|
The CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs Between 1947 and 1990
by Gerald K. Haines
Studies In Intelligence Vol. 01 No. 1, 1997
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 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.
|
|