Moon Hoax

4 THE ACCUSATION

China requested a special session at the United Nations General Assembly to present some incredible news. The General Assembly was surprisingly full with most of the one hundred ninety-one countries in attendance. The United States suspected the news involved them since there had been rumblings and threats between the two nations recently. In fact, the world was made aware of shocking news planned to be revealed at the UN, which could change the balance of power.

Secretary of State Steve Russell arrived at the U.S. designated sitting area, which was on the far right row halfway back next to Uruguay, definitely not one of the better seating areas in the assembly. Before sitting, he turned to Jose Fernandez, the Uruguay delegate, to say hello and shake hands.

Jose said in broken English, “Session to have many fireworks, you think?”

Steve raised his eyebrows. “We’ll see.” He turned back and took his seat next to the young U.S. ambassador to the UN, Andy Lansford. Steve figured he was probably twice the ambassador’s age.

“You would think as the largest contributor to the UN budget we would get a better seating location,” Steve said half jokingly to Andy. The secretary had not attended many sessions at the General Assembly, but was asked by the president to attend this session in case China’s news was directed at the United States.

The secretary turned around to look back at where the Chinese delegates were sitting to see what their mood was and maybe get an idea about what was going to be presented. China sat two rows over and five desks back. The delegates seemed to be in heavy discussion. One of the delegates looked Steve’s way as if referencing the United States in his conversation. When the delegate saw the secretary looking, he quickly turned away, not acknowledging him. Disappointed, Steve turned to Andy and said, “It looks like China’s news will be directed at us. I bet they are going to say we are being too aggressive in the world and probably state we need to withdraw our forces from third world nations. Damn those Chinese. As a Communist country they have no right to make such a statement, considering their track record.”

China’s status in the world had recently been elevated after its successful manned flight to the moon, which the United States was supportive of. Though they did not land, the fact they had flown men to the moon was a feat still only performed by one other country, the United States. China’s success with this recent manned moon shot showed their advancement in science and technology. They also had been reaching out to the world, especially with the recent Olympics held in their country. They were definitely becoming one of the superpowers of the world and a threat to the United States.

The session got under way with opening statements. Steve wasn’t listening. Instead, he was angrily thinking of the Chinese accusing the United States of using excessive force in parts of the world. The more he thought about it, the more upset he became. After the opening statements were completed, the UN president said this special session was granted to China because of their standing as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. He then introduced China’s state councilor, Mr. Fei Chen.

Chen proceeded to walk confidently up to the podium and looked over the whole audience. By the smug look on his face he had some big news that would certainly get a reaction from all those in attendance. With a scowl, Steve was now focused on Councilor Chen, anticipating what he was going to say. The councilor paused for a moment before he spoke. He then said words that shocked everyone, especially Steve.

“China has undeniable evidence that the United States has never landed a man on the moon and the moon landings were a complete hoax,” he stated.

The audience immediately started rumbling. The secretary of state practically fell off his chair at hearing this crazy accusation. How could China make such a claim? The United States had overwhelming evidence proving they had been to the moon, most notably over 800 lbs of moon rocks in safeguarded storage. The Chinese delegate went on, saying they had suspected this for years, but wanted to get visual proof before going forward to the world. The final piece of evidence was the visual proof from their recent space flight. They purposely selected an orbit that would fly over two of America’s landing sites, and as suspected, found no evidence of hardware at either site.

Secretary Russell couldn’t take any more. Without being called on he stood and stated loudly, “This is a ridiculous accusation and China is just trying to humiliate the United States.”

Mr. Chen ignored the secretary and went on. “America has always claimed their biggest proof of landing was the moon rocks they brought back. China has similar rocks as America’s, which came from various meteorites found in China over the last thirty years. We elected to keep this information secret until we were able to get visual proof, confirming America never landed on the moon. We are confident that America’s rocks did not come from the moon, but instead from similar meteorites, probably found in Alaska or Nevada.”

Again the secretary stood and with his face hot from anger yelled out, “These are all lies. There is no way China’s rocks are of the same origin as America’s moon rocks, and besides, there is additional proof separate of the rocks that proves the landings occurred. Such as all of the pictures and film taken on the moon.”

“Done in studios,” the councilor said smugly into the microphone as he stared in the direction of the secretary. “In fact NASA even claims to have lost the original film of their first landing. How could any responsible agency with documentation of one of the greatest achievements of mankind lose that film? China feels the Americans made that first film in haste after it was realized they would not be able to land on the moon, and NASA officials knew if experts ever had the original film to study they would easily disprove it. It was only on later missions, after NASA accepted the fact they would not be able to land, that they perfected the illusion of movement looking like it was taking place in microgravity, and thus produced more realistic films for later flights. We received intelligence on how this was done in the ’70s, and have been able to duplicate this on film with Chinese actors. We would be happy to present a copy of these films to the UN to study and compare to America’s films.”

“Ridiculous,” snapped the secretary, who continued to stand. Andy, sitting next to Steve, was also visibly disturbed by what Mr. Chen was claiming, but whispered the secretary was going about questioning Mr. Chen in the wrong way. He insisted the United States should follow protocol and respond directly to the UN after the session, petitioning the statement. But since the secretary had seniority over him, he had to let Steve handle it his way. So he just sat, listening and taking notes. Steve barked back to Mr. Chen, “What about the mirror device we placed on the moon, which has been verified by the scientific community by aiming a laser at it and the reflection it returns to Earth?”

Mr. Chen was pressing his lips into a thin line while the secretary was allowed to speak out of turn. He looked toward the UN president for help or to intervene. The president basically gave a look that said he had to deal with it on his own. Mr. Chen turned back in the direction of the secretary and responded strongly, “China does not discount America’s ability to fly into deep space. In fact we feel you were on the same level as Russia back in ’69, both capable of sending mechanical devices to the moon, and even men. We question that you were ever able to land a man on the lunar surface and return him safely back to earth. So to address your question, we feel you sent up a robotic device that deployed the mirror experiment.”

“This is ludicrous. This is just wasting the UN’s time,” said the secretary, looking around the audience for approval. “Our rocks will not only be different by origin, but they will also show no effects of atmospheric friction. Keep in mind we have over 800 lbs of these!”

The Chinese councilor was starting to get red in the face himself, and looked directly at the secretary. “We have over 300 lbs of these rocks we have collected over the years in secure stowage. We would be happy to supply a large sample of these to the UN to be inspected by the top scientists of the world.” He started pointing at the secretary, wagging his finger. “If our rocks are proven to be of the same origin and in similar condition as America’s rocks, would that be proof enough the United States never landed on the moon?”

The secretary of state was being put on the spot in front of all the member states in attendance and was having a hard time taking any of these statements seriously. Without consulting with his government, he spoke out confidently. “If independent scientists which the United States feels are qualified to make such a verification state the rocks are of the same origin and of similar condition, then it will definitely put in question our moon landings.”