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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.
UFOs BLUEBOOKinvestigators claims thatGermanengineers held by theSoviets weredeveloping a flying saucer as afutureweapon ofwar.40 To most USpolitical andmilitary leaders, theSovietUnion by the mid 1950s hadbecome adangerousoppo nent. Sovietprogress innuclear weapons andguidedmissiles was par ticularlyalarming. In thesummer of 1949, theUSSR haddetonated an atomicbomb. InAugust 1953, only ninemonths after theUnitedStates tested ahydrogenbomb, theSoviets detonated one. In thespring of 1953, a topsecretRANDCorpora tionstudy alsopointed out the vulnerability ofSAC bases to a sur priseattack bySovietlong-range bombers. Concern over thedanger of aSovietattack on theUnited Statescontinued togrow, and UFO sightingsadded to theuneasiness of USpolicymakers. Mountingreports ofUFOs over east ernEurope andAfghanistan also promptedconcern that theSoviets weremakingrapidprogress in this area. CIAofficialsknew that the British andCanadians werealready experimentingwith flyingsaucers. Project Y was aCanadian-British-US developmentaloperation toproduce anonconventionalflying-saucer-type aircraft, andAgencyofficialsfeared theSoviets weretestingsimilar devices.41 Adding to theconcern was aflying saucersighting by USSenator RichardRussell and his partywhile traveling on a train in theUSSR in October 1955. Afterextensiveinter views ofRussell and hisgroup, however, CIAofficialsconcluded thatRussell ssighting did not sup port thetheory that theSoviets had developedsaucerlike orunconven tionalaircraft. HerbertScoville, Jr., wereable toattributemany UFOsightings to U-2 flights. theAssistantDirector ofOSI,wrote that theobjectsobservedprobably werenormal jetaircraft in asteep climb.42 Wilton E.Lexow, head of theCIA s AppliedSciencesDivision, was also skeptical. Hequestioned why the Sovietswerecontinuing todevelop conventional-typeaircraft ifthey had a flyingsaucer. 43 Scovilleasked Lexow toassumeresponsibility for fullyassessing thecapabilities and limitations ofnonconventional air craft and tomaintain the OSIcentral file on thesubject ofUFOs. CIA s U-2 andOXCART asUFOs InNovember 1954, CIA hadentered into theworld ofhightechnology with its U-2overheadreconnaissance project. Working withLockheed s AdvancedDevelopmentfacility in Burbank,California,known as the SkunkWorks, andKellyJohnson, an eminentaeronauticalengineer, the Agency byAugust 1955 wastesting a high-altitudeexperimentalaircraft the U-2. Itcould fly at60,000 feet; in themid-1950s, mostcommercial airliners flewbetween10,000 feet and20,000 feet.Consequently, once the U-2started testflights, com mercialpilots and airtraffic controllersbeganreporting a large increase in UFOsightings.44 (U) The earlyU-2s weresilver (theywere laterpaintedblack) andreflected the rays from the sun,especially at sun- rise andsunset. Theyoftenappeared as fieryobjects toobserversbelow. AirForceBLUEBOOKinvestiga torsaware of thesecret U-2flights tried toexplain away suchsightings bylinking them tonaturalphenom ena such as icecrystals and temperatureinversions. Bychecking with theAgency s U-2Project Staff inWashington,BLUEBOOKinves tigatorswere able toattributemany UFOsightings to U-2flights. They werecareful,however, not to reveal the true cause of thesighting to the public. According to laterestimates from CIAofficials whoworked on the U- 2project and theOXCART(SR-71, orBlackbird)project, over half of all UFOreports from the late 1950s through the I960s wereaccounted for bymannedreconnaissanceflights (namely the U-2) over theUnited States.45 This led the Air Force to makemisleading anddeceptive state ments to thepublic in order to allay public fears and toprotect anextraor dinarilysensitivenationalsecurity project. Whileperhapsjustified, this deceptionadded fuel to the later con spiracytheories and thecoverup controversy of the 1970s. The per centage ofwhat the AirForce consideredunexplainedUFO sight ings fell to 5.9percent in 1955 and to 4percent in1956.46 At the same time,pressure wasbuild ing for therelease of theRobertson panelreport onUFOs. In 1956, EdwardRuppelt,former head of the AirForceBLUEBOOKproject, publiclyrevealed theexistence of the panel. Abest-sellingbook byUFOI ogistDonaldKeyhoe, aretired MarineCorpsmajor,advocated release of allgovernmentinforma tionrelating toUFOs. Civilian UFOgroups such as theNational 73
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