Majestic 12 (or MJ-12) is the code name of an alleged secret committee of scientists, military leaders, and government officials, formed in 1947 by an executive order by U.S. President Harry S. Truman. The purpose of the committee would be to investigate the recovery of a UFO north of Roswell, New Mexico during July 1947.

The primary evidence for the existence of a group named Majestic 12 is a collection of documents that first emerged in 1984.[2][self-published source?] The original MJ-12 documents state that:

The Majestic 12 group… was established by order of President Truman on 24 September, [sic – see discussion] 1947, upon recommendation by Dr. Vannevar Bush and Secretary of Defense James Forrestal.[3]

MJ-12 is sometimes associated in recent UFO conspiracy literature with the more historically verifiable but also deeply secretive NSC 5412/2 Special Group,[citation needed] created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954. Although the Special Group was not specifically concerned with UFOs, and post-dates the alleged creation of MJ-12 in 1947, the commonality of the number ’12’ in the names of the two groups is cited as intriguing, as is the first chairman, Gordon Gray, being one of the alleged MJ-12 members. As the highest body of central intelligence experts in the early Cold War era (according to the documents, the group included the President but not the Vice President), the Special Group certainly would have had both clearance and interest in all matters of national security, including UFO sightings if they were considered a real threat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majestic_12