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Killian documents controversy

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The Killian memos are documents which were apparently written in 1972 and 1973 by Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian (who died in 1984), which the CBS News organization used as the basis for a 60 Minutes segment claiming that President George W. Bush disobeyed orders while in the Texas Air National Guard (TANG).

For more information on the memos, see here.

Fraudulent documents?

A few hours after the release of the 60 Minutes II segment about the Killian memos, a discussion began on Internet discussion groups and weblogs that the copies of these memos from the CBS News website displayed numerous characteristics inconsistent with being produced by 1972 typewriter technology. Among the discrepancies were:

Proportional fonts

Typewriters using proportional fonts were very rare and expensive in 1972. The overwhelming majority of typewriters available then used fixed width fonts. The only known typewriter available in 1972 with proportional font support and a similar (though not exact)[1] match to the font used in the memos (11-point Press Roman vs. 12-point Times New Roman) is the IBM Selectric Composer, which cost $3,600 to $4,400 in 1973 dollars ($16,000 to $22,000 in 2004 dollars), and so would have been a highly unusual purchase for a local ANG base. Also, all known genuine documents from Bush's ANG base were typed using the more typical fixed width fonts commonly associated with typewriters.

Sophisticated spacing

The Killian Memos display sophisticated character spacing that is ubiquitous with word-processing documents and virtually unknown in 1972. Specifically, the memos use a process called kerning, whose implementation is so computationally complex that it was not possible on any mechanical typewriter in existence in 1972.

Word wrapping

Because a typewriter does not have the ability to know what the user is going to type next, it is up to the typist to decide when to move the carriage to the next line. Often, a typist will use hyphenation to split a word between two lines on a syllable boundary, while computer word processors (and Microsoft Word in particular) do not do this by default. The lines in the memos are split along word boundaries at the exact location where Microsoft Word would have split them.

Superscripted THs

The Killian Memos display superscripted TH characters on numbers (such as 111th) that are generated automatically by Microsoft Word but would be very difficult to create using 1972 typewriter technology.

Centered headers

Centering headers using a proportional font is very difficult using typewriting equipment. In addition, two of the memos, dated May 4 and August 1, 1972, feature a three-line centered heading which aligns exactly, not only between the two memos (dated three months apart), but also with a comparison document created using the auto-centering feature of Microsoft Word.[2] Furthermore, the presence of a typed address header is suspicious in itself, as the standard practice was to use letterhead for all correspondence.

Smart quotes

Another feature of Microsoft Word is the automatic translation of apostrophes in English contractions. While typewriters only support a single kind of apostrophe (') and a single kind of quotation mark ("), computer word processors also have the ability to display curved quotation marks like the kind used in typesetting. An example from the Killian memo is the word "I’m", which would have been rendered as "I'm" on a typewriter or computer word processor without this feature. Microsoft Word also automatically converts double quotation marks, so "this" becomes “this”. Double quotation marks are not used in any of the Killian memos. (You may have to enlarge the font size of your browser or print this page in order to see the difference between the two kinds of apostrophes.)

Easy reproducibility

Some critics claim that the memo could be duplicated identically with the default settings in Microsoft Word 2003 [3], while others dispute this, noting among other indiscrepancies letters and words in the original which are not aligned properly.[4] However, the discrepancies could have been introduced by a combination of FAX transmission (CBS apparently does not possess the original documents), repeated photocopying (a technique often used by forgers to give the appearance of age), and/or Photoshop manipulation. In addition, using a custom computer algorithm to find the best alignment between the scanned memo and the Word version shows an exact overlay, demonstrating how the low fidelity of the CBS documents can give the appearance of differences between individual letters in the two versions due to the random "thickening" introduced during the FAXing and/or photocopying process.[5]

Other flaws

In addition to the typographical concerns, other issues have been raised regarding the content and formatting of the memos.

Skepticism from Killian's family

Jerry Killian's wife and son argue that their father never used typewriting equipment and would have written these memos by hand. The family has also stated that Killian was not known for keeping personal memos. They also state that Jerry Killian was very pleased with George Bush's performance in his TANG unit.

Mention of influence by retired officer

An officer, Walter Staudt, cited in the memo dated August 18, 1973 as exerting pressure on officers to "sugar coat" their evaluations of Bush, had in fact retired from the service in March of 1972.

Improper formatting

According to U.S. Air Force practice of the 1970s, the memo dated "04 May 1972" should have had the date formatted as "4 May 72". Months were abbreviated to three characters, leading zeros were not used, and only the last two digits of the year were used up until the year 2000. In this memo, other discrepancies include:[6]

  • The terminology "MEMORANDUM FOR" was never used in the 1970s.
  • The abbreviations in this letter are incorrectly formatted, in that a period is used after military rank (1st Lt.). According to the Air Force style manual, periods are not used in military rank abbreviations.
  • The abbreviation for Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS) includes periods after each capital letter. Again, periods are not used.
  • In paragraph 1, the phrase "not later than" is spelled out, followed by (NLT). NLT was, and is, a widely recognized abbreviation for "not later than" throughout all military services, so the inclusion of "not later than" was not a generally accepted practice and completely unnecessary in a letter from one military member to another.
  • Lt Col Killian's signature element is incorrect for letters prepared in the 1970s. This letter uses a three-line signature element, which was normally not used. Three-line signature elements were almost the exclusive domain of colonels and generals in organizations well above the squadron level.
  • Finally, the signature element is placed far to the right, instead of being left justified. The placement of the signature element to the right was not used or directed by Air Force standards until almost 20 years after the date of this letter.

Paper size

In 1921, two different committees decided on standard paper sizes for the United States. A group called the Permanent Conference on Printing established the 8" by 10½" size as the general U.S. government letterhead standard, while a Committee on the Simplification of Paper Sizes came up with the more familiar 8½" by 11" size now known as US Letter. The U.S. military used the smaller size up until the early 1980's, and so there would very likely have been thin vertical lines or some other indication of the smaller paper size in any photocopy of the memos if they had been typed on the 8" by 10½" paper that would have been used at the time.[7]

CBS' "Smoking Gun"

CBS authenticated their documents with General Robert "Bobby" Hodges, a former officer at the Texas Air National Guard. Hodges agreed with CBS' assessment that the documents were real. However, the authentication was performed via telephone. Once Hodges was able to view the documents for himself, he stated that they had been falsified. Hodges also claims that CBS told him that the memos were handwritten and not typed. "I thought they were handwritten notes," said Hodges. ([8]New York Times, September 12, 2004)

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