Joseph Bryan III, the FBI and CIA

This document is a blog post from The UFO Trail, dated November 1, 2019, authored by Jack Brewer. It investigates the background of Joseph Bryan III, a figure who served on the Board of Governors for the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) between 1957 and 1971. The author highlights that Bryan was a psychological warfare specialist with extensive ties to the CIA and the intelligence community, a fact that was not publicly known during his tenure at NICAP. The document details the author's attempts to obtain FBI files on Bryan through FOIA requests. These efforts led to the discovery of two primary files, 100-HQ-93216 and 62-HQ-116607. The author notes that the FBI claimed much of the material was destroyed or not processed, and that the files were heavily redacted. The post discusses the broader context of Cold War intelligence operations, including MKULTRA, COINTELPRO, and the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC). It specifically mentions the involvement of other intelligence figures like Lewis 'Pinky' Thompson and former CIA Director Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, who also served on the NICAP board. The author argues that the presence of such individuals in a civilian UFO research group raises significant questions about the nature of early UFO research and whether it was influenced by intelligence agencies for propaganda or psychological warfare purposes. The document includes commentary on the difficulty of obtaining declassified records and the importance of thorough source criticism in historical research. It also features comments from readers discussing the potential for UFO organizations to be used as psyops tools and the broader implications of intelligence community involvement in public discourse.