n advanced reconnaissance device of a foreign government or of extraterrestrial origins,  it reads.

 At one point during observation,  beams  were observed emanating from object,  it reads.

Then there is a file likely to raise eyebrows among those who believe the government has been covering-up what it knows about UFOs. It contains a memo dated Jan. 9, 1958, that was written by a R.P.B. Lohman, who appears to be a CIA officer.

In it, Lohman writes that he has informed a Dr. Leon Davidson that  we cannot resolve his problems concerning the space messages and its transmitter because records on this matter have been destroyed by the evaluating agency. 

Lohman also appears to regret having to give this answer to Davidson, a scientist who was part of the team that developed the atomic bomb and later investigated reported UFO sightings.

 We appreciate that there have been many cooks in the kitchen on this dish and that, as a result, the extraordinarily noncommittal and evasive answer we were instructed to give Davidson was perhaps the only one possible if we were to avoid crossing up previous statements of our own, and other involved agencies, to this man,  he wrote.

One of the files shows that the CIA convened a  Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects  and contains correspondence and reports dated 1952 and 1953.

 The panel's primary conclusion was that  flying saucers  did not pose a direct physical threat to the national security of the United States,  it says.

The real threat, however, was posed by a  sensationalist press  covering the sightings and recommended an official  policy of  debunking' to  strip the UFO subject of its mystery. 

The oldest files in this batch date back to the 1940s.

One from the Defense Department is an  Evaluation Study of the Phenomenon (Flying Saucers)  going back to June 1946.

 Of some 210 incidents, 20 percent have been explained,  it says. No tangible evidence which would support a theory that any incidents are attributable to activity of a foreign nation. 

But it does not appear to rule out that any of these incidents are attributable to somebody from a foreign planet.

The second file from 1949 includes correspondence with then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and a Rev. Charles Barnes who reported seeing  four beams of light  converging in the Cascade Mountains,' at an altitude of approximately 10,000 feet. 

Barnes told Hoover he saw  a  great explosion' visible at the convergence point of those beams for at least ten minutes. 

In his reply, Hoover thanked Barnes for writing and informed him that he was forwarding the letter to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

Hoover suggested to Barnes that what he reportedly saw might be related  to a military or scientific experiment within the commission's purview. 

There are also excerpts from a November 1962 interview that legendary CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite did with astronaut Gordon Cooper, who piloted the last Mercury spaceflight.

Cooper, in the interview, noted that  a large number of exceptionally well-qualified people have seen objects  without a  logical explanation.  He also speculated on the existence of other planets with  a livable atmosphere  and that maybe there are  some type of human life  out there.

Cronkite, who died in 2009, covered most of NASA's first forays into outer space and was later presented with a moon rock in recognition of his decades of covering the space program.