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.
“Sightings”24 pages
- p. 2 …Since 1947, approximately 1500 official reports of sightings have been received and, of these, about 20…
- p. 4 policy of public information which will minimize concern and possible panic resulting from the numerous sightings…
- p. 6 …Since 1947, ATIC has received approximately 1500 official reports of sightings plus an enormous volume of…
- p. 7 …Psychological - With world-wide sightings reported, it was found that, up to the time of the…
- p. 8 …may be current a dozen official unidentified sightings plus many unofficial ones. At any moment of…
- p. 11 …with responsibility for investigating the reports of sightings.
(2) At ATIC there is a small group…
- p. 12 …has received approximately 1500 official reports of sightings plus an enormous volume of letters, phone calls…
- p. 13 …These are:
(1) Psychological - With world-wide sightings reported, it was found that, up to the…
- p. 17 …They receive reports of sightings, analyze and attempt to explain them. A standard reporting form has…
- p. 19 …effort — will go into the explanations of sightings — I will give you our conclusions.
25X1A
Our…
- p. 20 …The conclusion was that the sightings stemmed from three causes:
1. Mass hysteria
2. Hallucination and…
- p. 21 …With world-wide sightings reported, we have found not one report or comment, even satirical, in…
- p. 22 …may be current a dozen official unidentified sightings plus many unofficial. At the moment of attack…
- p. 23 …On a case by case basis, the great bulk of the sightings have been and will…
- p. 24 …Secondly, objects sighted almost always are reported to be against the sky thereby providing no point…
- p. 25 …Mental conditioning by newspaper stories of earlier reported sightings.
Individual emotional response with respect to the…
- p. 27 …Captain Ruppelt was called out to witness a sighting of three red lights in the sky…
- p. 29 …exact time and place of the reporting sighting.
Let us then now to astronomical phenomena. In…
- p. 30 Approved For Release 2001/04/02 CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7
of a ground radar sighting in Maryland…
- p. 31 …in the cause of several reports of sightings as in the recent case described by the…
- p. 32 …The above explanations are believed by ATIC to account for some 80% of the sightings reported…
- p. 34 …transmission distance was limited to "line of sight."
Clouds of ice crystals become luminous under certain…
- p. 35 …The appearance of unusual optical or radar sightings caused by these phenomena is possible. Their occurrence…
- p. 36 …CIA-RDP81R00560R000100020012-7
the vicinity of sightings.
Sightings of UFO's reported at Los Alamos and…
DRAFT COVER SHEET
INTELLIGENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Flying Unidentified Objects (Flying Saucers)
[alternatively: ThoNsc]
1. Attached is a proposed letter to Secretary Lovett from the DCI recommending the initiation of fundamental scientific research with respect to the nature and causes of unidentified flying objects (Flying Saucers).
2. While it is recognized that the implications of Flying Saucers are of primary concern to the Defense Department in carrying out its responsibility to defend the United States, it is also believed that intelligence must request of appropriate authority such assistance as it needs to carry out its responsibility. It is believed that the scientific research required and the intelligence research contingent thereon can be most fruitful if they go hand in hand.
## 3. Recommendations:
a. That the IAC concur in the proposed letter to the Secretary of Defense.
b. That the IAC request the Watch Committee to give close attention to indications which may reflect Russian actions are being taken with respect to or on the basis of cognizance of Flying Saucers or with respect to the state of United States public opinion in respect of Flying Saucers.
About this file
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.