CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs 1947-90 by Gerald K Haines - Studies In Intelligence v01 №1 (1997), ZOBACZ TU! Różne
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//-->A Die-Hard IssueBy: Gerald K. HainesStudies In Intelligence Vol. 01 – No. 1, 1997FromStudies In Intelligence Vol. 01 No. 1, 1997A Die-Hard IssueCIA''s Rolle iin tthe Sttudy offUFOs,,1947--90CIA s Ro e n he S udy o UFOs 1947 90Gerald K. HainesAn extraordinary 95 percent of all Americans have at least heard or read something aboutUnidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), and 57 percent believe they are real.(1)Former USPresidents Carter and Reagan claim to have seen a UFO. UFOlogists--a neologism forUFO buffs--and private UFO organizations are found throughout the United States. Manyare convinced that the US Government, and particularly CIA, are engaged in a massiveconspiracy and coverup of the issue. The idea that CIA has secretly concealed its researchinto UFOs has been a major theme of UFO buffs since the modern UFO phenomenaemerged in the late 1940s.(2)In late 1993, after being pressured by UFOlogists for the release of additional CIAinformation on UFOs,(3)DCI R. James Woolsey ordered another review of all Agencyfiles on UFOs. Using CIA records compiled from that review, this study traces CIAinterest and involvement in the UFO controversy from the late 1940s to 1990. Itchronologically examines the Agency's efforts to solve the mystery of UFOs, itsprograms that had an impact on UFO sightings, and its attempts to conceal CIAinvolvement in the entire UFO issue. What emerges from this examination is that, whileAgency concern over UFOs was substantial until the early 1950s, CIA has since paidonly limited and peripheral attention to the phenomena.BackgroundThe emergence in 1947 of the Cold War confrontation between the United States and theSoviet Union also saw the first wave of UFO sightings. The first report of a "flyingsaucer" over the United States came on 24 June 1947, when Kenneth Arnold, a privatepilot and reputable businessman, while looking for a downed plane sighted nine disk-shaped objects near Mt. Rainier, Washington, traveling at an estimated speed of over1,000 mph. Arnold's report was followed by a flood of additional sightings, includingreports from military and civilian pilots and air traffic controllers all over the UnitedStates.(4)In 1948, Air Force Gen. Nathan Twining, head of the Air Technical ServiceCommand, established Project SIGN (initially named Project SAUCER) to collect,collate, evaluate, and distribute within the government all information relating to suchsightings, 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 WrightField (later Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) in Dayton, Ohio, assumed control ofProject SIGN and began its work on 23 January 1948. Although at first fearful that theobjects might be Soviet secret weapons, the Air Force soon concluded that UFOs werereal but easily explained and not extraordinary. The Air Force report found that almost allsightings stemmed from one or more of three causes: mass hysteria and hallucination,hoax, or misinterpretation of known objects. Nevertheless, the report recommendedcontinued military intelligence control over the investigation of all sightings and did notrule out the possibility of extraterrestrial phenomena.(6)Amid mounting UFO sightings, the Air Force continued to collect and evaluate UFO datain the late 1940s under a new project, GRUDGE, which tried to alleviate public anxietyover UFOs via a public relations campaign designed to persuade the public that UFOsconstituted nothing unusual or extraordinary. UFO sightings were explained as balloons,conventional aircraft, planets, meteors, optical illusions, solar reflections, or even "largehailstones." GRUDGE officials found no evidence in UFO sightings of advanced foreignweapons design or development, and they concluded that UFOs did not threaten USsecurity. They recommended that the project be reduced in scope because the veryexistence of Air Force official interest encouraged people to believe in UFOs andcontributed to a "war hysteria" atmosphere. On 27 December 1949, the Air Forceannounced the project's termination.(7)With increased Cold War tensions, the Korean war, and continued UFO sightings, USAFDirector 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 phenomenonthroughout the 1950s and 1960s.(8)The task of identifying and explaining UFOscontinued 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 werenot extraordinary.(9)Projects SIGN, GRUDGE, and BLUE BOOK set the tone for theofficial US Government position regarding UFOs for the next 30 years.Early CIA Concerns, 1947-52CIA closely monitored the Air Force effort, aware of the mounting number of sightingsand increasingly concerned that UFOs might pose a potential security threat.(10)Giventhe distribution of the sightings, CIA officials in 1952 questioned whether they mightreflect "midsummer madness.''(11)Agency officials accepted the Air Force's conclusionsabout UFO reports, although they concluded that "since there is a remote possibility thatthey 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, alarmedthe Truman administration. On 19 and 20 July, radar scopes at Washington NationalAirport and Andrews Air Force Base tracked mysterious blips. On 27 July, the blipsreappeared. The Air Force scrambled interceptor aircraft to investigate, but they foundnothing. The incidents, however, caused headlines across the country. The White Housewanted to know what was happening, and the Air Force quickly offered the explanationthat the radar blips might be the result of "temperature inversions." Later, a CivilAeronautics Administration investigation confirmed that such radar blips were quitecommon and were caused by temperature inversions.(13)Although it had monitored UFO reports for at least three years, CIA reacted to the newrash of sightings by forming a special study group within the Office of ScientificIntelligence (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 forthe group that most UFO sightings could be easily explained. Nevertheless, herecommended that the Agency continue monitoring the problem, in coordination withATIC. He also urged that CIA conceal its interest from the media and the public, "in viewof their probable alarmist tendencies" to accept such interest as confirming the existenceof 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 ElectronicsDivision, with A. Ray Gordon as the officer in charge.(16)Each branch in the divisionwas 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, wasrelaying DCI Walter Bedell Smith's concerns.(17)Smith wanted to know whether or notthe Air Force investigation of flying saucers was sufficiently objective and how muchmore money and manpower would be necessary to determine the cause of the smallpercentage of unexplained flying saucers. Smith believed "there was only one chance in10,000 that the phenomenon posed a threat to the security of the country, but even thatchance could not be taken." According to Smith, it was CIA's responsibility by statute tocoordinate the intelligence effort required to solve the problem. Smith also wanted toknow what use could be made of the UFO phenomenon in connection with USpsychological warfare efforts.(18)Led by Gordon, the CIA Study Group met with Air Force officials at Wright-Pattersonand reviewed their data and findings. The Air Force claimed that 90 percent of thereported sightings were easily accounted for. The other 10 percent were characterized as"a number of incredible reports from credible observers." The Air Force rejected thetheories that the sightings involved US or Soviet secret weapons development or that theyinvolved "men from Mars"; there was no evidence to support these concepts. The AirForce briefers sought to explain these UFO reports as the misinterpretation of knownobjects or little understood natural phenomena.(19)Air Force and CIA officials agreedthat outside knowledge of Agency interest in UFOs would make the problem moreserious.(20)This concealment of CIA interest contributed greatly to later charges of aCIA conspiracy and coverup.Amateur photographs of alleged UFOsPassoria, New Jersey, 31 July 1952Sheffield, England, 4 March 1962& Minneapolis, Minnesota, 20 October 1960The 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 ofdeliberate Soviet Government policy. The group also envisioned the USSR's possible useof UFOs as a psychological warfare tool. In addition, they worried that, if the US airwarning system should be deliberately overloaded by UFO sightings, the Soviets mightgain a surprise advantage in any nuclear attack.(21)Because of the tense Cold War situation and increased Soviet capabilities, the CIA StudyGroup saw serious national security concerns in the flying saucer situation. The groupbelieved that the Soviets could use UFO reports to touch off mass hysteria and panic inthe United States. The group also believed that the Soviets might use UFO sightings tooverload the US air warning system so that it could not distinguish real targets fromphantom UFOs. H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director of OSI, added that heconsidered the problem of such importance "that it should be brought to the attention ofthe National Security Council, in order that a communitywide coordinated effort towardsit solution may be initiated."(22)Chadwell briefed DCI Smith on the subject of UFOs in December 1952. He urged actionbecause he was convinced that "something was going on that must have immediateattention" and that "sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling athigh speeds in the vicinity of major US defense installations are of such nature that theyare not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial vehicles." He drafted amemorandum from the DCI to the National Security Council (NSC) and a proposed NSCDirective establishing the investigation of UFOs as a priority project throughout theintelligence and the defense research and development community.(23)Chadwell alsourged Smith to establish an external research project of top-level scientists to study theproblem of UFOs.(24)After this briefing, Smith directed DDI Amory to prepare a NSCIntelligence Directive (NSCID) for submission to the NSC on the need to continue theinvestigation of UFOs and to coordinate such investigations with the Air Force.(25)The Robertson Panel, 1952-53On 4 December 1952, the Intelligence Advisory Committee (IAC) took up the issue ofUFOs.(26)Amory, as acting chairman, presented DCI Smith's request to the committeethat it informally discuss the subject of UFOs. Chadwell then briefly reviewed thesituation and the active program of the ATIC relating to UFOs. The committee agreedthat the DCI should "enlist the services of selected scientists to review and appraise theavailable evidence in the light of pertinent scientific theories" and draft an NSCID on thesubject.(27)Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, Director of Air Force Intelligence, offered fullcooperation.(28)At the same time, Chadwell looked into British efforts in this area. He learned the Britishalso 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 hiscommittee's conclusions on UFOs were similar to those of Agency officials: the sightingswere not enemy aircraft but misrepresentations of natural phenomena. The British noted,
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