Documents / Official release
This Clinton Library FOIA release (case 2006-0476-F) comes from the White House email records file labeled "WHO (Roswell)" and covers December 1996 to September 1997. It includes withdrawal sheets and public emails sent to the President. One email is Nicholas Greene's December 1996 essay arguing that extraterrestrials exist, which cites Roswell, astronaut sightings and Michigan reports. Other emails forward a transcript of a Milton William Cooper speech and a Claude DiDomenica essay about Roswell and Corso.
. ARMS Email System night. PRESIDENT CIeINTON: (From videotape.) NO, as far as I know, an alien. spaceship did not crash in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. MR. DONALDSON: This week, the Pentagon tried to put the whole issue to rest, saying reports of alien bodies in the desert were actually Air Force dummies used to test parachutes. MANX: The reports of military units that always seem to arrive shortly after a crash were actually acc4rate. Descriptions of Air Force personnel engaged in the dummy recovery operations. MR. DONALDSON: But that explanation hasn't ended the controversy. MANX: They must .think we're the dummies to believe a story like that. It's probably the most preposterous of all the cover stories. MR. DONALDSON: And the town of Roswell has turned its notoriety into a $5 million cottage industry. The town boasts two UFO museums, including this recreation of a supposed al autopsy. And this weekend, tens of thousands of people are streaming into town to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the incident at Roswell. With us now is Mr. Jim McAndrew, who as an Air Force reservist, your rank as a captain, recently researched and wrote that report that Colonel Haynes relied on. Welcome. Nice to see you. MR. MCANDREW: Thank you. MR. DONALDSON: Mr. McAndrew, you say it was a weather balloon, but the first Air Force officer on the scene, who must have had some expe"rience with things like weather balloons, said, "Hey, this is a UFO. This is a flying disk. ' , MR. MCANDREW: Well, the other Air Force officer on the scene, who's still alive, said it wasn't. MR. DONALDSON: Well, 'we had a difference of opinion right there. Tell us what your theory is. What was it? MR. MCANDREW: I thirik we've had a series of 'events brought together over the years, . and now we have the large myth which has developed from it. MR. DONALDSON: It was a weather balloon. What about the MR. MCANDREW: Actually, it was never a. weather 'balloon. It was a high-altitude research balloon. It was actually the very first one'ever flown in New Mexico: Since then, there's been about 2,000. And actually, ,the targeted high-altitude research balloon area is the area around Roswell, New Mexico. MR. DONALDSON: Well, you've supplied us with sort of a recreation, a video of the way you think it went'. Let's take a look at that right now. This is what, then, your theory amounts to. There's the balloon, and all right, what's that dropping'from the balloon? MR. MCANDREW: That's an anthropomorphic craSh, test dummy that were used by the.Air Force from 1953 to '1959 in New Mexico. And what I want to it back to is that when you go to the witnesses' original statements who claim they saw these things, they say they saw dummies. They never said they saw aliens. / MR. DONALDSON: George. MR. WILL: But they say they saw dummies in 1947, correct? MR. MCANDREW: No, sir. MR. WILL: No, they don't? MR. MCANDREW: No. These'stories didn't start coming really until about, oh, really, 1989, after "Unsolved Mysteries" had a 1-800 number. . MR. WILL: Now, am I correct that all of this started because Mr. and Mrs. Don Wilmott (ph) were sitting 9n their porch at 105 South Pennsylvania Avenue in Roswell 50 years ago? If they hadn't seen what they said was a disk in the sky, would none of this have happened? MR. MCANDREW: Well, that's not totally accurate. That's one theory. MR. WILL: Tell me what you think is accurate. MR. MCANDREW: The Air Force was testing, using their high-altitude balloons. They just testing ·them in New Mexico in 1947 after having gotten into a lot' of trouble in New York City and in the New Jersey area. And they moved to a desolate area to do that. And the very first research balloon landed north of Roswell. A rancher found it, didn't know what it was, and the myth has evolved from there. MR. WILL: Now, is it your contention -- I mean, the Air Force was put in an awkward position of proving a negative, proving that something didn't happen. ' And so far, I'd say you haven't done it. We have lot of people who have a passion to believe Page 7 of 15 ARMS Email System Page 7 of 15
Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 50 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.