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This two-page State Department memo from 28 July 1952 was written at the height of that summer’s wave of sightings, including radar and visual reports over Washington, D.C. Paul Nitze, head of State’s policy planning, had asked what the Air Force made of the flying saucers, and an official put the question to Major General John Samford, the Air Force’s director of intelligence, at a meeting of the Intelligence Advisory Committee.

What Samford said

According to the memo, Samford said very little could be said to clear the matter up: it was “still a complete enigma.” But he made several points. Things matching the general description of flying saucers had been reported for more than a century. The recent rise in reports was probably due mainly to much better methods of observation and reporting, including radar and pilots’ reporting systems, and partly to publicity giving the subject the air of a fad.

He also said that “credible observers are reporting the incredible.” Radar sightings might include “electronic fluke,” but were tied closely enough to pilots’ observations that they could not all be dismissed that way. The Air Force saw the saucers as a threat only because they were not understood, and would give them serious attention until they were.

What he did not say

The memo writer notes that Samford said nothing about whether the objects were man-made, friendly or hostile, but that the drift of his remarks was that this possibility was remote. Samford held a well-known press conference on the Washington sightings the following day. Background on the period is on our timeline.