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UFO UpDates Mailing List

From: DRudiak@aol.com
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 14:55:54 -0400 (EDT)
Fwd Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 20:06:08 -0400
Subject: Re: Intelligence Agencies and NICAP

>From: jan@cyberzone.net (Jan Aldrich)

>> From: Ian Read <i.read@netcom.co.uk>

>> Well-known UFO authority Major Donald Keyhoe managed to beef up NICAP's
>> prestige by looking for and appointing prominent people to NICAP's
>> Board of Governors. One of the first board appointees was Vicie Admiral
>> Roscoe Hillenkoetter, a Naval Academy classmate of Keyhoe's and the
>> first Director of the CIIA, when it formed in 1947. Hillenkoetter made
>> a number of positive statements on UFO reality, thus endearing himself
>> to Keyhoe. This relationship reversed itself, however, when Keyhoe
>> developed NICAP into a fierce opponent of government secrecy and pushed
>> for Congressioinal hearings in the early 1960s. Hillenkoetter abruptly
>> resigned from NICAP, expressing the opinion that NICAP went as far as
>> it could go, and no further criticism should be aimed at the Air Force
>> for its handling of UFOs.

>> It can probably be surmised that Hillenkotter was pressured out of NICAP
>> by the CIA, since it was of considerable embarrassment to the CIA to
>> have a former Director making pro-UFO statements.

>Surmises are fine, but why did it take Hillenkoetter so long
>to resign?  He could have easily resigned earlier when
>Fahrney left.  Have no definite facts one answer is as good
>as another.  Hillenkoetter was never was very active in
>NICAP.  His big contribution was his name.

If you read Keyhoe's "Aliens From Space," Chapter 6. "Invisible Control",
Keyhoe gives a whole other perspective on Hillenkoetter's resignation.
Keyhoe wrote:  "It was early in 1962 when the CIA struck at NICAP, to block
a threatened showdown which would have ended the cover-up.  Here for the
first time are the full details of that incredible and its stunning climax."

Already Hillenkoetter had written a letter to Congress on Aug. 22, 1960 in
which he stated, "It is time for the truth to be brought out... Behind the
scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs.
But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe
the unknown flying objects are nonsense..."  (also reprinted in the N.Y.
Times)

In 1961, Keyhoe was trying to organize a Congressional investigation into the
UFO matter.  Things came to a head in 1962.  One sympathetic Congressman
suggested that Keyhoe come up with one of their hottest cases, using
unimpeachable witnesses.  The case that Keyhoe planned to use was originally
brought to his attention by Adm. Fahrney, who was still on the NICAP board,
even though he resigned as director in 1957.  Keyhoe told the Congressman
that Fahrney would confirm it.

The Congressman told Kehoe that the strategy would be to have Hillenkoetter
spearhead the inquiry.  "With his terrific Navy record and being CIA director
for three years the press will play it up as a top-level deal."

"....As I see it, we'll have McCormack or Karth open the press conference,
with Goldwater or some othe senator confirming the purpose.  They'll come
right out and say this congressional group is seriously concerned about the
UFO problem and the censorship.  Then Adm. Hillenkoetter will take over.
He'll repeat his statement that UFOs are real objects under intelligent
control and that the AF is hiding the truth.  Then he can produce the Navy
witnesses in that Atlantic case.  When they finish with their story, we can
follow up with a few other strong NICAP-verified cases, and Hillenkoetter can
go into the proof of secrecy, and the dangers from covering up.  To wind it
up, the congressional will go on record as demanding an end to official
secrecy.  If it's handled right, with network TV along with the wire
services, it'll blow the lid off.  Unless the Air Force gives in, Congress
will have to hold a full-scale investigation -- an open one."

Let's examine this closely.  Hillenkoetter was the critical point man to all
this because he was a former CIA director.  He was the man they were counting
on to bring massive press attention and credibility to the affair, and force
the door open.

First Keyhoe tried to track down the Navy commander in the UFO case and used
somebody he knew in Navy personnel he had used previously.  The next day the
guy contacted Keyhoe scared to death and said that the CIA showed up within
two hours of his contact with Keyhoe and gave him the third degree.  He
eventually  told them the entire Congressional plan involving Hillenkoetter.

At this point, the plan began to unravel.  Keyhoe wrote, "The damage was done
now.  With the CIA aware of the Congress group plan, it would go all out to
block it.  There was still one chance.  If Adm. Hillenkoetter was determined
to go ahead, regardless of opposition, the Congress gorup would probably back
him in an open fight.  I knew he should be warned about the CIA agents'
action -- especially since he had not yet been told of the Capitol Hill
plan."  Keyhoe decided the safest course of action was to fly to New York the
next day and meet personally with Hillenkoetter.

But by the next day Hillenkoetter's letter of resignation from the NICAP
Board was on Keyhoe's desk.  "In my opinion, NICAP's investigation has gone
as far as possible.  I know the UFOs are not U.S. or Soviet devices.  All we
can do now is wait for some action by the UFOs.  The Air Force cannot do any
more under the circumstances.  It has been a difficult assignment for them,
and I believe we should not continue to criticize their investigations.  I am
resigning as a member of the NICAP Board of Governors."

Keyhoe commented, "There ws no hint that he had been told about the Congress
group's expose' plan.  Yet it was the only believable explanation.  But
Hillenkoetter had been absolutely convinced that the cover-up SHOULD be
exposed.  How could he have been pressured into this complete reversal?
Threats would not have worked -- I knew this tough fighter too well to
believe that.  The only answer was persuasion at a very high level that it
was his duty to help block the Capital Hill showdown -- and to attempt a
change in NICAP.  But this would still require some powerful reason for
continuing the secrecy.  That it was some frightening situation, to be kept
from the public at all costs, I refused to believe.  With all the
confidential sources I had established since '49 I would have had at least an
inkling.  In an effort to find some clue, I went back over all the main
points in the UFO evidence.  But the cause of the admiral's action was still
a mystery."

I'm afraid after reading about how absolutely vital Hillenkoetter would have
been to the proposed Congressional inquiry in 1962, Jan Aldrich's statements
that:

"Surmises are fine, but why did it take Hillenkoetter so long to resign?  He
could have easily resigned earlier when Fahrney left.  Have no definite facts
one answer is as good as another.  Hillenkoetter was never was very active in
NICAP.  His big contribution was his name."

....must count as revisionist history.  Hillenkoetter  obviously resigned at
that critical moment after 5 years on the NICAP Board because the CIA got to
him.  His participation in the Congressional inquiry could have blown the
whole thing wide open.  Or maybe he was acting as a CIA mole from the
beginning and didn't want to be put on the spot by Keyhoe.  That might have
blown his cover.  At that point, resignation was the best way to dodge the
bullet.

But one way or the other, the CIA was definitely involved in sabotaging this
Congressional investigation.  I don't think even Jan Aldrich believes that
Hillenkoetter resigning at this precise moment could be written off to mere
coincidence.

David Rudiak