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Prime Minister of Grenada’s Push for UFO Disclosure at the UN in 1970s

January 30, 2025


 

Prime Minister of Grenada’s Push for UFO Disclosure at the UN in 1970s


We are familiar with the government officials, scientists, former intelligence officers, air force and navy personnel, journalists, politicians, and others who have been pushing for disclosure about UFOs, particularly since 2017.

However, the momentum for their current actions was built over decades, when similar clarion calls were issued for information about non-human intelligence by high-ranking individuals and influential personalities, often in the face of ridicule.

A congressional hearing on July 26, 2023, under the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, with Ryan Graves, David Grusch, and David Fravor. (U.S. House Committee On Oversight and Accountability).

One of those prominent voices was that of Sir Eric Gairy, the late Prime Minister of Grenada, who through his untiring and spirited efforts in the 1970s brought humanity closer to learning the truth about the existence of extraterrestrial life.

Global Coalition for Disclosure

Sir Eric M. Gairy was the Prime Minister of Grenada—an island country of the West Indies dubbed the “Spice Isle”—from the mid to late-1970s. He held a slew of portfolios, including Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defense.

On November 27, 1978, Sir Eric made an unprecedented move for a head of state, then or in present times, when he led a group including scientists and an astronaut in addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York on the subject of unidentified flying objects. He had brought a short film along with him, which consisted of still and motion pictures depicting actual sightings of UFOs.

An important milestone in the history of ufology, the official UFO Hearing held at the United Nations Special Political Committee witnessed the participation of notable international institutions, scientists, and military personnel.

Prior to delivering his speech at the UN, during a bilateral meeting with President Jimmy Carter in Washington on September 9, 1977, Eric Gairy had mentioned the UFO topic. Carter was no stranger to UFOs, as he is one of the few presidents who had a personal sighting of a strange craft. In 1969, he had observed an unusual aerial object in Leary, Georgia, and then proceeded to file an official report with the International UFO Bureau in 1973—though he did not claim it was an alien craft.

Moreover, during his 1976 election campaign, Carter told reporters that he would make public all reports of UFO sightings. But, once in office, he cited national security to distance himself from disclosure.

Back to Sir Eric: alluding to a resolution he had introduced on the agenda of the UN. General Assembly proposing an international study of UFOs, as well as a study of psychic and other related phenomena, Gairy asked President Carter if he could support it. He added that he had no doubt in his mind that, "…planet earth is not the only one God created."

 

Jimmy Carter, the President of the United States, meets Sir Eric Gairy, Prime Minister of Grenada in September 1977. (White House)
 

During his address to the United Nations General Assembly, the Grenadian prime minister said that he had come before the august body because of a "deep personal conviction" that UFOs were of "worldwide importance and significance".

Eric Gairy emphasized that the UN needed to, "...come alive to its responsibilities and take a serious look at the UFO phenomenon to which planet Earth has been conspicuously exposed since 1947". The prime minister then introduced a resolution, which would establish an expert group to formulate guidelines for a UN led study of unidentified flying objects.

The United Nations General Assembly hall in New York City. (Patrick Gruban/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Among other heavy-weight participants the UFO study panel included astronaut, Gordon Cooper; astronomer, J. Allen Hynek; astronomer and ufologist, Jacques Vallée; nuclear physicist, Stanton Friedman; astronomer and astrophysicist, Claude Poher; and Lieutenant Colonel Larry Coyne of the U.S. Army, who appeared in his private capacity.

Later, after gaining the approval of the panelists, Dr. Hynek presented a statement on their behalf on the need to initiate a centralized United Nations authority on unidentified flying objects. Interestingly, the graphics in the presentation given by NBC Radio producer and UFO researcher, Lee Speigel, — who was sponsored by Grenada to guide the initiative at the UN — were prepared by Steven Spielberg, who was at that time putting the finishing touches on his pathbreaking film ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind.’

Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Dr. Jacques Vallée. (United States Government)

It should be stressed that this major recognition of the UFO topic by the United Nations was in many ways not just the culmination of the determined endeavors of Sir Eric, but also a recognition of the sentiments he had expressed a year earlier to the U.N. General Assembly. Back in October 1977, Eric Gairy astonished the audience when he revealed, "...I have myself seen an unidentified flying object and I have been overwhelmed by what I have seen."

Sir Eric also noted, "...In the same way that this planet is the accepted inheritance of all humanity, knowledge is also to be shared for the benefit of all mankind... one wonders why the existence of UFO's continues to remain a secret."

A UN Secretary-General Gets Involved

It was no mean feat for Sir Eric Gairy to assemble a team of high-ranking experts from disparate fields, to impress upon the United Nations to grant the UFO phenomenon the importance it duly deserved.

However, it must be remembered that prior to Sir Eric’s move for disclosure, U. Thant, the third Secretary-General of the UN from 1961 to 1971 too made similar efforts. According to Press reports, he is said to have confided to his colleagues that he considered “UFOs the most important problem facing the UN next to the war in Vietnam.”

U Thant, Burmese diplomat and the third secretary-general of the United Nations. (Anefo/CC BY-SA 3.0)

To address the matter Thant invited University of Arizona physicist, James E. McDonald, to brief the UN Outer Space Affairs group in New York in 1967. And so, McDonald attempted to persuade the UN to undertake a global study on the UFO phenomenon, urging any member nation to sponsor the research. That call was answered by Sir Eric Gairy, nearly a decade later.

A Chilling Extraterrestrial Encounter

Even though Sir Eric purportedly had a bizarre experience with an extraterrestrial in his home country, Grenada, a sudden and wholly unexpected turn of events halted the late prime minister from ensuring complete disclosure about alien life. Here’s how these events came to pass:

The tight-lipped approach regarding the subject of extraterrestrial life that governments across the world have adopted, primarily in the United States, is something that has flummoxed anybody who has ever pondered the need for such confidentiality on so vital a topic to humankind.

It is worth digging further to understand what prompted Sir Eric’s determination to know "...why the existence of UFO's continues to remain a secret."

These words gain great consequence when we learn they aren't merely exaggerated statements made by a world leader who was a UFO enthusiast, too. Strange as it sounds, well before his address at the United Nations and the eager push for UFO disclosure, Sir Eric claimed to have had his own personal encounter with an other-worldly being—albeit a dead one.

Image of a classic, metallic "Flying saucer" sourced from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. (Public Domain).

On the night of the incident, Eric Gairy, who was spending his leisure hours in a popular Grenadian nightclub, the "Evening Palace", was taken aback to see a local fisherman burst in and excitedly say he'd come across an odd-looking humanoid that had washed up on the beach.

Eric, who was heavily interested in paranormal phenomena, quickly arranged a small military unit and a photographer. He then asked the man to lead him to the spot where the entity was found. Eric alleged later that when the investigating team arrived at the scene shortly before dawn, they witnessed a couple of fishermen at the site standing guard next to something covered by a tarpaulin.

An aerial photo of the island-nation, Grenada, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. ( Drkreative/CC BY-SA 3.0)
 

When the men pulled the tarp back, Sir Eric and his group momentarily recoiled in horror, for their eyes beheld an inexplicable sight. An enormous humanoid creature nearly eight feet tall, with pale white skin and white braided hair, lay soaking wet and motionless. With the facial features of an adult human male, the bizarre being's hands had six digits each. This extraterrestrial entity was clothed in a dark blue, skin-tight, one-piece suit with footwear attached.

As the sun rose, it became apparent to Sir Eric and the assembled crew that the entire beach was littered with weird metallic debris. Eight boxes were identified, of which only two could be opened with considerable difficulty. These boxes contained aquatic flora and fauna—as though the dead creature was on a mission to collect the specimens for study.

Two trucks—one for the boxes and another for the giant—appeared on the scene, and the peculiar cargo was spirited away to an undisclosed location.

Although Sir Eric spoke about the incident in an interview, he never disclosed where the body had been taken nor what became of the containers retrieved along with it. And of course, he wasn't forthcoming about the photographs they'd clicked onsite.

Defeat in the Face of Victory

Prime Minister Eric Gairy earned a massive victory on December 18, 1978, when the UN General Assembly adopted Grenada's resolution to study the taboo subject of UFO's.

But, before any gains could be realized for the ufology community from the November 1978 UN resolution, Eric Gairy was dislodged from power in a bloodless coup in March 1979 - ironically, while he was away at the UN for further discussions with Secretary-General, Kurt Waldheim, about the recently adopted UFO resolution.

National flag of Grenada (Public Domain)

The meeting was cancelled and subsequently, given the timing of the coup, conspiracy theorists blamed the UK for sabotaging Sir Eric's bid to gain transparency about unidentified flying objects (Sir Eric had been Grenada’s prime minister when the island gained its independence from the UK in 1974 ). At the UN Great Britain had raised objections to Grenada’s plan, stating, “The British delegation does not think that the establishment of an agency for research into unidentified flying objects is appropriate to the functions of the United Nations.” By and large the US remained neutral.

Sir Eric Gairy passed away in 1997 at the age of 75, and his efforts at shepherding UFO disclosure through the United Nations are widely recognized as one of his most memorable accomplishments as a political leader.

For now, all we are left with is speculation and great appreciation for Sir Eric's unwavering attempts to seek the truth. Or perhaps we have had disclosure all along; for as leading UFO researcher Grant Cameron observed, “Every leak by the government, every movie in Hollywood that has an alien theme, and every UFO joke by the president is a type of disclosure.”

Top Image: Sir Eric M. Gairy, Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Grenada, addressing the General Assembly on 12 October, 1978.

Source: United Nations.