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duty. More likely, our government misinformed the public in order to take UFOs out of public view. The escalating public demands for answers to something that the Air Force could not explain in the late '60s were burdensome, and the CIA's strategy of "training and debunking" had not been quite enough to take care of the problem. Perhaps the authorities in charge wanted to quell fears about any possible hazards associated with UFOs, since they couldn't do much about them anyway. But it seemed highly unlikely that all official UFO investigations were simply dropped. Now we no longer have to speculate about that question, thanks to an explosive government document, once classified, that was later released through the Freedom of Information Act. Issued secretly two months before the 1969 Air Force announcement that all government UFO investigations would be terminated, it shows that, in fact, UFOs were considered to be a national security issue and would continue to be treated as such. The October 1969 "Bolender memo," as the document has come to UFOs. The purpose of the memo, as sent by Air Force Brigadier General Carroll H. Bolender, a former World War II night fighter pilot who later became NASA's Apollo mission manager, was to officially terminate Project Blue Book. In doing so, Bolender made the point that regulations were already in place through which "reports of unidentified flying objects which could affect national security" are made, those reports that are "not part of the Blue Book system." This suggests that even before the close of Blue Book, the more sensitive reports were already being channeled elsewhere. It goes on to say that "the defense function could be performed within the framework established for intelligence and surveillance within the for within the framework established for intelligence and surveillance operations without the continuance of a special unit such as Project Blue Book." And further: and surveillance Termination of Project Blue Book would leave no official federal office to receive reports of UFOs. However, as already stated, reports of UFOs which could affect national security would continue to be handled through the standard Air Force procedures designed for this purpose. Presumably, local police departments respond to reports which fall within their responsibilities. [10] In other words, the military really didn't need Blue Book—simply a public relations operation anyway—to continue dealing with UFOs. Instead it would, without public scrutiny, keep the necessary case investigations going, telling the people that there had never been an indication of a national security threat from any UFO. Three important points are made clear in the Bolender memo, unknown to most Americans and likely most government and military officials at the time, which tell us the real government position: UFOs can affect national security. et ra ° a " be known, illustrates the duplicity of the government's public stance on A "defense function" may be necessary in responding to UFOs.