Correspondence regarding declassification of the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects report

This correspondence, dated November 1957, is from the Central Intelligence Agency to Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner regarding the declassification of a report produced by the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects. The Panel, which included Dr. H. P. Robertson as Chairman, Samuel Goudsmit, Luis W. Alvarez, Thornton Page, and Dr. Berkner, was constituted in January 1953. The Air Force had recently requested that the conclusions and recommendations of the Panel's report (referred to as Tab A) be declassified for public release in the press. The author, Philip G. Strong, Deputy Assistant Director of the CIA, notes that he consulted with Dr. Robertson and Dr. Goudsmit regarding this request. They agreed that the conclusions in paragraph 2 and the recommendation in paragraph 4a could be declassified. However, they opposed the declassification of the conclusion in paragraph 3 and the recommendation in paragraph 4b. Furthermore, the CIA expressed a strong desire to conceal the Agency's association with the Panel. Strong proposed that paragraph 1 of the report be rewritten to eliminate any mention of the CIA's connection, while allowing the final six lines of paragraph 4 to remain as written. The letter also addresses concerns regarding the potential disclosure of the names of the Panel members. While the Air Force indicated that these names would only be used within official circles and not provided to the press, the CIA expressed skepticism, noting that such information often filters out and could eventually become common knowledge. The document concludes with a request for Dr. Berkner's reaction to the proposed declassification strategy and his opinion on whether to withhold the Agency's connection to the Panel.