In the 1950's the initial military orders were to try and shoot them down.
Then the UFOs started shooting our military planes down AND shooting our airliners out of the sky.
The military rescinded the shoot down orders and no more airliners were shot out of the sky by the UFOs.
One of the mantras of the military the last 60+ years was that the craft did not present a threat to our national security. What a farce of a position.
I remember a pilot in the UK who was given the order to fire on a UFO. I can’t remember whether he fired or lost contact (I seem to vaguely remember that he couldn’t lock on).