Gerald K. Haines

Gerald K. Haines, an American historian, served as the official historian of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). He authored the seminal 1997 publication 'CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90,' a comprehensive CIA-commissioned study detailing the agency's involvement in UFO investigations from the late 1940s through the 1990s. Haines revealed that over half of UFO reports in the late 1950s and 1960s were misidentifications of high-altitude U-2 spy plane flights, which the Air Force deliberately downplayed to protect classified programs, fueling conspiracy theories. He analyzed early projects like SIGN, GRUDGE, and BLUE BOOK, the 1953 Robertson Panel's dismissal of UFO threats, and CIA's national security concerns amid Cold War tensions. His work, published in Studies in Intelligence, provided declassified insights into government UFO handling, emphasizing prosaic explanations over extraterrestrial origins.