Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency file dated 2 December 1952 holds a memorandum from H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, to the Director of Central Intelligence. It says that sightings of unexplained high-speed objects at great altitudes near major U.S. defense installations need immediate attention. Chadwell proposes a consulting group of qualified scientists. The file also holds a draft memorandum to the National Security Council and a draft directive. Together they would have the Director of Central Intelligence run a priority program of intelligence and research to identify unidentified flying objects.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
# MEMORANDUM TO: The Executive Secretary National Security Council SLDJECT: Unidentified Flying Objects (Flying Saucers) 1. The Central Intelligence Agency has reviewed the current situation concerning unidentified flying objects which have caused extensive speculation in the press and have been the subject of concern to Government organizations. The Air Force, within the limitations of manpower which could be devoted to the subject, has thus carried the full responsibility for investigating and analyzing individual reports of sightings. Since 1947, approximately 200 official reports of sightings have been received and, of these, about 205 are as yet unexplained. 2. It is my view that this situation has possible implications for our national security which transient the interests of a single service. A broader, coordinated effort should be initiated to develop a firm scientific understanding of the several phenomena which apparently are involved in these reports, and to ensure ourselves that the incidents will not hamper our present efforts in the Cold War or confuse our early warning system in case of an attack. 3. I therefore recommend that this Agency and the agencies of the Department of defence be directed to formulate and carry out a program of intelligence and research activities required to solve the problem of instant positive identification of unidentified flying objects. A draft of an appropriate directive is attached. Nalter D. Smith Director Inclosure
Not linked to a story yet.
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. 4 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.