Documents / FOIA release

Letter to Secretary of Defense with Three Attachments Re Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO's)

Central Intelligence Agency · 1953-03-13 · 7 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This 1953 letter from Richard D. Drain, Secretary of the CIA's Intelligence Advisory Committee, sends the Secretary of Defense a report by a panel of scientists on unidentified flying objects. The panel met 14 to 17 January 1953 and found no evidence that the phenomena posed a direct physical threat or were foreign artifacts. It warned that the reports themselves could clog communications and recommended stripping UFOs of their special status. It also recommended public education. Attachments list the panel members, the interviewees and the evidence reviewed.

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

16. Motion picture of seagulls in bright sunlight showing high reflectivity.

17. Intelligence Reports Relating to U.S.S.R. Interest in U. S. Sightings.

18. Samples of Official USAF Reporting Forms and Copies of Portinent Air Force, Army and Navy Orders Relating to Subject.

19. Sample Polyethylene "Pillow" Balloon (54 inches square).

20. "Variations in Radar Coverage", JANP 101. (Manual illustrating unusual operating characteristics of Service radar).

21. Miscellaneous official letters and foreign intelligence reports dealing with subject.

22. Copies of popular published works dealing with subject (articles in periodicals, newspaper clippings and books).

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.