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From: "Val Germann" <vhg@socket.net>
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 12:56:52 -0600
Fwd Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 15:58:02 -0500
Subject: UFOSEARCH #14: UFO History Part V


UFOSEARCH #14 - UFO History; Part V

Val Germann
Columbia, Missouri

                     **  The Year of McDonald - 1968  **

In January of 1968, just over three decades ago, Donald Keyhoe
showed James McDonald the Low Memorandum, a document that had
been leaked to Keyhoe by a disgruntled staffer of the so-called
Condon Committee, which had been set up in the middle of 1966,
following the "swamp gas" debacle in Michigan.

The memorandum from Low, who was the project director, clearly
stated that the purpose of the committee was to maintain the
appearance of objectivity while whitewashing UFOs.  McDonald was
incensed by the memorandum, in part because he had been carrying
water for Condon in some circles, advising restraint until the
committee report was issued, an event scheduled for early in
1969.

McDonald immediately launched a personal and professional attack
on the Condon group, writing and making public a letter
excoriating them all.   It seemed that the recommendations of the
Robertson Committee, dating from way back in 1953, were still in
force.  The UFO was to be debunked, using the coarsest of
methodologies.   As a result of McDonald's efforts Condon fired
two staffers, one of whom had actually given the offending
document to Keyhoe, and another staff member resigned.  The
credibility of the Condon group should have been destroyed but it
is never a sin to carry out the policy of higher-ups.   The
debunking, government-funded committee sailed on, unperturbed
after the firings and resignations took place.

In the end, the report was issued and given the imprimatur of the
National Academy of Sciences, an ultra-conservative group
dominated by men from "the (Atomic) bomb group," Condon being one
of that bunch.   Once again, "the government" had bashed the UFO
good, along with anyone, anywhere, attempting to get at the
truth.

But, back to early 1968.  Hard on the heels of the blow-up over
McDonald and the leaked memorandum was an article that appeared
in April in 'Look' magazine.  The author was John Fuller and in
great detail he laid bare the inner workings of the Condon
Committee, predicting exactly what their report would say.   But
this didn't stay in the news long, not after the killing of Dr.
Martin Luther King in Memphis.   Indeed, the American political
scene was soon to explode into banana republic-type violence,
even as McDonald and others prepared to testify before Congress,
in hopes of a once-and-for-all breaking of the secrecy
surrounding the UFO.

***