(NewsNation) — When John F. Kennedy became president in the early 1960s, there was a lot he knew about unidentified flying objects, aka UFOs, former Australian intelligence official Geoff Cruickshank told NewsNation’s “Reality Check with Ross Coulthart.”

For instance, official government footage which appears to show multiple Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) captured while he was in office has since been made public.

For instance, footage of a high-altitude nuclear test called “Bluegill,” part of “Operation Fishbowl,” appears to show an object plummeting to the ocean below after the bomb goes off. A second angle of the explosion includes a triangle of paper over that same area, which Cruickshank says is an indication that the first unredacted video was released by accident.

Cruickshank also points to footage captured in 1962 of an Atlas rocket test, which appears to show an object tracking just above the warhead as it is in flight.

But it’s what Kennedy wasn’t told that may be the more fascinating story, according to Cruickshank.

“He knew quite a bit as he entered the Oval Office in 1961, but what he didn’t know was the existence of a very, very highly classified program called Palladium that was injecting false (unidentified aerial phenomena) signals into the Soviet air defense system, messing with their heads,” Cruickshank said. “The man that was one of the masterminds of that program … was David Lamar Christ.”

Christ, a scientist with the Central Intelligence Agency, was tortured by Cuban and Russian interrogators while in a prison in Cuba called the “Isle of Pines.” While there, Christ revealed all about the secret program.

Watch “Reality Check” dive into UAP/UFO activity during the Cold War in the video above.

“Reality Check with Ross Coulthart” can be found on NewsNation’s YouTube channel each week. Click here to watch the latest episode.