Roscoe H . Hillenkoetter Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter ( May 8 , 1897 – June 18 , 1982 ) , born in St . Louis , Missouri , was the third director of the post - World War II U . S . Central Intelligence Group ( CIG ) , the third Director of Central Intelligence ( DCI ) , and the first director of the Central Intelligence Agency created by the National Security Act of 1947 . He served as DCI and director of the CIG and the CIA from May 1 , 1947 to October 7 , 1950 and after his retirement from the United States Navy was a member of the board of governors of National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena ( NICAP ) from 1957 to 1962 . Education and Military Career . He graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis , Maryland in 1919 . He served tours in naval intelligence , several as assistant naval attaché to France . As Executive Officer of the , he survived the attack on Pearl Harbor , and afterwards was officer in charge of intelligence on Chester W . Nimitz ' s Pacific Fleet staff . Then Captain Hillenkoetter commanded the in 1946 . First Director of the CIA . President Truman persuaded a reluctant Hillenkoetter , then a rear admiral , to become Director of Central Intelligence ( DCI ) , and run the Central Intelligence Group ( September 1947 ) . Under the National Security Act of 1947 he was nominated and confirmed by the U . S . Senate as DCI , now in charge of the newly established Central Intelligence Agency ( December 1947 ) . At first , the U . S . State Department directed the new CIA ' s covert operations component , and George F . Kennan chose Frank Wisner to be its director . Hillenkoetter expressed doubt that the same agency could be effective at both covert action and intelligence analysis . The U . S . government had no intelligence warning of North Korea ' s invasion ( June 25 , 1950 ) of South Korea . DCI Hillenkoetter convened an ad hoc group to prepare estimates of likely communist behavior on the Korean peninsula ; it worked well enough that his successor institutionalized it . President Truman installed a new DCI in October . Nebraska Congressman Howard Buffett alleged that Hillenkoetter ' s classified testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee " established American responsibility for the Korean outbreak , " and sought to have it declassified until his death in 1964 . Resumption of active military duty . Admiral Hillenkoetter returned to the fleet , commanding a cruiser division in the Korean War . He held two other commands before his retirement in 1957 . Board member of NICAP . The National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena was formed in 1956 , with the organization ' s corporate charter being approved October 24 . Hillenkoetter was on NICAP ' s board of governors from about 1957 until 1962 . Donald E . Keyhoe , NICAP director and Hillenkoetter ' s Naval Academy classmate , wrote that Hillenkoetter wanted public disclosure of UFO evidence . Perhaps Hillenkoetter ' s best - known statement on the subject was in 1960 in a letter to Congress , as reported in The New York Times : " Behind the scenes , high - ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs . But through official secrecy and ridicule , many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense . " Death . Hillenkoetter lived in Weehawken , New Jersey following his retirement from the Navy , until his death on June 18 , 1982 , at New York City ' s Mount Sinai Hospital . Portrayal . Actor Leon Russom played him in an episode of " Dark Skies " , a 1996 conspiracy theory television series .