The National Archives maintains UAP-related records across thirteen Presidential Libraries, from Herbert Hoover through George W. Bush. The collections span 1935 to 2009 and cover every post-war administration. These are not fringe holdings. They are formal archival collections with assigned National Archives Identifier numbers, searchable through the Catalog, and many are available for digital download.
Herbert Hoover Library
The Bourke B. Hickenlooper Papers (1897–1971) include a file from the Senate Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee: “Aeronautical & Space Sciences Committee — Unidentified Flying Objects, January 29, 1965” (Catalog ID 518320510). Hickenlooper was a senior Republican senator from Iowa and a member of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy — one of the most classified congressional positions of the Cold War era. His UAP file is part of his Senate committee work.
The Thirteen Libraries
NARA’s presidential UAP holdings cover: Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush (41), William J. Clinton, and George W. Bush. Every administration from the atom bomb through the Iraq War has a formal UAP record at the National Archives.
What These Records Represent
Presidential library holdings are the archival residue of what each administration considered important enough to preserve. The fact that UAP records exist across every presidential library from the 1940s onward is structural evidence that UAP was considered a persistent, recurring issue at the highest levels of US government through the entire Cold War and into the 21st century. This is not a fringe concern that surfaced occasionally. It is a continuous thread running through every administration, documented in the formal record of each presidency.
The Eisenhower Library holds the Bissell/MJ-12 correspondence (Catalog ID 493468585). The FDR Library holds the Oppenheimer to Eleanor Roosevelt letter (filed under UAP, Catalog ID 503146257). The George Bush Library holds records from the CIA Director who used UAP intelligence as a personal bargaining chip with a sitting president.
Source: archives.gov/research/topics/uaps/presidential-libraries. NARA Presidential Library UAP holdings. National Archives Catalog.