Documents / FOIA release

The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (Nicap)

Central Intelligence Agency · 2001-03-12 · 186 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This is a copy of "The UFO Evidence," a report published in May 1964 by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) in Washington, D.C. and edited by Richard H. Hall. The CIA released its copy in 2001. The report draws 746 sightings from more than 5,000 signed reports and argues that unexplained UFOs are real, artificial objects under intelligent control. It criticizes Air Force secrecy and calls for a Congressional inquiry into Project Blue Book and a larger scientific investigation.

  • p. 11 …Thank you for your cooperation. You may use my name. ( X ) Please keep my name confidential…
  • p. 31 …I am coming to Washington soon for an appointment with Senator Cooper and if it is…
  • p. 48 …The Akron UFO Research Committee cooperated in the investigation, adding valuable details. Other published references are…
  • p. 50 …The FAA often has cooperated with NICAP, in some cases furnishing logs, teletype reports, and other…
  • p. 59 …AGRICULTURE AND MECHANIC ARTS ADJACENT TO AND COOPERATING WITH WHITE SANDS PROVING GROUND 10 September 1957…
  • p. 99 …unusual object in the sky; (2) Full cooperation between the witness and NICAP analysts uniquely fitted…
  • p. 101 …Johnson about analyzing the picture and received full cooperation. She had taken five exposures of ships…
  • p. 110 …is to silence even commercial airline pilots cooperating with the intelligence network, once they have made…
  • p. 123 …luminous phenomenon." In addition to receiving good cooperation from the Embassy, NICAP is indebted to Mr…
  • p. 174 …We also invite the support and encouragement of individual Members of Congress, and will cooperate fully…
  • p. 177 …It is a pleasure to cooperate in the matter. I have expressed my deep personal interest…
  • p. 182 …and made available to any interested scientists). Cooperation of existing astronomical societies, and such instrument programs…

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

# Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0

divergent interpretations of some of the cases in this report, we suggest two books which present the skeptical position:

Flying Saucers and the U.S. Air Force, Lt. Col. Lawrence J. Tacker, (Van Nostrand, 1960).

The World of Flying Saucers, Dr. Donald H. Menzel, (Doubleday, 1963).

Both books argue that UFOs have been adequately investigated, and that there is no evidence indicating they are anything other than misidentified conventional objects or phenomena.

This report contains a total of 746 UFO sightings. The main chronology [Section XI] lists 575 cases, with cross-references. (Statistics based on the main chronology are reported in Section XII) The witnesses in $50\%$ of these cases were trained or experienced observers. An additional 171 cases are included in separate chronologies [Section XII] which show the major concentrations of UFO sightings.

The reports come from 46 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Central America, 6 South American countries, 10 European countries, 4 African countries, 5

Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand, major oceans and numerous islands.

States with the highest frequency of sightings, as indicated by the selective process used, were: (1) California; (2) Ohio; (3) New Mexico; (4) Florida; (5) Illinois.

Other countries: (1) England; (2) France; (3) Canada; (4) Japan; (5) Brazil.

Of the 575 cases, two UFOs were observed in 41 cases, three UFOs in 30 cases, more than three UFOs in 81 cases. The remainder were observations of single objects.

Richard Hall

Washington, D. C.

May 1964

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. 186 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.