Official · Document · CIA
Scientists Studied Flying Saucers—and Found a Different Threat
They weren’t worried about the saucers themselves, but about reports swamping government agencies.
In brief
A group of scientists who examined reports of flying saucers in 1953 found no direct threat. They worried that the reports and the panic surrounding them could obscure real dangers.
Summary
This is the CIA-assembled file documenting the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects (the Robertson Panel), convened by the Office of Scientific Intelligence and meeting 14-18 January 1953 under the direction of DCI General Walter B. Smith. It includes the panel's formal report concluding that UFOs posed no direct physical threat to national security and showed no evidence of foreign artifacts or extraterrestrial origin, F.C. Durant's detailed report of the meetings, a summary of evidence and personnel lists, and associated 1952-1953 transmittal correspondence to the Secretary of Defense, the Federal Civil Defense Administration, and the National Security Resources Board. The panel warned of indirect dangers from continued reporting (clogged intelligence channels, vulnerability to hostile propaganda) and recommended an integrated program of public 'debunking' and personnel training to reduce reporting 'noise.' The file also contains earlier 1952 memoranda on radar phantoms and a draft IAC letter to the Secretary of Defense recommending expanded scientific research into flying saucers.
Incidents in the document
- 2 July 1952 · Tremonton, Utah, USA · Page 11
Kodachrome motion picture films (about 1600 frames) of objects in the sky; analyzed by ATIC and the USN Photo Interpretation Laboratory, which expended roughly 1000 man-hours plotting individual frames and concluded the objects were not birds, balloons or aircraft and were 'self-luminous.' The Panel rejected that conclusion, judging the objects most likely birds (seagulls) reflecting sunlight.