Book SummaryBehold a Pale Horse, by Milton William Cooper

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Behold a Pale Horse

In Behold a Pale Horse, US navy veteran and UFOlogist Milton William Cooper lays out his belief, based on his own research and the writings of other conspiracists, that the world is secretly ruled by a shadowy organization known as the Illuminati. The Illuminati plan to establish a dystopian, authoritarian government known as the New World Order sometime in the 21st century. The book’s content is split between exposing the organization’s influence in every major government or religious institution in the world, and the attempts by the US government to conceal the presence of hostile aliens on Earth.

Cooper’s claims are based primarily on secret files he claims to have seen while posted to the Office of Naval Intelligence in the early 1970s. He purportedly handled documents revealing treaties with the aliens, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by a Secret Serviceman, plans to suspend the Constitution and establish a police state, and more. He also describes having personally encountered UFOs during his service on submarines and in Vietnam.

(Shortform note: While Cooper did serve in the Navy for several years, earning two combat medals in Vietnam, there’s no evidence that he ever worked for Naval Intelligence. Many of his fellow conspiracists questioned his reliability over the years since Cooper regularly contradicted his own stories and some of the documents he claims to have seen in the early ’70s did not exist at that time.)

Cooper left the Navy in the early 1970s due to his increasing disillusionment with the US military and government. He attempted to leak some of what he’d discovered to the press but was attacked by two men in black who ran his motorcycle off the road, resulting in the loss of his leg. In the 1980s, he began...

Behold a Pale Horse Summary The New World Order

The book is primarily focused on what Cooper calls the New World Order (NWO) conspiracy. He writes that since the dawn of civilization, a secret organization of self-styled intellectual elites called the Illuminati has worked from the shadows to manipulate economies, governments, and religions for their own gain. The Illuminati has members in every significant economic, political, and religious organization in the modern world, and ultimately intends to use its vast power to establish a global totalitarian socialist state.

The Antisemitic Origins of the NWO

While Cooper played a role in popularizing the NWO theory, the idea didn’t originate with him. The belief in an all-powerful, global organization secretly planning world domination via manipulating economies and governments dates back to the 18th century. However, early theorists characterized said organization as specifically Jewish, a “cabal” of “internationalist Jewish bankers” plotting to disenfranchise non-Jewish whites and...

Behold a Pale Horse Summary The Alien Conspiracy

Beyond the machinations of the Illuminati, Cooper claims that another conspiracy is operating just under the surface of American society: the presence of aliens on Earth, kept secret for decades. According to Cooper, an alien race first made contact with Earth in the early 1950s and has maintained a formal relationship with the US government since the ’60s. Alien spacecraft regularly land on Earth and abduct people to this day, and the government has hidden this from the public as a way of maintaining social control.

In fact, the aliens and the government are colluding to exploit the general population of Earth for their own gain, though Cooper offers several competing theories for which poses the greater threat.

Timeline of Earth-Alien Contact

Cooper claims that contact was first made in the early 1950s, when over a dozen alien spacecraft landed or crashed in the American Southwest over a 10-year period. Advanced technology and alien bodies were secretly recovered, while public sightings of UFOs were dismissed as hoaxes. Information about these encounters was tightly controlled, limited to only a few officials within the government. Those who objected, like...

Behold a Pale Horse Summary How to Fight Back

Cooper warns that the Illuminati’s plans can only be avoided by popular armed resistance from the American people. Like the American revolutionaries of the 18th century, the people must rise up to defend their rights and preserve the Constitution, which Cooper calls the closest thing to a perfect political document ever produced. When the Illuminati declare the New World Order and begin rounding people up, true patriots must be prepared to resist.

The 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing

In the mid-1990s, Cooper would organize an informal militia, though its members were scattered across the US, communicated largely through the mail, and never took any violent action. Through his radio show, Cooper repeatedly pointed out instances of government corruption and called for listeners to make their displeasure known, either through votes, protest, or outright violence.

In some cases, Cooper’s calls to action had consequences he didn’t endorse. Oklahoma City bomber...

Shortform Exercise: Assess Conspiracy Theories

Cooper makes a wide variety of claims in Behold a Pale Horse, but the ones that have had the most lasting impact are his descriptions of psyops, or deliberate attempts by the Illuminati and the American government to manipulate people’s behavior through propaganda, staged violence, and economic shocks.

Which of Cooper’s theories or sub-claims—about the Illuminati, the American government, or the presence of aliens on Earth—do you find most convincing? Why?