Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for record, dated 2 January 1953 and written by the Office of Scientific Intelligence, covers a phone call with Dr. John A. Wheeler at Princeton. The CIA had wanted him as a consultant on the "flying saucer" problem, but his AEC work prevented it. Wheeler suggested two foreign scientists, the aurora expert Dr. Chapman and Dr. Hannes Alfven. He thought they might be used through a cut-out if a scientific attack on the problem was warranted.
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1. At 1430 today I called Dr. Wheeler at Princeton, New Jersey (12300) to thank him for his interest in possible affiliation as a consultant in the CIA attack on the "flying saucer" problem. I told him we regretted that the urgency of his current work for AES (NATTERFORM) prevented association at this time. 2. Dr. Wheeler stated that he might not be able to actively assist even after March 1953 because of his work on "particle research". However, he would be pleased at any time to discuss the matter briefly. He mentioned two foreign nationals who were currently outstanding in related fields. One was Dr. Chapman, a British subject who is an authority on the aurorae and its associated "mysterious problems" of "ion path" and "magnetic focussing". Dr. C'Day (Director of Research at Cambridge, Massachusetts USAF Research Center) might be able to suggest U. S. subjects in this field. It appears that the Air Force has been studying upper atmospheric phenomena there with considerable vigor. Dr. Chapman's believed to be currently at Cambridge University, England. 3. Another suggestion was Dr. Hannes Alfven, an "original thinker and outstanding researcher". He has written "Cosmological Electrodynamics", Oxford University Press. Dr. Wheeler thought some method of using one or both of these men might be devised through a "out out", assuming the problem continued for an appreciable length of time and scientific attack was warranted. OST/QDrant:bn B-3 Distribution: Orig - Subject file 1 - Daily reading file 1 - Chrono file
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.