill Moore File 5
The safest conclusion is therefore narrow. The date appears to contain evidence of more than one typing operation, but that fact alone cannot distinguish an authentic administrative workflow from a constructed document.
The apparent mismatch within the typed date
The disputed memorandum is presented as a one-page White House document from President Harry S. Truman to the newly installed Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal. Its date reads “September 24, 1947.” The document’s text is readily available in reproductions, including a transcription of the memorandum.[Wikisource]en.wikisource.orgMJ-12 DocumentMJ-12 Document - Wikisource, the free online libraryNovember 18, 1952…
The significant feature is not simply that the date has an unusual appearance. Friedman, despite defending the document, described the final portion of the date as being out of line with “September”, which he took as a strong indication that the numbers were added in a separate typewriter. An MJ-12 authentication summary likewise describes the numerals as raised relative to the line and interprets this as indicating that the sheet was removed and subsequently reinserted for the date.[Medium]medium.comBook Review: Kevin D. Randle’s CASE MJ-12: THE TRUE STORY BEHIND THE GOVERNMENT’S UFO CONSPIRACIES | by Richard Geldreich, Jr. | Ph…
That distinction is important in document examination. A difference in vertical alignment does not automatically prove that text has been pasted onto a page. A sheet removed from one typewriter and later inserted into another can naturally produce small changes in baseline, positioning and character appearance. Even reinserting it into the same machine can make perfect registration difficult. What the visible discrepancy principally suggests, therefore, is a production sequence: at least part of the date may not have been typed at the same moment as the adjacent material.
Nor is this the same issue as the broader argument over what model of typewriter produced the memorandum. Some MJ-12 discussions have disputed whether the principal typeface could have existed in 1947; one later pro-authenticity examination attributed it to an Underwood style consistent with a 1940 exemplar.[icypaws.tripod.com]icypaws.tripod.comM J-12 DocumentsM J-12 Documents The mixed-date question is narrower. Even if every typeface involved were demonstrably available in 1947, the apparent second operation would remain something to explain.
How critics interpreted a second typing operation
Klass regarded the mixed date as suspicious precisely because an authentic presidential memorandum would ordinarily be expected to emerge from an adequately equipped office. In a 1989 discussion of the document, he pointed specifically to the numerical portion being typed with a different machine and proposed a reconstruction: a counterfeiter attempting to imitate 1947 typing might have used an old machine but found some of its keys unusable, forcing the numbers to be produced separately and inserted into the finished image.[Bluebook Files]files.bluebookfiles.orgBluebook Files Bill Moore File 5Bluebook Files Bill Moore File 5
The value of that argument lies in identifying a possible fabrication mechanism. If a purportedly unitary memorandum contains typography from different sources, fabrication is one way that can happen. Someone constructing a historical document may have to combine output from different machines because no single available machine supplies all the desired characters or because one source better imitates the period appearance.
The weakness is that the proposed sequence is inferential. The observation that two portions look separately typed does not itself establish why they were separately typed. In particular, the claim that a forger’s old typewriter had defective numerical keys is a hypothesis about an unseen production process, not something independently demonstrated by the document. Klass’s surviving argument therefore supplies a possible explanation for the anomaly rather than a forensic demonstration that this explanation must be correct.[Bluebook Files]files.bluebookfiles.orgBluebook Files Bill Moore File 5Bluebook Files Bill Moore File 5
That evidential distinction is crucial. Compare the mixed-date issue with a hypothetical finding that a character design was introduced only in the 1960s. A securely identified post-1947 technology would create a chronological contradiction: the memorandum could not have been produced on its stated date. By contrast, two typewriters that were both available by 1947 create no such contradiction. The question becomes why two machines were used, and typography alone cannot necessarily answer it.
There is also a wider reason not to make the mixed date carry the entire authenticity case. The official archival record provides substantial reasons for scepticism about the MJ-12 material independently of this particular feature. The National Archives reports that extensive searches of relevant Air Force, Joint Chiefs, presidential-library and National Security Council holdings failed to locate the expected supporting records, apart from the controversial Cutler-Twining memorandum; the FBI’s account says an Air Force investigation determined the MJ-12 briefing document it received to be fake.[National Archives]archives.govNational Archives Project BLUE BOOKNational ArchivesProject BLUE BOOK - Unidentified Flying Objects | National ArchivesJune 25, 2024… Those findings give the overall controversy a sceptical context, but they do not turn every individual typographical irregularity into independent proof of forgery.
Why office practice offers a competing explanation
Friedman’s counterargument begins by agreeing with an important part of the criticism: the date really does appear to have been produced in stages. Where he disagreed was over what such staging implied.
He reported discussing White House working practices with George M. Elsey, who served on Truman’s staff. According to Friedman’s account, Elsey said that presidential documents were commonly prepared by other people and that dates could be added later once the appropriate date was known. Friedman consequently argued that a separately typed date was compatible with ordinary document preparation rather than intrinsically suspicious.[The Black Vault]theblackvault.comThe Black Vault Update on Operation Majestic 12 DocumentsThe Black VaultUpdate on Operation Majestic 12 Documents - The Black Vault Case FilesJanuary 17, 2024…
There is good independent evidence for treating Elsey as a genuinely knowledgeable Truman-era witness, although not for treating Friedman’s later recollection as conclusive forensic evidence. The Truman Library preserves extensive oral-history interviews with Elsey documenting his work in the Truman administration.[Harry S. Truman Presidential Library]trumanlibrary.govHarry S. Truman Presidential Library George M. Elsey Oral History Interview,Harry S. Truman Presidential LibraryGeorge M. Elsey Oral History Interview, July 10, 1970 | Harry S. TrumanJuly 10, 1970… Friedman’s surviving notes of a February 1989 telephone conversation also record Elsey regarding the possibility that Bush or Forrestal could have prepared material for Truman’s signature as entirely plausible.[Project Aquarius]projectaquarius.mufon.comTRUMAN PRES HSProject AquariusMSI PATCH SHEETMay 23, 2026…
Friedman further claimed that he had located genuine National Security Council material in which the text and date appeared in different typefaces, using those examples to challenge the assumption that a government document should necessarily have been typed in a single uninterrupted operation.[Medium]medium.comBook Review: Kevin D. Randle’s CASE MJ-12: THE TRUE STORY BEHIND THE GOVERNMENT’S UFO CONSPIRACIES | by Richard Geldreich, Jr. | Ph… This is the most consequential part of the defence. Once period office records establish that later-added or differently typed dates occurred at all, “two typing operations” ceases to be equivalent to “forgery”.
The historical circumstances of 24 September 1947 also make a multi-person production path possible, although they do not prove one. Truman’s official appointment calendar records Forrestal and Vannevar Bush meeting the President together at 11:30 that morning.[Harry S. Truman Presidential Library]trumanlibrary.govOpen source on trumanlibrary.gov. That is notable because both men are implicated in the disputed memorandum’s wording and in Friedman’s proposed preparation scenario. It demonstrates that the relevant people really were together on the stated date; it does not establish that they drafted the memorandum, used a particular typewriter or caused its date to be added separately.
This is where circumstantial compatibility has sometimes been allowed to do too much work in MJ-12 arguments. A real Truman-Bush-Forrestal meeting makes the document’s claimed setting more plausible than it would be if those men had demonstrably been elsewhere. But a knowledgeable fabricator could also exploit genuine calendar information. Likewise, authentic examples of separately added dates establish that the practice was possible, not that it occurred on this particular sheet.
What the mixed date can actually establish
The strongest reading of the typography is therefore more modest than either pole of the MJ-12 debate.
First, the mismatch is potentially meaningful production evidence. The offset and apparent difference between “September” and the numerical part support the proposition that the complete date was not necessarily struck in one continuous pass. Both critics and defenders have effectively worked from that premise.[Bluebook Files]files.bluebookfiles.orgBluebook Files Bill Moore File 5Bluebook Files Bill Moore File 5
Second, a second operation is not inherently anachronistic. Office documents can be prepared in advance and dated later. Friedman’s period-document comparisons and his discussion with Elsey provide a concrete alternative to the assumption that one memorandum must equal one typewriter session.[The Black Vault]theblackvault.comThe Black Vault Update on Operation Majestic 12 DocumentsThe Black VaultUpdate on Operation Majestic 12 Documents - The Black Vault Case FilesJanuary 17, 2024…
Third, fabrication remains a viable explanation. A constructed document can equally well contain separately produced elements. Nothing about legitimate office practice eliminates that possibility. The fact that the larger MJ-12 documentary corpus attracted negative findings from official archival and investigative searches makes it especially important not to treat an administratively plausible explanation as positive authentication.[National Archives]archives.govNational Archives Project BLUE BOOKNational ArchivesProject BLUE BOOK - Unidentified Flying Objects | National ArchivesJune 25, 2024…
The evidential asymmetry is the key point. If investigators could demonstrate that one part of the date came from a typewriter technology unavailable until after September 1947, that would be powerful evidence against authenticity. Merely demonstrating that the date was typed in two operations does much less. It establishes an unusual production history, but both an authentic office and a later fabricator are capable of producing one.
For the Truman memorandum, then, the mixed date is best treated as a diagnostic clue rather than a verdict. It is useful because it narrows the question from “does this look odd?” to “why was this portion apparently added separately?” But unless the machines themselves can be dated or the production sequence tied to independent physical evidence, typography cannot choose decisively between the two competing mechanisms. The anomaly raises a legitimate question about how the memorandum was made; it does not, on its own, answer whether the memorandum is genuine.
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Endnotes
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