Discover The SEVEN STEPS TO FIRST CONTACT: The U.S. Government’s Secret Plan for Alien Encounters

Back in the 1950s, the U.S. government quietly put together a step-by-step plan for making contact with aliens—spying from a distance, studying their tech, and even capturing a few for research before ever saying hello.

In the world of multiple extraterrestrial speculation, no questions stoke the imagination quite like first contact. While science fiction has run wild with countless variations on the theme of otherwise otherworldly encounters, the United States government has pursued a surprisingly sober approach to the possibility. The plan they formulated in 1950 lays out a seven-step, systematic, do-or-do-not process that reads like a diplomatic tome mixed with a spy novel.

The story begins in the post–World War II era, an age of great global tension and unprecedented technological advancement. The U.S. government, still coming to terms with the realities of nuclear warfare and wrestling with Cold War fears, had decided it better gird itself for yet another possible paradigm shift: contact with extraterrestrial intelligence.

Their manner is slow to start, with an emphasis on watching rather than getting involved. Like anthropologists who’ve stumbled on an undiscovered tribe, the plan proposes when the time is right to roll out some serious remote surveillance to determine what kind of intelligence, appearance and means of communication this alien species might possess. This opening stage of interaction exhibits a realist perspective of first contact — that this may include the exchange of culture as much as technology.

The second phase delves into somewhat more interesting territory, arguing for covert observation from close range — effectively making human observers interplanetary spies. This measure recognizes that remote observations, while valuable, may not give a full picture into what an alien civilization is really like or what it is capable of.

Noting the plan was a product of the Cold War, the third phase, not surprisingly, is heavy on military assessment. The government’s plan includes the study of weapons and technology that it believed belonged to U.F.O.s, mirroring the period’s obsession with military dominance. This measured response is born of a very human fear: What if these entities have powers that are orders of magnitude greater than ours?

Only after these meticulous assessments does the plan propose the attempt to communicate — again, only as a last resort — and even then, it recommends distant contact. It might take the form of exchanging signals or messages — a cosmic pen pal situation before a rendezvous. Their plan acknowledges the basic difficulty of communicating across what could be very significant linguistic and cultural gaps, and the need to project an image of peace while being on the lookout for signs of aggression.

In perhaps its most controversial feature, the plan then takes a surprising turn. Instead of immediate diplomatic overtures, it advocates gathering specimens — flora and fauna — from the alien world for analysis. More startling still, it suggests capturing and studying one or two members of the intelligent species themselves, having them under careful and ethical scrutiny. This astonishing proposal—or perhaps what we should consider an early call for scientific abduction—bleeds into interesting comparisons with the claims of alien abductions that began circulating around the mid-1950s after the plan was drafted.

The last stages of the protocol center on gradual exposure and gauging communication. Repeated fly-bys to make the presence of humans known to the large numbers will be visible to the smaller alien populations and as a means to gauge response while remaining safely out of reach would be the plan. Even then, it would not be until the end of all those processes, and having reached amicable intentions, that direct encounter would take place.

There have been times in history when there might have been an opportunity to implement the protocol. The so-called “Battle of Los Angeles” incident of 1942, where military forces fired on an unidentified object that would later be claimed to be a weather balloon, shows how easily unidentified objects can induce panic and military response. The 1977 “Wow!” signal, a mysterious shower of radio waves that, at first, seemed to hint at an intelligent source, illustrates how even faraway signals can garner scientific interest and raise the specter of serious consideration of alien contact.

But experts say the government’s plan faces major practical limitations. The protocol seems more relevant in cases in which we encounter alien life on habitable worlds, but so far we have not seen any kind of life even on our own planet. Technologically speaking, a project of this scale and across interstellar distances is utterly incomprehensible at this moment in time.

The plan also poses profound ethical and practical challenges. Proposed specimen collection and study of alien beings could present significant biological risks associated with unknown pathogens or environmental incompatibilities. In addition, the act of abduction appears downright antithetical to forging peaceful diplomatic relations.

Several other nations have also crafted their own response plans for potential alien contact. The United Kingdom’s approach is all about treating it like a natural disaster while Japan wants to deal with UFO incursions like any other airspace incursion. China, for its part, has adopted a bolder approach, pursuing first contact chances. Working with SETI, the United Nations has developed and documented international protocols for responding to extraterrestrial contact, which requires consultation among nations before any action is taken.

Stephen Hawking, notably, gave a sobering take on what contact scenarios might look like. He likened potential alien encounters to human historical patterns of colonization, saying that advanced alien civilizations could act as nomadic conquistadors, thirsty for resources in every corner of the cosmos. His vision is a reminder that however much we plan, we might not be anywhere near ready to face the realities of negotiating with a genuinely advanced civilization.

The fact of this government plan speaks a lot about human nature — our craving to be prepared for what we don’t know, our mix of curiosity and caution and our inclination to navigate the unfamiliar through the prism of what we’ve experienced previously. Whether we ever have to put these protocols into practice remains to be seen, but they make for a fascinating document of how we imagine handling one of humanity’s most profound potential interactions.