DOW-UAP-D085: Transmission of the CIA Robertson Panel Report to the Secretary of Defense, 1953

Source file: DOW-UAP-D085_Transmission-of-CIA-Scientific-Advisory-Panel-Rept_1953.pdf Originating agency: Central Intelligence Agency / Department of War (routing) Transmitted by: Richard D. Drain, Secretary, Intelligence Advisory Committee Addressed to: The Honorable The Secretary of Defense Classification: SECRET (Approved for Release, Authority NND 823015, MARS Date 4/15/85) Date of transmission: 13 March 1953 Panel report date: 17 January 1953 Page count: 7 PURSUE Release: 3

Summary

This file consists of three components: a Secretary of Defense routing slip (dated 13 March 1953, stamped received 17 March 1953), a CIA cover letter from Richard D. Drain, Secretary of the Intelligence Advisory Committee, and the full text of the "Report of the Scientific Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects," signed January 17, 1953. The panel was convened at the direction of DCI General Walter Bedell Smith, following a recommendation of the Intelligence Advisory Committee.

The panel was composed of five distinguished scientists: H. P. Robertson (Chairman, California Institute of Technology), Luis W. Alvarez (University of California), Lloyd V. Berkner (Associated Universities, Inc.), S. A. Goudsmit (Brookhaven National Laboratories), and Thornton Page (Johns Hopkins University). The panel received evidence from intelligence agencies, primarily the Air Technical Intelligence Center, and reviewed a selection of the "best documented incidents."

Research Article

The CIA Cover Letter and Its Purpose

The transmittal letter, signed by Richard D. Drain on behalf of the Intelligence Advisory Committee, states: "The Director of Central Intelligence has asked that you be furnished a copy of the attached report prepared by a panel of scientists on the subject of 'Unidentified Flying Objects.' This panel was convened at the direction of General Smith, following the recommendation of the Intelligence Advisory Committee."

Drain's letter emphasizes that "the conclusions and recommendations may be of interest to you, in that they point out certain potential dangers to national security which are related to the subject and suggest ways of their elimination." The CIA is candid that it does not consider flying saucer problems primarily its concern, while offering to assist with any appropriate action.

The routing slip records distribution to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense (ISA), and one "Mr. Dayo" — with a handwritten notation that "this report appears to warrant action" and that copies of the letter and panel report should be sent to the Air Force by memo.

The Panel's Conclusions

The Robertson Panel report, dated January 17, 1953, opens with a statement of purpose: the panel was assembled "to evaluate any possible threat to national security posed by Unidentified Flying Objects ('Flying Saucers'), and to make recommendations thereon." The panel reviewed evidence as presented by the Air Technical Intelligence Center.

The panel reached two principal conclusions:

First, on the direct threat: "That the evidence presented on Unidentified Flying Objects shows no indication that these phenomena constitute a direct physical threat to national security. We firmly believe that there is no residuum of cases which indicates phenomena which are attributable to foreign artifacts capable of hostile acts, and that there is no evidence that the phenomena indicate a need for the revision of current scientific concepts."

Second, on the indirect threat: "That the continued emphasis on the reporting of these phenomena does, in these parlous times, result in a threat to the orderly functioning of the protective organs of the body politic." The panel cited "the clogging of channels of communication by irrelevant reports, the danger of being led by continued false alarms to ignore real indications of hostile action, and the cultivation of a morbid national psychology in which skillful hostile propaganda could induce hysterical behavior and harmful distrust of duly constituted authority."

The Recommendations

The panel's remedial program was direct. It recommended:

"a. That the national security agencies take immediate steps to strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status they have been given and the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired;

b. That the national security agencies institute policies on intelligence, training, and public education designed to prepare the material defenses and the morale of the country to recognize most promptly and to react most effectively to true indications of hostile intent or action."

The panel further suggested that these aims could be achieved by "an integrated program designed to reassure the public of the total lack of evidence of inimical forces behind the phenomena, to train personnel to recognize and reject false indications quickly and effectively, and to strengthen regular channels for the evaluation of and prompt reaction to true indications of hostile measures."

Significance

The Robertson Panel report is one of the most consequential official documents in the history of U.S. government UAP policy. Its recommendations — to actively demystify UFOs through public education and to train observers to dismiss anomalous reports quickly — shaped Air Force policy for the following two decades and have been cited as the origin of an institutional skeptical posture that persisted through Project Blue Book's closure in 1969. The document's transmission to the Secretary of Defense via CIA channels illustrates how seriously the national security establishment treated the indirect, psychological-operations dimension of the UFO phenomenon, even as it dismissed the direct physical-threat hypothesis. The inclusion of this document in PURSUE Release 3 makes the full panel text and its chain of distribution officially part of the declassified UAP record.

Panel Members

Notable Quotes

"The evidence presented on Unidentified Flying Objects shows no indication that these phenomena constitute a direct physical threat to national security." — Robertson Panel Report, 17 Jan 1953

"The continued emphasis on the reporting of these phenomena does, in these parlous times, result in a threat to the orderly functioning of the protective organs of the body politic." — Robertson Panel Report

"That the national security agencies take immediate steps to strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status they have been given and the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired." — Robertson Panel recommendation

"This report appears to warrant action." — Handwritten notation, Secretary of Defense routing slip, 13 Mar 1953