Marsface author writes Pravda -DEC/89

NOTE: The file is reproduced verbatim, except for use of "(sic)". Words fully capitalised represent use of boldface in letter. Accompanying "attachments" referred to in the following letter, are not reproduced here.

Richard C. Hoagland

Old Gate Farm

Rt 4 Box 168

Wytheville, VA 24382

(703) 228-5524

December 1, 1989

Olga Dmitrieva

Komsomolskaya Pravda

Street 24

6^th Floor

Moscow, USSR

Dear Olga,

It was great to talk with you again the other morning (even though the only time I could finally get a circuit between the United States and Moscow was about 4:30 AM -- when my body kept insisting it was still "night!"). From the sound of your voice and our brief conversation, including our exchange last Spring at Peggy Carters', I know if we lived closer -- at least on the same continent -- we'd have many things to talk about -- especially now, in view of what is taking place around the world.

Attached is my "Op-Ed piece" on our Mars Investigation -- and what I now believe is the "fingerprint" of its dramatic, real-world impact on the current history taking place before our eyes. I look forward eagerly to your reaction.

I've thought a lot about what you were trying to describe that night so many months ago, when you were telling us about the new, important role for journalism in your country; it reminded me of the feelings that I had, when I got my first major journalistic opportunity "to make a difference." At the somewhat "tender" age of twenty- three, I was suddenly, "miraculously," invited to join CBS News about twenty years ago (see attached biographical sketch) -- "to help them go to the Moon." [The actual invitation was to become a science advisor, during the Apollo lunar missions, to Walter Cronkite (can you believe?). At the time, Walter was known as "the most trusted man in America," and indication of the esteem in which he was held, both by the public and his journalistic colleagues].

The almost indescribable feelings that I had on that remarkable occasion -- when I realised that my (at the time, very meagre!) science journalistic skills were actually being sought by an almost legendary world news organisation, if not by its very dean of journalism (!), to contribute even in a tiny way towards an unprecedented moment in the history of all Humanity, the First Lunar Landing -- I've thought, many times since our first meeting, must have been very similar to the feelings you attempted to describe that night in North Carolina, involving your own role these days in Moscow: being witness to -- if not an active participant in -- History.

If I remember correctly, you said something like "we [journalists] now feel like soldiers 'on the front lines.' We feel a great, almost historic responsibility to may 'peristroyka' work!"

Because of the historic "moment" you are now experiencing, Olga -- participating in the extraordinary rebirth of an entire nation, literally grappling with the Future (as opposed to "just" reporting it) -- I believe that you can share some of my own vicarious excitement, as I watch from half-way around the world, and wonder . . . is it possible that, behind ALL the extraordinary, revolutionary changes we are seeing . . . what we have discovered on the Viking photographs is partially responsible . . . ?!

ANCIENT RUINS LYING ON A NEARBY PLANET, RUINS WHICH WILL CHANGE THE COURSE OF HISTORY FOR EACH OF US . . . IF THEY AREN'T DOING SO ALREADY?

When we first discussed the possibility of my writing something for you regarding our research, I certainly could not have stated these ideas with such apparent certainty. But, over the course of the summer, several major breakthroughs have occurred -- on both the scientific front, and on the "politics of verification." These have remarkably verified our "intelligence hypothesis," and crystallised my thoughts -- and the result is the "editorial" you have before you.

The dramatic political developments -- which have included a total reversal of "policy" with regard to the "Cydonia artefacts" by NASA, and in less that 6 months (correspondence attached to this letter) -- occurred, after 13 years of dismissing the possibility as "nonsense," almost as rapidly as the revolutionary changes your government is now undergoing after 70 years, prompting me to ask: what's really going on here?

In particular, when you and I first met, I had just returned from Washington (April 19) and a face-to-face meeting with Congressman Robert A. Roe, head of the most powerful science committee in the U.S. Congress. As you can see from the attached correspondence (just follow the dates), after our meeting Roe asked me for a memo of recommendations . . . then he took a long time (over 6 months) doing "something" . . . followed by a sudden flurry of announcements to the media and various constituents, affirming (directly opposite NASA's previous "position") that "NASA does plan to take new images of the 'Monuments of Mars’ . . ." The very day the article in the WALL STREET JOURNAL, announcing this development, appeared, was the same day that Chairman Roe did an interview for radio (I have the tape) in which he bluntly said, "I've seen the [Viking] pictures. . . and they [the objects] don't appear natural. It would be stupid not to look!"

This from the Chairman of a major Congressional Committee in the U.S. Government!

As if this weren't enough, as I said, we also had a major scientific breakthrough this summer in the Cydonia research: we believe we've now actually decoded the first part of a mathematical message represented by the exquisite, redundant geometry we had previously discovered at Cydonia. How do we know? Because the mathematics predict certain geophysical events, at specific

latitudes on other planets in the solar system, and the Sun. . . and when we look at the geodetic maps of these celestial bodies -- the phenomena are there!

As I said many times in MONUMENTS: "Science is nothing, if it's not prediction."

In mid-August we published a technical paper on these dramatic findings -- including a series of very specific geophysical predictions regarding what our Voyager unmanned spacecraft would find at Neptune ( before it got to Neptune!). Because of the short lead-time, we published electronically in a world-wide computer-information system called "CompuServe" (the managers of CompuServe have specifically told me, incidentally, that they will give you free access from Moscow, if you want to communicate "live" with our on-going Mars Mission Issues conversation, where we are actively discussing the major issues that I raise in my "guest editorial." Or, you can simply access a vast range of information. We can discuss details of that fascinating possibility later, if you're interested).

Anyway, two weeks after we had published our "message paper," Voyager flew by Neptune. . . and observed exactly what our "Cydonia equations" had predicted -- based on a set of mathematical geophysical principles discovered where there should be nothing capable of giving any valid predictions for events taking place on a planet in the distant outer solar system!

The only logical conclusion you can come to from these data, is that we indeed have successfully decoded a specific "message" intended by someone -- whomever "built" Cydonia -- to lead whomever would discover "the Cydonia artefacts" to these specific geophysical phenomena . Why? Because they are clues to how planets really "work" -- including our own Earth. And finding that out is essential to preserving any planet, if not possibly much more (we're working on additional possibilities right now).

So you put these remarkable developments together, and you wind up asking: "Are we the only smart guys on this planet, to have finally figured it out -- if only the beginning?!

And the answer is: "Of course not."

Your next question might be: "If these facts were also known to members of the Government, particularly, since one key member -- a Chairman of a major Congressional Committee -- has now publicly admitted "they don't appear natural. . .") -- HOW WOULD THE GOV ERNMENT BE ACTING?"

And, if you had, in fact (as I report in the editorial), briefed high-level members of both governments -- the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. -- and one of them subsequently had a brilliantly-equipped, working spacecraft actually in orbit around Mars for several months . . . before it mysteriously "quit," your next logical question would have to be :

DID THAT SPACECRAFT ACTUALLY FIND SOMETHING. SOMETHING WHICH COMPLETELY VERIFIES OUR VIKING INFORMATION, IF NOT RADICALLY EXTENDS IT. . . ?

But then you'd have to ask: "If that were true, if Mr. Gorbachev is truly holding absolute proof (from Phobos 2) of the most phenomenal discovery in history -- HOW WOULD HE BE ACTING?

My conclusions -- if not some of the significant evidence which has led to these conclusions (the computer-enhanced Viking photographs, along with my official documents and letters) -- you now have before you my "editorial."

* * *

Olga, after a lot of soul-searching and weighing of our evidence, I think the confirmation that the Human Race Is Not Alone -- as Mr. Reagan repeatedly has provided us the clues (see "editorial") -- is the only thing "big enough" to have suddenly , almost overnight, forced the radical events we have been witnessing. And I think providing the crucial, hard evidence of that New Reality, to a series of major leaders at the top of key governments (including now, the Pope!) -- both within and without the so-called "Communist world" -- is the reason Mr. Gorbachev remains so confident that the major "restructuring" he's planning for your country -- if not the world -- is actually going to succeed.

Because, if I am right, this discovery represents an extraordinary New Beginning for Humanity. And Mr. Gorbachev, more now than any other leader (since Ronald Reagan's Presidency ended), seems to realise the power of that concept for creating needed Change. Just compare television images of him and Mr. Bush. . .

Olga, I know this sounds bizarre. It would have appeared that way to me, if anyone had seriously proposed this even a few months ago. But the Mars data is inviolable, and the terrestrial clues are there -- including a series of truly curious events I didn't detail in the editorial, for simple lack of space. These events include:

* * *

A September meeting, against the backdrop of developments sweeping out of Moscow and across all Eastern Europe, between ex-CIA and ex-KGB agents, held in the United States -- ostensibly, to discuss "possible interagency co-operation on international terrorism." One key participant -- Mr. William Colby, former Director of the CIA -- as he was being interviewed on the ABC network program, NIGHTLINE, along with Lt. General Fjodor Sherbak, former First Deputy Director of the KGB, suddenly introduced into the conversation (for a total of five occasions in the last four years) former President Reagan's curious scenario. Colby:

"President Reagan said to Mr. Gorbachev one time, that if hostile MARTIANS [sic] landed on the Earth, we would be together against them. . . (emphasis added)."

* * *

In the context of what we have discovered on the Viking images, and against Roe's own comments that "they don't appear natural," isn't that just a little too coincidental. . . ? What REALLY was occurring at that meeting? And remember, Mr. Gorbachev used to be the equivalent of Deputy Director of the KGB. . .

Or, take the following, truly bizarre sequence of events:

* * *

Within days of this strange repetition of Reagan's curious "alien threat" -- and from a former head of the U.S. intelligence community no less -- came a bizarre, real-life "extraterrestrial invasion story," appearing on the official TASS wires. The "report" originated out of Voronezh, a city of about 800,000 people south of Moscow. The correspondent, writing from Voronezh, seriously described a "landing" in a city park by a "glowing alien vehicle"; a "stroll around the park" by its giant humanoid inhabitants; and even the temporary "disappearance" of one of the severely frightened witnesses through the action of some kind of "ray of light," wielded by the "aliens." The witnesses consisted of both children and adults, reportedly including one high-ranking police official from the city, Lt. Sergei A. Matveyev.

In early October, President Gorbachev visited East Germany, to celebrate the 40^th Anniversary of the German Democratic Republic. He then returned to Moscow, amid reports that Eric Honecker had issued live ammunition and crackdown orders, against increasing demonstrations for democracy across East Germany.

Then, suddenly, the preceding official TASS report, on an "alien invasion of a Soviet City," appeared on official Soviet television, in the official Party newspaper, SOVIETSKAYA KULTURA, and throughout the West -- including in THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, and on our evening network television. . .

THE SAME DAY -- OCTOBER 9 -- THAT ERIC HONECKER WAS SUDDENLY REPLACED BY EGAN KRENZ, AS HEAD OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE GDR.

Then, a few days after returning from his own quick trip to Moscow, Egan Krenz, after instituting additional sweeping changes in the entire GDR government and Party structure, announced dramatically that the Berlin Wall "is obsolete" -- and three million East Germans flocked to West Berlin across one deliriously happy weekend, as we all watched in disbelief. . .

Mr. Reagan's "human family," at least in Eastern Europe, was taking shape with staggering rapidity and, eerily, precisely as Mr. Reagan had himself, repeatedly, "predicted" -- this time, literally against the backdrop of an officially-reported "alien invasion" of the Soviet Union. . .

What the hell was REALLY going on. . . a "public reminder" -- to a new, unenthusiastic Bush Administration in the West, and to a resisting Party structure in the GDR -- "to get with the Reagan-Gorbachev program" . . . or else Gorbachev would prematurely reveal the evidence (from Phobos 2) of REAL aliens (which is the last thing this American government wants)?

Is that why Bush (and Baker) are so obviously unenthusiastic about the upcoming Malta meetings? Because now, it's clearly "Gorby's game?" I (and a lot of other Western observers, who have remarked about it repeatedly in all our media the past few weeks) have seen men going to their own hangings -- who've looked happier!

* * *

Olga, as hard as this evidence, and as fantastic as my interpretation of the effects it is creating, might seem -- are the "real" events any less fantastic? And do the "it's all driven by the desperate Soviet economics" explanations really "fit?"

If it weren't for our now indisputable imaging and mathematical evidence, and the repeated statements of a former President of the United States (not to mention Chairman Roe's own statements and actions on behalf of our findings), I would say "yes." But the contrary evidence is there, and almost overwhelming; something of this magnitude -- unprecedented in all human history, therefore, CALLING FOR AN UNPRECEDENTED HUMAN RESPONSE -- must be behind the staggering events that are occurring. It is the only thing which could be "bigger" than "history as usual," creating a need for unprecedented actions.

If this analysis is true, the real facts and decisions that are being made are being hidden from us. These must be made public, I believe -- and publicly debated. Otherwise -- as I end the editorial -- "glasnost" and "self-determination" are merely hollow phrases, being parroted by leaders who are all treating us like children -- which has been precisely the problem for too much of human history!

I'll bet you didn't expect this, when you invited me to do a piece for you on our research! But, ask yourself: if the Viking evidence we have painstakingly assembled (some of which you now possess) is truly what we think, what would we be seeing as its effect upon the world -- given, that the leadership decided NOT to tell us. . . yet. . . until we were somehow properly "prepared" to handle it?! And what would that "preparation" look like?

You now know what I believe.

* * *

As I was finishing the final draft of what I have submitted, I realised that what we had originally discussed -- a presentation of our "ET evidence," followed by a discussion of how it will affect "the average Soviet citizen" -- was just not possible within a single editorial; events have progressed too far and too rapidly: if this hypothesis is accurate, both the "average Soviet citizen" and the "average American citizen" are being deeply affected at this very moment , as are the "average citizens" of the GDR, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, etc. -- if not the rest of humanity on Earth. These effects are not going to occur in some hypothetical and distant "future"; they are happening right now -- only , without the proper background information, no one knows how to interpret these events. Therefore, a good deal of the piece contains the crucial "background."

But, Olga, I still feel that readers need a further amplification of the immense consequences flowing from this now rapidly-advancing, unprecedented situation.

For instance, that one extraordinary, almost immediate effect -- with staggering, immediate consequences for everyone on Earth -- has been the visible, rapid retreat of the likelihood of nuclear annihilation. Even our Defense Secretary, Richard Cheny (sic), has turned (in less than two weeks ,) from a vigilant "hawk," who was then giving speeches arguing that we "could not rest our national security on the future of one man, Mr. Gorbachev," into someone now aggressively promoting the need for about 180 billion dollars worth of U.S. defense cuts -- over the next three years -- regardless of whether President Gorbachev is still around! Clearly, Cheny feels there has been some kind of fundamental change in the Soviet Union. . . or in the larger situation embracing both the super-powers on this planet.

The immediate4 economic effect of this new attitude is also making itself felt, not only in the United States but also in your country: a so-called "peace-dividend," the monies that heretofore have been lavished on these huge, super-expensive arms-stockpiles and high-tech weapons systems -- an almost uncountable number of conventional weapons, nuclear warheads, intercontinental missiles, planes, bombers, battleships, etc. -- is being rapidly "earmarked" for diversion into "productive," peaceful industries; I understand there are, even now, former rocket factories in the U.S.S.R. which have already been "converted" -- and are, in part, making bicycles!

Olga, because of the necessity of providing proper background to this whole extraordinary sequence of developments, I was only able -- in a line! -- to touch upon this immediate economic "dividend" of finding out the Human Race Is Not Alone. But there is more -- much more.

So, here is my additional proposal:

If you like what I have given you, and decide to run it, I would like to expand upon the "effects" of these developments in a "Part II." Since the economic impact of what is taking place is of crucial importance to both of our respective cultures, the process of "conversion" of 40 years of weapons industries to productive output should be of major interest to your readers -- particularly, if it is directly coupled (as it will be) to the exploration of what we've found on Mars.

For years, we have been discussing in the United States -- both inside and outside of NASA -- the potentially awesome terrestrial economic effects of establishing "space industries" in orbit, to exploit the unique resources and environments of outer space. But with massive weapons budgets and other constraints upon our federal budget, there have been no "extra" monies to pay for such developments. Your country, with its "MIR" space station and its various "materials experiments" conducted during the long "stay-time" in zero-gravity by cosmonauts in orbit, has developed far more experiences than we have in exploring the kinds of materials that one can uniquely make in orbit -- then send down to Earth. But even your space program has been limited in applying this developing technology, by the massive resources that have been going to the military, and by one other real constraint -- the current, prohibitively expensive necessity of taking all materials, to be processed, into space from Earth. The costs of lifting those resources into space for processing, with present, primitive rockets, is simply "killing."

All that dramatically can change -- if we pursue its exploration properly -- because of what we have discovered at Cydonia.

What I would like to cover in "Part II" is the stunning economic prospects for mining the Martian moons for these critical resources, and the resulting industrial renaissance these abundant, unique materials could stimulate on Earth -- with all the resulting economic "fall-out" of new industries, new jobs, new markets, and new consumer goods. Many economic studies, carried out both in the United States and in the Soviet Union, indicate that with current space technology (such as our space shuttle) IT IS CHEAPER TO GO TO THE MARTIAN MOONS AND RETURN, THAN TO SEND MEN AND WOMEN OT THE SURFACE OF OUR OWN MOON! (One of our own MARS MISSION associates, Dr. Brian O'Leary, mentioned in the editorial, is an extensively published pioneer in many of these studies.)

The fact that the Soviet Phobos mission was directed at intensive study of the composition of the moons of Mars, before its enigmatic "failure," is demonstration of the Soviet perception of eventual economic importance of these objects. If we have indeed discovered a former extraterrestrial civilisation once resident within the Martian system, the political and social impetus to exploring fully its potential -- if adequately publicised -- could easily create an economic renaissance which could dramatically affect the economies of both our countries -- particularly, if we jointly agree to explore the Martian "ruins," and similarly, to jointly develop the technologies to exploit the moons of Mars.

The result could be a swift, almost painless, economic transition -- for those major industries in both our countries which currently employ millions of workers in the production of weapons of destruction -- rockets, warheads, advanced electronic avionics, and all the other high-tech gadgetry used in making war. These same skills and technologies, employed through such a "Mars conversion program," could usher in a literal New Age for everyone on Earth.

But of course, if I am right, the greatest benefit of all will be in the dramatic new perspective that these discoveries will give to every person living on this planet. There is almost a "spiritual dimension" to discovering this truth -- that Humanity is NOT alone before the Universe. This, I believe, is why those Orthodox Russian priests were invited into the Phobos 2 Control Center. . . and why Mr. Gorbachev met with Pope John-Paul this morning just prior to his first face-to-face meeting with the current American President; invoking the spiritual leaders on this planet in helping us to "break the news" will be essential to successful "preparation" of the planet for the truth.

Well, that's it for now. I eagerly look forward to hearing from you regarding all of this. I know it's a LOT to take in all at once. But, just look at your television screen this weekend. Does any other explanation really fit?

Enjoy. . .