Documents / Memo

FLYING SAUCERS memo

CIA Reading Room · 36 pages · text by OCR

This CIA file, released in 2001, gathers 1952 memoranda from H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director of the Office of Scientific Intelligence, to the Director of Central Intelligence, along with draft letters to the Secretary of Defense and the NSC and a briefing on the Air Force position. It concludes that flying saucers carry national security implications, namely mass panic and air defense vulnerability. It recommends expanded scientific research, a public information policy and study of Soviet interest, noting that about 20 percent of roughly 1500 Air Force reports remained unexplained.

Open the PDF at page 32 Original source ↗

“CIA”26 pages

  • p. 2 …Approved For Release 2001/04/02 CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7
  • p. 3 …for signature as TAB C. (c) That CIA, with the cooperation of PSB and other interested…
  • p. 6 …In its inquiry into this problem, a team from CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence consulted…
  • p. 7 …The CIA consultants stated that these solutions would probably be found on the margins or just…
  • p. 8 # SECRET # Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00760R000100020012-7 The public concern with the phenomena…
  • p. 9 # Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R0060R000100020012-7 c. The reasons for silence in the…
  • p. 10 Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R0560R000100020012-7
  • p. 11 …Approved For Release 2001/04/02 CIA RDP81R00560R000100020012-7
  • p. 12 # Approved For Release 2001/04/02 CIA RDP81R00560R000100020012-7 SECRET Security Information (6) Since 1947, ATIC…
  • p. 13 # Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7 SECRET Security Information h. CONCLUSIONS a. The…
  • p. 14 # Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7 Security Information (2) A study should be…
  • p. 15 …On the basis of these programs of research, CIA develop and recommend for adoption by the…
  • p. 16 …25X1A 7312 Approved For Release 20010402:CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7 Assistant Director for Operations
  • p. 17 …Stand on "Flying Saucers" -- as stated by CIA, in a briefing on 22 August 1952 I…
  • p. 20 Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7 the phenomena and in December 1949 released…
  • p. 21 Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7 In summarizing this discussion, I would restate…
  • p. 22 Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7 civilian groups that have sprung up to…
  • p. 23 Approved For Release 2001/04/02 CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7 Security Information knowledge is achieved of the…
  • p. 24 Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7 In the next few minutes, I intend…
  • p. 25 …been: free baleons, aircraft, astronomical bodies, atmospheric Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7
  • p. 26 …since his plane carried no oxygen equipment. Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7
  • p. 27 Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R0060R000100020012-7 A case under known conditions occurred some…
  • p. 28 …few weeks ago in Washington a man Approved For Release 2001/04/02: CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7
  • p. 30 Approved For Release 2001/04/02 CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7 of a ground radar sighting in Maryland…
  • p. 32 # Approved For Release 2001/04/02 CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7 Security information reported to be traveling at…
  • p. 36 Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7 the vicinity of sightings. Sightings of UFO…
# Approved For Release 2001/04/02 CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7 Security information

reported to be traveling at terrific speed at 30,000 feet. It happened that the reporting station had a searchlight and it was turned on in the direction of the radar sighting. It was immediately discovered that the objects were Canadian geese flying at 300 feet altitude.

The above explanations are believed by ATIC to account for some 80% of the sightings reported. They feel that the remaining 20% might be reducible to 10% were it not for these reasons:

Insufficient information reported.

Incorrect information unwittingly or purposely reported.

This still leaves ATIO with a possible 10% of sightings for which there is no available explanation.

Considering that the remaining cases might have been caused by little understood natural phenomena, the OSI Panel conferred at length with three of our consultants in Boston. These men are outstanding in the fields of geophysics, electronics and chemistry. They emphasized to us that there

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Memo, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 36 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.