What did Major Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC (ret) and NICAP achieve? Well, NICAP investigators brought us some very interesting reports and the grass roots members did what they could.
The same applied to APRO and its members. With APRO you saw occasional photographs of its offices and James and Coral Lorenzen at work. You see the filing cabinets, maps and more. With NICAP you saw...nothing. I and others have searched for years but where are the photos of NICAP HQ?
It is possible that they had a registered office for business -tax reasons, mail deliveries and so on but, still, it claimed secretarial staff and archives. Keyhoe we have footage ot and many photographs -he was not shy to show and promote himself but...no shots "in the office".
Keyhoe is the person who the press and media focussed on. He sat there and span a yarn. Checking many of the accounts in his books you will find that he claimed a lot but as the former head of USAF Project Blue Book, Captain Edward J. Ruppelt stated; Keyhoe got the facts and put his own spin on them. Keyhoe appears to be the main source for the claim that Captain Thomas Mantell was shot down in his aircraft or, at the very least his aircraft crashed because of close proximity to a UFO. The actual report is very specific and the very likely reason for Mantell's fate was given.
A "source" in Air Material Command" or a senior military man gave Keyhoe information that was supposedly secret but on asking the USAF he had confirmation of the details. The whole UFO dialogue in the United States was almost dictated by Keyhoe who had access to reporters and reporters were keen to get the latest saucer news.
Now I have read all of Keyhoe's books. They were more or less must reading back in the 1970s and he had a writing style that made things almost appear like they came about in a detective noire world. Yes, he was said to be a racist but he came from a time and background that bred that kind of thing. No excuse but a simple statement.
Keyhoe is credited with drawing in former heads of the CIA, USAF and Naval intelligence as well as others who were, until they joined NICAP, more or less the anti-flying saucer people. They joined NICAP and it's mouthpiece, Keyhoe, carried on with the same old song. Eventually, he was kicked out. Ousted by those former anti-saucer, now pro-saucer intelligence folk.
Only thing missing here is Chris Mellen and Luis Elizondo 😕😕
Back in 2000 I was re-reading all of Keyhoe's books as well as some of his articles for something I was working on (basically, that he was a pioneer in the UFO field) and I sat back. I was confused. I had read all this stuff before, seen all the interviews with him that I could find and...I realised that he did not make any breakthroughs and at times it almost seemed that he was anti USAF while still promoting its stance.
I am a bit of an historian and interested in military as well as intelligence and counter intelligence; by the time I was in my twenties the Double Cross, Triple Cross and black and grey propaganda were no real mysteries. The triple cross with an added double cross are things to read about! I also knew about the long haul counter intelligence operations; a central figure used against a body or system while secretly being employed by it. This has been done with UFOs -racist organisations in the United States in the 1950s filtering out fake tall, blond haired and blue eyed alien encounters and more.
The Robertson Panel in the 1950s saw to it that UFOs were ridiculed but also had people who fed Ufology false information. The same thing continued into the 1960s and all the while, after the USAF officers at Blue Book who suspected "something was going on behind the scenes" had been moved on in favour of more "workable" officers, the false information was promoted and a good deal of it through Ufologists who knew cases were hoaxes but continued to push them in print and on TV.
The 1970s and Richard Doty and how he bought William Moore and other (unnamed) Ufologists to spy on Ufology and see what was going on in research and to feed a lot of false information into the subject was nothing new. It was standard counter intelligence and even if it led to Bennewitz being driven nuts -who cared? Doty is still in Ufology and a "celebrity" with everyone okay with him but not Moore who was following Doty's orders!
Over the years I met various old time NICAP people and even corresponded with some. So what has this got to do with no photos of NICAP offices and staff? One old timer told me that he had been in town and phoned NICAP in order to arranger a visit to the HQ. He was told, very firmly, "No". thinking he had breached some protocol he was unaware of he talked to some friends and they all told him that you only got into NICAP offices when they decided you could and that taking photos was a "major no-no". Another told me that "NICAP offices were off limits and no publicity shots -photos were forbidden". So I asked why and he responded "They did not want you to photograph who might be there." By that he meant one of the people working for intelligence who "Were going through all the reports".
The opinions varied. One was that Keyhoe had thought he could play and use the intelligence and military people he drew into NICAP and that went sour on him -hence his being ousted. The other opinion was that military and conservative Keyhoe's sudden interest in flying saucers, breaking the story in True magazine then the press conferences and TV was a long term counter intelligence operation to control the narrative.
There is no paperwork to prove this, there would not be, but it started making more sense. In fact, on a whim, assuming that this was all a counter intelligence operation I looked at Keyhoe's work again. I also looked at how some fellow Ufologists stated that he looked down at them and took opportunities to put the word out about 'bad' Ufologists. If Keyhoe was not involved in such an operation to control the narrative then he was picked on by coincidence!
If you know of any NICAP office photos -please get in touch!
Was Keyhoe part of an anti UFO operation that ran its course and was replaced by another...and in recent years yet another? You tell me.
