Transmission of CIA Scientific Advisory Panel Rept 1953

This seven-page file is the Defense Department’s own copy of the conclusions of the CIA’s scientific panel on UFOs, often called the Robertson Panel after its chairman. It contains a Secretary of Defense routing slip, a covering letter dated 13 March 1953 from Richard D. Drain, secretary of the Intelligence Advisory Committee, and the panel’s two-page report dated January 17, 1953. A stamp shows it reached the Secretary’s office on March 17.

The covering letter and routing slip

Drain writes that the Director of Central Intelligence wanted the Secretary to have the report, from a panel convened at General Smith’s direction on the committee’s recommendation. He says its conclusions point to “certain potential dangers to national security” and adds that the CIA does not consider “flying saucers” primarily its concern. Copies also went to the Chairman of the National Security Resources Board and, by a handwritten correction, the Federal Civil Defense administrator. A note on the routing slip reads “This report appears to warrant action.”

What the panel concluded

Signed by H. P. Robertson, Luis W. Alvarez, Lloyd V. Berkner, S. A. Goudsmit and Thornton Page, the report found no sign of a direct physical threat, no cases pointing to hostile foreign craft and no need to revise science. Its worry was the reports themselves: clogged channels, false alarms and a public mood hostile propaganda could exploit. It recommended stripping UFOs of their “aura of mystery” through training and public education. The panel also examined film analysis such as DOW-UAP-D098.