FLYING SAUCERS AGAIN: DO YOU BELIEVE IN THEM?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010009-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 12, 2001
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: August 7, 1966
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

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 o,Yo~ Believe in Them?
Sri
By CHARLES COOKS Writer's Qualifications
In World War II, I was an intel
The Unbelievers implacably t
?ligence officer serving first in
don't believe-and the Believers =
England and then on the Continent=
implacably do believe-in the
with a bombardment group of the,
existence, or "reality," of certain
.old B-26s, or "Martin Marauders":
movable bodies-namely "1
`famous Discharged in 1946, I returned in I
'the alluringly mysterious Unidenti-
?1948 to active duty at the Pentagon
fied Flying Objects, or UFOs,
as the founder and first editor of
.
popularly called Flying Saucersthe "Air Intelligence Digest," the i
These things (if you are a Believ-
official intelligence publication of
er) or non-things (if you are an
the world-wide Air Force. Later, in., i Tokyo, I became editor of the Far,
' Unbeliever) have in recent years
reported in such waves,
been East Air Force's parallel publica-,
tion, the "FEAF Intelligence
' indeed blizzards, world-wide, that d
the Air Force's Project Blue r
Roundup."
The contents of these publics-
? Book, charged with the responsibil- 'i
, evaluating, and
ity of recording.tions were classified, but their
names were not. Not immodestly,,
reporting on them to the public ?
but as part of my statement of
has, to date, studied and explained
(or left unexplained) over 10,000 -o
qualifications. I mention that I
received an official commendation.
reported sightings.
for my work as editor of the,
That statistic alone would seem
Pentagon "Digest" from Gen.
-'to indicate that something is going
on up there, would it not? (I'm 4 Charles P. Cabell, Director of,
Intelligence, U. S. Air Force, and',
Charles Cooke, a retired = later, for years, Vice Chief of the'
Lien-
,'Central Intelligence Agency; and a
' tenant V Bronze Star citation for my works'
Colonel in the U.S. Air
as editor of the Tokyo "Roundup" a
Force, was the founder and first
editor of the Air Force's official from Gen. Don Z. Zimmerman,;
intelligence publication, the "Air Deputy for Intelligence, Far Easti
`' ' Intelligence Digest," published : i ,Air Force.
at the Pentagon, and later edl- From 1948 to 1952 at the Penta-1
'tor of the Far East Air Force's "I ?gon, and from 1952 to 1955 ini
"FEAF Intelligence Roundup," .,Tokyo, my desk was one of several]
published In Tokyo. across which flowed "information;
copies" of the steadily increasing,
stream of UFO sightings then*j
going to do my best to be objective- being reported to the Air Force.
in this article, and not fall into
what lawyers call special pleading,' Project Blue Book
despite my own orientation in the The responsibility for evaldating?,
controversy.) these reports, then and now, has i
I'm a Believer. belonged to a USAF unit located at'
I was not persuaded, or shoved, `the Wright-Patterson Air Base in
into this position by any of the ?? Dayton, Ohio, whither Air Force ?
,.books listed with this a r t i c l e , : business often took me. The unit-?
convincing though they (with the .''was first called Project Sign, then-
exception of the last one in the Project Grudge, finally (and to thisa
list) are. My belief began in 1948 day) Project Blue Book.
and has grown steadily, until today . Project Blue Book is mentioned
it is, as befits the faith of a True everywhere you look nowadays,
Believer, implacable. and I have found myself telling
In this article I am merely going people: "I named it Project Blue
s to state my qualifications for.. Book." People, raising their eye-
writing it; review the listed books brows to varying levels of incredul-
briefly from a certain special ity, reply: "Did you?" I reply: "I
angle; then bring in some back- ? did." Sometimes I explain, some-
, &round material which has not, to 'times I don't. The explanation i3'
my knowledge, been discussed.,,. that the Pentagon, becoming,
very often in print before. understandably disenchanted with
This background material was Project Grudge as a code name,
dug up by me as a labor of insatia- asked in 1952 for suggestions for new ble curiosity rather than of love, new name, one "without over-,
most of it during long treasure tones.99
hunts in the enormous archives of I editor of the "Air Intelli
old magazine and newspaper j, genre Digest," suggested Project
ceived, but got expanded "Up.t
c stairs"-at Joint Chiefs of Staff.'
level-to "blue book."
The code' name Project Blue
Book was thus born-and .you;
have just read ' the whole truth
about my modest participation. I
was only its half-father.
Despite the fact that I had. not
UFO responsibilities, no one, in the'
USAF' assembly line down which
the reports passed, read and
:f pondered them more absorbedly,:
more dedicatedly, than I. Three Aspects
? I was especially interested in
three aspects ..
;' : One: I ,duly noted the myriad'.
"Explanations" given out by the
, Blue Book staff-widely referred to
-as "The Little Boy Blues" or "The
Little Blue Boys"-of sightings'
k which they evaluated as mistaken.
ly identified stars, planets, comets,
. meteors, ionized clouds, airplaes,
helicopters, balloons, aurgral
'streamers, birds, reflected llghts,i
mirages, marsh gas-or as 41lu-,
'sions, delusions, hallucinations,'
psychic ? aberrations, hoaxes,
I publicity stunts, gags, pranks; etc.
Two: I noted that the hard core
of "unexplained" sightings flpc-
tuated.from as high as 7 percent to
as low ? as 2 percent 7- but, signifi-t
cantly, never lower.
Three: I noted that the date of:
"the first reported UFO sighting",
ir. was given-and still is- seemingly
thousands of times-in the press
and even in some official reports-
as June 24, 1947, the date of the
famous "Arnold sighting".
On that date, Kenneth Arnold, a
private pilot flying from Chehalis,
to Yakima in the state of Washing-
ton, reported seeing "nine saucer-
like things ... flying like geese in
a diagonal, chain-like line and
approaching Mt. Rainier." They:
"swerved in and out of the high
peaks," according to Arnold, at a'
speed he estimated to be ' 1,200
? miles an hour.
Issues a` ` ' Release 20017N
~ '- . ' + 560R090
The ever
statted the nuggets I, found, and many overtones that it has, in t
tltQy are is my files. r .affect, now, ',,Book" was well re4
 Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81 R00560R0001 00010009-2
A Persistent Date`' t I said I wouldn't, try to pronely- 1' Pre-1947 Reports
tize, but-here I address the Unbe
It is amazing how June 24, 1947, lievers-would . you read Fuller's Far from having begun in 1941,'
has remained stuck like a burr in t book? Well would you start it? (If reported UFO sightings go way,-
the public public mind as the hallowed you do, I think you will finish it.) way back.
UFO Natal Day. While at it, would you consider ! , They go back well over a centu
Time magazine, in its March 3, - reading Frank Edwards' equally' y.. ry, as can be proven by the record.
1952, issue, wrote: "The first ones: new equally detailed "Flying And they go back even to Biblical'
reported [were] sighted near Mt. Saucers-Serious Business"? times, in some examples where the
Rainier in 1947." And then why not get hold of connection, although titillating
Life magazine, in its April 7, "The UFO Evidence," a massive when you get to pondering it, can
1952, issue, wrote: "The shapes 200,000 word document published in only be speculative.
.and the inscrutable portents of the 1964 by NICAP (The. National. Time and Readers Digest have
flying disks first broke upon the. Investigations Committee- ? On .. printed articles purportedly coven-'
skies of the world in 1947." Aerial ? Phenomena) whose ? head- ing Pre-1947, but Time mentioned-
Although what is now the United quarters are in Washington; D.C.?' only the celebrated "airship",
States military establishment dates I'm only suggesting! reportedly seen by thousands of
.was to several years before there -- --- d Americans from Oakland, Cal., to
.was a United States, our military , The UFO War -Chicago, in 1896.97-and Readers
seecord-keepers did not start keep-:1 You won't find any of this read-' Digest reported only on sightings
img tabs on UFO reports until, in 1913, 1904, 1897 (the same one
precisely, the year 1947. (See the . Yng dull. Take, for one thing, the mentioned by lime), 1882, and 1870
,statistical table on page 82 of grimness of the war being waged These references barely scratched
."Flying Saucers and the U.S. Air, between these passionate authors the surface.
Force: The Official Air Force e, and the hard-pressed United States In the books under discussion in.
Story," published in 1960, and note F.; Air Force. A few blistering quotes ' this article, bo the one by the Air,
also the following flat statement on:' will indicate how, in this controver- r. 12 of the same book: "For all. ' sy, each side regards the other as~ .Force disposes of Pre-1947 in 22:
Page + lines at the beginning of Chapter 2,
practical purposes, and for the the Devils Advocate: ,,, , ?
purpose of this book, Air Force FULLER: "The Air Force has,. ; The History of the Saucers .
History relating to unidentfiied . In a'very subtle manner, gone out Even the NICAP book, magnsfi-'
flying objects or flying saucers - of its way to insult hundreds, and cently detailed , in the Post-1947
began on Tuesday, June 24, 1947.") r 'perhaps thousands, of respectable . reports listed in its Section XI,
In his startling new book, "Incl. citizens, . pooh-poohing the "The UFO Chronology," gives only
dent At Exeter," John G. Fuller',' 'serious reports of dozens of quali-' a column and a half to Pre-1947,
r?fied pilots playing dirty pool in under the headings of "19th Centu-'
, ...
"Trade.
staff writer of the column, ry," "Early 20th Century," and
Winds," in the Saturday Review of , relation to the citizenry. The "World War II 'Foo Fighter' Era."
Literature, refers to "the twenty- I. UFO's greatest enemy is the U.S. Fuller's book doesn't touch on'
year history of the phenomenon's* Air Force. . We are back again pre-1947. I think he was well ad-
most to NICAP's contention that the Air
most yeasty occurrences." i vised to omit this complex quad-:
Ki Force is, in the most simple and
And so it has gone and still goet#1 t.,
direct terms,' lying. By' the rant entirely. His hands and his
'same
... 1947... 1947 1947 ... mind and his tape recorder were,
token, of course, the Air Force is busy enough with the fnvastuga-
? Recommended Reading ? calling EDWARDS: NICAP "aIn liar." August of 1965, Lions in depth of New England 1965
Believers and Unbelievers alike, and 1966 reports which he re
when tens of thousands of 'persons rinoopAtv.
ports
__ _
, ..--__ ~_r_
-e
a'Y Q4NacLL bu"gl ll RGU llllaup-
;, equal to that in Capote's "In Cold' ?tions hovering and maneuvering in clod.
Blood," the September 3, 1965,, the skies, the Air Force blandly Edwards' book, however, gave.
sighting at Exeter, N. H., reported informed the news services that all me great joy in its attention to'
by a young man, Norman Muscar these witnesses, on the ground and Ll, Pre-1947.
ello, and two officers, Eugene., in .the ? air, had been watching Following a forthright statemenk
~'? Bertrand and David Hunt, of the,+ that "As a professional reporter, I~
rrothing gore unusual-than four;. 4
? Exeter police- force. Mr. Fuller am well aware of the importance
microscopically studying this and stars in the constellation Orion!" of including ... the very beginning
other recent reported sightings in' ? NICAP: "The U.S. Air Force Ise of the story," he touches on,
the . area, interviewed some 60 charged with the official investiga- ; 1-,'among other things, the rather4
down-to-earth, plain-spoken New - tion of UFOs, but has practiced an P -well-known Biblical "references"
Englanders, recording their every; intolerable degree of secrecy, ' and also brings in an extraordi j
word on 20 hours of tape. ? keeping the public in the dark{ ? nary extract from the archaic
in beautiful Exeter. about the amount and possible. "Book of Dzyan-A Chronicle of
Having many times been when my son was er. ? significance of UFO evidence." a P'-'Ancient India" which, for all my]
i spading in the field of Pre-1947, I
school there, I felt a special im i U.S. AIR . FORCE: "I [Lt. Col.
~? mediacyvabout the whole book. Lawrence J. Tacker] state emphat-, had never heard of.
mfor aA4 P" The
I Fuller's judge.the held validity ? r:; Force that States
course, to aa"wheel in the ddl of
e
elaboratel 's strongly thesis that i Lion on this subject from the gen.; of a 'wheel" in the "whirlwind
UFOs, attracted to, and given to'erai - publicy` [that] came out of the north"%
following, power lines, caused the (Ezekiel)-taken by.some students
Great Northeast Blackout a few", to mean a flying disk-and, In,
' Zechariah, "Then I lifted up mine.
tap : How. about for yot&~ eyes and' looked and beheld a
that t asago of the book for
aspect you`r-
rv selves? . ;'''s ? : < ~1 s flying roll the length thereof'
twenty cubits and the breadth ten
,-.cubits"-30 by 16 feet in our terms
Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81 R00560R000100010009-2
 nology-and equated by some to; These letters prove, if they prove
' nothing else, that the witnesses
t
haped objec
s
the familiar cigar-bI des?ri 0j~ r 'br Release 290 W toe .NSIR00560R0
don'ts because of these ref-; that r1-- he .
~P explain to them that (1) they
?
fe
e to
d thould
b
b
t- _
ly maw wuau~ a
a
-- - -- pro
altthugh unquestionably interest- ! stop being hysterical, or (2) It was
a
ge
...--4
,
What follows is not legendary. a wearier uauv,n+,
marsh gas.)
January 12, 1838 1848 to 1870
The earliest apparently term rre-~ Why 19th Century UFO reports, in'
1947 report turned up by my;
researches was made on January- r all their varied, strange, and
r __ ___ _ _.a A1.. _sVwaveeept
d
was aw
14 1000 an
briefly in the 1877 "Report of the forms, should have poured in on,
t
f
Wien ce. . a
vancemen
o
France,! a mystery as challenging as that of
ort that at Cherbourg
re
,
p
on 12 January .1838, was seen a? .UFOs themselves.
Central to it there seemed to be a" on, since, in the 1800s, these sight-
. dated UFO report to many moderd: age of supersonic flight, atomic
Nature: 1880, 1893 raphy of mars, venus by-oys, and
instrument landings on the Moon.
The British magazine Nature, - !, Here are some selected quota-
tional scientific community, report t published in the Times of London:,
lag in its May 20, 1880, Issue. The `bright flickering light until about
item on "a remarkable phenome-1 1.10 o'clock, when they moved,
bodies" which "rose from "brie l pp` "` " l
a mast extraordinary
"
1859
. ...
. horizon and passed in a horizontal3
~:__~ r___ _ .. .. < ?rn.a., _ appearance in the sky this evening'
moved through space like a string?i rit?"z hie-
Kare. 67:" :20, Wb_ i as '
of beads, and shone with a remark-' red olight o0, the south uth y
? - ably brilliant light." i pr appeared *hto the
In One may z a, i*:M, zssuu ul
zenith and horizon ...its 64utes
Nature appeared the tantalizing
TTW^ !was oblong ... in about 15 minutes
__1._. _ J___
of
on
"
history can
The unknown lights or 1867. "This (to me) extraordl-'
'..i Japan." The article stated that ,,,, v nhiort - - floated steadi1vi
?-onese gwom a"ereu xa uawr
formation .. ' . and . . . took the, away, northwest any do ertho ~4
t. hung, festoon like, in a curved' + ?'"' "`?' ... ?V _~_" --";~ ____ -_
about three minutes.
It last
,
)axle.? 1869: "A brilliant luminous bod~-{
eriences' # t sailing slowly across the lake....'!
Ex
l-Shakin
'S
p
g
ou
visible neveri
star M. Lincoln Schuster, of the have7remained so long would
r ' ter, wrote, in his introduction to a:, `
'
book entitled "A Treasury of the, w.'Auroral Beam
has a soul?ahakdng The so-cauea "aurora! Iseam or.
any rson
11 was the
November 17 1882
,
experience, he usually can-and 4 , subject of a 20-page article in The,
about it." Philosophical Magazine and Jour-i
A large percentage of the, most!'
pal of Science. One of the 26 t
amazing of the early reports were,,
contained in startled and puzzled observers of this amazing phenom-?s
' anon was the Astronomer Royal.
utable
1 letters to such sober and rep journals as the London Times;', It was described by various
observers as "spindle-shaped," a
Scientific American; Nature;.,11 'torpedo-like
a
" "
ar-shi
ci
,
g
p,
American Meteorological Journal;' 'weaver's shuttle," and "a ball of
U.S. and Canada Monthly WeattaerW yellowish light, with a 'dark some-
L
lscne Nvacnncnten;
o nuuu, --j tstreakwhere it passed'
N ,yy
I, burgh,. and Dublin Phd1osop'hlcal,i
The compiler of the observations,
Mr. J. Rand Capron, wrote: "A
u tion is whether the
0 ii~y2nd truly part of
an auroral display, or a 'meteor,"
dameteoroid," 'cometary body,' or
something allied to any of these, In
contra-distinction to an 'auroral
beam.' "
Commenting on the extraordi-;
?t nary article, The Observatory Monthly Review of Astronomy
spoke of the sighting as "unusual
? and striking, not to say awe-inspir
mg."
That Airship' ?
Unquestionably, the most famous
ship" which, first reported over
I.Oakland, Cal., in November of
1896, finally appeared, according to
t thousands of observers, including
r many scientists,' over Chicago.
11, The-Oakland Tribune of Novem-;
ber 23, 1896, led off its goggle-eyed;
story as follows:
t;- "That a huge airship has been.'
? hovering over Oakland for the last,
Iy;? few nights has, in the minds of
p many, been conclusively proven."
The dispatch stated further: "The,
ship resembled a huge bird in its
outlines and seemed to rise and
fail In Its course."
The New York Herald printed a i
a? dispatch in its April 11, 1897, Issue
which, headlined "THAT AIRSHIP'
NOW AT CHICAGO," stated: "For
weeks, reports have been coming
in from various points between'
here and California regarding an,
airship .: . men of unquestioned
rt veracity declare the moving object'
was an airship . . . some declare
they saw two cigar-shaped objects,
e? and great wings. Chicago and her
suburbs are intensely Interested,,
and the subject Is almost the sole
topic of conversation."
The Oakland to Chicago odyssey
of "that airship," or whatever it
was, is well-known to UFO re-'
searchers, but I pause here to call
your attention to the remarkable
statement sworn to by a Kansas
V farmer named Hamilton-Alexan-
der Hamilton!-of Leroy, Kan., on
April 21, 1897, and attested to ("for
truth and veracity we have never,
heard his word questioned") by
neighbors of his including the
t justice of the peace, the sheriff
N. the deputy sheriff, the registrar of
deeds, and other substantial citi-
zens. Farmer Hamilton's sworn
,r . statement appears on pages 20, 21,
and 22 of Mr. Edwards' book, -
t: "Flying Saucers-Serious Bust-,
ness." He stated that he saw ("to
my utter astonishment") that "an
,; airship was slowly descending
t, upon my cow lot . . . until it was
not more than 30 feet above the,
,, ground, and we came to within 50
yards of it . . - it consisted of a
great cigar-shaped portion, possi-
bly 300 feet long, with a carriage
underneath...." Hamilton report-.
. ed that the airship "turned _ light
f "slowly .disappearing in the north
-iaroat:' .
e 1 F?f Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81 R00560R00, en."turned on
er" and rose
 'Hamilton' ' aapp;pAo figr Release 2Wffi4I0Qrpe?I PP81 R00.5 1, Q0&1,QpQi92ther'
'
there were "hideous people" body some 300 feet away, Station.
aboard the airship and that when it ary in appearance and suspended
departed it took with it one of his in the air about 50 feet above the
halters, which had been bound with tops of the buildings. Although sta.
"a cable . . . made of some red tionary when first seen, this object
material fastened in a slipknot soon began to move, rather ,
around her neck." I won't attempt slowly ..." '
to evaluate that part of the state- I can't help wondering out loud`
ment-it is possible that under the what Project Blue Book's "expla.
stimulus of the sight of a literally nation" of this report would have'
unearthly marvel, both truth and been. Marsh gas? .
hysteria-induced fiction might have 'Mongolia: 1927
been reported.
But I take full note-and I call to In his book, "Altai Himalaya,"
my readers' attention-4e facts. Nicholas Roerich-painter, travel
was dated November 23, 1896; ft. AT-I'sv"sa in hang he and nis parry
New York Herald article April 11, saw "something big and shiny
1897; and Farmer Hamilton'e reflecting the sun, like a huge oval
moving at great speed. Crossing
statement April 21, 1897. our camp, it changed its direction
If these sightings were real, if in from south to southwest. We even`
truth a "huge airship" of unknown had time to take out field glasses
origin and reported high mobility. and saw quite distinctly an oval
was in our skies, these sequential form."
dates seem to me conclusive proof To Unbelievers who might ask,
that Fanner Hamilton, of Leroy, with a gentle smile, whether.
Kan., saw the same unidentified Roerich's oval object, sighted in,
flying object that had been re-r: the High Himalayas, was piloted
ported over Oakland, .Omaha and. by an Abominable Snowman, this
Chicago. Believer would reply, with a gentle
about-
Monthly Weather Review smile: "I wonder. I wonder the whole thing. And so, I think, do
In, respectively, the March 1904, you."
and July 1907 issues, the U.S.
Weather Bureau's Monthly Weath-
er Review printed two of the most,:
mystifying and beguiling UFO.'
reports on record.
The author of the 1904 report',
("Remarkable Meteors") was U.''
Frank H. Schofield of the U.S.'
Navy. He stated that he saw
"three somewhat remarkable
meteors" at 35 degrees 58 feet,,
North-128 degrees 36 feet West,,
which "appeared near the horizon
and below the clouds, travelling in
a group from northwest by north
. As they approached the ship,`
they appeared to soar...."
(Author's note: To call meteors;
which travel in a group and soar,,
"somewhat remarkable" was the.
understatement of the century.)
The 1907 report ("A Possibl .
Case of Ball Lightning") was by
William H. Alexander, the official,
weather forecaster of Burlington,
Vt. He wrote about an "explosion'
so sudden, so unexpected, and so,
terrific that it startled practically
the entire city of Burlington.$' He ;
quoted Bishop John S. Michaud,
who, at the time of the incident,
was standing in conversation with
ex-Gov. Woodbury of Vermont, at
the corner of Church and College
Streets. Readers who may already'
have concluded that the explosion
was indeed either just a "possible.
case of ball lightning," or a bolide
(exploding meteor), should note
what the weather expert quoted
technical evidence prove them
superior to any aircraft or space
devices now produced on earth;
and that these UFOs are interplan-
etary devices systematically'
observing the earth, either manned
or under remote control, or both."
Frank Edwards, an implacable
Believer, quotes, in his "Flying
Saucers-Serious Business," Dr.:
Walter Reidel, the German rocket,
expert ("I am convinced that
saucers have an out-of-world
basis") and Dr. Herman Oberth:
("Flying saucers come from
distant worlds").
But the battle lines remain
drawn in the War of the Unbeliev-.
i ' ers and Believers. It is still a ;
Donnybrook, with Armageddon not a
fact or fantasy?
But one day well know.
biCIDENT AT EXETER: The,
'' Story of Unidentified Flying
objects Over America Today. By;
John G. Fuller. G. P. Putnam's
-Sons. 251 pages. $5.95.
FLYING SAUCERS - SERIOUS+
BUSINESS. By Frank Edwards.
Lyle Stuart, Inc. 30 illustrations.,,
319 pages. $5.95. It
!1'HE UFO EVIDENCE: Unidenti-,
-, fied Flying Objects. Richard H.
$ .Hall, Editor. Pulished by The
P' National Investigations Commit'
tee on Aerial Phenomena (NI
CAP), Washington, D.C. Draw.
1 Ings and charts. 184 pages. $5.
FLYING SAUCERS AND THE
, U.S. AIR FORCE: The Official
Air Force Story. By U. Col.
t Lawrence J. Tacker, U.S. Air
Force. D. Van Nostrand Co. 10
illustrations. 164 pages. $3.50.
the Bishop as saying. After a ref;, : m
Y opinion that the UFOs reported
erence to "tlig~~ "
MO&
terrific expl ~ Relea "00 ,g~'er I P81 R00560R000100010009-2
ces un er en con ol;
Yes or No?
The first basic question is: Has,
anybody really seen anything? (I
believe that many eyes have seen
many marvels - and that great
marvels are still to be revealed.)
,? The next questions are: Are
UFOs of terrestrial origin, and, if
they are, who or what is putting'
them up there-and for what,
purpose? Or are they of celestial
origin, and, if so, are they inter-
planetary, even possibly interstel-'
lar-and with what purpose?
My lifelong hobby of astronomy,,
together with what I consider to be
overwhelming affirmative evi
dence, incline me toward the belief
that UFOs are "real" and of
celestial origin-interplanetary or
interstellar.
In "The UFO Evidence," NICAP.
states, in judicious, conservative
language, its "support of the'
hypothesis that UFOs are under.
intelligent control, making plausi-
ble the notion that some of them
might be of extra-terrestrial
origin."
NICAP also quotes, in the May-
June 1966 issue of its publication,
"The UFO Investigator," the stated
position of one of the most highly
qualified members of its Board of.
Governors, Joseph Bryan III
(Colonel, USAF, Retired), former
$ Special Assistant to the Secretary
of the Air Force (1952-53) and
former member of the staff of
Gen.' Lauris Norstad, then Supreme
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-5-
 GTON ,Nos
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here: Possibly. Anybody
Even a Couple of Optimists S kirt._
it a Fantas in Their Case for the_UF.O
By John Davy
London Observer
ONDON-From time to time, a
a b o u t extraterrestrial civilizations. experience are thus tricky. , ev rthe-`i
Some yearn for them to exist. Others less, Sagan and Shklovskii conclude
would prefer them not to. Sagan says that "habitable" nlan'ta enLld w,ll hpl
JL4 reader writes to me about my part that ne' and Shklovskii are "cautious
in suppressing the truth about flying' optimists" on the question. Clearly they
saucers. He is quite forbearing; he real- would rather like extraterrestrials to
izes, he says, that I am gagged by the exist, and they have written almost 500
authorities, who are fearful of the truth pages to show that they might..
becoming known. For the fact of the. Let us, then, follow some of their
matter Is, he informs me, that an extra- arguments, first tightly fastening our
terrestrial civilization is making regular intellectual and emotional seat belts.
, . ;;: ...~ ,..~?.~~. Our Impossible Sphere
But now, thanks to a remarkable QUICK LOOK at the other lanets
collaboration between an American and \ p
a Russian astronomer, I am ungagged. of our solar system seems to re-
Y can freely report some remarkable 'veal a poor prospect for life. Mercury
arguments contained In their book "In- , and. Venus appear too hot,' Mars has
t. telligent Life in the Universe," which almost no air, Jupiter and Saturn seem
is shortly to be published in the United to be swathed in ammonia and methane.
States by' Holden-Day Inc., San Fran-, But can life exist on earth?
cisco. They conclude that extraterres- A Martian astronomer would see a
trial civilizations are not only possible planet surrounded by a deadly gas,
but probable, and that they may well namely oxygen. It Is well known that
have made, or are attempting to make, this very reactive element readily com-
contact with us. bines with almost anything, including
? The American Is Carl Sagan of Har-
';yard University and the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory. The Russian
is . Academician Josef Shmuelovich
Shklovskii of the Sternberg Astronomi-
cal Institute. They have never met each
other-they collaborated by mail. Nor
have they met any representatives of
extraterrestrial civilizations. Their cos-
the unstable compounds of hydrogen,
carbon and nitrogen, out of which liv-
ing organisms are built. All signs of
life on earth must surely be quickly
'oxidized to dust and' ashes. (Only earth-
men know the remarkable methods de-
veloped by our bodies for coping with
oxygen so that it does not burn us up.)
Martian satellites dispatched to pho-
mic excursion is propelled by careful ?tograph the surface from a couple of
scientific argument laced with.a dash 'hundred miles up (as the Tiros and
of speculation. Nimbus weather satellites have done)
It is a heady mbtture. For, as Sagan ,.would reveal no conclusive signs of
remarks In an introductory chapter, life.
earthmen.. do' not.feel exactly detached , ' Argumints from one's own planetary.' are Epsilon .E-ridani,- Epsilon Indi ands
common in the universe. The emphasis
is on, "could," since there is no directt
evidence. The largest earth-based tele?!
scope could not reveal a planet of an-
other 1_t__ re
Indirect Evidence
T HE INDIRECT evidence is of three
kinds:
. 1. There are
Ing each other in the sky; many stare,,,
could have orbiting planets instead oft
an orbiting star-twin. , I
2. An astronomer at Sproul Observ-11
atory, Swarthmore College, Peter van;
de Kamp, recorded the position oft
Barnard's star In the constellation of
Cygnus for 25 years and detected a1
small pendulum motion. This, he calcu-l
lated, could be caused by a "dark com-
panion"-a planet about twice the sizel
of Jupiter orbiting the star once every.
24 earth-years and affecting its motion.
If he is right, this Is the only planetri
detected outside our solar system.
3. Statistical arguments: there are 1
150 billion stars in our galaxy alone,
a considerable proportion of which are',
similar to our sun. It is highly probable,
that there are billions of planetary sys
tems similar to ours In our galaxy.,
This leads Sagan and Shklovskii to
conclude that our galaxy may contain
at least 'one billion habitable plancta. j
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Tau Ceti. These are 10.3, 11.3 and 12.2 Thus, In principle (Sagan and Shklov- which quite possibly has life now and,,
light years away respectively. skis say), life on earthlike planets may may have had more in the past (Mars)
The next questions that these be the rule rather than the exception. plus two possibly "prebiological" plan
intrepid cosmic thinkers tackle are: In practice, we can't do much more, ets (Jupiter and Venus). Titus If the
How many of these hypothetical planets- than guess. galaxy contains one billion potentially
are likely to contain life? And how A Tropical Mars? "habitable" planets, the total actually
many might contain "advanced tech- inhabited by something could be vexyi
? 11 OWEVER, there is circumstantial large indeed.
meal civilizations?
In recent, years, a number of re- evidence of biological processes
searchers have been releasing electric on Mars: the "waves of darkening" in A Half-Mile Eye
spring and summer near the receding HAT ARE the chances of "Intel-
sparks-miniature bolts of lightning-
through mixtures of gases and vapors ice caps; spectroscopic evidence that ligent"\.inhabitants on other's
(water, ammonia, hydrogen, methane) dark areas include organic molecules; planets? H u m a n intelligence has
which are thought to represent prima- the curious fact that the red deserts evolved; as has human anatomy, hand-i+
tive planetary atmo4pheres. They have appear to consist of an iron-rich com- In-hand with the terrestrial environ-
been gratified to discover in the re-, pound containing much water and oxy- ment. But,bizarre planets might pro?0,
suiting mixtures a huge variety of com- gen, normally found in the soils of' duce bizarre anatomy and physiology,:
Alex organic substances like sugar, hot, humid regions. Perhaps Mars was A planet with turbid atmosphere, .l
amino acids, urea and others associated lushly tropical in the distant past? transparent only to radio waves, might .+
with life. Venus is covered in clouds and the produce organisms with radio eyes. But
The next? step is to arrange for a nature of its surface is thus specula-,. a radio eyeball, says Sagan, would have
complex molecule to reproduce itself. tive, but Sagan's guess Is that it Is to be half a mile in diameter to be as
This, too, has been done in the test "very like hell," with rocks glowing efficient as a light eyeball. To under.
tube, producing a simple form of nu- dull red in fierce heat trapped by the stand such a structure, let alone decidet?,
cleic acid, the genetic. material that clouds above. Other theories propose whether It belonged to an ' "intelli.
controls heredity. an oily smog-like atmosphere, or oceans gence," would be a baffling problem
But there is a slight embarrassment: of soda water. Up in the clouds, it for visiting earthmen. I
the reaction only works In the presence would be cooler-suitable, possibly, for By the same argument, however,_
of an enzyme derived from a living the evolution of aerial organisms of earthlike planets would seem"likely to
organism. The enzyme Is a protein- some kind. have earthlike inhabitants, and it Is
yet the synthesis of proteins is con Jupiter appears to have -a primitive a reasonable hypothesis that a propor-"
1 trolled by nucleic acids. planetary atmosphere full of hydrogen, tion of these have produced technical?
If it weds a protein to make a ' nu- ' methane, ammonia, water and possibly civilizations.
oleic ac ,and it needs a nucleic acid frequent bolts of lightning-a promis- Our own technical civilization has !
to make a protein, then the prospects ing scene for some "prebiology," or'for existed for a very short time on the
of life in the primitive planetary soup bizarre biological surprises. ' cosmic time scale. Thus, If we are not
would be poor. So we must assume, The other planets seem poor life unique, there should be many technical
say Sagan and ShklovskIi, that some prospects In terms of earth-type life. civilizations which are much older., .
nucleic acids are formed "spontane- Nevertheless, as a planetary system, we Suppose one of these was disposed to.
ously." have at least one planet with life, one; Sec PLANETS, Page E4, Column 1.'t
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PLANETS, From Page El
direct its skills to cosmic exploration.
Interstellar communication, let alone
interstellar travel, sounds a desperately
laborious business.
Suppose that Epsilon Eridani boasts
a civilized planet interested in commu-
nicating with us. Assume, too, that the
technical difficulties (which are for-
midable) are overcome. It would take
over ten years for a message to travel
to earth, another ten for us to answer
back. To get some sense Into the ex-
change would presuppose a mutually
comprehensible code.
An American radio astronomer,
Frank Drake, recently fabricated an
"interstellar message" of 550 dots and
dashes and asked distinguished scien-
tists to decode it. They had very mod-
erate success, although they knew the
decoded result would be pictorial and
that the code derived from a human
mind (i.e. Drake's).
But' even the "cautious optimism" of
Sagan and. Shklovskii recognizes that
-' A
"time-contraction," a consequence of of Alexander Polyhistor, derived from'
relativity. The time effect presupposes "an animal endowed with reason who.
a spacecraft which can travel near the was called Oannes . . . This Being in'
the daytime used to converse with men,
speed of light; a crew could then make but took no food at that season; and
a round trip to the center of the galaxy he gave them an Insight into letters,?
in 42 years. But on arrival back home, and sciences, and every kind of art. He,
of years had elapsed. There would
no guarantee that anyone would
there to welcomer them.
Millennial Visits
be
be
DESPITE THESE discouraging pros-
pects, the optimism of Sagan and
Shklovskil seems to Increase as their
book proceeds. Suppose, says Sagan, a
million civilizations, mostly well In ad?
vance of our own, are currently en-
gaged in plying the galaxy at rela-
tivistic speeds. Suppose, too, that each
dispatches one starship per year and
that these concentrate on likely planets;
any particular planet similar to ours
might be visited once every thousand
there is only a slight chance that the. years. ("In my opinion," Shklovskil
nearest likely stars actually have plan-
ets with technical civilizations endeav-
oring to contact others on the 21-
centimeter radio band. Some rough
statistics suggest that the nearest ad-
vanced technical civilization in the
galaxy would be likely to lie from a
hundred to a thousand light years
away. Thus the minimum time for an
exchange of messages would be two
centuries. One of the first qualities
necessary for cosmic communication
will be remarkable patience.
This applies still more to inter-
stellar travel despite the bonus of
writes in parenthesis, "these estimates
of Sagan are slightly too optimistic.")
Have we been or are we being visit-
ed? A Russian ethnologist, M. M.
Agrest, has conjectured that Sodom and
Gomorrah were destroyed by a nuclear
explosion (presumably engineered by
extraterrestrials). A fresco in a Saharan
cliff was held by some to represent a
Martian in a space suit, although it is
more conventionally regarded as a hu-
man in a ritual mask and costume.
Sagan is more Impressed by a legend
about the origin of Sumerian civiliza-
tion, . which, according to the account
taught them to constrgct houses, to
ounce temples, tQ catnllIle laws, and
explained to them the principles of '
geometric knowledge....
The gods of the Sumerians, says
Sagan, were each associated with a dif-
ferent star, and there survive seals de-
picting sunlike objects surrounded by
various numbers of planets. "Such a,
picture," writes Sagan, "is not alto-
gether different from what we might
expect if a network of confederated
civilizations interlaced the galaxy."
Audible Heartbeats
S AGAN AND Shklovskli are both l
aware of the vague borderline that
separates bold scientific speculation
from fantasy or wishful thinking. Theyll
quote an old Chinese proverb: "The
man who eagerly awaits the arrival of
a friend should not mistake the beating'
of his own heart for the thumping
hooves of the approaching horse." Nev'
ertheless, the beating of both their'
hearts, it seems to me, is distinctly
audible in their arguments-and why'
not?
Not long ago, it was rather fashion-;'
able to proclaim man's "insignificance"
and "loneliness" in a vast empty uni-
verse. Perhaps this loneliness Is be.,.
coming oppressive, or the possibility of
self-destruction too menacing.
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However this may be, there seem to
be increasing numbers of scientists pre-
.pared to populate the universe-very
speculatively and cautiously-with su-
perior intelligences, hopefully benevo.
lent, possibly menacing, but differing
mainly from their Sumerian predeces-
sors in being subject to 20th century
laws of physics and chemistry.
I would have liked to have seen this
book completed with what is a still
more intriguing line of thought. Phys-
ics and chemistry, and our view of the
universe, have emerged as the result
,of a mode of thinking and a direction
ofinterests which are historically very
new. Is there any reason to suppose
they are final?
Suppose that human consciousness is
engaged in a slow evolution. We may-
as Sagan and Shklovskii themselves
recognize-come to look back on their
view of the universe as a quaint his-
torical curiosity. Interest and aware-
ness may have moved on to quite dif-
ferent kinds of experience.
There is a very real sense in which
the vast and awe-inspiring universe in
which we live is the product of our
own explicitly 20th century minds. We
have never seen it; it is a great feat of
imagination which is then incorporated
into the apparatus, and experiments
which confirm-with the help of along
chain of inference-our imaginings. But
the future could bring new Imagina-
tions. These would direct our attention
to new phenomena, suggest quite dif-
ferent experiments, and could lead to
quite new perspectives.
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