Rumsfeld's "no need to know" remark
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 13 April 1975 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic), Congress & law (topic) |
| People | J. Allen Hynek, Donald Rumsfeld, Jacques Vallée, Gerald Ford |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 80 |
| Year | 1975 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1975 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 4 |
According to Jacques Vallée's journals, on 13 April 1975 astronomer J. Allen Hynek met Donald Rumsfeld, then White House chief of staff to President Gerald Ford, and asked whether there was a secret government UFO study. Rumsfeld curtly replied that Hynek had no need to know.[1]
Rumsfeld and UFOs
Rumsfeld had been a Republican member of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics in July 1968, when it held its "Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects", chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush, with testimony from Hynek, James McDonald, Carl Sagan and others. Rumsfeld was a committee member at the session but not a witness or chair. He later served twice as Secretary of Defense, in 1975–77 and 2001–06.[2][3]
Hynek's reaction
Vallée recorded that Hynek was unsure whether Rumsfeld was simply being bureaucratic or actually knew something. The entry is one of many in Vallée's journals in which he and his colleagues weighed hints that a secret UFO project existed; by 1989 Vallée wrote that he had found no evidence of an active one.[1]
Assessment
The anecdote comes only from Vallée's journals, as told to him by Hynek. It is often cited as a hint that something existed, though "no need to know" could also be a polite way of declining a subject Rumsfeld knew or cared little about.[1]
People and topics
(b).jpg)
- J. Allen Hynek — Astronomer and Air Force UFO consultant from 1948 to 1969 who later founded the Center for UFO Studies.
- Donald Rumsfeld — White House chief of staff and Secretary of Defense who reportedly told Hynek he had no need to know.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
- Gerald Ford — U.S. congressman and later president who called for UFO hearings in 1966.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
On the Timeline
- Transfer of the Blue Book files (1975) (April 1975) — Blue Book files are withdrawn from public access; some papers are allegedly destroyed or redacted.
- CIA Domestic Collection Division memo (1976) (26 April 1976) — A CIA teletype says agency staff monitor UAP unofficially.
See every 1975 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "Was there secret US government research?", UFOs Scientific Research (Oct 2016) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- "1968 House Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects", UFOpedia · ufopedia.pages.dev · archived copy
- J. Allen Hynek — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science — the journals of Jacques Vallée (Anomaly Archives) · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
Further reading
- Project Blue Book — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Project Blue Book records — National Archives · archives.gov · archived copy
- Project Blue Book files — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- J. Allen Hynek — 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.
No discussion yet.