Documents / Official release
This declassified file from the U.S. Department of War, dated March 1953, contains a Secretary of Defense routing slip and a 13 March 1953 CIA cover letter from Richard D. Drain of the Intelligence Advisory Committee. The letter sends the Secretary of Defense a report by a panel of scientists on "Unidentified Flying Objects." General Smith convened the panel. The letter says its conclusions point to potential dangers to national security, including the cultivation of a morbid national psychology that hostile propaganda could exploit.
From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 This file contains a copy of the CIA's 1953 "Report of the Scientific Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects" that was sent to the Secretary of Defense.
# SFORFT CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WASHINGTON 25, D. C. 13 March 1953 The Honorable The Secretary of Defense Department of Defense Washington 25, D. C. Dear Mr. Secretary: The Director of Central Intelligence has asked that you be furnished a copy of the attached report prepared by a panel of scientists on the subject of "Unidentified Flying Objects." This panel was convened at the direction of General Smith, following the recommendation of the Intelligence Advisory Committee. The conclusions and recommendations may be of interest to you, in that they point out certain potential dangers to national security which are related to the subject and suggest ways of their elimination Although this Agency does not consider problems arising from sightings of "flying saucers" primarily its concern, we shall be pleased to assist in any appropriate action that you may deem advisable. Copies of this report are also being sent to the Secretary of Defense and to the Chairman, National Security Resources Board. Sincerely yours, RICHARD D. DRAIN Intelligence Advisory Committee Enclosure
Official release, from the pursue collection. 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. 7 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.