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You can read a collection of declassified documents here, most of them from the CIA and obtained as explained in the newspaper article underneath.
The article is from the daily newspaper The New York Times, January 1st, 1979.
Ground Saucer Watch (GSW), an Arizona-based nation-wide UFO research organization of about 500 scientists, engineers and others, said on Friday it has obtained 1,000 pages of CIA documents under a freedom of information suit which show that the agency has been secretly involved in UFO surveillance since 1949 - even though the CIA has repeatedly said its investigation ended in 1952. William Spauldintg, an aerospace engineer with AiResearch and head of GSW, said "the Government has been lying to us all these years. After reviewing the docments, GSW believes that UFOs do exist, they are real, the U.S. Government has been totally untruthful, and the cover-up is massive."
Mr. Spaulding said the documents show that U.S. embassies are used to gather information on UFO sightings which "seems to be directed to the CIA, the White House and the National Security Agency." A CIA memo dated August 1, 1952, recommended continued agency surveillance of "flying saucers", saying, "It is strongly urged, however, that no indication of CIA interest or concern reach the press or public, in view of their probably alarmist tendencies to accept such interest as confirmatory of the soundness of 'unpublished facts' in the hands of the U.S. Government."
Among the documents are several detailed reports of USAF attempts to either intercept or destroy UFOs. In a 1976 incident in Iran, two F-4 Phantom jet fighter-bombers pursued a large UFO that was sending out smaller craft. One of the smaller craft "headed straight for the F-4 at a very fast rate of speed. The pilot attempted to fire an AI missile at the object but at that instant his weapons control panel went off and he lost all communications." the pilot eluded the craft, then watched as it "returned to the primary object for a perfect rejoin."
A CIA document dated October 2, 1952, shows that a major point of concern is that UFO sightings could mask Russian air attacks or "psychological warfare". This report to the CIA director from the assistant director for the Office of Scientific Intelligence recommends that the National Security Council be advised of the "implications of the flying saucer problem"; that the matter be discussed with the Psychological Strategy Board; and that the CIA help "develop...a policy of public information which will minimize concern and possible panic resulting from the numerous sightings of unidentified objects."
A November, 1975 document directs against acknowledging any pattern in sightings. "Unless there is evidence which links sightings, or unless media queries link sightings, queries can best be handled individually at the source and as questions arise. Response should be direct, forthright and emphasize that the action taken was in response to an isolated or specific incident."
According to Mr. Spaulding, "We find a concentration of sightings around our military installations, research & development areas. The UFO phenomenon is following what our own astronauts are doing on other plants - we send a scoutship, we take soil samples and then we land." Mr. Spaulding said he has sworn statements from retired USAF colonels that at least 2 UFOs have crash-landed and been recovered by USAF. One crash was in New Mexico in 1948, and the other near Kingman, AZ in 1953. The retired officers claimed they got a glimpse of dead aliens who were in both cases about 4 feet tall with silverish complexions and silver outfits that "seemed fused to the body from the heat."
GSW is waiting for a Federal judge to rule on the last phase of its CIA suit, which seeks access to 57 items that could provide "hard evidence" of UFOs with "retreivals of the third kind" such as motion pictures, gun camera film and residue from landings. Among the films they want is 40-48 frames taken in 1952 by Ralph Mayher, then a cameraman for KYW-TV, Cleveland, OH, and now a GSW member. USAF borrowed the film in 1957 and has never returned it; officially stating the filmed object was a meteor. Said Mr. Spaulding, "We're past the story-telling stage. We have to have it in black and white to satisfy the scientific community".
