CONFIDENTIAL
UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL PHEN
(Flying Saucers)
Reports of strange and mysterious objects seen in the sky over most
of the countries of the world during the past five years have created
quite a stir in the public press. The sighting of such objects has not
been confined to the last five years. History records many instances of
man's inability to explain what he saw or thought he saw. The prophet
Ezekiel in the 6th century BC reported "a whirl wind came out of the
north, a great cloud, and a fire unfolding itself, and a brightness was
about it." He then saw "a wheel in the middle of a wheel" and reported
"when they went, they went up on their four sides and they turned not
when they went". (Ezekiel 1:16)
In the past, these phenomena have usually been attributed to super-
natural causes, and in more recent years to natural phenomena. However,
the introduction of the atomic bomb and guided missiles in World War II
has so caught the public imagination with their potentialities, actual and
fanciful, that we now find the phenomena variously attributed to space ships
from other planets and US or Soviet experiments with new and wonderful
weapons.
The present flurry of flying saucers, ghost rockets, etc., began in
mid-1948 in Sweden. Hundreds of people reported seeing strange objects
flying over the country. Newspapers speculated that they were Soviet
guided missiles being tested over the Baltic Sea, either from the former
German experimental station at Peenemunde, or from Dago Island off the
Estonian Coast. The fact that an experimental V-2 fired by the Germans
from Peenemunde had landed in Sweden in 1944 lent credence to their
speculation. The Swedish defence staff made an investigation and may
have deliberately allowed the public to believe this theory for some time
for political reasons. Careful investigation by the US Ma and by an
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CONFIDENTIAL
Note: Handwritten annotations and marginalia (e.g., “Rec’d from G-3 5-22-50 CW3”, “D-3 Briefing U.S. States 19 May 5”, “62-83814-”, “52 JUN 15 1950”, “17”, “E. H. M.”, “R. A. M.”, etc.) are not included in the main body as they are not part of the typed document text. The document is marked “CONFIDENTIAL” at top and bottom. The page number “1” appears at the bottom center. The source URL is provided at the very bottom of the image but is not part of the document’s content and thus omitted per instructions to transcribe only the page content.