"The matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States Government, rating higher even than the H-bomb"
Canadian Government memorandum, classified Top Secret (1950)

" . . . we have lost many men and planes trying to intercept them."
Benjamin Chidlaw, Commanding General, Air Defense Command (1953)

"I am convinced these objects do exist and that they are not manufactured by any nation on Earth."
Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding (1954)

"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."
Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, former CIA Director (1960)

"I am aware that hundreds of military and airline pilots, airport personnel, astronomers, missile trackers and other competent observers have reported sightings . . . These UFOs are interplanetary devices systematically observing the earth, either manned or under remote control, or both."
Colonel Joseph Bryan, CIA (1960)

"We appeal to all viewers to send us details of any observations of strange flying craft. This is a serious challenge to Science, and we need the help of all Soviet citizens."
Dr Felix Zigel, Moscow Aviation Institute (1967)

"I must say that if listeners could see for themselves the mass of reports coming in from the airborne gendarmerie, from the mobile gendarmerie, and from the gendarmerie charged with the job of conducting investigations, all of which reports are forwarded by us to the National Centre for Space Studies, then they would see that it is all pretty disturbing."
Robert Galley, French Minister of Defence (1974)

" . . . It is still classified above Top Secret. I have, however, heard that there is a plan to release some, if not all, of this material in the near future."
Senator Barry Goldwater,
Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee (1975)

"As the [Iranian Air Force] F-4 continued pursuit south of Tehran, a second brightly-lit object detached from the original UFO and headed straight for the F-4 at a high rate of speed. The pilot attempted to fire an AIM-9 missile at the new object but was prevented by a sudden power loss in his weapons control panel . . . "
U.S. Air Force Security Service report, classified Secret (1978)

"The U.S. President said that if the Earth faced an invasion by extraterrestrials, the United States and the Soviet Union would join forces to repel such an invasion . . . "
President Gorbachev, Grand Kremlin Palace (1987)

"I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And yet, I ask, is not an alien force already among us . . . ?"
President Reagan, United Nations General Assembly (1987)

" . . . When that truth of alien intervention in our planet's affairs and our ongoing contact with an alien culture is finally revealed, it won't be frightening even though it will be a shock."
Colonel Philip Corso, who served on President Eisenhower's
National Security Council staff (1997)

“. . . The classification was, from the outset, above Top Secret, so the vast majority of U.S. officials and politicians, let alone a mere allied minister of defence, were never in the loop . . . The time has come to lift the veil of secrecy and let the truth emerge so there can be a real and informed debate about the one of the most important problems facing our planet today.”
Paul Hellyer, former Canadian Minister of Defence (2005)