State Department "no records" reply (1978)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 19 January 1978 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 83 |
| Year | 1978 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1978 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 7 |
According to the testimony, on 19 January 1978 the U.S. State Department told a Freedom of Information Act requester that it had no records on UFOs, and the requester responded by sending back a copy of one of the department's own UFO-related documents, obtained elsewhere. The episode is described in Lawrence Fawcett and Barry Greenwood's 1984 book Clear Intent.[1]
Context
The strengthened Freedom of Information Act of 1974 opened a new front for UFO researchers. Ground Saucer Watch sued the CIA in 1977, leading the agency to release most of some 900 pages of UFO documents in December 1978, and in 1978 Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS) was formed by researchers including Peter Gersten, W. Todd Zechel and Brad Sparks to press other agencies. Several agencies initially said they had little or nothing.[2][3][4]
The State Department's records
Later releases showed that the State Department did handle UFO-related material, including cables from embassies passing on sighting reports and reports of fallen space objects. The CIA papers released to Ground Saucer Watch already showed embassies gathering sighting reports. Fawcett and Greenwood used episodes like this one in Clear Intent to argue that agencies' FOIA answers were incomplete.[1][3]
Assessment
The episode is often cited as an example of agencies giving incomplete answers to FOIA requests, whether through poor searches or deliberate evasion. The UFO requests of the late 1970s helped show how FOIA could be used to open government files.[1][4]
People and topics
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Ground Saucer Watch — A civilian UFO group that sued the CIA for UFO records in the 1970s.
- Citizens Against UFO Secrecy — A civilian group that sued U.S. agencies for UFO records.
- Freedom of Information Act — The 1966 U.S. law that lets the public request government records.
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Project Moon Dust — An Air Force program to locate and recover fallen foreign space objects and debris.
On the Timeline
- Fort Dix–McGuire incident (18 January 1978) — An alleged Air Force form describes a UAP incident and body recovery at Fort Dix and McGuire AFB.
- McDonnell Douglas caller to Vallée (1978) (8 June 1978) — A McDonnell Douglas caller tells Vallée a secret UAP project is monitored by the CIA.
See every 1978 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Lawrence Fawcett and Barry J. Greenwood, *Clear Intent* (1984), Internet Archive · archive.org · archived copy
- Citizens Against UFO Secrecy — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "C.I.A. papers detail U.F.O. surveillance", New York Times (Jan 1979), via Patrick Gross · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- Gerald K. Haines, "CIA's role in the study of UFOs, 1947–90", Studies in Intelligence (1997) · cia.gov · archived copy
- I want to believe: how aliens helped build FOIA — MuckRock · muckrock.com · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
- noufors.com · noufors.com · archived copy
Further reading
- 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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