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.

MEMBERS	ORGANIZATION	FIELD OF COMPETENCE
Dr. H. P. Roberts(Chairman)	California Institute of Technology	Physics, weapons systems
Dr. Luis W. Alvarca	University of California	Physics, radar
Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner	Associated Universities, Inc.	Geophysics
Dr. Samuel Goudsmit	Brookhaven National Laboratories	Atomic structure, statistical problems
Dr. Thornton Page	Office of Research Operations, Johns Hopkins University	Astronomy, Astrophysics
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Dr. J. Allen Hynck	Ohio State University	Astronomy
Mr. Frederick C. Durant	Arthur D. Little, Inc.	Rockets, guided missiles
INTERVIEWEES
Brig. Gen. William M. Garland	Commanding General, ATIC	Scientific and technical intelligence
Dr. H. Marshall Chedwell	Assistant Director, O/SI, CIA	Scientific and technical intelligence
Mr. Ralph L. Clark	Deputy Assistant Director, O/SI, CIA	Scientific and technical intelligence

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.