Arthur Lundahl and presidential briefings
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Date | 1994 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Government programs (topic) |
| People | Grant Cameron, Arthur Lundahl, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Frank Rand, Lyndon Johnson |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 118 |
| Year | 1994 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1994 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 3 |
Arthur C. Lundahl (1915–1992) was director of the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) from 1953 to 1973, and briefed Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson on spy-plane and satellite imagery. Researcher Grant Cameron reports rumours that he also briefed presidents on UFOs, a claim that remains unconfirmed.[1][2]
Career
Born in Chicago on 1 April 1915, Lundahl studied geology at the University of Chicago and learned photo interpretation in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War, analysing aerial photographs of targets in Japan, the Aleutians and the Kuril Islands. He joined the CIA in 1953 to lead its photographic interpretation work and built NPIC into a centre combining photo interpretation, photogrammetry and data processing.[1]
The Cuban Missile Crisis
NPIC analysed imagery from the U-2 spy plane and, from 1960, from CORONA reconnaissance satellites. Analysts under Lundahl found Soviet medium-range ballistic missiles in Cuba in U-2 photographs taken on 14 October 1962, and he briefed President Kennedy on 16 October. He received a personal commendation from Kennedy, and on retirement in 1973 the National Security Medal; in 1974 he was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He died in Bethesda, Maryland, on 22 June 1992.[1]
UFO work
NPIC did analyse some UFO material. In February 1967 members of the University of Colorado UFO study led by Edward Condon visited NPIC for a briefing on photographic analysis, on condition that its work not be attributed to the CIA and that it produce no written conclusions, and in May 1967 the team reviewed NPIC's analysis of photographs from Zanesville, Ohio, which showed the sighting to be a hoax. Jacques Vallée has recounted a conversation with Lundahl about a piece of metal said to have been shot from a UFO over Washington in 1952.[1]
The briefing claim
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Cameron, who studies presidents and UFOs, reports rumours that Lundahl briefed presidents on UFOs and took a personal interest in the subject; Lundahl is also named in an account of an informal UFO study for President Johnson. No record shows that he briefed presidents on UFOs.[2][3]
In the testimony
The testimony cites: 2nd Annual UFO Crash Retrieval Conference, p98.
People and topics
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- Grant Cameron — Canadian researcher of UFOs and U.S. presidents.
- 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.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- National Photographic Interpretation Center — The CIA-run center that analysed spy-plane and satellite images.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower — 34th U.S. president, named in the MJ-12 briefing document.
- John F. Kennedy — 35th U.S. president, named in disputed MJ-12 memos.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Frank Rand — Aide who described an informal UFO study for President Lyndon Johnson.
- Lyndon Johnson — 36th U.S. president, said to have requested an informal UFO study.
- Condon Report — Condon Report
On the Timeline
- Puthoff pitches vacuum energy (1994) (1994) — Hal Puthoff says he pitched vacuum energy technology to oil companies.
- Andrew Kissner and the 1947 crashes (1994) — A former New Mexico legislator says sources told him 1947 disc crashes caused deaths.
See every 1994 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Arthur C. Lundahl — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Grant Cameron: UFOs and U.S. presidents", HuffPost (Mar 2013) · huffingtonpost.com · archived copy
- Robertson Panel — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
Further reading
- Robertson Panel — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- 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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