# you are President: how do you broach Area 51? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 25, 2018, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566 "2018-07-25T17:41:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/21 "2018-07-26T17:22:28Z")
Yes, I’ve often wondered what its like to be an incoming president and they sit you down and tell you all the big secrets. for example Truman didnt know about the atomic bomb until he was sworn in. I think a bigger issue would be all the secret areas for say war planning and where they take the president in case of nuclear war such as [Mount Weather.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Weather_Emergency_Operations_Center) ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/22 "2018-07-26T17:49:23Z")
I would broach it with some parsley and carrots. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/23 "2018-07-26T17:57:45Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Yes, I’ve often wondered what its like to be an incoming president and they sit you down and tell you all the big secrets. for example Truman didnt know about the atomic bomb until he was sworn in. > > I think a bigger issue would be all the secret areas for say war planning and where they take the president in case of nuclear war such as [Mount Weather.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Weather_Emergency_Operations_Center) Doesn’t seem to be that secret if there is a wiki page on it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/24 "2018-07-26T18:10:54Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Doesn’t seem to be that secret if there is a wiki page on it 🙂 Heh. I just finished \*Raven Rock:The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself–While the Rest of Us Die \*. It talks about the history of Mt Weather and other such hideaways. A very interesting read. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/25 "2018-07-26T18:58:12Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > That presupposes they would tell him about it. > If you were in charge of the Alien Secrets, would _you_ have told him? Maybe they did, and when he is screaming about illegal aliens we’re interpreting it incorrectly. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/26 "2018-07-26T19:00:32Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > One of my favorite moments from the original **Independence Day** was the president’s entry into Area 51: > > A51 Guard: Here’s our main research facility. > President: Let’s see it. > A51 Guard: I’m sorry sir. It’s a clean room. We keep it static free… > President: (_making it clear that it is an order_) Open…the door. > A51 Guard: (_half second of hesitation, fumbles with keys_) Yes, sir. You laugh, but. AT&T had a fab in Spain. Which of course is very clean. The King was coming to visit, and security needed to check out the place. They did so by having their dogs run through all the air pipes and vents and the room itself. Heard from someone who worked there at the time. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/27 "2018-07-26T19:26:22Z")
> [@glee](#): > > It’s like a new Prime Minister of the UK asking about the Loch Ness Monster. > > There’s nothing to investigate. Well, no. Groom lake is a site full of Top Secret projects. None have anything to do with aliens, sure. One _might_ have been flying saucers, as the Germans were working on one at the end of WW2. They apparently proved too unstable. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/28 "2018-07-26T19:27:48Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > But where is the fun in that? Hell yes! Take Air Force One, with a brace of F-16s as fighter escort. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/29 "2018-07-26T19:36:29Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > …There was some moron who was convinced that microprocessor designs came from aliens. I worked in microprocessor design. They didn’t. That is unless the aliens were way stupid. That was a Star Trek: Voyager episode. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/30 "2018-07-26T20:38:05Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Doesn’t seem to be that secret if there is a wiki page on it 🙂 Some [secrets](http://www.funnysigns.net/secret-nuclear-bunker/) are less secret than others. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/31 "2018-07-26T20:54:08Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > I would broach it with some parsley and carrots. You should have your wages garnished for that. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/32 "2018-07-27T05:14:29Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Doesn’t seem to be that secret if there is a wiki page on it 🙂 Things that are officially secret can be well known, actually. It sometimes leads to people who are supposedly “in the know” being actually ignorant of things that outsiders are aware of, because they will ask insiders who are required to lie to them about classified information instead of going to public sources. I recall reading that happened with [TEMPEST](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_(codename)) technology\*; I read about it in the public library while the government was still keeping it secret. I had no idea at the time that it was supposedly secret; if it was a secret it wouldn’t be in the library, right? But I read later that there was apparently a fair amount of industrial espionage and such that apparently went on while the targets were being told it was impossible. - Reading what is being typed or shown on a screen remotely by analyzing the emissions from unshielded electronics. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/33 "2018-07-27T05:31:22Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Things that are officially secret can be well known, actually. It sometimes leads to people who are supposedly “in the know” being actually ignorant of things that outsiders are aware of, because they will ask insiders who are required to lie to them about classified information instead of going to public sources. Another good example is the Israeli nuke program. We all know that it exists; and most sources estimate that they have about 200 warheads; but the Israeli government won’t officially say anything. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/34 "2018-07-27T07:02:07Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > That was a Star Trek: Voyager episode. I never saw that one. This clown was CEO of a software company here. (My name has nothing to do with that show, BTW.) ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/35 "2018-07-27T13:36:44Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Doesn’t seem to be that secret if there is a wiki page on it 🙂 Yes, but to actually be taken in and shown around is a different thing. to see your living quarters. To see the war room. They say its quite a place with underground food production and its own railroad. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/36 "2018-07-31T11:36:35Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > That presupposes they would tell him about it. > If you were in charge of the Alien Secrets, would _you_ have told him? Other presidents like Jimmy Carter have also been interested in the subject. Thing is, all presidents are civilians. The people who really know this stuff I’m guessing have been carefully selected and know to keep a secret. I have known people who did black ops and worked on secret projects that kept those secrets to the grave. Why? It was part of their mission and training. The last president with any REAL security clearance earned thru years of high level national service was Eisenhower. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/37 "2018-07-31T11:54:19Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Other presidents like Jimmy Carter have also been interested in the subject. > Thing is, all presidents are civilians. The people who really know this stuff I’m guessing have been carefully selected and know to keep a secret. I have known people who did black ops and worked on secret projects that kept those secrets to the grave. Why? It was part of their mission and training. > > The last president with any REAL security clearance earned thru years of high level national service was Eisenhower. If these people really kept secrets, how do you know that they were working on top secret projects? Wouldn’t a person who was really working on something like that say “I was working on soybean marketing” or something like that when you asked them what they did for a living? Are you sure they weren’t pulling your leg? ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/38 "2018-07-31T12:17:17Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Area 51 is a toxic hellhole whose actual problems like poisoned workers get largely ignored thanks to people obsessing over silly rumors about aliens. I’d be more interested in having the people responsible fired and prosecuted than anything else. Not so much aliens, but rather the US drawing a nice comforting blanket of National Security over the whole proceedings. Which happened under the Clinton Administration, FWIW. See, e.g., [Judge Throws Out Lawsuit by Groom Lake Workers - Las Vegas Sun News](https://lasvegassun.com/news/1996/mar/07/judge-throws-out-lawsuit-by-groom-lake-workers/) Although using classification to cover up screw-ups is a practice gleefully engaged in by both Republican and Democrat Administrations. You’re right about the toxic shenanigans. God only knows what got burned up out there. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were burning toxic waste from sites besides their own. After all, who could tell? The President gets to know whatever the President wants to know. However s/he is supposed to be prudent enough to not demand secrets—that they could later inadvertently reveal—that they don’t need in order to do their job. I think a more interesting dilemma than that of Area 51/Dugway/whatever island in the Pacific the US does its funky testing on these days, is: Imagine that you are a clandestine case officer for one of the US intelligence agencies. You run agents and deal with sources they handle. All of this is kept secret through various means, including code words, limited distribution, disguising the intel ‘take’, etc… The President asks you for the identity of your sources. Do you tell him/her, knowing the politician can happily run their mouth about them for political gain, and damn the consequences? ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/39 "2018-07-31T12:19:57Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Other presidents like Jimmy Carter have also been interested in the subject. > Thing is, all presidents are civilians. The people who really know this stuff I’m guessing have been carefully selected and know to keep a secret. I have known people who did black ops and worked on secret projects that kept those secrets to the grave. Why? It was part of their mission and training. > > The last president with any REAL security clearance earned thru years of high level national service was Eisenhower. What about HW Bush running the CIA for awhile? How long was Carter a nuc—I seem to remember it wasn’t very long—and don’t nucs have to have a TS clearance? EDIT: **Voyager** , how long did it take to clean the dog detritus out of that clean room? (Jeez, how would you clean it? Lots of alcohol and KimWipes?) Was it a Class 1000? Class 1? ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566/40 "2018-07-31T12:42:37Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > But where is the fun in that? > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Hell yes! > Take Air Force One, with a brace of F-16s as fighter escort. Step one: Fly Air Force One from DC to Groom Lake. Step two: Fly back to DC in Air Force One, then to the White House on Marine One. Answer no questions, and keep the media at a distance, but make sure that the president is photographed wearing a silver-colored helmet. (After all, tinfoil is for amateurs.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-president-how-do-you-broach-area-51/818566.md?page=3)