Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum to the Director of Central Intelligence, prepared by the Office of Scientific Intelligence in September 1952, asks whether flying saucer reports have national security implications. It reports that the Air Force's small ATIC group had received about 1500 official reports since 1947 and studies them only case by case. It identifies psychological warfare and air defense false alarm risks, notes silence in the Soviet press, and recommends National Security Council involvement, further research and a public information policy.
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(2) A study should be instituted to determine that, if any utilization could be made of those phenomena by United States projects and venture planers, and that, if any, defenses should be planned in anticipation of Soviet attempts to utilize them. (3) A national policy should be established as to what should be told the public regarding the phonemes, in order to minimize risk of panic. c. Intelligence problems includes (1) The present level of Russian knowledge regarding these phenomena. (2) Possible Soviet intentions and capabilities to utilize these pressures to the detriment of US security interests. (3) ina reasons for silence in the Soviet Press regarding flying aircraft. o. The problem transcends the level of individual departmental responsibilities, and is of much importance as to merit cognizance and action by the National Security Council. d. Intelligence responsibilities in this field as regards both collection and analysis can be discharged with maximum effectiveness only after much more in known regarding the exact nature of these phenomena. f. Additional research, differing in character and emphasis from that presently being performed by Air Force, will be required to meet the specific needs of both operations and intelligence. 5. RECOGNITION. It is recommended that: a. The Director of Central Intelligence advise the internal Security Council of the security implications inherent in the flying reactor problem with the request that, under his statutory coordinating authority, the Director of Central Intelligence be appointed to initiate through the appropriate agencies, either within or without the government, the investigation and research necessary to solve the problem of instant positive identification of "unidentified flying objects" b. 101, under its assigned remordabilition, and in cooperation with the geographical strategy board, are jointly investigate possible offensive or defensive utilization of the phenomena for psychological warfare purposes both for and among the United States, advising these agencies charged with v. . internal security of any pertinent
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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. 5 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.