The National Archives blog

Posts by Dr David Clarke

Dr David Clarke is Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University. He has a long-standing interest in UFOs and other aerial phenomena, and has worked with The National Archives in promoting UFO material recently released by the Ministry of Defence. He is an experienced journalist, contributing to the Yorkshire Post and other newspapers and magazines including BBC History, as well as acting as researcher and consultant to a range of radio and television productions. A second edition of his book The UFO Files is to be published late Summer 2012.

Thu Jul

2012

Guest blog: Do you believe in UFOs? Part 2 of 2

Posted by Dr David Clarke in Records and research

Quite often I’m asked, what do the files actually tell us? Do aliens exist and have they been visiting us in UFOs? And has the government hidden that fact from us for decades as some conspiracy theorists believe?

Drawing of UFO (DEFE 24/1985/1 p.94)

Thu Jul

2012

Guest blog: Do you believe in UFOs? Part 1 of 2

Posted by Dr David Clarke in Records and research

Do you believe in UFOs? According to opinion polls a third of us do and the files released by The National Archives today show that belief was shared by some politicians and high ranking military personnel.

The Ministry of Defence first began to investigate UFO reports from credible sources at the height of the Cold War when, in 1950, it set up a ‘flying saucer working party.’ But files at The National Archives suggest MoD ‘s real concern at that time was invasion not from outer space, but from behind the Iron Curtain.

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