State Department Memorandum 711.5612: "Increased Reports of Unidentified Flying Objects," July 28, 1952

Source file: 59_64634_711.5612 (RG 59, decimal file 711.5612) Originating agency: U.S. Department of State Classification: SECRET (declassified, approved for release 2026) Date: July 28, 1952 Page count: 2 PURSUE Release: 1

Summary

This is a two-page Department of State memorandum, filed in the State Department's central decimal files under 711.5612 and dated July 28, 1952. According to the official record, the memorandum "relates to increased reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs)." It sets out a set of possible explanations for the rise in sightings — among them technological improvements, the historical record of earlier UFO reports, and the opinions of the U.S. Air Force on the subject.

The document carries handwritten annotations and was originally marked Secret.

Research Article

Context: late July 1952

The memorandum's date places it precisely within the most intense period of UFO reporting in American history. Through the summer of 1952 the United States experienced a nationwide surge in sightings, and on the weekends of July 19–20 and July 26–27, 1952 — the days immediately before this memorandum was written — unidentified targets were tracked on radar and reported visually over Washington, D.C., including near Washington National Airport. The episode generated front-page coverage and a large Air Force press conference.

This State Department record is dated July 28, 1952, the Monday following the second Washington weekend. The official description does not state that the memorandum addresses the Washington sightings specifically; it characterizes the document as concerning the broader, nationwide increase in reports.

What the official record describes

Per the released catalogue description, the memorandum collects "possible explanations of increased sightings." Three categories are named in the official record:

• Technological improvements — the idea that advances in aircraft and other technology could account for some portion of the increase in reports.
• Historical records of UFOs — reference to the longer history of unidentified-object sightings, situating the 1952 surge against earlier waves.
• U.S. Air Force opinions on UFOs — the assessments then held by the Air Force, which was the lead agency for UFO investigation in 1952 through Project Blue Book.

That the State Department — a diplomatic, not a defense or intelligence, agency — was compiling explanations for the UFO wave is itself notable. It indicates that the phenomenon had become a matter of interest beyond the Air Force investigation, reaching into the foreign-affairs bureaucracy during the weeks when UFOs were a leading national news story.

Note on this entry

This archive entry is built from the official war.gov PURSUE catalogue description of the document. The two-page memorandum itself is part of PURSUE Release 1 (May 8, 2026); this article reproduces the official description verbatim and frames it with the documented historical context of late July 1952. No content beyond the official record and established public history is asserted here.