Documents / FOIA release
This CIA file, released in 2003, holds a newspaper reprint, stamped September 1967, of talks given at an American Society of Newspaper Editors meeting. Dr. James E. McDonald of the University of Arizona argued that the Air Force had mishandled UFOs for 20 years, criticized the Robertson Panel's debunking recommendation, and called for a congressional inquiry. Dr. Donald H. Menzel of Harvard replied that sightings have optical, radar mirage and psychological explanations and that Project Blue Book should be closed.
“UFO Research Society”2 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
Mr. Mahaffey: And now I should like to present our first scientist, Dr. James E. McDonald, who now holds the position of senior physicist, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, and professor, Department of Meteorology University of Arizona. Briefly, his educational background includes a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Omaha, an M.S. in meteorology from Boston Tech and a Ph.D. in physics from Iowa State University. He has been a research physicist at the University of Chicago and has taught physics at Iowa State University prior to his current position. He is a member of the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, the Royal Meteorology Society and Sigma Xi. Editor's note: With this article, the Star starts a two-part series on the fascinating subject of unidentified flying objects. At the Washington meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors last April, Dr. James E. McDonald of the University of Arizona, spoke at the invitation of the editors, taking as his subject UFO's. He was followed by Dr. Donald H. Menzel of Harvard University. The minutes of the ASNE meeting now being transcribed and available, the Star, because of the special public interest in the differences of opinion between Dr. McDonald and Dr. Menzel, presents the remarks of both. Dr. Menzel's side of the case will appear Wednesday. Dr. McDonald was introduced by John Quincy Mahaffey, editor of the Texarkana, Tex., Gazette. I am honored to present our distinguished guest, Dr. McDonald. It is against that background that I now tell you that the sighting Mr. Powell I have, on my own hook, interviewed dozens of key witnesses in important cases around the country and have examined hundreds of cases in a good deal of detail. I have gone over Air Force evaluations, Dr. Menzel's analyses of problems and other evaluations. Dr. McDonald: Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to have the chance to talk with you and discuss the results of what I have found in approximately a 12-month intensive study of this extremely interesting problem of unidentified flying objects. I have talked with people in the Air Force, both scientific and military, about other aspects of the problem. I have been around the country discussing it with independent groups, such as NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena) here in Washington. NICAP is one of the outstanding independent groups; it has done an excellent job over the years of digging into this fascinating problem. About last April I began to take a close look at the problem, having been moderately interested in the problem for some years prior to that. I have been to Wright-Patterson at Project Blue Book three times and I have examined 150 or so cases in their files and talked to the scientific and military staff at Blue Book. discussed, and which I was quite interested to hear about, is by no means unrepresentative of the categories of sightings that demand immediate serious scientific attention in this country and all over the world. And that is part of what I am here to tell you today. In the past week I have spent all of my time discussing my serious concern with scientific colleagues and with military people here in (Editor's note: William C. Powell of Radnor, Pa., and a friend, Miss Muriel McClave, had already reported to the editors on their May 21, 1966, sighting of what they said was a saucer-shaped object with a slightly raised dome on the top. They said the bottom was brilliant red, the top a brilliant white. They said they saw the object while flying near Willow Grove Naval Air Station in Pennsylvania.) This is not a nonsense problem, as it has been made out. A lot of you have had fun, I suppose, writing feature stories about little green men and hoaxers and so on. Believe me, that is the wrong part of this problem to look at. Washington. This week I think I have given 10 talks and briefings. I am glad to say to you that scientific and official concern is beginning to change. I have been at the Naval Research Lab. I've been at the Pentagon twice this week briefing civilian, military, Air Force and other personnel. This week I have also talked to the National Academy people, the National Science Foundation and other persons whose influence on the problem I believe will quickly show up, but whose affiliation I am not free to discuss with you. I have to say to you that, as a result of a pretty close look at this problem, I think we have all missed the boat. I think we have been misled. I think the problem has been most seriously mishandled officially for 20 years. The problem has been misrepresented by many interacting factors including yourselves and scientists such as myself. I have tried to put all of this down in a rather long paper that is available to you at the back of the room. It is entitled "UFO's: Greatest Scientific Problem of Our Times?" In 20 minutes I can't possibly go over all of the details. But I will refer to the sections of this 28-page paper as I go along. Since I know you can't read it now and I doubt you'll be able to
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. 8 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.