Newsreel footage of Maj. Gen. John Samford's July 1952 Pentagon press conference US Gov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Maj. Gen. John Samford, Air Force Director of Intelligence, held a Pentagon press conference on the Washington sightings. He said the reports showed no threat to the U.S., that temperature inversions might explain the radar returns, and that the objects were not U.S. tests.