The Report From Iron Mountain
Encyclopedia
The Report from Iron Mountain is a book published in 1967
(during the Johnson Administration
) by Dial Press
which puts itself forth as the report of a government panel. The book includes the claim 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. It details the analyses of a government panel which concludes that war, or a credible substitute for war, is necessary if governments are to maintain power. The book was a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into fifteen languages. Controversy still swirls over whether the book was a satiric hoax about think-tank logic and writing style or the product of a secret government panel. In 1972 Leonard Lewin said the book was a spoof and that he was its author.
, 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.
Liberty Lobby
put out an edition circa 1990, 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)
Likewise, an edition was brought out in 1993 by Buccaneer Books, a small publisher reprinting out of print political classics. It is unclear whether this was authorized by the author.
In response to the bootleg editions, Simon & Schuster
brought out a new hardcover edition in 1996 under their Free Press imprint, authorized by the author Lewin, with a new introduction by Navasky and afterword by Lewin both admitting the book was fictional and satire, and discussing the original controversy over the book and the more recent interest in it by conspiracy theorists
.
A new paperback edition was published in 2008.
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 life-forms and out-of-control pollution. Another proposal was the reinstitution of slavery
.
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.
In an article in the March 19, 1972 edition of the New York Times Book Review, Lewin said that he had written the book.
Consistent with the belief that the book is a satire, the idea for the Report came from Victor Navasky
. In 1966, Navasky, then editor of the satiric magazine Monocle
, read an article in the New York Times about a sell-off in the stock market due to a "peace scare". This gave him an idea: a report that would get people thinking about a peacetime economy and the futility of the arms race. Lewin wrote the book with these aims in mind.
by Herschel McLandress, the pen name for Harvard professor John Kenneth Galbraith
. Galbraith wrote that he knew firsthand of the report's authenticity because he had been invited to participate in its creation; that 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 secret; and that 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 relates only to the wisdom of releasing it to an obviously unconditioned public.'
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 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. '
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
Those who state that the book is really the report of a government panel state that on at least three occasions -- including one tape-recorded exchange -- Galbraith publicly endorsed the authenticity of the report, but denied that he wrote it.
Galbraith, a Keynesian, was aware of the irony of his mis-statements considering his quotation on a late edition of J. M. Keynes 1919 book The Economic Consequences of the Peace. "The most important economic document relating to World War I and its aftermath" -John Kenneth Galbriath.
The book set out the inevitable "rapid depression of the standard of life of the European populations to a point which will mean actual starvation for some (a point already reached in Russia and approximately reached in Austria). Men will not always die quietly. For starvation, which brings to some lethargy and a helpless despair, drives other temperaments to the nervous instability of hysteria and to a mad despair."
REPORT FROM IRON MOUNTAIN: ON THE POSSIBILITY AND DESIRABILITY OF PEACE
Freedom From War:The United States Program (under the auspices of the UN)for General and Complete
Disarmament in a Peaceful World
Report from Iron Mountain on the possibility and desirability of peace.
New York, Dial Press 1967
1967 in literature
The year 1967 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Influential science fiction anthology Dangerous Visions published.*Cecil Day-Lewis is selected as the new Poet Laureate of the UK.-New books:...
(during the Johnson Administration
Johnson Administration
Johnson Administration may refer to:*Andrew Johnson Administration, 17th President of the United States, 1865–1869*Lyndon B. Johnson Administration, 36th President of the United States, 1963–1969...
) by Dial Press
Dial Press
The Dial Press was a publishing house founded in 1923 by Lincoln MacVeagh.Dial Press shared a building with The Dial and Scofield Thayer worked with both. The first imprint was issued in 1924. Authors included Elizabeth Bowen, W.R...
which puts itself forth as the report of a government panel. The book includes the claim 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. It details the analyses of a government panel which concludes that war, or a credible substitute for war, is necessary if governments are to maintain power. The book was a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into fifteen languages. Controversy still swirls over whether the book was a satiric hoax about think-tank logic and writing style or the product of a secret government panel. In 1972 Leonard Lewin said the book was a spoof and that he was its author.
Publishing history
The book was first published in 1967 by Dial PressDial Press
The Dial Press was a publishing house founded in 1923 by Lincoln MacVeagh.Dial Press shared a building with The Dial and Scofield Thayer worked with both. The first imprint was issued in 1924. Authors included Elizabeth Bowen, W.R...
, and went out of print in 1980. E. L. Doctorow
E. L. Doctorow
Edgar Lawrence Doctorow is an American author.- Biography :Edgar Lawrence Doctorow was born in the Bronx, New York City, the son of second-generation Americans of Russian Jewish descent...
, 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.
Liberty Lobby
Liberty Lobby
Liberty Lobby was an American political advocacy organization founded in 1958 that went bankrupt in 2001. It was founded by Willis Carto. In their own words,-Antisemitic world-view:...
put out an edition circa 1990, claiming that it was a U.S. government document, and therefore inherently in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
; Lewin sued them for copyright infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
, 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)
Likewise, an edition was brought out in 1993 by Buccaneer Books, a small publisher reprinting out of print political classics. It is unclear whether this was authorized by the author.
In response to the bootleg editions, Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
brought out a new hardcover edition in 1996 under their Free Press imprint, authorized by the author Lewin, with a new introduction by Navasky and afterword by Lewin both admitting the book was fictional and satire, and discussing the original controversy over the book and the more recent interest in it by conspiracy theorists
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
.
A new paperback edition was published in 2008.
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.United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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
John Doe
The name "John Doe" is used as a placeholder name in a legal action, case or discussion for a male party, whose true identity is unknown or must be withheld for legal reasons. The name is also used to refer to a male corpse or hospital patient whose identity is unknown...
", 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 life-forms and out-of-control pollution. Another proposal was the reinstitution of slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
.
Reaction by Lyndon Johnson
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 JohnsonLyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
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 or real?
In 1996, Jon Elliston wrote that the book is generally believed to be a hoax authored by one man, Leonard Lewin, and the book was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "Most Successful Literary Hoax." Some people claim that the book is genuine and has only been called a hoax as a means of damage control. Trans-Action devoted an issue to the debate over the book. Esquire magazine published a 28,000-word excerpt. (Kifner, 1999)In an article in the March 19, 1972 edition of the New York Times Book Review, Lewin said that he had written the book.
Consistent with the belief that the book is a satire, the idea for the Report came from Victor Navasky
Victor Navasky
Victor Saul Navasky is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was editor of The Nation from 1978 until 1995, and its publisher and editorial director 1995 to 2005. In November 2005 he became the publisher emeritus...
. In 1966, Navasky, then editor of the satiric magazine Monocle
Monocle (magazine)
Monocle was an American satirical magazine, published irregularly from the late 1950s until the mid-sixties. For at least the majority of its run, it was edited by Victor Navasky. Calvin Trillin, C. D. B...
, read an article in the New York Times about a sell-off in the stock market due to a "peace scare". This gave him an idea: a report that would get people thinking about a peacetime economy and the futility of the arms race. Lewin wrote the book with these aims in mind.
Statements made by John Kenneth Galbraith in support of authenticity
On November 26, 1976, the report was reviewed in the book section of The Washington PostThe Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
by Herschel McLandress, the pen name for Harvard professor John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth "Ken" Galbraith , OC was a Canadian-American economist. He was a Keynesian and an institutionalist, a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism...
. Galbraith wrote that he knew firsthand of the report's authenticity because he had been invited to participate in its creation; that 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 secret; and that 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 relates only to the wisdom of releasing it to an obviously unconditioned public.'
Six weeks later, in an Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
dispatch from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Galbraith went even further and jokingly admitted that he was a member of the conspiracy.
The following day, Galbraith backed off. When asked about his 'conspiracy' statement, he replied: 'For the first time since Charles II The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
has been guilty of a misquotation... Nothing shakes my conviction that it was written by either Dean Rusk
Dean Rusk
David Dean Rusk was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Rusk is the second-longest serving U.S...
or Mrs. Clare Booth Luce. '
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
Those who state that the book is really the report of a government panel state that on at least three occasions -- including one tape-recorded exchange -- Galbraith publicly endorsed the authenticity of the report, but denied that he wrote it.
Galbraith, a Keynesian, was aware of the irony of his mis-statements considering his quotation on a late edition of J. M. Keynes 1919 book The Economic Consequences of the Peace. "The most important economic document relating to World War I and its aftermath" -John Kenneth Galbriath.
The book set out the inevitable "rapid depression of the standard of life of the European populations to a point which will mean actual starvation for some (a point already reached in Russia and approximately reached in Austria). Men will not always die quietly. For starvation, which brings to some lethargy and a helpless despair, drives other temperaments to the nervous instability of hysteria and to a mad despair."
External links
Iron Mountain Blueprint to Tyranny Full RARE Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtyEAttEthQ
REPORT FROM IRON MOUNTAIN: ON THE POSSIBILITY AND DESIRABILITY OF PEACE
- http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/iron_mountain_full.htm
Freedom From War:The United States Program (under the auspices of the UN)for General and Complete
Disarmament in a Peaceful World
- http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/arms/freedom_war.html
Report from Iron Mountain on the possibility and desirability of peace.
New York, Dial Press 1967
- http://centralsearch.uco.edu:1701/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=1&scp.scps=scope%3A(UCO)%2Cprimo_central_multiple_fe&frbg=&dstmp=1298656529653&srt=rank&ct=search&mode=Basic&dum=true&tb=t&indx=1&vl(freeText0)=report%20from%20iron%20mountain&fn=search&vid=UCO&fromLogin=true
- Report From Iron Mountain, by Leonard Lewin
- "An explanation of the circumstances and motivation involved in the creation of the Report," by Victor Navasky
- A Debunking of the scene in JFK where the hoax is quoted by Kennedy Assassination researcher Dave Reitzes
- Article from the Museum of Hoaxes
- Commentary on Report From Iron Mountain taken from Ch. 24 of The Creature from Jekyll Island, by G. Edward Griffin (PDF)
- L. C. Lewin, Writer of Satire Of Government Plot, Dies at 82, The New York Times, January 30, 1999
- Report from iron mountain video