A series of leaked U.S. State Department diplomatic cables from 1978 have revealed how the United Nations almost set up a committee to research alien and UFO sightings.
The initiative was forwarded by Prime Minister Sir Eric Gairy, whose administration ran the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada. Gairy had a deep personal interest in extraterrestrials and UFO encounters, proposing to the U.N. that a formal investigatory committee be organised.
One classified cable humorously describes Gairy as “undaunted by a lack of response” to his committee idea, having “laid the groundwork for a blitzkrieg sales pitch which will include a cast of supporters ranging from scientists to astronauts, supplemented by a Hollywood film production.” The cable goes on to request instruction as to what the formal U.S. position would be on this.
The document is one of many in an enormous cable dump published in 2015 by WikiLeaks. Consisting of over half a million official correspondence documents, the leak not only offers a behind-the-scenes look at the important geopolitical events in 1978 but also exposes the U.S. government’s interest in the Grenadian committee resolution.