Lyndon Johnson's informal UFO study
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Claimed by | Frank F. Rand Jr., described as an assistant to President Johnson and adviser to Vice President Humphrey on military and NASA affairs |
|---|---|
| Period | 1967–1968; about nine months |
| Named members | Rand, Kelly Johnson, Arthur Lundahl, General James T. Stewart, Brockway McMillan, others |
| Trigger | Lobbying of the President by physicist James E. McDonald |
| Conclusion (per Rand) | UFOs "exist and are under control"; probably advanced technology from off the planet |
| Sources | Rand's unpublished manuscripts (c. 1996–2001), in the files of the Center for UFO Studies |
| Documentation | None found in official records |
| Date | 1968 |
| People | Lyndon Johnson, Frank Rand, Kelly Johnson, Arthur Lundahl, James E. McDonald, John B. Alexander |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 71 |
| Year | 1968 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1968 on the UAP Timeline |
According to unpublished manuscripts by Frank Rand, a former government adviser, President Lyndon Johnson asked in the late 1960s for a small, informal study of UFOs. Rand said it concluded that they probably involved advanced technology created off the planet.[1][4] The account came to light through the historians Michael Swords and Robert Powell, who read Rand's manuscripts and described them in their 2012 book UFOs and Government.[1] No official document confirming the study has been found.[2]
Rand's account
UFOs and Government, as quoted by the researcher Keith Basterfield, gives this account of the study's origin:[1]
- McDonald's pressure. The University of Arizona atmospheric physicist James McDonald "cajoled President Lyndon Johnson about UFOs".
- Johnson's response. Johnson "had always been curious about the subject" but did not want to be "assaulted continuously by McDonald". He asked for "an informal, internal staff study by top people who would report back to him so he could 'get McDonald off his back'".
- The members. They included Kelly Johnson of Lockheed's Skunk Works and Art Lundahl of the National Photographic Interpretation Center, among "a handful of other scientists". Hubert Humphrey's adviser for aeronautical and aerospace matters administered it.
- McDonald's role. He served as "an information-feeder early in the study", but there is no indication he saw the conclusions.
Basterfield later read a fuller manuscript, titled "UFOs... Fact or Fiction", which Swords had acquired. It adds detail:[4]
- The duration. Frank F. Rand Jr. became an assistant to President Johnson in 1967–1968, and his team spent nine months on the study before reporting to the President.
- The full team. Arthur Lundahl, General James T. Stewart, Brockway McMillan, a pseudonymous "Dr. Lee Brockings", a Dr. Bleakley, a Dr. Losh, and Kelly Johnson.
The conclusions
Swords and Powell summarized the group's view as being that "UFO phenomena in all likelihood involved advanced technology created off the planet". The study "was, of course, never made public".[1] Rand described Kelly Johnson as one of the two group members "absolutely convinced of UFO reality as technological devices".[1] In the later manuscript Rand wrote: "There is no doubt that 'UFOs' exist and are under control. Nor, do I doubt that there may well have been some harmless probes sent to our Earth from other civilizations beyond our solar system."[4] Kelly Johnson had reported seeing a UFO himself in 1953.[4]
The sources
- The manuscripts. Rand wrote an untitled draft book around 1996, with later revisions. In the early 2000s he sent letters and drafts to John Timmerman of the Center for UFO Studies, and they remain in CUFOS files. Swords read them all.[1]
- McDonald's letters. These confirm that the two knew each other. On 12 February 1968 McDonald told Rand of lost Navy research funding: "If you know of any loose money, let me know." In a September 1967 letter to Edward Welsh of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, he referred to "my visit with him [Rand] last spring".[1]
- Druffel. McDonald's biographer Ann Druffel wrote that Rand's identity was unknown to her, but that he was "apparently a close friend and colleague of McDonald".[1]
Rand's position is described differently in different places: as Humphrey's adviser on military and NASA affairs, and as an assistant to President Johnson.[1][4]
Johnson and UFOs
Johnson's documented interest in UFOs spans three decades:[1]
- 1947. As a young Texas congressman he made a formal request to the War Department for information after a constituent's question.
- 1958. As a senator he asked the Air Force about a Texas incident.
- About 1960. As a senator, after NICAP sent members of Congress a report on UFO secrecy, he ordered the Senate Preparedness Investigating Committee to watch UFO developments, according to Druffel.
The National Archives lists UFO-related holdings at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library. They include Drew Pearson's "Flying Saucers" files, letters to President Johnson from Frank Stranges and George Fawcett, and Johnson's 1947 note to the War Department, but no record of an informal study.[2] McDonald, who testified to Congress in 1968 that UFOs were "entirely real", died in 1971.[3]
Assessment
The study is known only from Rand's own unpublished writings. No document in the Johnson Library or elsewhere confirms it.[1][2] Rand's acquaintance with McDonald is documented, and the members he named were real and senior figures. But whether the study took place as he described cannot be checked. It remains an intriguing but unverified claim.[1][4]
People and topics
- Lyndon Johnson — 36th U.S. president, said to have requested an informal UFO study.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Frank Rand — Aide who described an informal UFO study for President Lyndon Johnson.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Lockheed Martin — The aerospace company whose Skunk Works built the U-2, SR-71 and F-117.
- Kelly Johnson — Lockheed Skunk Works designer of the U-2 and SR-71 who reported a UFO sighting in 1953.
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Arthur Lundahl — Director of the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center from 1953 to 1973.
- James E. McDonald — University of Arizona atmospheric physicist who campaigned for serious UFO research in the 1960s.
- Center for UFO Studies — The research center founded by J. Allen Hynek in 1973.
- John B. Alexander — Retired Army colonel who organized the 1985 Advanced Theoretical Physics group and wrote UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities.
On the Timeline
- Northrop electroaerodynamics research (1968) (1968) — Northrop researchers publish work on reducing drag with electric fields.
- F. Robert Naka and NORAD space tracks (14 February 1968) — A MITRE scientist tells the Condon study that NORAD radars have tracked UAP arriving from space.
See every 1968 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- "U.S. President Lyndon Johnson's secret UFO study", UFOs Scientific Research (Jan 2013) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- "UAPs in presidential libraries", U.S. National Archives · archives.gov · archived copy
- James E. McDonald — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia article “James E. McDonald”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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