The Wilbert Smith Memo (1950)

Briefing

On the twenty-first of November 1950, Wilbert B. Smith, a senior radio engineer in the Broadcast and Measurements Section of Canada’s Department of Transport, wrote a memorandum headed “Geo-Magnetics” and addressed it to the Controller of Telecommunications [3][1]. In it he recommended a classified study of flying saucers, reporting that discreet inquiries made through the Canadian Embassy in Washington indicated the subject was real and, in his words, “the most highly classified subject in the United States Government” [3]. The memo led directly to Project Magnet, approved less than a fortnight later [2].

Sequence of events

• The twenty-first of November 1950. Smith writes the “Geo-Magnetics” memorandum to the Controller of Telecommunications, Department of Transport [3][1]. The memo reports four points said to have emerged from “discreet enquiries through the Canadian Embassy staff in Washington”: that the matter was “the most highly classified subject in the United States Government, rating higher even than the H-bomb”; that “flying saucers exist”; that “their modus operandi is unknown but concentrated effort is being made by a small group headed by Doctor Vannevar Bush”; and that “the entire matter is considered by the United States authorities to be of tremendous significance” [3].
• The memo linked Smith’s own field of research to the phenomenon, arguing that “our own work in geo-magnetics might well be the linkage between our technology and the technology by which the saucers are designed and operated” [3].
• The second of December 1950. The Department of Transport approves Smith’s proposal, establishing the classified study known as Project Magnet, which Smith directs [2].
• Mid-1954. Project Magnet ceases to operate with government support; Smith afterward continues privately at the Shirley’s Bay station until his death in 1962 [2].
• 1969 (reported). The memo, said to have been classified Top Secret, is reported to have been downgraded to Confidential [1].

Documentary record

The primary artefact is the “Geo-Magnetics” memorandum itself. The text that circulates today is a transcription reproducing the four numbered points and the geo-magnetics rationale; it is not a facsimile, and it carries no visible classification stamps [3]. A biographical record confirms the memo’s date and its reported Top Secret to Confidential downgrade [1], and a separate record documents Project Magnet’s approval on the second of December 1950, Smith’s role, its funding through mid-1954, and his later conclusions [2].

The memo names Dr. Vannevar Bush as heading the small U.S. group studying saucers [3]. Beyond the memo, the reported chain of information runs through Dr. Robert I. Sarbacher, a U.S. physicist and consultant to the Research and Development Board, identified as the source who — via a Canadian Embassy intermediary named “Dr. Brenner” — told Smith that saucers were real [4][5]. Discussion of the memo’s provenance references a memo PDF held in Canadian government records and notes a Smith–Sarbacher interview dated the fifteenth of September 1950 [4].

In a letter dated the twenty-ninth of November 1983 to William Steinman, Sarbacher wrote that “Dr. Vannever Bush was definitely involved,” named John von Neumann and, tentatively, Robert Oppenheimer, and described certain reported crash materials as “extremely light and very tough” [5]. This letter is witness testimony given more than three decades after the fact and is recorded here as such. Smith himself is reported to have concluded, by June 1952, that UFOs “likely came from intelligent, extraterrestrial sources and almost certainly manipulated magnetism for flight” [2].

Open questions

1. No available source provided a verifiable facsimile — a scanned image — of the original signed memo bearing classification stamps; the cited text is a transcription [3][4].
2. The exact archival shelfmark for the original memo was not confirmed against a primary catalogue record.
3. Sources disagree on a wording detail — “H-bomb” versus “A-bomb” — and give the memo date as both the twenty-first and, in one instance, the twentieth of November 1950 [3][5].
4. Whether Smith personally examined UFO “debris” is unverified; skeptical commentators note the absence of corroborating physical evidence [4]. One such argument holds that the “H-bomb” phrasing is anachronistic relative to the memo’s date, questioning the document’s authenticity; this is a single thread without official adjudication [4].
5. The widely-repeated claim that the memo is officially linked to the alleged “Majestic-12” group could not be traced to any primary government record; that connection appears only in secondary or disputed literature and is not asserted in the memo text itself [3].

Status

This file is CONFIDENTIAL — admitted on the strength of a documented and consequential paper trail: a memorandum whose date is corroborated biographically, and a real, government-approved study, Project Magnet, established in its wake [1][2]. What the memo asserts about flying saucers rests on discreet, second-hand inquiries and cannot be independently verified from the sources available, and the surviving text is a transcription rather than a stamped original [3][4]. The file therefore documents a genuine document and a genuine project while withholding judgement on the extraordinary claims relayed within them. Readers may wish to compare the archive’s records of flying-saucer reports and of formal government study programmes. Updates pending a verifiable facsimile and a confirmed archival shelfmark.

References

1. Wilbert Brockhouse Smith — Wikipedia. Biographical record confirming the memo’s date and its reported Top Secret to Confidential downgrade.
2. Project Magnet (Canada) — Wikipedia. Record of Project Magnet’s approval on the second of December 1950, Smith’s role, funding through mid-1954, and his conclusions.
3. Smith Memo: Flying Saucers Exist; Matter Classified Above Top Secret — The UFO Chronicles. Transcription of the twenty-first of November 1950 memo (“Geo-Magnetics”), reproducing the four numbered points and the geo-magnetics rationale; a transcription, not a facsimile.
4. Wilbert B Smith, Project Magnet, and his Claims of UFO Debris — Metabunk. Discussion of the memo’s provenance and authentication questions, reference to a memo PDF held in Canadian government records, and a Smith–Sarbacher interview dated the fifteenth of September 1950.
5. Two Interesting UFO Documents — The Smith Memo (1950) and Physicist Robert Sarbacher’s 1983 Letter — Prometheus Unbound. Account of Sarbacher’s letter of the twenty-ninth of November 1983 to William Steinman, naming Vannevar Bush and John von Neumann and describing reported recovered materials.