"...the United States took these paranormal possibilities seriously."

Common belief that this happened is a result of a very successful propaganda exercise by an ongoing US psychological warfare program.

To be clear, the program does not and never did try to use ESP for spying. Instead, they convinced Americans that they had.

This is explored in Jon Ronson's terrifying "Men Who Stare at Goats". The same program probably drummed up support for the disastrous Iraq invasion and created the prisoner torture protocols. It is probably now running the UFO/Tictacs hoax, possibly as a readiness exercise.

We don't know what other operations against the public have run or are running now. Iraq was not a disaster for everyone: it transferred $5T from the public to waiting pockets. Secrecy generates corruption.