Victor Marchetti's Second Look article
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Date | May 1979 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Military encounters (topic) |
| People | Victor Marchetti |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 88 |
| Year | 1979 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1979 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 7 |
Victor Marchetti (1929–2018), a former CIA officer and later one of the agency's best-known critics, wrote in the May 1979 issue of the magazine Second Look an article titled "How the CIA Views the UFO Phenomenon", saying he had heard rumours at high levels of the agency about crashed craft and alien bodies, while stressing that he had no direct knowledge.[1][2]
Marchetti
Marchetti was born in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. After Army intelligence service in Europe and a brief spell at the National Security Agency, he joined the CIA in 1955, serving in the Office of National Estimates and from 1968 as special assistant to Deputy Director Rufus Taylor. He resigned in 1969.[1]
*The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence*
In 1972 the CIA obtained a court order requiring prepublication review of his writing, and when The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, co-written with John Marks, was published in 1974, it appeared with blank spaces where the agency had forced deletions; passages the CIA had withdrawn objections to were printed in bold.[1]
The article
In Second Look, Marchetti said the subject was treated as very sensitive at the agency, and that while he had no direct knowledge of alien contact, he had heard rumours at high levels about crashed craft and alien bodies, sometimes described as "little gray men" kept on ice. He was careful to describe these as rumours, and speculated that the secrecy might hide the fact that the government had concluded there was nothing there.[2][3]
Later life
Marchetti later wrote for The Spotlight, the newspaper of the far-right Liberty Lobby, and in 1981 was sued for defamation by former CIA officer E. Howard Hunt over an article on the Kennedy assassination; on appeal he admitted key parts rested on unverified rumours. His UFO article was later republished in the Journal of Historical Review. He died in 2018.[1]
Assessment
The article is often quoted because it comes from a senior insider with a record of exposing real CIA secrets. Skeptics point out that he explicitly said he had no proof, and his later association with fringe publications has also been noted.[1][2]
People and topics
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Victor Marchetti — Former CIA executive assistant who wrote about the agency's view of UFOs in 1979.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
On the Timeline
- Hampton Roads bodies claim (1979) (5 April 1979) — A source says 13 bodies and two saucers were stored at a base in Hampton Roads, Virginia.
- Southeastern Oregon crash claim (1979) (27 June 1979) — An informant claims a craft crashed in southeastern Oregon and he helped load crates.
See every 1979 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Victor Marchetti — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Robert Hastings, on Marchetti's 1979 Second Look article · ufohastings.com · archived copy
- CIA reading room record mentioning Marchetti's UFO article · cia.gov · archived copy
- CIA's role in the study of UFOs, 1947–90 — CIA · cia.gov · archived copy
- scribd.com · scribd.com · archived copy
- not-devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com · not-devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com · archived copy
- ufohastings.com · ufohastings.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Hangar 18 (the legend and 1980 film) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- UFO documents — NSA · nsa.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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