The United States federal department responsible for foreign relations, and a contributing agency to the PURSUE archive under the record prefix DOS-UAP. Its role in the UAP record is documentary rather than investigative: embassies and consulates check foreign press reports against local enquiry and report the result through ordinary diplomatic channels.
The pattern is visible in the Conde Bahia Incident 1963, where two State records close a case in twelve days. DOS-UAP-D001 is Embtel 94 of 14 November 1963 from Amembassy Rio de Janeiro, drafted by Science Attaché Simonpietri and signed by Ambassador Lincoln Gordon, asking the consulate in Salvador to confirm its unqualified negative on a reported metal sphere. DOS-UAP-D002 is airgram A-628 of 20 November, quoting Consul Harold Midkiff’s reply in full and enclosing two Brazilian newspaper clippings, one carrying the Ministry of Aeronautics’ categorical denial.
Both are marked UNCLASSIFIED and both carry wide domestic distribution: NSC, INR, CIA, NSA, USIA and, on the airgram, NASA, Air Force, Army, Navy and OSD. The National Aeronautics and Space Council annotation on the accompanying broadcast transcript records that State was asked to pass on whatever the Embassy sent, which is how the three records connect.
Connections
PURSUE · Conde Bahia Incident 1963 · National Aeronautics and Space Council · Central Intelligence Agency · Department of War