by nord Saturday, Sep. 10, 2005 at 12:01 PM
"What was the most exciting thing you saw?" I ask. "I found a list of officers' names," he said, "under the heading
'Non-Terrestrial Officers'." "Non-Terrestrial Officers?" I say. "Yeah, I looked it up," says Gary, "and it's nowhere. It
doesn't mean little green men. What I think it means is not earth-based. I found a list of 'fleet-to-fleet transfers', and a list
of ship names. I looked them up. They weren't US navy ships. What I saw made me believe they have some kind of
spaceship, off-planet." ifo hacker--GARY MCKINNON { Hear the Gary McKinnon Interview }
Gerald K. Haines
An extraordinary 95 percent of all Americans have at least heard or read something about Unidentified Flying Objects
(UFOs), and 57 percent believe they are real. (1) Former US Presidents Carter and Reagan claim to have seen a UFO.
UFOlogists--a neologism for UFO buffs--and private UFO organizations are found throughout the United States. Many
are convinced that the US Government, and particularly CIA, are engaged in a massive conspiracy and coverup of the
issue. The idea that CIA has secretly concealed its research into UFOs has been a major theme of UFO buffs since the
modern UFO phenomena emerged in the late 1940s. (2)
In late 1993, after being pressured by UFOlogists for the release of additional CIA information on UFOs, (3) DCI R.
James Woolsey ordered another review of all Agency files on UFOs. Using CIA records compiled from that review, this
study traces CIA interest and involvement in the UFO controversy from the late 1940s to 1990. It chronologically
examines the Agency's efforts to solve the mystery of UFOs, its programs that had an impact on UFO sightings, and its
attempts to conceal CIA involvement in the entire UFO issue. What emerges from this examination is that, while Agency
concern over UFOs was substantial until the early 1950s, CIA has since paid only limited and peripheral attention to the
phenomena.
Background
The emergence in 1947 of the Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union also saw the first
wave of UFO sightings. The first report of a "flying saucer" over the United States came on 24 June 1947, when Kenneth
Arnold, a private pilot and reputable businessman, while looking for a downed plane sighted nine disk-shaped objects
near Mt. Rainier, Washington, traveling at an estimated speed of over 1,000 mph. Arnold's report was followed by a
flood of additional sightings, including reports from military and civilian pilots and air traffic controllers all over the United
States. (4) In 1948, Air Force Gen. Nathan Twining, head of the Air Technical Service Command, established Project
SIGN (initially named Project SAUCER) to collect, collate, evaluate, and distribute within the government all information
relating to such sightings, on the premise that UFOs might be real and of national security concern. (5)
The Technical Intelligence Division of the Air Material Command (AMC) at Wright Field (later Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base) in Dayton, Ohio, assumed control of Project SIGN and began its work on 23 January 1948. Although at first fearful
that the objects might be Soviet secret weapons, the Air Force soon concluded that UFOs were real but easily explained
and not extraordinary. The Air Force report found that almost all sightings stemmed from one or more of three causes:
mass hysteria and hallucination, hoax, or misinterpretation of known objects. Nevertheless, the report recommended
continued military intelligence control over the investigation of all sightings and did not rule out the possibility of
extraterrestrial phenomena. (6)
Amid mounting UFO sightings, the Air Force continued to collect and evaluate UFO data in the late 1940s under a new
project, GRUDGE, which tried to alleviate public anxiety over UFOs via a public relations campaign designed to
persuade the public that UFOs constituted nothing unusual or extraordinary. UFO sightings were explained as balloons,
conventional aircraft, planets, meteors, optical illusions, solar reflections, or even "large hailstones." GRUDGE officials
found no evidence in UFO sightings of advanced foreign weapons design or development, and they concluded that
UFOs did not threaten US security. They recommended that the project be reduced in scope because the very
existence of Air Force official interest encouraged people to believe in UFOs and contributed to a "war hysteria"
atmosphere. On 27 December 1949, the Air Force announced the project's termination. (7)
With increased Cold War tensions, the Korean war, and continued UFO sightings, USAF Director of Intelligence Maj.
Gen. Charles P. Cabell ordered a new UFO project in 1952. Project BLUE BOOK became the major Air Force effort to
study the UFO phenomenon throughout the 1950s and 1960s. (8) The task of identifying and explaining UFOs
continued to fall on the Air Material Command at Wright-Patterson. With a small staff, the Air Technical Intelligence
Center (ATIC) tried to persuade the public that UFOs were not extraordinary. (9) Projects SIGN, GRUDGE, and BLUE
BOOK set the tone for the official US Government position regarding UFOs for the next 30 years.
Early CIA Concerns, 1947-52
CIA closely monitored the Air Force effort, aware of the mounting number of sightings and increasingly concerned that
UFOs might pose a potential security threat. (10) Given the distribution of the sightings, CIA officials in 1952 questioned
whether they might reflect "midsummer madness.'' (11) Agency officials accepted the Air Force's conclusions about UFO
reports, although they concluded that "since there is a remote possibility that they may be interplanetary aircraft, it is
necessary to investigate each sighting." (12)
A massive buildup of sightings over the United States in 1952, especially in July, alarmed the Truman administration. On
19 and 20 July, radar scopes at Washington National Airport and Andrews Air Force Base tracked mysterious blips. On
27 July, the blips reappeared. The Air Force scrambled interceptor aircraft to investigate, but they found nothing. The
incidents, however, caused headlines across the country. The White House wanted to know what was happening, and
the Air Force quickly offered the explanation that the radar blips might be the result of "temperature inversions." Later, a
Civil Aeronautics Administration investigation confirmed that such radar blips were quite common and were caused by
temperature inversions. (13)
Although it had monitored UFO reports for at least three years, CIA reacted to the new rash of sightings by forming a
special study group within the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) and the Office of Current Intelligence (OCI) to review
the situation. (14) Edward Tauss, acting chief of OSI's Weapons and Equipment Division, reported for the group that
most UFO sightings could be easily explained. Nevertheless, he recommended that the Agency continue monitoring the
problem, in coordination with ATIC. He also urged that CIA conceal its interest from the media and the public, "in view of
their probable alarmist tendencies" to accept such interest as confirming the existence of UFOs. (15)
Upon receiving the report, Deputy Director for Intelligence (DDI) Robert Amory, Jr. assigned responsibility for the UFO
investigations to OSI's Physics and Electronics Division, with A. Ray Gordon as the officer in charge. (16) Each branch
in the division was to contribute to the investigation, and Gordon was to coordinate closely with ATIC. Amory, who asked
the group to focus on the national security implications of UFOs, was relaying DCI Walter Bedell Smith's concerns. (17)
Smith wanted to know whether or not the Air Force investigation of flying saucers was sufficiently objective and how
much more money and manpower would be necessary to determine the cause of the small percentage of unexplained
flying saucers. Smith believed "there was only one chance in 10,000 that the phenomenon posed a threat to the security
of the country, but even that chance could not be taken." According to Smith, it was CIA's responsibility by statute to
coordinate the intelligence effort required to solve the problem. Smith also wanted to know what use could be made of
the UFO phenomenon in connection with US psychological warfare efforts. (18)
Led by Gordon, the CIA Study Group met with Air Force officials at Wright-Patterson and reviewed their data and
findings. The Air Force claimed that 90 percent of the reported sightings were easily accounted for. The other 10
percent were characterized as "a number of incredible reports from credible observers." The Air Force rejected the
theories that the sightings involved US or Soviet secret weapons development or that they involved "men from Mars";
there was no evidence to support these concepts. The Air Force briefers sought to explain these UFO reports as the
misinterpretation of known objects or little understood natural phenomena. (19) Air Force and CIA officials agreed that
outside knowledge of Agency interest in UFOs would make the problem more serious. (20) This concealment of CIA
interest contributed greatly to later charges of a CIA conspiracy and coverup.
Amateur photographs of alleged UFOs
Passoria, New Jersey, 31 July 1952
Sheffield, England, 4 March 1962
& Minneapolis, Minnesota, 20 October 1960
The CIA Study Group also searched the Soviet press for UFO reports, but found none, causing the group to conclude
that the absence of reports had to have been the result of deliberate Soviet Government policy. The group also
envisioned the USSR's possible use of UFOs as a psychological warfare tool. In addition, they worried that, if the US air
warning system should be deliberately overloaded by UFO sightings, the Soviets might gain a surprise advantage in any
nuclear attack. (21)
Because of the tense Cold War situation and increased Soviet capabilities, the CIA Study Group saw serious national
security concerns in the flying saucer situation. The group believed that the Soviets could use UFO reports to touch off
mass hysteria and panic in the United States. The group also believed that the Soviets might use UFO sightings to
overload the US air warning system so that it could not distinguish real targets from phantom UFOs. H. Marshall
Chadwell, Assistant Director of OSI, added that he considered the problem of such importance "that it should be brought
to the attention of the National Security Council, in order that a communitywide coordinated effort towards it solution may
be initiated." (22)
Chadwell briefed DCI Smith on the subject of UFOs in December 1952. He urged action because he was convinced that
"something was going on that must have immediate attention" and that "sightings of unexplained objects at great
altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major US defense installations are of such nature that they are
not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial vehicles." He drafted a memorandum from the DCI to the
National Security Council (NSC) and a proposed NSC Directive establishing the investigation of UFOs as a priority
project throughout the intelligence and the defense research and development community. (23) Chadwell also urged
Smith to establish an external research project of top-level scientists to study the problem of UFOs. (24) After this
briefing, Smith directed DDI Amory to prepare a NSC Intelligence Directive (NSCID) for submission to the NSC on the
need to continue the investigation of UFOs and to coordinate such investigations with the Air Force. (25)
The Robertson Panel, 1952-53
On 4 December 1952, the Intelligence Advisory Committee (IAC) took up the issue of UFOs. (26) Amory, as acting
chairman, presented DCI Smith's request to the committee that it informally discuss the subject of UFOs. Chadwell then
briefly reviewed the situation and the active program of the ATIC relating to UFOs. The committee agreed that the DCI
should "enlist the services of selected scientists to review and appraise the available evidence in the light of pertinent
scientific theories" and draft an NSCID on the subject. (27) Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, Director of Air Force Intelligence,
offered full cooperation. (28)
At the same time, Chadwell looked into British efforts in this area. He learned the British also were active in studying the
UFO phenomena. An eminent British scientist, R. V. Jones, headed a standing committee created in June 1951 on flying
saucers. Jones' and his committee's conclusions on UFOs were similar to those of Agency officials: the sightings were
not enemy aircraft but misrepresentations of natural phenomena. The British noted, however, that during a recent air
show RAF pilots and senior military officials had observed a "perfect flying saucer." Given the press response,
according to the officer, Jones was having a most difficult time trying to correct public opinion regarding UFOs. The
public was convinced they were real. (29)
In January 1953, Chadwell and H. P. Robertson, a noted physicist from the California Institute of Technology, put
together a distinguished panel of nonmilitary scientists to study the UFO issue. It included Robertson as chairman;
Samuel A. Goudsmit, a nuclear physicist from the Brookhaven National Laboratories; Luis Alvarez, a high-energy
physicist; Thornton Page, the deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Operations Research Office and an expert on radar
and electronics; and Lloyd Berkner, a director of the Brookhaven National Laboratories and a specialist in geophysics.
(30)
The charge to the panel was to review the available evidence on UFOs and to consider the possible dangers of the
phenomena to US national security. The panel met from 14 to 17 January 1953. It reviewed Air Force data on UFO case
histories and, after spending 12 hours studying the phenomena, declared that reasonable explanations could be
suggested for most, if not all, sightings. For example, after reviewing motion-picture film taken of a UFO sighting near
Tremonton, Utah, on 2 July 1952 and one near Great Falls, Montana, on 15 August 1950, the panel concluded that the
images on the Tremonton film were caused by sunlight reflecting off seagulls and that the images at Great Falls were
sunlight reflecting off the surface of two Air Force interceptors. (31)
The panel concluded unanimously that there was no evidence of a direct threat to national security in the UFO
sightings. Nor could the panel find any evidence that the objects sighted might be extraterrestrials. It did find that
continued emphasis on UFO reporting might threaten "the orderly functioning" of the government by clogging the
channels of communication with irrelevant reports and by inducing "hysterical mass behavior" harmful to constituted
authority. The panel also worried that potential enemies contemplating an attack on the United States might exploit the
UFO phenomena and use them to disrupt US air defenses. (32)
To meet these problems, the panel recommended that the National Security Council debunk UFO reports and institute a
policy of public education to reassure the public of the lack of evidence behind UFOs. It suggested using the mass
media, advertising, business clubs, schools, and even the Disney corporation to get the message across. Reporting at
the height of McCarthyism, the panel also recommended that such private UFO groups as the Civilian Flying Saucer
Investigators in Los Angeles and the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization in Wisconsin be monitored for
subversive activities. (33)
The Robertson panel's conclusions were strikingly similar to those of the earlier Air Force project reports on SIGN and
GRUDGE and to those of the CIA's own OSI Study Group. All investigative groups found that UFO reports indicated no
direct threat to national security and no evidence of visits by extraterrestrials.
Following the Robertson panel findings, the Agency abandoned efforts to draft an NSCID on UFOs. (34) The Scientific
Advisory Panel on UFOs (the Robertson panel) submitted its report to the IAC, the Secretary of Defense, the Director of
the Federal Civil Defense Administration, and the Chairman of the National Security Resources Board. CIA officials said
no further consideration of the subject appeared warranted, although they continued to monitor sightings in the interest
of national security. Philip Strong and Fred Durant from OSI also briefed the Office of National Estimates on the findings.
(35) CIA officials wanted knowledge of any Agency interest in the subject of flying saucers carefully restricted, noting not
only that the Robertson panel report was classified but also that any mention of CIA sponsorship of the panel was
forbidden. This attitude would later cause the Agency major problems relating to its credibility. (36)
The 1950s: Fading CIA Interest in UFOs
After the report of the Robertson panel, Agency officials put the entire issue of UFOs on the back burner. In May 1953,
Chadwell transferred chief responsibility for keeping abreast of UFOs to OSI's Physics and Electronic Division, while the
Applied Science Division continued to provide any necessary support. (37) Todos M. Odarenko, chief of the Physics
and Electronics Division, did not want to take on the problem, contending that it would require too much of his division's
analytic and clerical time. Given the findings of the Robertson panel, he proposed to consider the project "inactive" and
to devote only one analyst part-time and a file clerk to maintain a reference file of the activities of the Air Force and
other agencies on UFOs. Neither the Navy nor the Army showed much interest in UFOs, according to Odarenko. (38)
A nonbeliever in UFOs, Odarenko sought to have his division relieved of the responsibility for monitoring UFO reports. In
1955, for example, he recommended that the entire project be terminated because no new information concerning UFOs
had surfaced. Besides, he argued, his division was facing a serious budget reduction and could not spare the
resources. (39) Chadwell and other Agency officials, however, continued to worry about UFOs. Of special concern were
overseas reports of UFO sightings and claims that German engineers held by the Soviets were developing a "flying
saucer" as a future weapon of war. (40)
To most US political and military leaders, the Soviet Union by the mid-1950s had become a dangerous opponent. Soviet
progress in nuclear weapons and guided missiles was particularly alarming. In the summer of 1949, the USSR had
detonated an atomic bomb. In August 1953, only nine months after the United States tested a hydrogen bomb, the
Soviets detonated one. In the spring of 1953, a top secret RAND Corporation study also pointed out the vulnerability of
SAC bases to a surprise attack by Soviet long-range bombers. Concern over the danger of a Soviet attack on the
United States continued to grow, and UFO sightings added to the uneasiness of US policymakers.
Mounting reports of UFOs over eastern Europe and Afghanistan also prompted concern that the Soviets were making
rapid progress in this area. CIA officials knew that the British and Canadians were already experimenting with "flying
saucers." Project Y was a Canadian-British-US developmental operation to produce a nonconventional
flying-saucer-type aircraft, and Agency officials feared the Soviets were testing similar devices. (41)
Adding to the concern was a flying saucer sighting by US Senator Richard Russell and his party while traveling on a
train in the USSR in October 1955. After extensive interviews of Russell and his group, however, CIA officials concluded
that Russell's sighting did not support the theory that the Soviets had developed saucerlike or unconventional aircraft.
Herbert Scoville, Jr., the Assistant Director of OSI, wrote that the objects observed probably were normal jet aircraft in a
steep climb. (42)
Wilton E. Lexow, head of the CIA's Applied Sciences Division, was also skeptical. He questioned why the Soviets were
continuing to develop conventional-type aircraft if they had a "flying saucer." (43) Scoville asked Lexow to assume
responsibility for fully assessing the capabilities and limitations of nonconventional aircraft and to maintain the OSI
central file on the subject of UFOs.
CIA's U-2 and OXCART as UFOs
In November 1954, CIA had entered into the world of high technology with its U-2 overhead reconnaissance project.
Working with Lockheed's Advanced Development facility in Burbank, California, known as the Skunk Works, and Kelly
Johnson, an eminent aeronautical engineer, the Agency by August 1955 was testing a high-altitude experimental
aircraft--the U-2. It could fly at 60,000 feet; in the mid-1950s, most commercial airliners flew between 10,000 feet and
20,000 feet. Consequently, once the U-2 started test flights, commercial pilots and air traffic controllers began reporting
a large increase in UFO sightings. (44) (U)
The early U-2s were silver (they were later painted black) and reflected the rays from the sun, especially at sunrise and
sunset. They often appeared as fiery objects to observers below. Air Force BLUE BOOK investigators aware of the
secret U-2 flights tried to explain away such sightings by linking them to natural phenomena such as ice crystals and
temperature inversions. By checking with the Agency's U-2 Project Staff in Washington, BLUE BOOK investigators were
able to attribute many UFO sightings to U-2 flights. They were careful, however, not to reveal the true cause of the
sighting to the public.
According to later estimates from CIA officials who worked on the U-2 project and the OXCART (SR-71, or Blackbird)
project, over half of all UFO reports from the late 1950s through the 1960s were accounted for by manned
reconnaissance flights (namely the U-2) over the United States. (45) This led the Air Force to make misleading and
deceptive statements to the public in order to allay public fears and to protect an extraordinarily sensitive national
security project. While perhaps justified, this deception added fuel to the later conspiracy theories and the coverup
controversy of the 1970s. The percentage of what the Air Force considered unexplained UFO sightings fell to 5.9
percent in 1955 and to 4 percent in 1956. (46)
At the same time, pressure was building for the release of the Robertson panel report on UFOs. In 1956, Edward
Ruppelt, former head of the Air Force BLUE BOOK project, publicly revealed the existence of the panel. A best-selling
book by UFOlogist Donald Keyhoe, a retired Marine Corps major, advocated release of all government information
relating to UFOs. Civilian UFO groups such as the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) and
the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) immediately pushed for release of the Robertson panel report.
(47) Under pressure, the Air Force approached CIA for permission to declassify and release the report. Despite such
pressure, Philip Strong, Deputy Assistant Director of OSI, refused to declassify the report and declined to disclose CIA
sponsorship of the panel. As an alternative, the Agency prepared a sanitized version of the report which deleted any
reference to CIA and avoided mention of any psychological warfare potential in the UFO controversy. (48)
The demands, however, for more government information about UFOs did not let up. On 8 March 1958, Keyhoe, in an
interview with Mike Wallace of CBS, claimed deep CIA involvement with UFOs and Agency sponsorship of the Robertson
panel. This prompted a series of letters to the Agency from Keyhoe and Dr. Leon Davidson, a chemical engineer and
UFOlogist. They demanded the release of the full Robertson panel report and confirmation of CIA involvement in the
UFO issue. Davidson had convinced himself that the Agency, not the Air Force, carried most of the responsibility for
UFO analysis and that "the activities of the US Government are responsible for the flying saucer sightings of the last
decade." Indeed, because of the undisclosed U-2 and OXCART flights, Davidson was closer to the truth than he
suspected. CI, nevertheless held firm to its policy of not revealing its role in UFO investigations and refused to declassify
the full Robertson panel report. (49)
In a meeting with Air Force representatives to discuss how to handle future inquires such as Keyhoe's and Davidson's,
Agency officials confirmed their opposition to the declassification of the full report and worried that Keyhoe had the ear
of former DCI VAdm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter, who served on the board of governors of NICAP. They debated whether to
have CIA General Counsel Lawrence R. Houston show Hillenkoetter the report as a possible way to defuse the situation.
CIA officer Frank Chapin also hinted that Davidson might have ulterior motives, "some of them perhaps not in the best
interest of this country," and suggested bringing in the FBI to investigate. (50) Although the record is unclear whether
the FBI ever instituted an investigation of Davidson or Keyhoe, or whether Houston ever saw Hillenkoetter about the
Robertson report, Hillenkoetter did resign from the NICAP in 1962. (51)
The Agency was also involved with Davidson and Keyhoe in two rather famous UFO cases in the 1950s, which helped
contribute to a growing sense of public distrust of CIA with regard to UFOs. One focused on what was reported to have
been a tape recording of a radio signal from a flying saucer; the other on reported photographs of a flying saucer. The
"radio code" incident began innocently enough in 1955, when two elderly sisters in Chicago, Mildred and Marie Maier,
reported in the Journal of Space Flight their experiences with UFOs, including the recording of a radio program in which
an unidentified code was reportedly heard. The sisters taped the program and other ham radio operators also claimed
to have heard the "space message." OSI became interested and asked the Scientific Contact Branch to obtain a copy of
the recording. (52)
Field officers from the Contact Division (CD), one of whom was Dewelt Walker, made contact with the Maier sisters, who
were "thrilled that the government was interested," and set up a time to meet with them. (53) In trying to secure the tape
recording, the Agency officers reported that they had stumbled upon a scene from Arsenic and Old Lace. "The only
thing lacking was the elderberry wine," Walker cabled Headquarters. After reviewing the sisters' scrapbook of clippings
from their days on the stage, the officers secured a copy of the recording. (54) OSI analyzed the tape and found it was
nothing more than Morse code from a US radio station.
The matter rested there until UFOlogist Leon Davidson talked with the Maier sisters in 1957. The sisters remembered
they had talked with a Mr. Walker who said he was from the US Air Force. Davidson then wrote to a Mr. Walker,
believing him to be a US Air Force Intelligence Officer from Wright-Patterson, to ask if the tape had been analyzed at
ATIC. Dewelt Walker replied to Davidson that the tape had been forwarded to proper authorities for evaluation, and no
information was available concerning the results. Not satisfied, and suspecting that Walker was really a CIA officer,
Davidson next wrote DCI Allen Dulles demanding to learn what the coded message revealed and who Mr. Walker was.
(55) The Agency, wanting to keep Walker's identity as a CIA employee secret, replied that another agency of the
government had analyzed the tape in question and that Davidson would be hearing from the Air Force. (56) On 5
August, the Air Force wrote Davidson saying that Walker "was and is an Air Force Officer" and that the tape "was
analyzed by another government organization." The Air Force letter confirmed that the recording contained only
identifiable Morse code which came from a known US-licensed radio station. (57)
Davidson wrote Dulles again. This time he wanted to know the identity of the Morse operator and of the agency that had
conducted the analysis. CIA and the Air Force were now in a quandary. The Agency had previously denied that it had
actually analyzed the tape. The Air Force had also denied analyzing the tape and claimed that Walker was an Air Force
officer. CIA officers, under cover, contacted Davidson in Chicago and promised to get the code translation and the
identification of the transmitter, if possible. (58)
In another attempt to pacify Davidson, a CIA officer, again under cover and wearing his Air Force uniform, contacted
Davidson in New York City. The CIA officer explained that there was no super agency involved and that Air Force policy
was not to disclose who was doing what. While seeming to accept this argument, Davidson nevertheless pressed for
disclosure of the recording message and the source. The officer agreed to see what he could do. (59) After checking
with Headquarters, the CIA officer phoned Davidson to report that a thorough check had been made and, because the
signal was of known US origin, the tape and the notes made at the time had been destroyed to conserve file space. (60)
Incensed over what he perceived was a runaround, Davidson told the CIA officer that "he and his agency, whichever it
was, were acting like Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamster Union in destroying records which might indict them." (61) Believing
that any more contact with Davidson would only encourage more speculation, the Contact Division washed its hands of
the issue by reporting to the DCI and to ATIC that it would not respond to or try to contact Davidson again. (62) Thus, a
minor, rather bizarre incident, handled poorly by both CIA and the Air Force, turned into a major flap that added fuel to
the growing mystery surrounding UFOs and CIA's role in their investigation.
Another minor flap a few months later added to the growing questions surrounding the Agency's true role with regard to
flying saucers. CIA's concern over secrecy again made matters worse. In 1958, Major Keyhoe charged that the Agency
was deliberately asking eyewitnesses of UFOs not to make their sightings public. (63)
The incident stemmed from a November 1957 request from OSI to the CD to obtain from Ralph C. Mayher, a
photographer for KYW-TV in Cleveland, Ohio, certain photographs he took in 1952 of an unidentified flying object. Harry
Real, a CD officer, contacted Mayher and obtained copies of the photographs for analysis. On 12 December 1957, John
Hazen, another CD officer, returned the five photographs of the alleged UFO to Mayher without comment. Mayher asked
Hazen for the Agency's evaluation of the photos, explaining that he was trying to organize a TV program to brief the
public on UFOs. He wanted to mention on the show that a US intelligence organization had viewed the photographs and
thought them of interest. Although he advised Mayher not to take this approach, Hazen stated that Mayher was a US
citizen and would have to make his own decision as to what to do. (64)
Keyhoe later contacted Mayher, who told him his story of CIA and the photographs. Keyhoe then asked the Agency to
confirm Hazen's employment in writing, in an effort to expose CIA's role in UFO investigations. The Agency refused,
despite the fact that CD field representatives were normally overt and carried credentials identifying their Agency
association. DCI Dulles's aide, John S. Earman, merely sent Keyhoe a noncommittal letter noting that, because UFOs
were of primary concern to the Department of the Air Force, the Agency had referred his letter to the Air Force for an
appropriate response. Like the response to Davidson, the Agency reply to Keyhoe only fueled the speculation that the
Agency was deeply involved in UFO sightings. Pressure for release of CIA information on UFOs continued to grow. (65)
Although CIA had a declining interest in UFO cases, it continued to monitor UFO sightings. Agency officials felt the need
to keep informed on UFOs if only to alert the DCI to the more sensational UFO reports and flaps. (66)
The 1960s: Declining CIA Involvement and Mounting Controversy
In the early 1960s, Keyhoe, Davidson, and other UFOlogists maintained their assault on the Agency for release of UFO
information. Davidson now claimed that CIA "was solely responsible for creating the Flying Saucer furor as a tool for cold
war psychological warfare since 1951." Despite calls for Congressional hearings and the release of all materials relating
to UFOs, little changed. (67)
In 1964, however, following high-level White House discussions on what to do if an alien intelligence was discovered in
space and a new outbreak of UFO reports and sightings, DCI John McCone asked for an updated CIA evaluation of
UFOs. Responding to McCone's request, OSI asked the CD to obtain various recent samples and reports of UFO
sightings from NICAP. With Keyhoe, one of the founders, no longer active in the organization, CIA officers met with
Richard H. Hall, the acting director. Hall gave the officers samples from the NICAP database on the most recent
sightings. (68)
After OSI officers had reviewed the material, Donald F. Chamberlain, OSI Assistant Director, assured McCone that little
had changed since the early 1950s. There was still no evidence that UFOs were a threat to the security of the United
States or that they were of "foreign origin." Chamberlain told McCone that OSI still monitored UFO reports, including the
official Air Force investigation, Project BLUE BOOK. (69)
At the same time that CIA was conducting this latest internal review of UFOs, public pressure forced the Air Force to
establish a special ad hoc committee to review BLUE BOOK. Chaired by Dr. Brian O'Brien, a member of the Air Force
Scientific Advisory Board, the panel included Carl Sagan, the famous astronomer from Cornell University. Its report
offered nothing new. It declared that UFOs did not threaten the national security and that it could find "no UFO case
which represented technological or scientific advances outside of a terrestrial framework." The committee did
recommend that UFOs be studied intensively, with a leading university acting as a coordinator for the project, to settle
the issue conclusively. (70)
The House Armed Services Committee also held brief hearings on UFOs in 1966 that produced similar results.
Secretary of the Air Force Harold Brown assured the committee that most sightings were easily explained and that there
was no evidence that "strangers from outer space" had been visiting Earth. He told the committee members, however,
that the Air Force would keep an open mind and continue to investigate all UFO reports. (71)
Following the report of its O'Brien Committee, the House hearings on UFOs, and Dr. Robertson's disclosure on a CBS
Reports program that CIA indeed had been involved in UFO analysis, the Air Force in July 1966 again approached the
Agency for declassification of the entire Robertson panel report of 1953 and the full Durant report on the Robertson
panel deliberations and findings. The Agency again refused to budge. Karl H. Weber, Deputy Director of OSI, wrote the
Air Force that "We are most anxious that further publicity not be given to the information that the panel was sponsored
by the CIA." Weber noted that there was already a sanitized version available to the public. (72) Weber's response was
rather shortsighted and ill considered. It only drew more attention to the 13-year-old Robertson panel report and CIA's
role in the investigation of UFOs. The science editor of The Saturday Review drew nationwide attention to the CIA's role
in investigating UFOs when he published an article criticizing the "sanitized version" of the 1953 Robertson panel report
and called for release of the entire document. (73)
Unknown to CIA officials, Dr. James E. McDonald, a noted atmospheric physicist from the University of Arizona, had
already seen the Durant report on the Robertson panel proceedings at Wright-Patterson on 6 June 1966. When
McDonald returned to Wright-Patterson on 30 June to copy the report, however, the Air Force refused to let him see it
again, stating that it was a CIA classified document. Emerging as a UFO authority, McDonald publicly claimed that the
CIA was behind the Air Force secrecy policies and coverup. He demanded the release of the full Robertson panel report
and the Durant report. (74)
Bowing to public pressure and the recommendation of its own O'Brien Committee, the Air Force announced in August
1966 that it was seeking a contract with a leading university to undertake a program of intensive investigations of UFO
sightings. The new program was designed to blunt continuing charges that the US Government had concealed what it
knew about UFOs. On 7 October, the University of Colorado accepted a $325,000 contract with the Air Force for an
18-month study of flying saucers. Dr. Edward U. Condon, a physicist at Colorado and a former Director of the National
Bureau of Standards, agreed to head the program. Pronouncing himself an "agnostic" on the subject of UFOs, Condon
observed that he had an open mind on the question and thought that possible extraterritorial origins were "improbable
but not impossible." (75) Brig. Gen. Edward Giller, USAF, and Dr. Thomas Ratchford from the Air Force Research and
Development Office became the Air Force coordinators for the project.
In February 1967, Giller contacted Arthur C. Lundahl, Director of CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center
(NPIC), and proposed an informal liaison through which NPIC could provide the Condon Committee with technical advice
and services in examining photographs of alleged UFOs. Lundahl and DDI R. Jack Smith approved the arrangement as
a way of "preserving a window" on the new effort. They wanted the CIA and NPIC to maintain a low profile, however, and
to take no part in writing any conclusions for the committee. No work done for the committee by NPIC was to be formally
acknowledged. (76)
Ratchford next requested that Condon and his committee be allowed to visit NPIC to discuss the technical aspects of the
problem and to view the special equipment NPIC had for photoanalysis. On 20 February 1967, Condon and four
members of his committee visited NPIC. Lundahl emphasized to the group that any NPIC work to assist the committee
must not be identified as CIA work. Moreover, work performed by NPIC would be strictly of a technical nature. After
receiving these guidelines, the group heard a series of briefings on the services and equipment not available elsewhere
that CIA had used in its analysis of some UFO photography furnished by Ratchford. Condon and his committee were
impressed. (77)
Condon and the same group met again in May 1967 at NPIC to hear an analysis of UFO photographs taken at
Zanesville, Ohio. The analysis debunked that sighting. The committee was again impressed with the technical work
performed, and Condon remarked that for the first time a scientific analysis of a UFO would stand up to investigation.
(78) The group also discussed the committee's plans to call on US citizens for additional photographs and to issue
guidelines for taking useful UFO photographs. In addition, CIA officials agreed that the Condon Committee could release
the full Durant report with only minor deletions.
In April 1969, Condon and his committee released their report on UFOs. The report concluded that little, if anything, had
come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years and that further extensive study of UFO sightings was unwarranted. It
also recommended that the Air Force special unit, Project BLUE BOOK, be discontinued. It did not mention CIA
participation in the Condon committee's investigation. (79) A special panel established by the National Academy of
Sciences reviewed the Condon report and concurred with its conclusion that "no high priority in UFO investigations is
warranted by data of the past two decades." It concluded its review by declaring, "On the basis of present knowledge,
the least likely explanation of UFOs is the hypothesis of extraterrestrial visitations by intelligent beings." Following the
recommendations of the Condon Committee and the National Academy of Sciences, the Secretary of the Air Force,
Robert C. Seamans, Jr., announced on 17 December 1969 the termination of BLUE BOOK. (80)
The 1970s and 1980s: The UFO Issue Refuses To Die
The Condon report did not satisfy many UFOlogists, who considered it a coverup for CIA activities in UFO research.
Additional sightings in the early 1970s fueled beliefs that the CIA was somehow involved in a vast conspiracy. On 7 June
1975, William Spaulding, head of a small UFO group, Ground Saucer Watch (GSW), wrote to CIA requesting a copy of
the Robertson panel report and all records relating to UFOs. (81) Spaulding was convinced that the Agency was
withholding major files on UFOs. Agency officials provided Spaulding with a copy of the Robertson panel report and of
the Durant report. (82)
On 14 July 1975, Spaulding again wrote the Agency questioning the authenticity of the reports he had received and
alleging a CIA coverup of its UFO activities. Gene Wilson, CIA's Information and Privacy Coordinator, replied in an
attempt to satisfy Spaulding, "At no time prior to the formation of the Robertson Panel and subsequent to the issuance
of the panel's report has CIA engaged in the study of the UFO phenomena." The Robertson panel report, according to
Wilson, was "the summation of Agency interest and involvement in UFOs." Wilson also inferred that there were no
additional documents in CIA's possession that related to UFOs. Wilson was ill informed. (83)
In September 1977, Spaulding and GSW, unconvinced by Wilson's response, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
lawsuit against the Agency that specifically requested all UFO documents in CIA's possession. Deluged by similar FOIA
requests for Agency information on UFOs, CIA officials agreed, after much legal maneuvering, to conduct a "reasonable
search" of CIA files for UFO materials. (84) Despite an Agency-wide unsympathetic attitude toward the suit, Agency
officials, led by Launie Ziebell from the Office of General Counsel, conducted a thorough search for records pertaining
to UFOs. Persistent, demanding, and even threatening at times, Ziebell and his group scoured the Agency. They even
turned up an old UFO file under a secretary's desk. The search finally produced 355 documents totaling approximately
900 pages. On 14 December 1978, the Agency released all but 57 documents of about 100 pages to GSW. It withheld
these 57 documents on national security grounds and to protect sources and methods. (85)
Although the released documents produced no smoking gun and revealed only a low-level Agency interest in the UFO
phenomena after the Robertson panel report of 1953, the press treated the release in a sensational manner. The New
York Times, for example, claimed that the declassified documents confirmed intensive government concern over UFOs
and that the Agency was secretly involved in the surveillance of UFOs. (86) GSW then sued for the release of the
withheld documents, claiming that the Agency was still holding out key information. (87) It was much like the John F.
Kennedy assassination issue. No matter how much material the Agency released and no matter how dull and prosaic the
information, people continued to believe in a Agency coverup and conspiracy.
DCI Stansfield Turner was so upset when he read The New York Times article that he asked his senior officers, "Are we
in UFOs?" After reviewing the records, Don Wortman, Deputy Director for Administration, reported to Turner that there
was "no organized Agency effort to do research in connection with UFO phenomena nor has there been an organized
effort to collect intelligence on UFOs since the 1950s." Wortman assured Turner that the Agency records held only
"sporadic instances of correspondence dealing with the subject," including various kinds of reports of UFO sightings.
There was no Agency program to collect actively information on UFOs, and the material released to GSW had few
deletions. (88) Thus assured, Turner had the General Counsel press for a summary judgment against the new lawsuit
by GSW. In May 1980, the courts dismissed the lawsuit, finding that the Agency had conducted a thorough and
adequate search in good faith. (89)
During the late 1970s and 1980s, the Agency continued its low-key interest in UFOs and UFO sightings. While most
scientists now dismissed flying saucers reports as a quaint part of the 1950s and 1960s, some in the Agency and in the
Intelligence Community shifted their interest to studying parapsychology and psychic phenomena associated with UFO
sightings. CIA officials also looked at the UFO problem to determine what UFO sightings might tell them about Soviet
progress in rockets and missiles and reviewed its counterintelligence aspects. Agency analysts from the Life Science
Division of OSI and OSWR officially devoted a small amount of their time to issues relating to UFOs. These included
counterintelligence concerns that the Soviets and the KGB were using US citizens and UFO groups to obtain information
on sensitive US weapons development programs (such as the Stealth aircraft), the vulnerability of the US air-defense
network to penetration by foreign missiles mimicking UFOs, and evidence of Soviet advanced technology associated
with UFO sightings.
CIA also maintained Intelligence Community coordination with other agencies regarding their work in parapsychology,
psychic phenomena, and "remote viewing" experiments. In general, the Agency took a conservative scientific view of
these unconventional scientific issues. There was no formal or official UFO project within the Agency in the 1980s, and
Agency officials purposely kept files on UFOs to a minimum to avoid creating records that might mislead the public if
released. (90)
The 1980s also produced renewed charges that the Agency was still withholding documents relating to the 1947 Roswell
incident, in which a flying saucer supposedly crashed in New Mexico, and the surfacing of documents which purportedly
revealed the existence of a top secret US research and development intelligence operation responsible only to the
President on UFOs in the late 1940s and early 1950s. UFOlogists had long argued that, following a flying saucer crash
in New Mexico in 1947, the government not only recovered debris from the crashed saucer but also four or five alien
bodies. According to some UFOlogists, the government clamped tight security around the project and has refused to
divulge its investigation results and research ever since. (91) In September 1994, the US Air Force released a new
report on the Roswell incident that concluded that the debris found in New Mexico in 1947 probably came from a once
top secret balloon operation, Project MOGUL, designed to monitor the atmosphere for evidence of Soviet nuclear tests.
(92)
Circa 1984, a series of documents surfaced which some UFOlogists said proved that President Truman created a top
secret committee in 1947, Majestic-12, to secure the recovery of UFO wreckage from Roswell and any other UFO crash
sight for scientific study and to examine any alien bodies recovered from such sites. Most if not all of these documents
have proved to be fabrications. Yet the controversy persists. (93)
Like the JFK assassination conspiracy theories, the UFO issue probably will not go away soon, no matter what the
Agency does or says. The belief that we are not alone in the universe is too emotionally appealing and the distrust of
our government is too pervasive to make the issue amenable to traditional scientific studies of rational explanation and
evidence.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes
(1) See the 1973 Gallup Poll results printed in The New York Times, 29 November 1973, p. 45 and Philip J. Klass, UFOs:
The Public Deceived (New York: Prometheus Books, 1983), p. 3.
(2) See Klass, UFOs, p. 3; James S. Gordon, "The UFO Experience," Atlantic Monthly (August 1991), pp. 82-92; David
Michael Jacobs, The UFO Controversy in America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975); Howard Blum, Out
There: The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990); Timothy Good,
Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up (New York: William Morrow, 1987); and Whitley Strieber, Communion:
The True Story (New York: Morrow, 1987).
(3) In September 1993 John Peterson, an acquaintance of Woolsey's, first approached the DCI with a package of
heavily sanitized CIA material on UFOs released to UFOlogist Stanton T. Friedman. Peterson and Friedman wanted to
know the reasons for the redactions. Woolsey agreed to look into the matter. See Richard J. Warshaw, Executive
Assistant, note to author, 1 November 1994; Warshaw, note to John H. Wright, Information and Privacy Coordinator, 31
January 1994; and Wright, memorandum to Executive Secretariat, 2 March 1994. (Except where noted, all citations to
CIA records in this article are to the records collected for the 1994 Agency-wide search that are held by the Executive
Assistant to the DCI).
(4) See Hector Quintanilla, Jr., "The Investigation of UFOs," Vol. 10, No. 4, Studies in Intelligence (fall 1966): pp.95-110
and CIA, unsigned memorandum, "Flying Saucers," 14 August 1952. See also Good, Above Top Secret, p. 253. During
World War II, US pilots reported "foo fighters" (bright lights trailing US aircraft). Fearing they might be Japanese or
German secret weapons, OSS investigated but could find no concrete evidence of enemy weapons and often filed such
reports in the "crackpot" category. The OSS also investigated possible sightings of German V-1 and V-2 rockets before
their operational use during the war. See Jacobs, UFO Controversy, p. 33. The Central Intelligence Group, the
predecessor of the CIA, also monitored reports of "ghost rockets" in Sweden in 1946. See CIG, Intelligence Report, 9
April 1947.
(5) Jacobs, The UFO Controversy, p. 156 and Quintanilla, "The Investigation of UFOs," p. 97.
(6) See US Air Force, Air Material Command, "Unidentified Aerial Objects: Project SIGN, no. F-TR 2274, IA, February
1949, Records of the US Air Force Commands, Activities and Organizations, Record Group 341, National Archives,
Washington, DC.
(7) See US Air Force, Projects GRUDGE and BLUEBOOK Reports 1- 12 (Washington, DC; National Investigations
Committee on Aerial Phenomena, 1968) and Jacobs, The UFO Controversy, pp. 50-54.
(8) See Cabell, memorandum to Commanding Generals Major Air Commands, "Reporting of Information on
Unconventional Aircraft," 8 September 1950 and Jacobs, The UFO Controversy, p. 65.
(9) See Air Force, Projects GRUDGE and BLUE BOOK and Jacobs, The UFO Controversy, p. 67.
(10) See Edward Tauss, memorandum for Deputy Assistant Director, SI, "Flying Saucers," 1 August 1952. See also
United Kingdom, Report by the "Flying Saucer" Working Party, "Unidentified Flying Objects," no date (approximately
1950).
(11) See Dr. Stone, OSI, memorandum to Dr. Willard Machle, OSI, 15 March 1949 and Ralph L. Clark, Acting Assistant
Director, OSI, memorandum for DDI, "Recent Sightings of Unexplained Objects," 29 July 1952.
(12) Stone, memorandum to Machle. See also Clark, memorandum for DDI, 29 July 1952.
(13) See Klass, UFOs, p. 15. For a brief review of the Washington sightings see Good, Above Top Secret, pp. 269-271.
(14) See Ralph L. Clark, Acting Assistant Director, OSI, memorandum to DDI Robert Amory, Jr., 29 July 1952. OSI and
OCI were in the Directorate of Intelligence. Established in 1948, OSI served as the CIA's focal point for the analysis of
foreign scientific and technological developments. In 1980, OSI was merged into the Office of Science and Weapons
Research. The Office of Current Intelligence (OCI), established on 15 January 1951 was to provide all-source current
intelligence to the President and the National Security Council.
(15) Tauss, memorandum for Deputy Assistant Director, SI (Philip Strong), 1 August 1952.
(16) On 2 January 1952, DCI Walter Bedell Smith created a Deputy Directorate for Intelligence (DDI) composed of six
overt CIA organizations--OSI, OCI, Office of Collection and Dissemination, Office National Estimates, Office of Research
and Reports, and the Office of Intelligence Coordination--to produce intelligence analysis for US policymakers.
(17) See Minutes of Branch Chief's Meeting, 11 August 1952.
(18) Smith expressed his opinions at a meeting in the DCI Conference Room attended by his top officers. See Deputy
Chief, Requirements Staff, FI, memorandum for Deputy Director, Plans, "Flying Saucers," 20 August 1952, Directorate
of Operations Records, Information Management Staff, Job 86-00538R, Box 1.
(19) See CIA memorandum, unsigned, "Flying Saucers," 11 August 1952.
(20) See CIA, memorandum, unsigned, "Flying Saucers," 14 August 1952.
(21) See CIA, memorandum, unsigned, "Flying Saucers," 19 August 1952.
(22) See Chadwell, memorandum for Smith, 17 September 1952 and 24 September 1952, "Flying Saucers." See also
Chadwell, memorandum for DCI Smith, 2 October 1952 and Klass, UFOs, pp. 23-26.
(23) Chadwell, memorandum for DCI with attachments, 2 December 1952. See also Klass, UFOs, pp. 26-27 and
Chadwell, memorandum, 25 November 1952.
(24) See Chadwell, memorandum, 25 November 1952 and Chadwell, memorandum, "Approval in Principle - External
Research Project Concerned with Unidentified Flying Objects," no date. See also Philip G. Strong, OSI, memorandum for
the record, "Meeting with Dr. Julius A. Stratton, Executive Vice President and Provost, MIT and Dr. Max Millikan, Director
of CENIS." Strong believed that in order to undertake such a review they would need the full backing and support of DCI
Smith.
(25) See Chadwell, memorandum for DCI, ""Unidentified Flying Objects," 2 December 1952. See also Chadwell,
memorandum for Amory, DDI, "Approval in Principle - External Research Project Concerned with Unidentified Flying
Objects," no date.
(26) The IAC was created in 1947 to serve as a coordinating body in establishing intelligence requirements. Chaired by
the DCI, the IAC included representatives from the Department of State, the Army, the Air Force, the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, the FBI, and the AEC.
(27) See Klass, UFOs, p. 27.
(28) See Richard D. Drain, Acting Secretary, IAC, "Minutes of Meeting held in Director's Conference Room,
Administration Building, CIA," 4 December 1952.
(29) See Chadwell, memorandum for the record, "British Activity in the Field of UFOs," 18 December 1952.
(30) See Chadwell, memorandum for DCI, "Consultants for Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects," 9 January
1953; Curtis Peebles, Watch the Skies! A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 1994). pp. 73-90; and Jacobs, The UFO Controversy, pp. 91-92.
(31) See Fred C. Durant III, Report on the Robertson Panel Meeting, January 1953. Durant, on contract with OSI and a
past president of the American Rocket Society, attended the Robertson panel meetings and wrote a summary of the
proceedings.
(32) See Report of the Scientific Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects (the Robertson Report), 17 January 1953 and the
Durant report on the panel discussions.
(33) See Robertson Report and Durant Report. See also Good, Above Top Secret, pp. 337-38, Jacobs, The UFO
Controversy, p. 95, and Klass, UFO's, pp. 28-29.
(34) See Reber, memorandum to IAC, 18 February 1953.
(35) See Chadwell, memorandum for DDI, "Unidentified Flying Objects," 10 February 1953; Chadwell, letter to
Robertson, 28 January 1953; and Reber, memorandum for IAC, "Unidentified Flying Objects," 18 February 1953. On
briefing the ONE, see Durant, memorandum for the record, "Briefing of ONE Board on Unidentified Flying Objects," 30
January 1953 and CIA Summary disseminated to the field, "Unidentified Flying Objects," 6 February 1953.
(36) See Chadwell, letter to Julius A. Stratton, Provost MIT, 27 January 1953.
(37) See Chadwell, memorandum for Chief, Physics and Electronics Division/OSI (Todos M. Odarenko), "Unidentified
Flying Objects," 27 May 1953.
(38) See Odarenko, memorandum to Chadwell, "Unidentified Flying Objects," 3 July 1953. See also Odarenko,
memorandum to Chadwell, "Current Status of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOB) Project," 17 December 1953.
(39) See Odarenko, memorandum, "Unidentified Flying Objects," 8 August 1955.
(40) See FBIS, report, "Military Unconventional Aircraft," 18 August 1953 and various reports, "Military-Air,
Unconventional Aircraft," 1953, 1954, 1955.
(41) Developed by the Canadian affiliate of Britain's A. V. Roe, Ltd., Project Y did produce a small-scale model that
hovered a few feet off the ground. See Odarenko, memorandum to Chadwell, "Flying Saucer Type of Planes" 25 May
1954; Frederic C. E. Oder, memorandum to Odarenko, "USAF Project Y," 21 May 1954; and Odarenko, T. M. Nordbeck,
Ops/SI, and Sidney Graybeal, ASD/SI, memorandum for the record, "Intelligence Responsibilities for Non-Conventional
Types of Air Vehicles," 14 June 1954.
(42) See Reuben Efron, memorandum, "Observation of Flying Object Near Baku," 13 October 1955; Scoville,
memorandum for the record, "Interview with Senator Richard B. Russell," 27 October 1955; and Wilton E. Lexow,
memorandum for information, "Reported Sighting of Unconventional Aircraft," 19 October 1955.
(43) See Lexow, memorandum for information, "Reported Sighting of Unconventional Aircraft," 19 October 1955. See
also Frank C. Bolser, memorandum for George C. Miller, Deputy Chief, SAD/SI, "Possible Soviet Flying Saucers, Check
On;" Lexow, memorandum, "Possible Soviet Flying Saucers, Follow Up On," 17 December 1954; Lexow, memorandum,
"Possible Soviet Flying Saucers," 1 December 1954; and A. H. Sullivan, Jr., memorandum, "Possible Soviet Flying
Saucers," 24 November 1954.
(44) See Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead
Reconnaissance: The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974 (Washington, DC: CIA History Staff, 1992), pp. 72-73.
(45) See Pedlow and Welzenbach, Overhead Reconnaissance, pp. 72-73. This also was confirmed in a telephone
interview between the author and John Parongosky, 26 July 1994. Parongosky oversaw the day-to-day affairs of the
OXCART program.
(46) See Jacobs, The UFO Controversy, p. 135.
(47) See Peebles, Watch the Skies, pp. 128-146; Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (New York:
Doubleday, 1956); Keyhoe, The Flying Saucer Conspiracy (New York: Holt, 1955); and Jacobs, The UFO Controversy,
pp. 347-49.
(48) See Strong, letter to Lloyd W. Berkner; Strong, letter to Thorton Page; Strong, letter to Robertson; Strong, letter to
Samuel Goudsmit; Strong, letter to Luis Alvarez, 20 December 1957; and Strong, memorandum for Major James F.
Byrne, Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence Department of the Air Force, "Declassification of the `Report of the Scientific
Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects,'" 20 December 1957. See also Berkner, letter to Strong, 20 November 1957 and
Page, letter to Strong, 4 December 1957. The panel members were also reluctant to have their association with the
Agency released.
(49) See Wilton E. Lexow, memorandum for the record, "Comments on Letters Dealing with Unidentified Flying Objects,"
4 April 1958; J. S. Earman, letter to Major Lawrence J. Tacker, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, Information
Service, 4 April 1958; Davidson, letter to Berkner, 8 April 1958; Berkner, letter to Davidson, 18 April 1958; Berkner,
letter to Strong, 21 April 1958; Davidson, letter to Tacker, 27 April 1958; Davidson, letter to Allen Dulles, 27 April 1958;
Ruppelt, letter to Davidson, 7 May 1958; Strong, letter to Berkner, 8 May 1958; Davidson, letter to Berkner, 8 May 1958;
Davidson, letter to Earman, 16 May 1958; Davidson, letter to Goudsmit, 18 May 1958; Davidson, letter to Page, 18 May
1958; and Tacker, letter to Davidson, 20 May 1958.
(50) See Lexow, memorandum for Chapin, 28 July 1958.
(51) See Good, Above Top Secret, pp. 346-47; Lexow, memorandum for the record, "Meeting with the Air Force
Personnel Concerning Scientific Advisory Panel Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, dated 17 January 1953 (S)," 16
May 1958. See also La Rae L. Teel, Deputy Division Chief, ASD, memorandum for the record, "Meeting with Mr. Chapin
on Replying to Leon Davidson's UFO Letter and Subsequent Telephone Conversation with Major Thacker, [sic]" 22 May
1958.
(52) See Edwin M. Ashcraft, Chief, Contact Division (Scientific), memorandum to Chief, Chicago Office, "Radio Code
Recording," 4 March 1955 and Ashcraft, memorandum to Chief, Support Branch, OSI, 17 March 1955.
(53) The Contact Division was created to collect foreign intelligence information from sources within the United States.
See the Directorate of Intelligence Historical Series, The Origin and Development of Contact Division, 11 July 1946-1
July 1965 (Washington, DC; CIA Historical Staff, June 1969).
(54) See George O. Forrest, Chief, Chicago Office, memorandum to Chief, Contact Division for Science, 11 March 1955.
(55) See Support Division (Connell), memorandum to Dewelt E. Walker, 25 April 1957.
(56) See J. Arnold Shaw, Assistant to the Director, letter to Davidson, 10 May 1957.
(57) See Support (Connell) memorandum to Lt. Col. V. Skakich, 27 August 1957 and Lamountain, memorandum to
Support (Connell), 20 December 1957.
(58) See Lamountain, cable to Support (Connell), 31 July 1958.
(59) See Support (Connell) cable to Skakich, 3 October 1957 and Skakich, cable to Connell, 9 October 1957.
(60) See Skakich, cable to Connell, 9 October 1957.
(61) See R. P. B. Lohmann, memorandum for Chief, Contact Division, DO, 9 January 1958.
(62) See Support, cable to Skakich, 20 February 1958 and Connell (Support) cable to Lamountain, 19 December 1957.
(63) See Edwin M. Ashcraft, Chief, Contact Division, Office of Operations, memorandum for Austin Bricker, Jr., Assistant
to the Director, "Inquiry by Major Donald E. Keyhoe on John Hazen's Association with the Agency," 22 January 1959.
(64) See John T. Hazen, memorandum to Chief, Contact Division, 12 December 1957. See also Ashcraft, memorandum
to Cleveland Resident Agent, "Ralph E. Mayher," 20 December 1957. According to this memorandum, the photographs
were viewed at "a high level and returned to us without comment." The Air Force held the original negatives. The CIA
records were probably destroyed.
(65) The issue would resurface in the 1970s with the GSW FOIA court case.
(66) See Robert Amory, Jr., DDI, memorandum for Assistant Director/Scientific Intelligence, "Flying Saucers," 26 March
1956. See also Wallace R. Lamphire, Office of the Director, Planning and Coordination Staff, memorandum for Richard
M. Bissell, Jr., "Unidentified Flying Saucers (UFO)," 11 June 1957; Philip Strong, memorandum for the Director, NPIC,
"Reported Photography of Unidentified Flying Objects," 27 October 1958; Scoville, memorandum to Lawrence Houston,
Legislative Counsel, "Reply to Honorable Joseph E. Garth," 12 July 1961; and Houston, letter to Garth, 13 July 1961.
(67) See, for example, Davidson, letter to Congressman Joseph Garth, 26 June 1961 and Carl Vinson, Chairman, House
Committee on Armed Services, letter to Rep. Robert A. Everett, 2 September 1964.
(68) See Maxwell W. Hunter, staff member, National Aeronautics and Space Council, Executive Office of the President,
memorandum for Robert F. Parkard, Office of International Scientific Affairs, Department of State, "Thoughts on the
Space Alien Race Question," 18 July 1963, File SP 16, Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59, National
Archives. See also F. J. Sheridan, Chief, Washington Office, memorandum to Chief, Contact Division, "National
Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP)," 25 January 1965.
(69) Chamberlain, memorandum for DCI, "Evaluation of UFOs," 26 January 1965.
(70) See Jacobs, The UFO Controversy, p. 199 and US Air Force, Scientific Advisory Board, Ad Hoc Committee (O'Brien
Committee) to Review Project BLUE BOOK, Special Report (Washington, DC: 1966). See also The New York Times, 14
August 1966, p. 70.
(71) See "Congress Reassured on Space Visits," The New York Times, 6 April 1966.
(72) Weber, letter to Col. Gerald