Henry J. Taylor secret-weapon broadcast (1950)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Date | 27 March 1950 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic), Congress & law (topic) |
| People | Henry J. Taylor, Joseph Bryan III |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 41 |
| Year | 1950 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1950 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 6 |
In late March 1950, at the height of a new wave of saucer sightings, radio commentator Henry J. Taylor told his national audience that the flying saucers were real and were secret U.S. military projects. The story spread widely before fading within weeks.[1][2]
Taylor
Henry Junior Taylor (1902–1984) was a Chicago-born economist, author and broadcaster who had been a Scripps-Howard foreign correspondent early in the Second World War and afterwards hosted Your Land and Mine, a conservative commentary program sponsored by General Motors.[2]
The broadcast
According to Project Blue Book's Edward Ruppelt, Taylor's broadcast came the night after a report of 26 March 1950, probably on 27 March, from Dallas. Taylor said the saucers were real, that they were American military secrets, and that he could not reveal everything he knew; he also mentioned a saucer supposedly found on a beach near Galveston bearing Air Force markings. He offered little evidence. Two nights later a Los Angeles television station aired a special promising the "first photos" of the military's saucer, which showed the Navy's experimental XF5U fighter, a disc-like design of the 1940s that never went into production. Taylor's argument was reprinted in the June 1950 Reader's Digest as "The 'Flying Saucer' Is Good News".[1][3]
Reaction
The story was widely heard and read, and Ruppelt wrote that the public was left thoroughly confused. The Navy and Air Force said no secret program explained the sightings. The episode showed how quickly a confident-sounding explanation could spread when the government itself said little.[1][4]
Aftermath
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In 1957 Taylor's UFO beliefs prompted questions about whether he was fit to be ambassador to Switzerland, but Eisenhower appointed him and he served until 1961. He continued to believe UFOs were real but dropped the claim that they were American-made.[1][2]
The disinformation theory
The suggestion that the broadcast was a deliberate CIA disinformation effort is a later theory. Researcher Jack Brewer has noted that Joseph Bryan III, who reportedly ran the CIA's psychological warfare unit in this period, later sat on the board of the civilian UFO group NICAP. However, no document has been found showing that the CIA planted Taylor's story.[1]
People and topics
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Disinformation — False information spread deliberately to mislead.
- Henry J. Taylor — Radio commentator who announced in 1950 that flying saucers were secret U.S. weapons.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Joseph Bryan III — Reported head of CIA psychological warfare in the early 1950s who later sat on NICAP's board.
- NICAP — The leading U.S. civilian UFO group of the 1950s and 1960s.
On the Timeline
- Bell Labs source on 1950 crash files (1950) — A Bell Labs source says a former NASA employee had technical files on a 1950 crash retrieval.
- RAND memorandum RM-365 (14 April 1950) — An Air Force-funded RAND paper studies using superstition and the paranormal for psychological warfare.
See every 1950 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "1950 disclosure: UFOs are made in USA", The Saucers That Time Forgot (Nov 2018) · thesaucersthattimeforgot.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Henry J. Taylor — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- NICAP 1950 chronology · nicap.org · archived copy
- Patrick Gross, French press on Taylor's claim (Apr 1950), UFOs at close sight · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- 3.bp.blogspot.com · 3.bp.blogspot.com · archived copy
- ufotrail.blogspot.com · ufotrail.blogspot.com · archived copy
Further reading
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- U.S. congressional hearings on UFOs — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · 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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