The 1953 Document That Showed the Government Wasn’t Just Studying UFOs, They Were Thinking About Creating Them

In January 1953, H.C. Cross of the Battelle Memorial Institute wrote a classified memo proposing that the Air Force create fake UFO sightings to study public reaction. Five days before the CIA’s Robertson Panel would meet to evaluate UFO evidence, Cross suggested setting up observation zones with complete surveillance, then secretly scheduling unusual aerial activities to see how civilians reported them. The memo stayed hidden for 14 years until French scientist Jacques Vallée discovered it while organizing Dr. Allen Hynek’s files at Northwestern University. Hynek had been the Air Force’s UFO consultant since 1948 without knowing about Project Stork, the classified Battelle program that had analyzed thousands of UFO cases before the Robertson Panel ever met.

When Hynek confronted the Battelle team in 1967, their reaction was telling. Cross grabbed the papers and insisted the contents could never be discussed. When Hynek returned in 1968, Cross brought four colleagues who claimed all data was destroyed and wanted the conversation to end immediately. This episode examines whether Cross’s proposal was actually implemented, exploring the 1952 UFO wave that created public panic, the technology available to create convincing aerial displays, and the patterns in subsequent sightings that some researchers claim show signs of deliberate orchestration. While we cannot prove the government faked UFOs, we can prove they wanted to, had the capability, and reacted with suspicious fury when confronted about it decades later.

Let’s listen in as Nathaniel Sheppard narrates this tale on my behalf, shall we?

-Daniel P. Douglas

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