![Shocking true story of US president who reported seeing a UFO and was convinced they exist](https://images.ladbible.com/resize?type=webp&quality=70&width=3840&fit=contain&gravity=auto&url=https://images.ladbiblegroup.com/v3/assets/blt949ea8e16e463049/blt07f6aa8e44a89d37/66a938df9338715f8af73a91/president-ufo.jpg)
A former US president allegedly spotted a UFO and is convinced aliens exist.
Alleged alien sightings aren't uncommon here in the US, with many brushing them off as silly conspiracy theories or desperate bids for attention online.
But it turns out that a former president was all aboard the alien bandwagon.
Rather surprisingly, the 39th US President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, once believed he saw an unidentified flying object back in 1969 - eight years prior to taking up residency at the White House.
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But despite the sighting, it wasn't until 1973 that he actually filed an official report - and he only did so because an agency called the Men in Black sent him... oh hang on, I got that wrong.
He actually did so because an agency called the International UFO Bureau asked him to fill out a form to detail the sighting, and that's exactly what he did.
Carter, who was in the Oval Office for just one term from 1977 to 1981, filled out the form while governor of Georgia - a role he held from 1971 to 1975.
![The 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter. (Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)](https://images.ladbible.com/resize?type=webp&quality=70&width=3840&fit=contain&gravity=auto&url=https://images.ladbiblegroup.com/v3/assets/blt949ea8e16e463049/bltafdae99468f26bbd/66a93ab21a74f9b61034bb9e/Jimmy-Carter-39th-President.jpg)
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The Democrat was later contacted by National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), the second and final agency that asked him to type out what he had witnessed.
So, what are the circumstances of his UFO sighting?
Carter explained that he made the observation in Leary, a small town in South Georgia - roughly one and a half hours to the south of Colombus.
But he wasn't alone in spotting it, he was with 10 members of the town's Lions Club, and was due to give a speech.
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In both forms he described the time as around 7.15pm shortly after it had gotten dark, and the meeting was due at 7.30pm when all of a sudden something in the sky caught the attention of him, and everyone who he was waiting with.
![Carter believed he saw a UFO, and so did the 10 people he was with. (Getty Stock Image)](https://images.ladbible.com/resize?type=webp&quality=70&width=3840&fit=contain&gravity=auto&url=https://images.ladbiblegroup.com/v3/assets/blt949ea8e16e463049/bltab430ebd2ef879be/66a93b182081bcd5fe34b9b2/Jimmy-Carter-believed-UFO.jpg)
While he didn't exactly say what he believed it was he described it as 'the darndest thing I’ve ever seen'.
He, along with the other 10 people he was with, described the object as being 'very bright [with] changing colors' and was 'about the size of the moon'.
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He also wrote that 'the object hovered about 30 degrees above the horizon and moved in toward the earth and away before disappearing into the distance'.
And it had a deeper impact on Carter than you might have thought.
In his 1976 election campaign he is alleged to have told reporters that he would make it policy that the nation would be open about unearthly things.
![Carter went back on his pledge when he became president to make information about UFOs available to the public. (Getty Stock Image)](https://images.ladbible.com/resize?type=webp&quality=70&width=3840&fit=contain&gravity=auto&url=https://images.ladbiblegroup.com/v3/assets/blt949ea8e16e463049/bltbdbcdfa6f49b29c3/66a93b9ec02e35a7ebe128ed/UFO-White-House.jpg)
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It is claimed he said: "One thing's for sure, I'll never make fun of people who say they've seen unidentified objects in the sky.
"If I become president, I'll make every piece of information this country has about UFO sightings available to the public and the scientists."
But the former US president went back on this pledge and claimed the reason he did was due to 'defense implications'.
So what do you think, is there life out there? I mean, surely there is... but have they discovered Earth?