Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 18 December 1952 and issued by the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, reports on unidentified flying objects. It summarizes lab analysis of a 2 July 1952 film from Utah that shows about ten bright objects, which the analysts judged very unlikely to be birds or balloons. It also covers a sighting that was matched to the planet Jupiter and a scoutmaster's disputed report from West Palm Beach. It concludes that the sightings pose no direct threat but carry potential dangers, including mass hysteria and overloaded communications systems.
I I r»: Approved for Release: 2019/10/21 C02917087 Ii’ ‘1?: While there is no indication that these objects represent. 9, direct threat to the national defense, there are certain potential dangers which are related to these sightings. These are: 1. The difficulty and delay in positive identification which could weaken the early warning system in alerting defense in the event of commencement of hostilities. * 2. The possibility of mass hysteria which might be pur- posely induced by an enemy at a critical time by faked reports. 3. The possibility that the emergency communications systems to command headquarters might be seriously overloaded at a critical time by such reports. It is believed that the problems of communications confusion and overload and the serious effects of mass hysteria must be dealt with outside the intelligence community , and it is planned to bring these matters to the attention of those agencies with whom the prime respon- sibility appears to rest. With respect to mass hysteria, it is believed this problem would lie with the Federal Civil Defense Administration and} or the Interdepartmental Committee on Internal Security. Accordingly, it is plarmed to bring this to the attention of the FCDA and ICIS through established channels. With respect to emergency colmnunications overload- ing, it is believed that each of the individual Military Services should examine this problem. Accordingly, we intend to introduce the subject at a meeting of the Joint Coummmications and Electronics Committee. ll 6 I Ir 2.- ""/1/lw/»¢/;-:/17 ./.1 /5")“ 9“/'_ - " ' for Release: 2019/10/21 C02917087
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 6 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.