Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency release pairs a cover memo dated 12 March 1953 from the Secretary of the Intelligence Advisory Committee with the report of the Scientific Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, chaired by Dr. H. P. Robertson. The panel met in January 1953 and reviewed evidence gathered mainly by the Air Technical Intelligence Center. It found no direct physical threat to national security and no sign of foreign hostile artifacts. It recommended stripping UFOs of their special status and aura of mystery.
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indications of hostile action, and the cultivation of a mental medical 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 aura 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 resecure the public of the total leak 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. /a/ Lloyd V. Berkner Associated Universities, inc. /a/ S. A. Goulsmit Brockhaven National Laboratories /a/ Thornton Page Johns Hopkins University.
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. 9 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.