Eric Gairy Meets Jimmy Carter to Discuss UFOs at White House
Grenadian Prime Minister Eric Gairy meets with President Jimmy Carter on September 9, 1977, at the White House. Gairy has been pushing UFOs as an international issue since 1975. He proposes that the UN establish a formal body to investigate UFOs. Carter, who himself reported a UFO sighting in 1969, is reportedly sympathetic. This meeting sets the stage for Gairy's formal UN presentation the following month.
Background
On September 9, 1977, Grenadian Prime Minister Eric Gairy met with United States President Jimmy Carter at the White House to discuss unidentified flying objects. The meeting marked a significant diplomatic moment as Gairy sought to elevate UFOs to the status of an international issue requiring formal institutional attention. Carter, who had himself publicly reported a UFO sighting in 1969, received Gairy's proposals regarding the creation of global investigative structures.
The Incident
Eric Gairy had been advocating for international UFO cooperation since 1975, making the subject a consistent priority of his diplomatic agenda. During the September 9 meeting, he formally proposed that the United Nations establish a formal body to investigate UFO phenomena. This represented one of the first instances of a head of state directly lobbying the U.S. President for multilateral UFO research at the highest diplomatic levels.
Investigation
The meeting itself did not constitute a formal investigation into specific UFO incidents. Rather, it focused on institutional responses and the potential creation of investigative frameworks through the United Nations. No immediate public commitment from the Carter administration regarding the UN proposal was documented in available records.
Significance
The encounter holds particular importance in UFO history as it bridged personal experience with political action at the executive level. Carter's 1969 sighting report in Leary, Georgia, made him the first U.S. President to publicly acknowledge seeing a UFO, lending unique context to his discussion with Gairy. The meeting exemplifies the mid-1970s period when UFOs received consideration as matters of international diplomacy, with Gairy leading efforts to transform the phenomenon from a national security concern into a global cooperative issue requiring formal United Nations attention.