Documents / FOIA release
This 1968 Central Intelligence Agency memo passes along two Soviet articles distributed by the Novosti press agency (APN) that take opposite positions on UFOs. In the February 1968 issue of Soviet Life, Felix Zigel sets out Soviet sightings, argues that the Tunguska body may have been an artificial craft, and calls for scientific study. The other article, by Villen Lyustiberg, says UFOs are a myth that the US uses as propaganda. The memo finds it ironic that Soviet media published both views.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
likely these photographs show ball lightning. Incidentally, the nature of the lat has not been fully elucidated yet either, due to the vagueness of the place and ti of its formation. However, no one ever thought of ascribing a cosmic origin to it Even with a superficial analysis, mysterious flares on clouds proved to be reflections of electric welding, warning lights of airplanes in the area of airport or distant summer lightning. And the November 1967 "saucer" over Sofia proved to a high-altitude NATO reconnaissance balloon. Among the most serious works devoted to an investigation of the problem, there are two which ought to be mentioned. One of them is the book "Flying Saucers" by Donald Menzel who explains almost all cases of their appearance by disturbances in the Earth's or Sun's atmosphere. Our planet travels in the upper layers of the Sun atmosphere where clots of high-temperature plasma are moving freely. The other is a book by Frank Edwards. It is a collection of statements, notes and records of eye-witness testimony classified into several sections. True, Edwar often qualifies his source as a witness who did not wish to have his name mentioned but who may be fully trusted, or that the trustworthiness of the witness is confirmed by numerous of his countrymen, but he cannot mention his name so far for a number of reasons. That's not very convincing, is it? ## For Whom Is It Not a Myth? They are those for whom science is a business. Taking advantage of the lively interest of people for everything that is strange and unusual, numerous lecturers in the West appear before audiences with reports and stories, invite eye-witnesses to such lectures, and demonstrate photographs and slides. Most of these lecturers are nothing but ordinary quacks. True, there are people who are sincerely convinced in the truth of what they are talking about. They strive to draw the interest of the public to certain phenomena but, we are sorry to say, there is more harm than use in that. The Americans Lesly and Adamski are the most outright frauds among them. Using their "good friendly relations" with strangers from other planets, the enterprising businessmen "visited" Mars, the Moon and Venus, learned from our cosmic neighbours to treat by simple and accessible methods such diseases as cancer, glaucoma, hypertension and others which afflict the human race. Their lectures, motion-pictures, books and medical practice have brought them many hundred thousand dollars out of the pockets of trusting listeners and patients already. We may trace a clearly defined regularity in the appearance of large numbers of flying saucers. And, strange as it might seem, this regularity is closely connected with earthly events. The first "cycle" of four years began in 1947. The number of saucers always grows sharply on the eve of presidential elections in the USA. This is difficult to explain. Maybe people on other planets lay bets as to who will win in the next elections -- the republicans or the democrats. Perhaps, these saucers appear in order to divert the voters' thoughts from the again non-fulfilled presidential programme and promises to make the country a "great" and "prospering' society. There is another cycle. True, it is not determined by time. Saucers flooded the earth's atmosphere in 1951, in the months when the American troops were waging a ruthless, annihilating war against the Korean People's Democratic Republic.
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. 11 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.