Documents / FOIA release

Intelligence Advisory Committee Unidentified Flying Objects

Central Intelligence Agency · 1953-02-18 · 7 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This Central Intelligence Agency Intelligence Advisory Committee document, IAC-D-67, is dated 18 February 1953 and signed by Secretary James Q. Reber. It transmits the report of the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, chaired by H. P. Robertson, which met 14 to 17 January 1953. The panel found no evidence of inimical forces behind the phenomena. It recommended stripping UFOs of their special status and educating the public. CIA concluded that no National Security Council Intelligence Directive was warranted. The document includes the list of evidence and participants.

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

indications of hostile action, and the cultivation of a morbid national psychology in which skillful hostile propaganda could induce hysterical behavior and harmful distrust of duly constituted authority.

4. In order most effectively to strengthen the national facilities for the timely recognition and the appropriate handling of true indications of hostile action, and to minimize the concomitant dangers alluded to above, the Panel recommends:

a. That the national security agencies take immediate steps to strip the unidentified Flying Objects of the special status they have been given and the curse of mystery they have unfortunately acquired;

b. That the national security agencies institute policies on intelligence, training, and public education designed to prepare the material defenses and the morale of the country to recognize most promptly and to react most effectively to true indications of hostile intent or action.

We suggest that these aims may be achieved by an integrated program designed to reassure the public of the total lack of evidence of inimical forces behind the phenomena, to train personnel to recognize and reject false indications quickly and effectively, and to strengthen regular channels for the evaluation of and prompt reaction to true indications of hostile measures.

/8/ H. P. Robertson, Chairman

California Institute of Technology

/8/ S. A. Gordimit

Brookhaven National Laboratories

/8/ Luis W. Alvarez

University of California

/8/ Thorsten Page

Iowa Banking University

Cases discussed

About this file

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. 7 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.