Summary
After the 1952 Washington incident, the CIA assembled a science panel to review UFO evidence. It concluded UFOs posed no direct threat but recommended a debunking campaign to reduce public interest.
Detail
In January 1953, following the major attention from the 1952 Washington radar incident, the CIA convened a panel of scientists chaired by physicist H.P. Robertson. Over several days the panel reviewed a number of UFO cases and concluded that UFOs posed no direct physical national-security threat, but that public hysteria around them could be exploited. It therefore recommended a public "debunking" education effort to reduce interest in the topic. That recommendation shaped the U.S. government's dismissive posture toward UAP for decades.
