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This 1997 study by Gerald K. Haines, National Reconnaissance Office historian, traces CIA interest in UFOs from the late 1940s to 1990 using Agency records compiled after DCI R. James Woolsey ordered a 1993 file review. It covers Air Force projects SIGN, GRUDGE and BLUE BOOK, the 1953 Robertson panel, U-2 and OXCART flights mistaken for UFOs, and disputes with Keyhoe and Davidson. It concludes that Agency concern was substantial until the early 1950s and limited and peripheral since.
ADie-HardIssue GINs Role in theStudy ofUFOs,1947-90 Gerald K.Haines WhileAgencyconcernover UFOswassubstantialuntil theearly1950s, CIA has sincepaidonlylimited and peripheralattention to the phenomena. 9 Anextraordinary 95percent of all Americans have at leastheard or read somethingaboutUnidentifiedFlying Objects(UFOs), and 57percent believe they are real. Former US PresidentsCarter andReagan claim to have seen aUFO.UFOlogists a neologism forUFObuffs and pri vateUFOorganizations arefound throughout theUnitedStates. Many areconvinced that the USGovern ment, andparticularlyCIA, are engaged in amassiveconspiracy and coverup of the issue. The idea that CIA hassecretlyconcealed its research intoUFOs has been amajor theme ofUFO buffs since themod ern UFOphenomenaemerged in the late1940s.2 In late 1993, afterbeingpressured by UFOlogists for therelease ofaddi tional CIAinformation onUFOs,3 DCI R.JamesWoolseyordered anotherreview of allAgency files on UFOs. Using CIArecordscompiled from thatreview, thisstudytraces CIAinterest andinvolvement in the UFOcontroversyfrom the late 1940s to 1990. Itchronologicallyexamines theAgency sefforts to solve the mys tery ofUFOs, itsprograms that had animpact onUFOsightings, and its attempts toconceal CIAinvolvement in theentireUFO issue. What emerges from thisexamination is that, whileAgencyconcern overUFOs was substantial until the early1950s, CIA has since paid onlylimited andperiph eralattention to thephenomena. Background Theemergence in 1947 of the Cold Warconfrontationbetween the UnitedStates and theSovietUnion also saw the firstwave ofUFOsight ings. The firstreport of a flying saucer over theUnitedStatescame on 24June 1947,whenKenneth Arnold, aprivate pilot andreputable businessman,whilelooking for a downedplanesighted nine disk- shapedobjects near Mt.Rainier, Washington,traveling at anestimated speed ofover 1,000 mph. Arnold s report wasfollowed by aflood ofaddi tionalsightings,includingreports frommilitary andcivilianpilots and airtrafficcontrollers all over the UnitedStates.4 In 1948, AirForce Gen.NathanTwining, head of the AirTechnicalServiceCommand, establishedProjectSIGN(initially namedProjectSAUCER) tocollect, collate,evaluate, anddistributewithin thegovernment allinformation relat ing to suchsightings, on thepremise thatUFOsmight be real and of nationalsecurityconcern.5 TheTechnicalIntelligenceDivision of the AirMaterialCommand (AMC) atWrightField (later Wright-Patterson AirForce Base) in Dayton, Ohio,assumedcontrol of ProjectSIGN andbegan itswork on 23January 1948.Although at first fearful that theobjectsmight be Sovietsecretweapons, the AirForce soonconcluded thatUFOs were real buteasilyexplained and notextraor dinary. The AirForcereportfound thatalmost allsightingsstemmed from one or more ofthreecauses: masshysteria andhallucination, hoax, ormisinterpretation ofknown objects.Nevertheless, thereport rec ommendedcontinuedmilitary intelligencecontrol over theinvesti gation of allsightings and did not Gerald K.Haines is theNational ReconnaissanceOfficehistorian. 67
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