A Die-Hard Issue
CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90
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 19461
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 E. Jorgensen, Chief, Community
Relations Division, Office of Information, US Air Force, 15
August 1966. The Durant report was a detailed summary of the
Robertson panel proceedings.
(73) See John Lear, "The Disputed CIA Document on UFOs,"
Saturday Review (September 3, 1966), p. 45. The Lear article
was otherwise unsympathetic to UFO sightings and the possibility
that extraterritorials were involved. The Air Force had been
eager to provide Lear with the full report. See Walter L.
Mackey, Executive Officer, memorandum for DCI, "Air Force
Request to Declassify CIA Material on Unidentified Flying
Objects (UFO)," 1 September 1966.
(74) See Klass, UFOs, p. 40, Jacobs, The UFO Controversy,
p. 214 and Everet Clark, "Physicist Scores `Saucer Status,'"
The New York Times, 21 October 1966. See also James E. McDonald,
"Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects," submitted
to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 29 July
1968.
(75) Condon is quoted in Walter Sullivan, "3 Aides Selected
in Saucer Inquiry," The New York Times, 8 October 1966.
See also "An Outspoken Scientist, Edward Uhler Condon,"
The New York Times, 8 October 1966. Condon, an outgoing, gruff
scientist, had earlier become embroiled in a controversy with
the House Unamerican Activities Committee that claimed Condon
was "one of the weakest links in our atomic security."
See also Peebles, Watch the Skies, pp. 169-195.
(76) See Lundahl, memorandum for DDI, 7 February 1967.
(77) See memorandum for the record, "Visit of Dr. Condon
to NPIC, 20 February 1967," 23 February 1967. See also
the analysis of the photographs in memorandum for Lundahl,
"Photo Analysis of UFO Photography," 17 February
1967.
(78) See memorandum for the record, "UFO Briefing for
Dr. Edward Condon, 5 May 1967," 8 May 1967 and attached
"Guidelines to UFO Photographers and UFO Photographic
Information Sheet." See also Condon Committee, Press
Release, 1 May 1967 and Klass, UFOs, p. 41. The Zaneville
photographs turned out to be a hoax.
(79) See Edward U. Condon, Scientific Study of Unidentified
Flying Objects (New York: Bantam Books, 1969) and Klass, UFOs,
p. 41. The report contained the Durant report with only minor
deletions.
(80) See Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense, News Release,
"Air Force to Terminate Project BLUEBOOK," 17 December
1969. The Air Force retired BLUEBOOK records to the USAF Archives
at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. In 1976 the Air Force
turned over all BLUEBOOK files to the National Archives and
Records Administration, which made them available to the public
without major restrictions. Some names have been withheld
from the documents. See Klass, UFOs, p. 6.
(81) GSW was a small group of UFO buffs based in Phoenix,
Arizona, and headed by William H. Spaulding.
(82) See Klass, UFOs, p. 8.
(83) See Wilson, letter to Spaulding, 26 March 1976 and GSW
v. CIA Civil Action Case 78-859.
(84) GSW v. CIA Civil Action Case 78-859, p. 2.
(85) Author interview with Launie Ziebell, 23 June 1994 and
author interview with OSI analyst, 21 July 1994. See also
affidavits of George Owens, CIA Information and Privacy Act
Coordinator; Karl H. Weber, OSI; Sidney D. Stembridge, Office
of Security; and Rutledge P. Hazzard, DS&T; GSW v. CIA
Civil Action Case 78-859 and Sayre Stevens, Deputy Director
for National Foreign Assessment, memorandum for Thomas H.
White, Assistant for Information, Information Review Committee,
"FOIA Litigation Ground Saucer Watch," no date.
(86) See "CIA Papers Detail UFO Surveillance,"
The New York Times, 13 January 1979; Patrick Huyghe, "UFO
Files: The Untold Story," The New York Times Magazine,
14 October 1979, p. 106; and Jerome Clark, "UFO Update,"
UFO Report, August 1979.
(87) Jerome Clark, "Latest UFO News Briefs From Around
the World," UFO Update, August 1979 and GSW v. CIA Civil
Action No. 78-859.
(88) See Wortman, memorandum for DCI Turner, "Your Question,
`Are we in UFOs?' Annotated to The New York Times News Release
Article," 18 January 1979.
(89) See GSW v. CIA Civil Action 78-859. See also Klass,
UFOs, pp. 10-12.
(90) See John Brennan, memorandum for Richard Warshaw, Executive
Assistant, DCI, "Requested Information on UFOs,"
30 September 1993; Author interviews with OSWR analyst, 14
June 1994 and OSI analyst, 21 July 1994. This author found
almost no documentation on Agency involvement with UFOs in
the 1980s.
There is a DIA Psychic Center and the NSA studies parapsychology,
that branch of psychology that deals with the investigation
of such psychic phenomena as clairvoyance, extrasensory perception,
and telepathy. The CIA reportedly is also a member of an Incident
Response Team to investigate UFO landings, if one should occur.
This team has never met. The lack of solid CIA documentation
on Agency UFO-related activities in the 1980s leaves the entire
issue somewhat murky for this period.
Much of the UFO literature presently focuses on contactees
and abductees. See John E. Mack, Abduction, Human Encounters
with Aliens (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994) and
Howard Blum, Out There (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990).
(91) See Charles Berlitz and William L. Moore, The Roswell
Incident (New York: Berkeley Books, 1988); Moore, "The
Roswell Incident: New Evidence in the Search for a Crashed
UFO," (Burbank, California: Fair Witness Project, 1982),
Publication Number 1201; and Klass, UFOs, pp. 280-281. In
1994 Congressman Steven H. Schiff (R-NM) called for an official
study of the Roswell incident. The GAO is conducting a separate
investigation of the incident. The CIA is not involved in
the investigation. See Klass, UFOs, pp. 279-281; John H. Wright,
Information and Privacy Coordinator, letter to Derek Skreen,
20 September 1993; and OSWR analyst interview. See also the
made-for-TV film, Roswell, which appeared on cable TV on 31
July 1994 and Peebles, Watch the Skies, pp. 245-251.
(92) See John Diamond, "Air Force Probes 1947 UFO Claim
Findings Are Down to Earth," 9 September 1994, Associated
Press release; William J. Broad, "Wreckage of a `Spaceship':
Of This Earth (and U.S.)," The New York Times, 18 September
1994, p. 1; and USAF Col. Richard L. Weaver and 1st Lt. James
McAndrew, The Roswell Report, Fact Versus Fiction in New Mexico
Desert (Washington, DC: GPO, 1995).
(93) See Good, Above Top Secret; Moore and S. T. Friedman,
"Philip Klass and MJ-12: What are the Facts," (Burbank
California: Fair-Witness Project, 1988), Publication Number
1290; Klass, "New Evidence of MJ-12 Hoax," Skeptical
Inquirer, vol. 14 (Winter 1990); and Moore and Jaime H. Shandera,
The MJ-12 Documents: An Analytical Report (Burbank, California:
Fair-Witness Project, 1990), Publication Number 1500. Walter
Bedell Smith supposedly replaced Forrestal on 1 August 1950
following Forrestal's death. All members listed were deceased
when the MJ-12 "documents" surfaced in 1984. See
Peebles, Watch the Skies, pp. 258-268.
Dr. Larry Bland, editor of The George C. Marshall Papers,
discovered that one of the so-called Majestic-12 documents
was a complete fraud. It contained the exact same language
as a letter from Marshall to Presidential candidate Thomas
Dewey regarding the "Magic" intercepts in 1944.
The dates and names had been altered and "Magic"
changed to "Majic." Moreover, it was a photocopy,
not an original. No original MJ-12 documents have ever surfaced.
Telephone conversation between the author and Bland, 29 August
1994.
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