from NationalUFOCenter Website
After World War II operators who literally plugged you in when making a phone call handled telephone calls. The government became concerned that our phone system was being overrun by UFO reports.
On September 24, 1952, H. Marshall Chadwell, wrote a memo to CIA Director Walter Smith stating,
The Robertson Panel was convened by the CIA to discuss the problem during January 14 to 17, 1953.
The panel concluded UFOs were not a threat, but that the continued emphasis on the reporting of these phenomena does, in these perilous times, result in a threat to the orderly functioning of the protective organs of the body politic.
This threat involved the clogging of communication channels with UFO reports, the cultivation of a morbid national psychology in which skillful hostile propaganda could induce hysterical behavior and harmful distrust of duly constituted authority.
Consequently, the Panel recommended that,
The method prescribed was “debunking” UFOs.
Here is the Panel’s debunking strategy from some the top scientific minds in the government such as,
The “debunking” aim would result in reduction in public interest in “flying saucers” which today evokes a strong psychological reaction.
This education could be accomplished by mass media such as television, motion pictures and popular articles. Basis of such education would be actual case histories, which had been puzzling at first but later explained.
As in the case of conjuring tricks, there is much less stimulation if the “secret” is known. Such a program should tend to reduce the current gullibility of the public and consequently their susceptibility to clever hostile propaganda.
See Dr. Edward Condon’s, “Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects.”
Editor’s Note Essentially belittling and propaganda techniques were used to debunk the reality of UFOs in order to help protect the United States and other countries from propaganda that could induce hysterical behavior and clog communications channels.
Robertson Panel was still putting a
negative spin on UFO news at least 13 years after the panel met.
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