Truman's oral UFO briefings
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 1948 |
|---|---|
| People | Harry S. Truman, Robert B. Landry |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 40 |
| Year | 1948 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1948 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 5 |
Truman's oral UFO briefings were quarterly verbal reports on flying saucers that Major General Robert B. Landry, President Harry S. Truman's Air Force aide from 1948 to 1953, said he gave the President. Landry's account appears in his oral history for the Truman Library.[1] In 1948, he said, Truman called him to the Oval Office and told him that if there was any evidence of a strategic threat, the collection and evaluation of UFO data by Central Intelligence deserved attention "at the highest government level". Landry was to report every quarter, after consulting intelligence officials, on whether any UFO incidents had threatening implications.[1] The reports were to be oral unless intelligence judged a case serious enough for a written report. Landry said every report in his four and a half years was oral, and that nothing credible or threatening ever came in.[1] A 2024 timeline submitted to Congress lists the arrangement under 1948.[5]
Robert B. Landry
- Early career. According to the biographical sketch attached to his oral history, Robert Broussard Landry was born in New Orleans on 1 December 1909. He entered West Point in 1928 and was commissioned in 1932.[1][2]
- The Second World War. He became an Army Air Corps pilot and served with the Eighth Air Force in Britain, winning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal.[2]
- Before the White House. After the war he taught at the National War College (1946) and was executive officer to the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Carl Spaatz (1947).[1]
- Truman's aide. On the evening of 5 February 1948 he was called by the White House about the new post of Air Force aide to the President. He became the first Air Force officer to hold it, serving from 1948 to 1953 and rising from colonel to major general.[1][2]
- Later life. He retired as a major general and died in Scottsdale, Arizona.[2]
Landry's account
The Truman Library's James R. Fuchs interviewed Landry in Scottsdale on 28 February 1974. Landry later reviewed the transcript and, his "memory bank energized" by records he had since sent to the Library, added a set of further items. The UFO passage is one of these additions, headed "Subject: UFOs; Date: 1948".[1]
- The climate. Landry recalled that the UFO phenomenon was then "getting quite a bit of play" in the press, radio and other outlets. People were reporting "attempted UFO landings", UFOs hovering over isolated areas, and even "little men with big round heads getting in and out of a UFO". The President, "like any other citizen", was exposed to all this.[1]
- The meeting. One afternoon Truman called him to the Oval Office. They discussed what all these "rather way-out reports of sightings" might mean.[1]
- Truman's view. Truman said he had not given the reports much serious thought. But, he said, if there was any evidence of a strategic threat to national security, the collection and evaluation of UFO data by Central Intelligence "warranted more intense study and attention at the highest government level".[1]
- The instruction. Landry was directed to report quarterly to the President, after consulting Central Intelligence, on whether any UFO incidents they had received could be considered to have "any strategic threatening implications at all".[1]
- Oral or written. The report was to be made orally unless intelligence considered a case "so serious or alarming as to warrant a more detailed report in writing".[1]
- The outcome. "During the four and one-half years in office there, all reports were made orally," Landry said. "Nothing of substance considered credible or threatening to the country was ever received from intelligence."[1]
- The Air Force's role. Landry added that the Department of Defense had charged the Air Force with collecting and evaluating UFO data from all sources, including the other services and the National Weather Service.[1]
The account does not say exactly when in 1948 the meeting took place, nor how long the quarterly reports continued. It also does not say which "Central Intelligence" officials Landry consulted.[1]
The records
- The oral history. Landry's oral history is published on the Truman Library's website and was opened in 1992. It may be quoted and cited for research, but not published in full without the Library's permission.[1]
- Other material. The Library also holds a second Landry oral history by the Air Force's Oral History Office, a set of Landry Files among the White House staff files, and his personal papers.[1][2]
- His papers. The papers, about 2,400 pages, consist mostly of personal correspondence with Truman after 1953, newspaper scrapbooks and photograph albums.[2]
- The "witch-hunting" report. The papers include a report Landry prepared at Truman's request on "mass hysteria and 'witch-hunting' in American history". He submitted it on 31 October 1949, and Truman later drew on it in speeches against McCarthyism.[2]
- Other Truman Library holdings. The National Archives' guide to UFO records in presidential libraries lists, for the Truman Library, a White House general file on "Flying Saucers", minutes of the Psychological Strategy Board, a later letter from the UFO writer Donald Keyhoe to the former President, and the Landry oral histories.[3]
- A compilation. A PDF compilation titled "The Harry Truman UFO Files" is also listed among this article's sources, but could not be read for this rewrite.[4]
Interpretation
The 2024 UFO timeline compiled by Michael Shellenberger and submitted to the House Oversight Committee summarises the arrangement as Truman asking Landry "to give him quarterly updates on UAP research but to do so verbally", adding: "No records are kept."[5]
- The written-report clause. Landry's own words are slightly different. The reports were to be oral unless something serious enough for a written report came up, and in his time nothing did.[1]
- Two readings. Some researchers see the lack of a paper trail as significant. Others read Landry's account as showing that a president took the subject seriously enough to ask, and was repeatedly told there was nothing to it.[1][5]
- Hindsight. Landry's addition was written decades after the events, from memory and his own records. No contemporaneous record of the briefings is cited in the sources read here.[1]
People and topics
- Harry S. Truman — 33rd U.S. president (1945–53), in office during the first flying disc wave and the start of official UFO studies.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Robert B. Landry — Truman's Air Force aide who said the president asked for quarterly oral briefings on UFOs.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
On the Timeline
- Research and Development Board dismisses the discs (1948) (31 January 1948) — A Pentagon research board publicly dismisses flying saucers as mirages and mass self-hypnosis.
- White Sands blown-window crash claim (1948) (1948) — An anonymous source claims a disc crashed at White Sands with its occupants dead from a blown-out window.
See every 1948 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Harry S. Truman — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- "Oral history interview with Robert B. Landry" (1974), Harry S. Truman Library · trumanlibrary.gov · archived copy
- "Robert B. Landry papers", Harry S. Truman Library · trumanlibrary.gov · archived copy
- "UAP records at presidential libraries", U.S. National Archives · archives.gov · archived copy
- The Harry Truman UFO files (PDF) — Curiosmos · curiosmos.com · archived copy
- Michael Shellenberger, written testimony to the House Oversight Committee (13 November 2024), p. 40 · oversight.house.gov
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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