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.
“University of Colorado”1 page
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
What I have tried to show today is that many kinds of optical stimuli can produce weird effects. With all these kinds of phenomena masquerading as UFO's, many of them, like those related to the psysiology of the human eye still practically not investigated, I think I can reasonably claim, applying the criterion of Sherlock Holmes, that we have not excluded all of the impossibles. I have shown that the arguments advanced in favor of the interplanetary nature of UFO's are fallacious. Their alleged high speeds and ability to maneuver, their alleged short distances are completely underestimated and they have natural explanations. I think it is time for the Air Force to wrap up Project Blue Book. It has produced little of scientific value. Keeping it going only fosters the belief of persons that the Air Force must have found something to substantiate belief in the UFO's. In making this recommendation: I am not criticizing the present or recent administration of the project. But it's time that we put an end to chasing ghosts, hobgoblins, visions and hallucinations. As for the true believers, bless their little hearts, let them go on believing in UFO's, fairies or Santa Claus, if they want to. Nothing will change their minds. They will go on forever demanding more dollars for investigation and more congressional investigation of the UFO's and the Air Force. Incidentally, I would like to mention that a complete discussion of many of these phenomena appears in the book, "The World of Flying Saucers" by Lyle G. Boyd and myself.
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.