Project Windfall claim
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 4
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| Date | 1978 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | John Keel |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 82 |
| Year | 1978 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1978 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 2 |
Project Windfall claim — John Keel says the CIA ran Project Windfall, an investigation of UAP contactees.
John Keel was a journalist and author best known for The Mothman Prophecies (1975), about strange events in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. He was an influential and often provocative writer who argued that UFOs were part of a wider paranormal phenomenon rather than simply alien spacecraft.
According to the testimony, Keel wrote in 1978 that the CIA had run a covert investigation of UFO contactees in the 1960s, which he called "Project Windfall". The claim appears in one of his articles, including a piece about Gen. Douglas MacArthur's supposed interest in UFOs.
No documents confirming a "Project Windfall" have surfaced, and it's not clear what Keel's source was. The CIA did keep an eye on civilian UFO groups in the 1950s, as recommended by the Robertson Panel. Keel's claim should be treated as unverified.
People and topics
- John Keel — Writer and author of The Mothman Prophecies who popularized the Men in Black.
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Contactee — A person who claims friendly contact with extraterrestrials, especially the 1950s claimants.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- McDonnell Douglas — The aerospace company that ran several quiet studies of UFOs and propulsion.
- Robertson Panel — Robertson Panel
On the Timeline
- Carter request and NASA's UFO decision (1977) (13 December 1977) — A NASA safety chief writes that a possible UFO fragment was studied at Los Alamos.
- Charred body in Colorado claim (1978) (1978) — An Air Force technician says he saw a charred alien body at an underground site in Colorado.
See every 1978 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- John Keel — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- scribd.com · scribd.com · archived copy
Further reading
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
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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