Hillenkoetter's 1960 call for hearings
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| Who | Vice Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter (1897–1982), first director of the CIA (1947–1950) |
|---|---|
| Role in 1960 | Member of NICAP's board of governors (about 1957–1962) |
| February 1960 statement | "It is time for the truth to be brought out in open Congressional hearings." |
| Later remarks | UFOs "are operating under intelligent control" (reported 1 June 1960) |
| Reported in | The New York Times (described as a letter to Congress); Worcester Evening Gazette, 1 June 1960 (Bulkley Griffin) |
| Outcome | No hearings; Hillenkoetter left NICAP's board in 1962 |
| Date | 22 June 1960 |
| People | Roscoe Hillenkoetter |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 63 |
| Year | 1960 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1960 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 6 |
In 1960 Vice Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the first director of the Central Intelligence Agency, publicly criticised official secrecy about UFOs and called for open congressional hearings.[1][2] In a February 1960 statement he said: "Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense."[1][2] He later went further, saying the objects "are operating under intelligent control".[2] His statements came while he sat on the board of the civilian group NICAP. They are still widely cited by people who believe in a cover-up.[1][5]
Hillenkoetter
Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter graduated from the Naval Academy in 1919 and joined the Office of Naval Intelligence in 1933.[1] His career in outline:[1]
- Before the war. He served as assistant naval attaché in France, Spain and Portugal. He helped evacuate Americans during the Spanish Civil War and aided the underground in Vichy France.
- The war. As executive officer of the battleship West Virginia, he was wounded at Pearl Harbor. He then ran intelligence on Admiral Nimitz's Pacific Fleet staff until 1943.
- After the war. He commanded USS Missouri in 1946.
- The CIA. He was Director of Central Intelligence from 1 May 1947 to 7 October 1950. His tenure was criticised for the agency's failure to foresee the Soviet atomic test of 1949 and the North Korean invasion of 1950.
- Retirement. His last post was Inspector General of the Navy, and he retired as a vice admiral on 1 May 1957.
NICAP
NICAP was founded on 24 October 1956 and soon led by Donald Keyhoe, Hillenkoetter's Naval Academy classmate.[5] Hillenkoetter joined its board of governors in about 1957, lending the group an eminent establishment name. Keyhoe wrote that Hillenkoetter wanted public disclosure of UFO evidence.[1][5] Its early head, Rear Admiral Delmer Fahrney, had told a press conference in January 1957 that UFOs were "under intelligent control" and of neither American nor Soviet origin.[5] NICAP campaigned throughout for congressional hearings and argued that the government was covering up UFO evidence.[5]
The 1960 statements
Hillenkoetter's February 1960 statement said:[1][2]
- Hearings. "It is time for the truth to be brought out in open Congressional hearings."
- Concern. "Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs."
- Secrecy. "But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense."
The statement is usually described as a letter to Congress reported by The New York Times.[1] A newspaper clipping preserved in the CIA's reading room comes from a different paper: the Worcester (Massachusetts) Evening Gazette of 1 June 1960, by its Washington bureau chief Bulkley Griffin.[2][6] Griffin reported that Hillenkoetter had since gone further:[2]
- Control. "The unknown objects are operating under intelligent control. It is imperative that we learn where the UFO's come from and what their purpose is."
- Origin. Referring to the war years and just after, he said, "I know that neither Russia nor this country had anything even approaching such high speeds and maneuvers."
Griffin's argument
Griffin set the statements against the U-2 affair of May 1960. The U.S. government had then announced a prepared "cover story" that Francis Gary Powers's spy plane was a weather aircraft.[2] His argument:[2]
- The question. If the government lied "by prearrangement" about the U-2, was the Air Force also following "a prearranged plan" on UFOs?
- The regulation. He pointed to Air Force Regulation 200-2, which he said barred release of unexplained sightings.
- His caveat. He conceded that "the majority of sightings obviously involve mistaken identity".
- Congress. He noted that congressional committees "have shied away" from a probe, fearing ridicule.
Around the same time, a UPI report of February 1960 said the Air Force regarded UFOs as a serious matter, after NICAP publicised a late-1959 Air Force order telling commanders to take reports seriously. That report is held in the CIA's reading room, but the page as retrieved showed only the reading room's front page.[3]
Aftermath
No congressional hearings followed in 1960.[5] Hillenkoetter left NICAP's board in 1962 without publicly explaining why.[1][5] His name later appeared in the disputed Majestic 12 papers as "MJ-1", a member of an alleged secret committee. Those papers were declared "completely bogus" by the FBI.[4] He died in 1982.[1]
Assessment
Hillenkoetter's statements are documented and carry weight because of his former post.[1][2] They give his opinion, though, not evidence. He did not say what reports or knowledge his conclusions rested on, and he had left the CIA almost a decade earlier.[2] Their importance lies in showing that a former intelligence chief publicly doubted the Air Force's openness on the subject.[1][5]
People and topics
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Roscoe Hillenkoetter — First Director of Central Intelligence (1947–50) and later NICAP board member; named in the disputed MJ-12 papers.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- NICAP — The leading U.S. civilian UFO group of the 1950s and 1960s.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- MJ-12 — Disputed documents describing a secret committee managing crashed saucers.
On the Timeline
- Ekuk, Alaska sighting (1960) (19 May 1960) — Alaska residents report a silver object hovering and dragging trash cans; the Air Force investigates.
- Ben Guerir guards' sighting (1960) (1960) — An airman in Morocco says glowing UAP prompted jet fighters to scramble.
See every 1960 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
References
- Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Ex-CIA chief wants UFO probe", Worcester Gazette (1 Jun 1960), via UFOpedia · ufopedia.pages.dev · archived copy
- "Air Force says UFOs are serious" (UPI, Feb 1960), CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- Majestic 12 — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- NICAP — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- cia.gov · cia.gov · archived copy
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter”, “Majestic 12”, “NICAP”, 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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