Disinformation & hoaxes (topic)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🧭 Topic overview
Contents 3
Disinformation & hoaxes (topic)
| Type | Topic overview |
|---|---|
| Events | 31 |
| Years | 1948–2019 |
| Timeline | Show on the Timeline |
Disinformation & hoaxes is one of the twelve topics on the UAP Timeline. It covers hoaxes, forged documents and deliberate disinformation. The Timeline lists 31 events on this topic, from 1948 to 2019.
Key people
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
- Ryan Wood — Researcher who published the Majestic documents with his father Robert Wood.
- William Moore — Researcher who admitted in 1989 that he cooperated with intelligence agents in the Bennewitz affair.
- Richard Doty — Air Force Office of Special Investigations agent who fed disinformation to UFO researchers in the 1980s.
- Robert M. Wood — McDonnell Douglas engineer who ran an in-house UFO study and later promoted the MJ-12 documents.
- J. Allen Hynek — Astronomer and Air Force UFO consultant from 1948 to 1969 who later founded the Center for UFO Studies.
- Christopher "Kit" Green — CIA physician and analyst who became a long-time contact of Jacques Vallée and studied UAP-related injuries.
- Paul Bennewitz — Albuquerque physicist targeted by Air Force disinformation in the Bennewitz affair.
- Donald Keyhoe — Retired Marine officer, author and director of NICAP who campaigned against UFO secrecy.
- Brad Sparks — UFO analyst known for his catalogue of Blue Book unknowns and work on the CIA lawsuit.
- John F. Kennedy — 35th U.S. president, named in disputed MJ-12 memos.
- John Lear — Pilot and son of Bill Lear who spread claims of alien treaties in the late 1980s.
- Jim Westwood — Former CIA consultant who studied the MJ-12 papers.
- Harold Puthoff — Physicist who co-founded the SRI remote-viewing research and later worked on AAWSAP and To The Stars Academy.
- Vannevar Bush — Wartime science leader named in the MJ-12 papers.
- Nathan Twining — Commander of Air Materiel Command who wrote the 1947 memo calling the flying discs "something real".
Programs, places and terms
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- MJ-12 — Disputed documents describing a secret committee managing crashed saucers.
- Disinformation — False information spread deliberately to mislead.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation — The U.S. federal police agency, which helped check flying disc reports from 1947 to 1950.
- Air Force Office of Special Investigations — The Air Force's criminal investigation and counterintelligence agency.
- U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — The Ohio air base that housed Project Blue Book and is linked to the Hangar 18 legend.
- Project Blue Book — The Air Force's public UFO investigation from 1952 until its closure in December 1969.
- Robertson Panel —
- Roswell — The New Mexico town at the center of the 1947 crash story.
- Alien autopsy film — A 1995 film of an alleged alien autopsy, admitted in 2006 to have been staged.
- Bennewitz affair —
- Holloman Air Force Base — An Air Force base next to White Sands.
Events
- 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.
- RAND memorandum RM-365 (14 April 1950) — An Air Force-funded RAND paper studies using superstition and the paranormal for psychological warfare.
- Holloman cigar-shaped object film (1950) (July 1950) — A Holloman AFB contractor films a cigar-shaped metallic object and hands the film to the base.
- Robertson Panel (18 January 1953) — The CIA's Robertson Panel recommends stripping UAP of special status and reducing public interest.
- Albert Chop and the Tremonton film release (9 February 1953) — Air Force spokesman Albert Chop claims the CIA killed a press release and ordered a debunking campaign.
- SOM1-01 Special Operations Manual (1954) — Engineer Bob Wood reportedly suspects the 'SOM1-01' manual was created as Cold War disinformation.
- Douglas Aircraft unconventional propulsion study (1955) — An aerospace executive claims he worked in a UAP group at Douglas Aircraft from 1955.
- Allende letters and the Philadelphia Experiment (April 1956) — Morris Jessup receives letters claiming a secret Navy experiment at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
- NICAP fed a fake crash story (1957) (May 1957) — Civilian group NICAP is fed a fake UAP crash story by a source with NSA ties.
- Ekuk, Alaska sighting (1960) (19 May 1960) — Alaska residents report a silver object hovering and dragging trash cans; the Air Force investigates.
- Kennedy MJ-12 memo of June 1961 (28 June 1961) — An alleged Kennedy memo asks the CIA to review 'MJ-12' operations.
- Moon Dust, Blue Fly and UFO draft policy (1961) (13 November 1961) — An Air Force draft policy names intelligence teams for Projects Moon Dust, Blue Fly and 'UFO'.
- Vallée's doubts about Kit Green (1974) (16 June 1974) — Vallée wonders whether his UAP talks with Kit Green are a CIA cover story.
- Hynek on the Robertson Panel's legacy (1979) — Hynek says the Robertson Panel set an unwritten Air Force rule to play UAP down.
- Spread of the Bennewitz disinformation (1980s Undefined) — Doty's fake document spreads to the public and into books and media.
- Doty's psychological operations claim (1980s) — Doty says an Air Force unit ran psychological operations on people who saw secret aircraft.
- Weitzel letter (1980) (July 1980) — Air Force counterintelligence officer Richard Doty delivers a forged letter to a civilian UAP group.
- Kit Green on MJ-12 (1988) (23 October 1988) — Kit Green tells Vallée that 'MJ12' was real.
- Vallée on the disinformation campaign (1989) (17 September 1989) — Vallée writes there is a large disinformation campaign around UAP.
- Rockefeller Initiative (15 April 1993) — White House science office papers show CIA interest in a UAP researcher's work.
- Richard Weaver on MJ-12 (1993) (12 October 1993) — An Air Force colonel calls MJ-12 and its documents bogus but can't say how that was decided.
- Edward Dudgeon and the Philadelphia Navy Yard (1994) — A Navy veteran tells Vallée about his time at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
- Hynek autopsy rumor (1994) (26 February 1994) — Vallée and a filmmaker discuss a rumor about Hynek and autopsies, calling it disinformation.
- Air Force 2025 (May 1996) — An Air Force research paper imagines future air and space capabilities by 2025.
- Corso's doubts about autopsy reports (1997) (13 January 1997) — Philip Corso tells Vallée he may have received disinformation about alien autopsies.
- Jim Westwood's MJ-12 disinformation theory (1 January 1999) — A former CIA consultant suggests the MJ-12 briefing document was a fake to fool the KGB.
- Burned Kennedy MJ memo (23 January 1999) — An alleged JFK-era 'MJ' memo is sent to a researcher.
- Westwood on MJ-12 disinformation (2001) (5 May 2001) — A consultant tells Vallée the MJ-12 documents are disinformation.
- DIA source notes on fake MJ-12 papers (2004) (26 March 2004) — Davis receives notes from a DIA source about fake MJ-12 papers and a secret project.
- Kit Green's autopsy tissue package (2011) — Kit Green says he received an anonymous package of supposed alien autopsy tissue.
- InterNASA lawsuit (26 February 2019) — A TV producer sues former officials over a company called InterNASA.
Other topics
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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