States. During a six-month period in 1952 alone 148 of the nation's
leading newspapers carried a total of over 16,000 items about flying
saucers.

During July 1952 reports of flying saucers sighted over Washington,
D.C., cheated the Democratic National Convention out of precious
headline space.

The subject of flying saucers, which has generated more unscientific
behavior than any other topic of modern times, has been debated at
the meetings of professional scientific societies, causing scientific
tempers to flare where unemotional objectivity is supposed to reign
supreme.

Yet these thousands of written words and millions of spoken words--
all attesting to the general interest--have generated more heat than
light. Out of this avalanche of print and talk, the full, factual,
true story of UFO's has emerged only on rare occasions. The general
public, for its interest in UFO's, has been paid off in misinformation.

Many civilian groups must have sensed this, for while I was chief of
Project Blue Book I had dozens of requests to speak on the subject of
UFO's. These civilian requests had to be turned down because of
security regulations.

I did give many official briefings, however, behind closed doors, to
certain groups associated with the government--all of them upon
request.

The subject of UFO's was added to a regular series of intelligence