- Robertson Panel
The Robertson Panel was a committee commissioned by the
Central Intelligence Agency in1952 in response to widespreadUnidentified Flying Object reports, especially in theWashington DC area. The panel was briefed on U.S. military activities and intelligence; hence the report was originally classified Secret.Later declassified, the Robertson Panel's report concluded that UFOs were not a direct threat to national security, but could pose an indirect threat by overwhelming standard military communications due to public interest in the subject. Most UFO reports, they concluded, could be explained as misidentification of mundane aerial objects, and the remaining minority could, in all likelihood, be similarly explained with further study.
The Robertson Panel concluded that a
public relations campaign should be undertaken in order to "debunk " UFOs, and reduce public interest in the subject, and that civilian UFO groups should be monitored. There is evidence this was carried out more than two decades after the Panel's conclusion; see "publicity and responses" below.Critics [see Clark 1998; Blum 1990] (including a few panel members ) would later lament the Robertson Panel's role in making UFOs a somewhat disreputable field of study.
History
In 1952, there was a wave of UFO reports in the United States, especially centered around Washington DC. In response, so many civilians contacted various government agencies regarding UFO reports that daily governmental duties were impacted; the
New York Times reported onAugust 1 ,1952 , "regular intelligence work has been affected." Various newspapers, such as theBaltimore Sun ,Washington Star ,Denver Post , andLos Angeles Times , reported on July 31 that Air Force Chief of StaffHoyt S. Vandenberg thought the recent spate of UFO sightings and reports had generated "mass hysteria ". [http://roswellproof.homestead.com/Vandenberg_July30_1952.html] There was a general concern among the military that the hysteria and confusion generated by UFO reports could be utilized by the United States' enemies, primarily theSoviet Union .Recent documents indicate that the CIA became involved at the request of the
National Security Council after President Truman personally expressed concern over UFOs at a July 28, 1952, NSC meeting. [Hall & Connors, 209 ] The CIA's study was largely conducted by the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI). The CIA thought the question so pressing that they authorized anad hoc committee in late 1952.The Robertson Panel first met formally on
January 14 ,1953 under the direction ofHoward Percy Robertson . He was a physicist, a CIA employee and director of theDefense Department Weapons Evaluation Group. He was instructed by OSI to assemble a group of prominent scientists to review the Air Force's UFO files.In preparation for this, Robertson first personally reviewed Air Force files and procedures. The Air Force had recently commissioned the
Battelle Memorial Institute to scientifically study all of the UFO reports collected byProject Sign ,Project Grudge andProject Blue Book . Robertson hoped to draw on their statistical results, but Battelle insisted they needed much more time to conduct a proper study. (for more, see below).Other panel members were respected scientists and military personnel who had worked on other classified military projects or studies. All were then
skeptic al of UFO reports, though to varying degrees. They were:*
Luis Alvarez , physicist, radar expert (and later, aNobel Prize winner);
*Frederick C. Durant ,missile expert;
*Samuel A. Goudsmit ,Brookhaven National Laboratories nuclear physicist
*Thornton Page , astrophysicist, radar expert, deputy director of Johns Hopkins Operations Research Office;
*Lloyd Berkner , physicist, andJ. Allen Hynek , astronomer, were associate panel members.Most of what is known about the actual proceedings of the meeting comes from sketchy minutes of the meeting kept by Durant, later submitted as a memo to the NSC. It is the only declassified document to date that details the panel's discussions. In addition, various participants would later comment on what transpired from their perspective. Ed Ruppelt, then head of
Project Blue Book , first revealed the existence of the secret panel in his 1956 insider book, but without revealing names of panel members.Formal meetings
The Panel had four consecutive days of formal meetings; in total, they met for only 12 hours. Only 23 cases out of 2331 Air Force UFO cases of record (or about 1%) were reviewed. Although Ruppelt wrote that the Panel studied their best cases, Hynek would opine that the panel in fact seemed to have neither the time nor desire to study the more puzzling ones. For example, the radar experts on the panel ( Alvarez and Page) seemed to show little interest in reports of radar UFO cases, which they dismissed as "anxiety over fast radar tracks" by the
Air Defense Command . [ Hall & Connors, 210-212 ]Of the Panel members, Ruppelt would write in his private papers that Goudsmit was exceptionally hostile to the subject: "Goudsmit was probably the most violent anti-saucer man at the panel meeting. Everything was a big joke to him which brought down the wrath of the other panel members on numerous occasions." Goudsmit even stated later that reporters of UFOs were as dangerous to society as drug addicts.
Alvarez was also extremely skeptical but more professional in his conduct. Page at the time was likewise hostile, later recalling that he made a statement during the meeting that UFOs were "nonsense", bringing about a reprimand from Robertson, despite their good friendship. Ruppelt, however, felt Page was more open-minded, and although obviously not knowing much about UFOs, tended to line up with Hynek against Alvarez and Goudsmit in their adamancy that UFOs couldn't exist.
In contrast, Robertson, Berkner, and Durant seemed to have a personal interest in the subject. It was noted, for example, in a CIA memo that although Berkner wasn't keen to participate, he "felt strongly that the saucer problem should be thoroughly investigated from a scientific point of view." [ Hall & Connors, 210-211 ] Another CIA memo following the panel indicates that Durant, despite the panel's negative conclusions, thought that materials on flying saucers should continue to be maintained by a major division of OSI, such as Physics and Electronics. [ Hall & Connors, 224 ]
The first day, the panel viewed two amateur
motion picture s of UFOs: theMariana UFO Incident footage and1952 Utah UFO Film (the latter was taken by Navy Chief Petty Officer Delbert C. Newhouse, who had extensive experience with aerial photography). Two Navy photograph and film analysts (Lieutenants R.S. Neasham and Harry Woo) then reported their conclusions: based on more than 1000man hour s of detailed analysis, the two films depicted objects that were not any known aircraft, creature orweather phenomena. Air Force CaptainEdward J. Ruppelt then began a summary of Air Force efforts regarding UFO studies.The second day, Ruppelt finished his presentation. Hynek then discussed the Battelle study, and the panel discussed with Air Force personnel the problems inherent in monitoring UFO sightings.
The third day, Air Force Major
Dewey J. Fournet spoke to the panel; for over a year he had coordinated UFO affairs forThe Pentagon . Fournett supported theextraterrestrial hypothesis as the best explanation for some puzzling UFO reports. For the remainder of the third day, the panel discussed their conclusions, and Robertson agreed to draft a preliminary report.The fourth and final day, the panel rewrote and finalized their report.
Conclusions and the Robertson Panel Report
The Robertson Panel's official report concluded that 90 percent of UFO sightings could be readily identified with meteorological, astronomical, or natural phenomena, and that the remaining 10 percent of UFO reports could, in all likelihood, be similarly explained with detailed study. It was suggested that witnesses had misidentified bright
star s andplanet s,meteor s, auroras,mirage s, atmospheric temperature inversions, andlenticular cloud s; other sightings were judged as likely misinterpretation of conventionalaircraft ,weather balloon s,bird s, searchlights, kites, and other phenomena.None of the Panel's members was formally trained in motion picture or photographic analysis, and only one had any experience with photography (astronomic still photography and not motion picture film [see Clark, 2005] )Nonetheless, after screening the films only a few times, they dismissed the idea that either the
1950 Montana UFO Film or the1952 Utah UFO Film showed "genuine" UFOs. The Panel's members instead argued that the "UFOs" in the Montana film were actually the reflections of two jet fighters alleged to be in the area at the time and that those in the Utah film were actually seagulls flying near theGreat Salt Lake . However, the Panel's conclusions contradicted U.S. Air Force photo analysists who had earlier specifically ruled out birds as an explanation for the Utah film and had thought that jets were a highly unlikely, but remotely plausible, explanation for the Montana film (Clark, 1998). The Panel's conclusions also seemingly ignored eyewitness testimony in both film cases that the objects, while closer to the camera operators, were clearly-defined metallic flying saucers, not the rather indistinct lights seen on the films.Furthermore, the Panel suggested the Air Force should begin a "
debunk ing" effort to reduce "public gullibility" and demystify UFO reports, partly via apublic relations campaign, usingpsychiatrist s,astronomer s and assorted celebrities to significantly reduce public interest in UFOs. It was also recommended that the mass media be used for the debunking, including influential media giants like theWalt Disney Corporation . The primary reasoning for this recommendation lay in the belief that the Soviets might try to "mask" an actual invasion of the USA by causing a wave of false "UFO" reports to swamp the Pentagon and other military agencies, thus temporarily blinding the US government to the impending Communist invasion.Their formal recommendation stated "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." [ [http://www.cufon.org/cufon/robert.htm REPORT OF SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY PANEL ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS CONVENED BY OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE, CIA January 14 - 18, 1953 ] ]
Also recommended was government monitoring of civilian groups studying or researching UFOs "because of their potentially great influence on mass thinking... the apparent irresponsibility and possible use of such groups for
subversive purposes should be kept in mind." Two UFO groups in particular were singled out:APRO andCivilian Saucer Investigations (CSI).The recommendations of the Robertson Panel were implemented by a series of special military regulations. Joint-Army-Navy-Air Force Publication 147 (
JANAP 146 ) of December 1953 made reprinting of any UFO sighting to the public a crime under the Espionage Act, with fines of up to ten thousand dollars and imprisonment ranging from one to ten years. This act was considered binding on all who knew of the act's existence, including commercial airline pilots. A 1954 revision of Air Force Regulation 200-2 (AFR 200-2 ) made all sighting reports submitted to the air force classified material and prohibited the release of any information about UFO sightings "unless" the sighting was able to be positively identified. In February 1958 a revision ofAFR 200-2 allowed the military to give the FBI the names of people who were "illegally or deceptively bringing the subject [of UFOs] to public attention". Because of the Robertson Panel the Air Force'sProject Blue Book 's procedures of investigating UFOs also changed, attempting to find a quick explanation and then file them away.Project Blue Book was a successor ofProject Grudge .
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