Documents / Official release
This file from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library holds press releases and statements that House Republican Leader Gerald R. Ford issued between January and April 1966. Most cover Vietnam policy, the war on poverty, inflation, foreign aid, the federal budget and changes in his press staff. An April 21, 1966 statement says the Air Force told Ford it would contract a university with no close Air Force ties to have scientists study unexplained UFO sightings and make the report public. According to Ford, his call for congressional hearings led to this study.
• Rep. George P. Miller, Chairman Rep. L. Mendel Rivers, Chairman Page Two March 28, 1966 Ronald Colier of Los Angeles, who identifies himself as "a scientist from M.I.T.," urges that you "do everything in your power to make Air Force Project Blue Book (the AF name for its study and verdicts on UFO reports) known to the people." Are we to assume that everyone who says he has seen UFO's is an unreliable witness? A UPI story out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, dated March 21, 1966, states that "at least 40 persons, including 12 policemen, said today that they saw a strange flying object guarded by four sister ships land in a swamp near here Sunday night." Matt Surrell of Station WJR, Detroit, cites an eye witness account of a recent UFO sighting by Emile Grenier of Ann Arbor, an aeronautical engineer emplnyed by Ford Motor Company. He points out that an aeronautical engineer can hardly be considered an untrustworthy witness. In the firm belief that the American public deserves a better explanation than that thus far given by the Air rarce, I strongly recommend that there be a committee investigation of the UFO phenomena. I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFO's and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment on this subject. Kindest personal regards. Sincerely, /sf Gerald R. Ford, M.C. GRF:plr Enclosures ......
Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 55 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.