MYSTERIOUS SAUCER SIGHTED! END OF WORLD IMMINENT? 
AMERICAN FLYING SAUCER BELIEF 
AND RESISTANCE TO THE COLD WAR ORDER 
1947-1970 
Aaron John Gulyas 
Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School 
in partial fulfillment of the requirements 
for the degree 
Master of Arts 
in the Department of History 
Indiana University 
August 2003 
11 
Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the 
requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. 
Anni Gi rt Coleman, Ph.D. 
Master' s Thesis Committee ~~~Mdt • I 
John R. McKivigan, ~ 
Kevin C. 
l1l 
DEDICATION 
For Hiram and "The Boys" 
lV 
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS 
Many different organizations, institutions, and individuals aided me in my search 
for primary source materials for this project. So I would like to thank: The Ohio State 
University's William Jones UFO Collection; The Gray Barker UFO Collection at the 
Clarksburg-Harrison County Public Library, Clarksburg, West Virginia and its director, 
David Houchin, for letting me plunder unsupervised through the huge array of books, 
newsletters, and correspondence; I must also thank the IUPUI Graduate Student 
Organization for the Educational Enhancement Grant which paid for the trip to those two 
collections; The Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bloomington had a copy of the 
nearly impossible to find Pioneers of Space. The internet contains some very difficult-to­
obtain materials: Thanks to Wendy Connors of the Faded Disc Archive for digitizing and 
making available many classic radio programs (www.konsulting.com/audio_clips.htm); 
eBay.com proved invaluable for finding rare saucer books from the 1950s and '60s. The 
George Adamski Foundation (www.gafintl-adamski.com), fifty years later, is still 
keeping the faith, providing some of Adamski's early writings and vigorously defending 
him (and pretty convincingly, at that) against all accusations of fraud and plagiarism 
I also need to thank IUPUI professors Annie Gilbert Coleman, Marianne Wokeck, 
and Anita Ashendel. I served as their teaching assistant while working on various phases 
of this thesis and they all gave great, helpful advice on research and writing. They also 
were very understanding when it took me forever to finish grading exams and papers. F. 
Jack Holl ofKansas State University, the commentator for a panel I was a part of at the 
2002 Mid-America History Conference, tipped me off to the idea of approaching George 
Adamski as a writer of utopian fiction. Finally, I would like to thank Richard Boylan, 
v 
Ph.D. for kindly answering a huge list of questions I emailed to him. His website 
(www.drboylan.com) contains most of his writings and is a valuable overview of the 
modern Contactee movement. 
It's safe to say that without my family and friends I never would have completed 
this project. I truly appreciate your love, support, and needed distractions. I especially 
want to thank Cindy for juggling work and a huge amount of wedding planning while, at 
the same time, putting up with my complaining, procrastination, and occasional bad 
moods. This, as with all things, she did with grace and good humor. 
Dedication 
Acknowledgements 
VI 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Chapter One: The Land of the Flying Saucers 
Chapter Two: The Flying Saucer Phenomenon: 1947-1970 
Chapter Three: Saucer Believers Urging Societal Change 
Chapter Four: Flying Saucer Believers Urging Change in Science and the 
Government 
Chapter Five: Conclusions 
Bibliography 
Curriculum Vitae 
Ill 
IV 
22 
46 
74 
95 
105 
1 
Chapter One 
The Land of the Flying Saucers 
The July night was warm and humid, like most July nights in Indianapolis. 
Aimee and her brother Doug1 drove home from work, tired after a long evening. As they 
sped down the tree-lined street, Aimee rested her head against the cool glass of the 
window staring aimlessly at the dark sky. 
" . .. And that's the nine o'clock news. Stay tuned for more on the news and talk 
oflndiana, 1070, WIB ... " The radio cut out with a stab of rough static. 
"What was that?" demanded Aimee, jerked from her drowsiness. 
"I don't know," said Doug, fiddling with the radio knobs. "It's never done that 
before." 
"Doug!" Aimee pointed to the sky to the right of the road. Gliding over the 
treetops was a bright light darting left and right, up and down as they watched. 
"Well it's not fireworks, I don't think,." Doug said, his voice trailing off. 
"Of course it's not fireworks. Look, there's another one. I think they're coming 
this way." 
By this time, Doug had stopped the car in the middle of the street and was staring 
ahead as the two glowing lights floated toward them. His knuckles were white on the 
steering wheel, his jaw clenched in an effort not to scream/cry/laugh at being face-to-face 
with the unknown. 
1 While the names "Aimee" and "Doug" are fictitious, this sighting was indeed reported to the 
National UFO Reporting Center in August of2002. The sighting report is archived at 
http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/024/S24 712.html 
2 
The car' s headlights shut off, along with the streetlights outside, leaving the two 
strange objects as the only illumination. Aimee became aware of a faint humming that 
grew louder as the objects drew closer. She looked over at Doug. His eyes were 
squeezed closed now and his lips moved, silently uttering a prayer to a god that suddenly 
seemed very far away. 
And then they were gone. 
Doug opened his eyes. The headlight and streetlamps were back on. He slid the 
gearshift into drive and sped down the road, looking straight ahead, and not speaking the 
rest of the way home. 
The car's radio never worked again and Aimee, no matter what she tried, could 
not get Doug to talk of that July night. If she, or another person, brought up the topic, 
Doug would go white, as if ill. Sometimes he would change the subject. More often he 
would leave the room without saying a word. 
Like "Aimee" and "Doug," huge numbers of people claim to have encountered 
similar phenomena over the past half century. Many have authored books and given 
lectures that number in the thousands. Throughout the 1940s, ' 50s, and ' 60s, these 
writers described countless UFO sightings. Some reported nothing more than strange 
glowing lights. Others saw metallic disks in the bright sunshine. Still others tried to 
convince the public that they had met the pilots of the saucers and that the people from 
space had given them rides. 
The first large wave of flying saucer sightings coincided with the early years of 
the Cold War, and that conflict had a marked effect on the early years of UFO sightings. 
The sightings provided, for example, a platform for discussions of the uses of atomic 
3 
energy and other new technologies. Saucer believers and non-believers speculated that 
the objects might be American secret weapons, or Soviet secret weapons. One 
contemporary theory was that "disk- and cigar-shaped flying saucers" were the 
government's ultra-secret means of"decontamination" of the Earth's atmosphere, which 
the military had contaminated with countless atomic weapons tests? The explanation 
that gained the most popular acceptance, however, was that the mysterious objects in the 
sky were highly advanced spacecraft from an alien civilization. 
While a relatively small number of people wrote major books on the flying saucer 
mystery, major magazines such as Life, Look, Time, and Newsweek debated the origin of 
the UFOs and the major authors often found themselves defending their views on 
national television programs. From 194 7 to 1969, the question of flying saucers was a 
continual presence in the popular media ofthe United States. For many in the press, the 
topic existed on a blurred line between news and entertainment. One day would see a 
seriously worded piece on U.S. Air Force reactions to the latest sightings. The next day's 
edition would contain a back page story (complete with photograph) of individuals like 
Andy Sinatra-the Cosmic Barber-who single-handedly saved United Nations 
headquarters from being demolished by malevolent space beings using only the power of 
his mind and a tin-foil hat.3 
Despite the easily disproved claims of many UFO experiencers, the controversy 
over their claims persisted throughout the Cold War and has continued up to the present 
day. UFO belief has never, however, existed simply as a monolithic system with one 
commonly accepted orthodoxy. Believers advanced many different theories about the 
2 James W. Moseley and Karl T. Pflock, Shockingly Close to the Truth! Confessions of a Grave-
4 
origin and purpose of the mysterious craft. The adherents of these different strands of 
UFO belief often attacked each other in print or on the lecture circuit. Did the saucers 
originate in our solar system or from another? Would the occupants be human in 
appearance or horrible monsters? Were the aliens friendly or belligerent? Some 
believers held that the answer to the question of extraterrestrial life lay in the hands of 
scientists. Others believed that the solution would prove more esoteric and spiritual than 
material and scientific. Despite the differing opinions amongst believers during between 
194 7 and 1970, common threads run through them all. 
UFO belief was not, of course, universal. While the question of the UFOs' reality 
did appear in numerous popular media outlets, the topic had little lasting effect on the 
majority of Americans. A small core of true believers, however, used the possibility of 
extraterrestrial visitation to push forward a political and social discourse that challenged 
many aspects of Cold War America. The years after the Second World War brought 
many changes to the United States. Enormous technological and economic advancement 
was balanced with the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Many Americans 
lived more affluent lives than ever before. Inflation was down and unemployment was 
low. With this new economic power, came the belief that the government could sustain 
the country's prosperity by encouraging increased consumer spending. Contrasting with 
this newfound economic freedom for many Americans were increasing restrictions on the 
range of political thoughts and opinions that they could express. The threat of Soviet 
Communist expansion led to incredible scrutiny of Americans' political beliefs with 
government authorities searching for any hint of leftist sympathies. It was within this 
Robbing Ufologist (Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2002), 118. 
5 
context that some UFO believers addressed the need for change in three broad aspects of 
. . 4 Amencan society. 
The first aspect that UFO believers addressed was that of societal change. The 
danger of growing materialism and threat of nuclear conflict were the most prevalent of 
these concerns. All of the major UFO writers, to some degree, expressed hope that the 
possibility of life on other worlds would encourage Americans to look outside their 
confined, suburban world and embrace the possibility of-Dn one level-extraterrestrial 
visitation and-Dn another- the possibility of changing for the better American society 
and culture. Their concerns went beyond that of proving the existence of flying saucers. 
Rather, many wished to effect lasting, significant change. 
UFO writers also expressed concern with what they saw as the increasing secrecy 
in government, particularly with regard to national security matters. Although 
accusations of vast, overarching governmental conspiracies would not become the focal 
point of UFO belief until the 1980s, UFO writers of the 1950s and 1960s called for 
governmental openness on the question of flying saucers. Believers of all stripes held 
that the government knew more than it was saying about the phenomenon. This pointed 
to a chink in the armor of a united American front during the Cold War and provided for 
the possibility of criticizing other aspects of governmental policy. 
In incredibly varied ways, the most prolific of UFO writers and researchers 
during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s used their outrageous, largely un-provable tales of flying 
3 Ibid. , 158-159. 
4 Michael Shaller, et al, Present Tense: The United States Since 1945 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 
1996), 92-122. 
6 
discs to make important statements about the nature of Cold War America. These 
statements addressed the era's growing emphasis on the virtues of a rampant consumer 
culture, the dangers of the nuclear arms race and atomic brinksmanship on the part of the 
U.S. and U.S.S.R., and concern over the nation's scientific endeavors being mainly 
focused on building new and more destructive atomic weapons systems. The manner in 
which UFO believers expressed their dissatisfaction with these fundamental aspects of 
Cold War America is an important, but little studied, category of Cold War dissent. The 
number of articles, television, and radio specials produced during this time ensured that 
the question reached most Americans. Far from being "puff-pieces" about an easily 
dismissible fad, saucer stories questioned fundamental premises underlying Cold War 
American society. Economic development, material consumption, the arms race, and the 
growing national security structure all fell under the magnifying glass of saucer believers. 
The Scholars' Approach: Culture and Thought 
Scholars have examined the Cold War years of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s in 
extraordinary detail. Numerous political changes throughout the world-especially the 
division ofthe world's nations into two competing spheres of influence led by the United 
States and the Soviet Union-prompted wide-reaching changes in American culture and 
intellectual life. The economic, political, and social changes spawned by the end of the 
Second World War, however, unsettled the American people. American politics and 
culture evolved throughout the Cold War. Despite an initial burst of liberal, progressive 
government action immediately after the Second World War, a conservative 
retrenchment came with the growing Cold War with the Soviet Union. As the Cold War 
wore on, American politics and culture changed. The space race began in the late '50s, 
7 
providing a more benign cousin to the arms race. This Cold War world existed on a taut 
wire: events such as the U-2 espionage incident, the rise of soviet-controlled regimes in 
eastern Europe, and the development of the hydrogen bomb all threatened to tum up the 
Cold War thermostat, leading to armed conflicts. The manner in which Americans 
responded to the pressures of the Cold War changed as they came to terms with the new 
order. 
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the American people struggled to 
understand the meaning of the new age of technology that offered both vast destructive 
power and the promise of a future that, economically, surpassed any nation on Earth. 
Historian Paul Boyer examines this transition from fighting in a life and death struggle 
between democracy and fascism to a world where the United States is the only 
superpower. He asks, "How does a people react when the entire basis of its existence is 
fundamentally altered?" Boyer argues that the discussions and debates over newly 
emergent nuclear technology were not confined to the intellectual and scientific elite. On 
the contrary, debate over nuclear power and weapons permeated American culture and 
discourse. The language of the atomic age began to appear in the nomenclature of 
everyday items. Children played with "atomic" decoder rings and middle-class 
American came to embrace the concept of the "nuclear" family. Reorganization at high 
levels of government reflected the realities of this new age. The federal government 
undertook the greatest reorganization ever of the national defense structure. They created 
new agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, 
acknowledging that the advent of the atomic age had changed the way the government 
carried out its work of national security. In the scientific realm, too, reorganization took 
8 
place. While many top scientists took work with the government, developing newer and 
more power weapons, other scientists banded together to demand that control of atomic 
energy and weapons be put under the umbrella of an international regulatory agency. 
These demands, made at a time of international tension, brought into question the 
political loyalty of these scientists.5 It was during these years that the first saucer 
sighting appeared in the national press. The advent of flying saucer helps answer 
Boyer's question. Historians' treatments of Cold War America rarely mention the 
phenomenon, however. When historians have discussed the question ofUFO belief, they 
often dismiss it as a byproduct of fears and tensions brought on by the threat of nuclear 
exchange.6 
On a superficial level, one could apply that explanation to the Contactees of the 
1950s and 1960s. They often claimed that concern over escalating nuclear development 
was the reason saucers began visiting Earth. Such an approach, however, ignores the 
earlier activities and writings of the Contactees, particularly George Adamski. Although 
the Contactees receive the most play from historians as the epitome of saucer belief 
during the Cold War, many other forms of the belief existed. Boyer's discussion of 
American response to the Atomic Age, although lacking any mention of flying saucers or 
their proponents, provides a valuable template for analyzing American saucer beliefs 
from the same era. Throughout the early Cold War years, a common motif was the 
attempt to predict what technological advancements would come in the future. From the 
world of tomorrow at Disneyland and an increasing interest in science fiction in movies 
5Paul Boyer, By the Bomb 's Early Light: American Thought and Consciousness at the Dawn of the 
Atomic A~e (New York: Pantheon, 1985), 265. 
J. Ronald Oakley, God 's Country: America in the Fifties (New York: Dembner Books, 1986), 
364-365. 
9 
and television to the advent of the jet engine, many Americans looked to the future as a 
technological utopia. Flying saucers possessed futuristic, advanced technology but at the 
same time, that technology appeared attainable. Humanity might someday build craft 
like these. Flying saucer belief-through its utilization of a technological medium for its 
message-fits well with Boyer's discussion. 
A common theme running through the different strands of saucer belief during 
the Cold War was dissatisfaction with several aspects of American society and 
government. This connects saucer believers to a different set of Cold War analyses. 
W. T. Lhamon Jr., in Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 
1950s, examines such diverse aspects of 1950s culture as the writings of Jack Kerouac 
and Thomas Pynchon, the art of Jackson Pollack, and the music of Little Richard and 
Thelonious Monk as being of a piece in terms of their effect on the culture of the 1950s. 
He argues that, "They became a set of strategies for cultural action.''7 These artists and 
writers did not fit the mold of the dominant middle-class white culture. Thus, as 
outsiders, they were in a position to critique that culture. Some were outsiders by virtue 
of their race; others chose to withdraw from the dominant culture in order to critique its 
values. To the selection of artists, novelists, musicians and poets discussed by Lhamon, 
one could add flying saucer believers. Some believers were outsiders throughout their 
lives. Others left behind conventional careers to pursue the question of the saucers. 
Whatever their different backgrounds, from the most outrageous claims of the Contactees 
to the most conservative theories of "scientific" saucer researchers, one detects a desire 
7W. T. Lhamon, Jr., Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1 950s, 
(Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990), xiv. 
10 
for a change in priorities, away from the competition and materialism that prevailed in 
the United States. 
Dissent, however close to the surface it might have been, largely remained hidden 
behind what Alan Brinkley calls an illusion ofunitl. According to Brinkley, this 
illusion grew from the tremendous economic success ofthe United States in the post-war 
years. This enormous financial power, combined with military strength and ideological 
fervor in the face of perceived Soviet aggression, provided Americans with a sense of 
purpose and of superiority that overshadowed social or cultural criticisms. With this 
superiority, bolstered by the appearance of solidarity on the part of the American people, 
it appeared that Americans would not only prevail against the Communist threat, but also 
have the ability to solve social problems at home. Like the artists, musicians and writers 
addressed by Lhamon, Brinkley points to intellectuals like Archibald Macleish and the 
sociologist C. Wright Mills as staunch critics of the middle class suburban veneer 
presented as a unified "America." And just as was the case with Lhamon 's discussion, 
many saucer believers would fit this analysis. 9 While Lhamon and Brinkley do not 
discuss flying saucer believers, their analytical approach and basic argument apply to the 
UFO phenomenon. While most saucer writers were assuredly non-intellectual, they were 
outsiders. 
Margot A. Henriksen, in Dr. Strange/ave's America: Society and Culture in the 
Atomic Age, focuses on "the often quieter and less visible development of the atomic age 
culture of dissent" which arose in the 1950s rather than the more visible aspects of Cold 
8Aian Brinkley, "The Illusion of Unity in Cold War Culture" in Peter J. Kuznick and James 
Gilbert, ed., Rethinking Cold War Culture (Washington: Smithsonian Institute Press, 2001), 62. 
9/bid. , 70-71. 
11 
War culture. 10 Examining such things as films, youth crime and violence, and the bomb 
shelter craze, she uncovers a schismatic America suffering from juvenile delinquency at 
the same time that its television programs presented "idealized representations of the 
forces of law and order," and supporting a government that relied on informers to "name 
names" before HUAC while celebrating Arthur Miller's play The Crucible which 
"honor[ ed] individual conscience against mass hysteria." 11 This depiction of a schizoid 
America helps explain both the presence of and ambivalence toward UFO believers. For 
many, their apprehension over the changing world and the threat of nuclear war was 
mingled with hope that humanity had within itself the means of rising above destruction. 
As the 1960s dawned, American thought and culture shifted again and, according 
to Howard Brick, the result was "an age of contradiction." Intellectuals of the 60s, 
recalling the brief flare of optimism that occurred at the end of the Second World War, 
"approached the coming decade . .. as a chance to realize far-reaching goals of social 
progress."12 As the 60s progressed, the New Left asserted itself after the conservatism of 
the 50s. The youth and Civil Rights movements protested, sometimes violently, against 
the policies of a national government that they viewed as existing only to protect the 
rights of the privileged. With the ascension of Richard Nixon to the presidency in 1968, 
contradiction reasserted itself, signaling, "a conservative trend [while] liberal and radical 
forces had not yet lost their energy." Despite this final reversion, Brick considers the late 
60s as "the acme of reform ideology in modern America." 13 
10Margot A. Henriksen, Dr. Strange/ave's America: Society and Culture in the Atomic Age 
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), x. 
11/bid., 69. 
12Howard Brick, Age of Contradiction: American Thought and Culture in the 1960s (Ithaca: 
Cornell University Press, 2000), xii. 
13/bid., 185. 
12 
One can see parallels between the reform minded spirit ofthe 1960s and the 
actions of saucer believers during the same time. The 1960s saw increased efforts to get 
the federal government involved in saucer research. The same contradictions discussed 
by Brick played out in the story of the flying saucers. Government was more open during 
the 1960s than it was during the 1950s. At the same time, many believers began to 
present saucer research on more scientific, rational lines. They held out hope that a 
scientific approach combined with the cooperation of an activist government would solve 
the mystery of the saucers. 
While most historians of the Cold War have not discussed UFO belief, they have 
laid extensive groundwork explicating the social, cultural, and political context in which 
the flying saucer movement existed. They have also chronicled and analyzed the 
development of similar dissenting voices of the time. The few historians who have 
undertaken the task of chronicling the development of saucer belief in the United States 
have generally followed one of two paths. The first is to focus on the political and 
military aspects of saucer belief. This approach, while admirably analyzing and 
explicating the role of the military in the question of flying saucer research, tends to 
minimize smaller fringe groups, especially Contactees and their followers . The second 
path is less analytical than critical. Authors who choose this path argue that saucer belief 
was a fear-reaction to the changing America ofthe Cold War years. While this argument 
is quite tenable, to focus exclusively on this ignores the pro-active steps believers took to 
improve their nation and world. 
David M. Jacobs, in The UFO Controversy in America, chooses the first path, 
focusing on the conflict between the political/military infrastructure that sought to 
13 
monopolize research into unexplained aerial phenomena and the large, national saucer 
investigation groups (particular Donald Keyhoe's National Investigations Committee on 
Aerial Phenomenon), which sought cooperation between government and civil research 
efforts. 14 Jacobs also extensively documents NICAP's quest for open congressional 
hearings into the question of the saucers. Jacobs's work is more narrative than analytical 
but the topics upon which he concentrates clearly indicate that he considers scientific and 
political approaches to the saucer question much more worthy of analysis than other 
types. Jacobs deftly describes the motivations, goals, and results ofNICAP's quest for 
government and scientific validation of their saucer beliefs. By almost ignoring other 
types of saucer beliefs, however, Jacobs misses the opportunity to explore the ways in 
which different strands of saucer belief intertwined. 
Unlike Jacobs, Curtis Peebles in Watch the Skies! A Chronicle of the Flying 
Saucer Myth and Brenda Denzler in The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passions, Religious 
Beliefs, and the Pursuit of UFOs both encompass all aspects of saucer belief from 
political and scientific to religious interpretations of the phenomenon. Unfortunately, 
while both authors explore the broad spectrum of saucer belief, they come to very narrow 
conclusions. Peebles dismisses the convictions of UFO believers as "a mirror to the 
events of postwar America- the paranoia ofthe 1950s, the social turmoil ofthe 1960s, the 
"me generation" ofthe 1970s and the nihilism ofthe 1980s and the early 1990s." 15 
Denzler explores the relationship between UFO belief, science, and religion, concluding 
"at every tum science leaves humanity essentially alone in the universe. The UFO 
14David M. Jacobs, The UFO Controversy in America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 
1975), 1-5. 
15Curtis Peebles, Watch the Skies! A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth (Washington: 
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994), x. 
14 
movement, however ... suggest[s] that not only are we not alone but we have been and 
can be and are in contact with alien forms of intelligent life." UFO belief, for him, is a 
middle ground between the barrenness of science and the mysticism of religion. 16 
Thus, both Peebles and Denzler remove from saucer believers a great deal of 
agency. To Peebles, believers are simply the product of their environment, their 
convictions a reflection ofthe world around them. For Denzler, UFO belief is an internal 
coping mechanism, concocted by those unable to deal with either science or religion. 
Both authors fail to consider the possibility that saucer belief was not a simply reaction to 
or escape from reality, but that it could be a medium through which its adherents could 
convey a desire for fundamental change in American society. Cultural theorists have 
thought more fruitfully about UFO belief over the past 20 years. These works focus 
largely on the conspiracy theory and paranoia aspects of modem UFO belief. Although 
overarching conspiracy theory did not become the focus ofUFO theories until the 1980s, 
there exists in the beliefs of Cold War saucerdom a faint undercurrent of conspiracy and 
cover-up on the part ofthe United States government. Thus, some of these researchers' 
ideas prove useful to an examination of saucer belief during the 1950s and 60s. 
Jodi Dean, in her 1998 book Aliens In America: Conspiracy Cultures from 
Outerspace to Cyberspace, examines the presence of"aliens in everyday life". Rather 
than provide a close examination of UFO beliefs, Dean focuses on popular images of 
aliens, popular presentations of alien abduction, and conspiracy tales that have escaped 
the UFO subculture and have subsequently presented themselves as cultural artifacts in 
20th century American society. Dean examines the connections between these "cultural 
16Brenda Denzler, The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passions, Religous Beliefs, and the Pursuit of 
15 
artifacts and social and politicallife." 17 She does not, however, deal extensively with the 
1940s through the 1960s, focusing instead on current cultural expressions of"UFOlogy." 
In her treatment of UFO culture during the Cold War, she does say that "in the 1950s 
and 1960s ... [UFOlogy] was doing something; it wasn'tjust spinning an outlandish 
conspiracy tale." Rather, it was using the "conspiracy tale" of government efforts to hide 
the "truth" about flying saucers to challenge military and scientific hegemony. 18 Thus, 
Dean's analysis of saucer conspiracies grants saucer believers significant agency in their 
attempts to change the world around them but leaves developing an analysis of the 1950s 
and '60s to others. 
Peter Knight and Timothy Melley have both explored the nature and meaning of 
paranoia in postwar America. Melley argues that writers use conspiracy theories to 
"represent the influence of postwar technologies, social organizations and 
communications systems on human beings." and that these theories "are symptoms of a 
more pervasive anxiety about social control." 19 But attempts at social control certainly 
existed during the 1950s and 60s, enforcing a vision of a unified nation, bound together 
by a veneer of upper-middle class consumerism. Saucer believers, particularly the 
Contactees, rebelled against these attempts at control. Peter Knight explains "conspiracy 
theories have traditionally functioned either to bolster a sense of an 'us' threatened by a 
sinister 'them,' or to justify the scapegoating of often blameless victims."20 Saucer 
UFOs (Berkeley: University of California Press, 200 I), 159. 
17Jodi Dean, Aliens in America: Conspiracy Cultures from Outerspace to Cyberspace (Ithaca: 
Cornell University Press, 1998), 5. 
18lbid. , 42. 
19Timothy Melley, Empire of Conspiracy: The Culture of Paranoia in Postwar America (Ithaca: 
Cornell University Press, 2000), vii. 
20Peter Knight, Conspiracy Culture: From Kennedy to the X-Files (New York: Routledge, 2000), 
3. 
16 
believers of all stripes often felt that the escalating Cold War promoted a false dichotomy 
that would disappear if the saucers proved to be real. The end of the Cold War conflict 
would strip the governments of the world with their reason for stockpiling weapons and 
promoting fear of the other side in the conflict. When the conspiracy is focused on 
keeping secrets (such as the truth behind the flying saucers), those trying to expose the 
secrets become noble, heroically bringing the truth to a populous that had been mislead. 
Scholars who study conspiracy theory ask the question that I want to ask of saucer 
believers in the '50s and '60s: to what extent did these beliefs help their holders cope 
with a situation they felt was out of control? Like the conspiracy theorists discussed by 
Melley, Knight, and Dean, UFO believers of the 1950s and 1960s used their ideas to 
explain aspects of their world that were otherwise inexplicable. While writers on 
contemporary conspiracy theories often insist that their subjects' views result from those 
individuals being alienated from mainstream society, I contend that during the early Cold 
War saucer believers sought to use the issue ofUFOs to effect change and initiate 
discourse from within American society. 
Beyond intellectual histories ofthe Cold War, narrowly focused UFO histories, 
and the writings of cultural critics on conspiracy theory, historians of science also 
provide a fertile background for exploring the meaning of saucer belief in Cold War 
America. Saucer believers and UFO advocates often questioned American uses of new 
scientific knowledge and argued that scientists should focus their advances toward more 
peaceful ends. Historians in recent years have examined the role of science and scientists 
in the Cold War, and the absorption of science by the American national defense culture. 
Boyer's By the Bomb 's Early Light, Stuart W. Leslie's The Cold War and American 
17 
Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford, and Jessica 
Wang' s American Scientists in an Age of Anxiety: Scientists, Anticommunism, and the 
Cold War provide three different perspectives on the impact science and Cold War 
politics had upon each other. 
Boyer traces what he considers to be a political agenda held by nuclear scientists. 
He attributes this agenda to the fact that "many scientists concluded after August 6, 
1945, that it was their urgent duty to try to shape official policy regarding atomic 
energy."21 The most urgent of their requests was the creation of an international 
authority to control nuclear material and even-in the case of such visionaries as Leo 
Szilard, Eugene Rabinowich and even Albert Einstein-the creation of a worldwide 
government that would supplant nation-states; a goal also advocated by some UFO 
believers. Thus the goals and aims of some believers arose within a previously 
established context of political change. The saucer believers did not exist in an 
ideological vacuum. Rather, they appended UFO beliefs onto political causes in which 
they believed. 
Though Jessica Wang deals with the same time period and many of the same 
individuals, she does not discuss the push for world government. Rather, Wang 
approaches the problem ofthe growing anticommunist feeling in the U.S. from 1945 to 
1955 and the ways that those sentiments affected scientists ofthe era. Wang argues that 
through their inadequate response to the rabid anticommunism ofthe time, the American 
scientific establishment effectively changed the nature of American science. "Domestic 
anticommunism did more than interfere with individual scientists' lives," Wang argues, 
21Boyer, 49. 
18 
"it affected the entire scientific enterprise. "22 Many saucer believers believed that, for 
many different reasons, science had become ideological rather than open-minded. While 
not referencing the anticommunist movement, saucer researchers in the 1950s and 60s 
had indeed been co-opted and adhered to a party line rather than form their own opinions 
about new phenomena. 
Stuart Leslie examines the relationship between government and scientific 
institutions. Leslie argues that the linking of MIT and Stanford to the national defense 
structure through patronage work and research grants resulted in "academic programs 
and corporate products so skewed toward the cutting-edge performance of military 
technology that they had nothing to give to the civilian economy."23 Many flying saucer 
believers of the same era shared these feelings. Their desires for alternative scientific 
advances ranged from medical treatments to American-made flying saucers for exploring 
the solar system. The examination of the growing governmental influence in science 
provides valuable insights into the changing nature of the American government during 
the Cold War and that government's relationship with traditionally civilian areas of 
society. Saucer believers focused upon these changes in government in their writings, 
indicating a desire for change. The works of Boyer, Wang, and Leslie aids our 
understanding of saucer believers because they explain, in many cases, their own 
perspectives on the relationship between science and the government. 
A final category of analysis relating to UFO belief in the Cold War is that of 
science fiction in general and utopian/dystopian fiction in particular. While not 
22Jessica Wang, American Science in an Age of Anxiety: Scientists, Anticommunism and the Cold 
War (Chapel Hill: University ofNorth Carolina Press, 1999), 3. 
23Stuart W. Leslie, The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic 
Complex at MIT and Stanford (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 3. 
19 
ostensibly writers of fiction , UFO believers often expressed into utopian and dystopian 
themes in their writings. The Contactees, for example, would discuss the wonders of life 
on Venus and praising the Venusians ' technological and spiritual advancement. 
Following that, as a counterpoint, they would lament that the peoples of earth were not as 
advanced. They then often predicted certain atomic destruction if humanity did not 
change its ways. Analysis of science fiction and utopian/dystopian writing provides 
useful models for interpreting the writing of flying saucer Contactees. 
Tom Moylan observes that dystopian narratives are "largely the product of the 
terrors of the twentieth century. A hundred years of . .. war .. . provided more than 
enough fertile ground for this fictive underside of the utopian imagination." Dystopia is 
not, however, merely an "anti-utopia." Rather, a dystopian storyline often "develops 
around [an] alienated protagonist. "24 Another shared feature of saucer narratives and 
science fiction more generally is the prevalence of travel narratives? 5 This similarity is 
especially strong when considering the works of those Contactees who claimed to have 
traveled on flying saucers. Their journeys had a twofold purpose. First, they enabled the 
experiencer to escape what they saw as a world that was inadequate. Second, the saucer 
experience gave the believer a medium within which to hide messages promoting society 
and culture change. 
Any discussion of flying saucers necessarily brings to mind the long history of 
astrological omens, their religious interpretations and the effect of these on society and 
culture, especially at the turns of centuries or during times of war. While scholars of 
24Tom Moylan, Scraps of the Untainted Sky: Science Fiction, Utopia, Dystopia (Boulder: 
Westview Press, 2000), xi,xiii. 
25John J. Pierce, Foundations of Science Fiction: A Study in Imagination and Evolution (New 
York: Greenwood Press, 1987), 11-14. 
20 
religion and spirituality have explored cults that integrated flying saucer belief in their 
worldviews, these investigations deal almost exclusively with the Contactees of the 
1950s and '60s and their descendents, the UFO cults of the 1970s. While an examination 
of the spiritual beliefs of the Contactees is important, it is outside the scope of this study. 
Rather than focus so deeply on one component of saucer belief, I aim to explore the 
relationship between different areas of those beliefs. 
Conspiracy theory, science, and science fiction all appear, on the surface, to be 
natural cognates of the UFO phenomenon. The study of those who not only professed 
belief in flying saucers, but also devoted their lives to evangelizing their views to people 
around the world, is remarkably interdisciplinary. From the starting point of the flying 
saucers, one can discuss military policy, the changing organizational structure of the U.S. 
government, popular culture, the use of media, and myriad other topics. While it proves 
tempting and all too easy to get caught up in the entertaining and often humorous 
accounts of the believers, one must always bear in mind that these writers were doing 
much more than telling America about the spacemen. They talked about the space beings 
so they could talk about earth beings. They pointed out the wonders of Venus to point 
out the deficiencies of Earth. In doing this, they revealed much about the Cold War's 
impact on government, society, and science. 
Flying saucer belief during the Cold War, though comprised of differing and often 
contradictory theories, consistently sought to bring about lasting change in American 
society, culture, politics and science. The Contactees wrote tales of travels and 
conversations with otherworldly beings who had humanity's best interests at heart. Their 
messages, if adhered to, had the potential to transform Earth into a peaceful paradise. 
21 
Other saucer believers and researchers claimed no contact with the machines or their 
operators. These individuals and the organizations they formed simply wanted the truth 
about the strange devices in the sky. Many were convinced that the United States 
government knew more than it was telling about the strange lights and vehicles in the 
sky. For the truth to be known the government would have to lower the walls of secrecy 
they had built since the advent of the Cold War. All these groups and individuals, 
regardless of their views on the saucers, had serious messages for the American people 
and government. 
22 
Chapter Two 
"I discovered a general interest in saucers keener than I had imagined" 
The Flying Saucer Phenomenon: 1947-19701 
Throughout the 1940s, '50s, and '60s believers and skeptics alike carried on the 
flying saucer debate in very public forums. In addition to coverage from flying saucer 
clubs, local newsletters, and pulp magazines devoted to the question, many mainstream 
publications such as Time, Life, and Look also gave extensive coverage to the topic. A 
brief overview of the major turning points in the flying saucer phenomenon in Cold War 
America provides a valuable look at the ways in which different kinds of saucer beliefs 
and debates changed over time. Between 194 7 and 1970, flying saucer beliefs became 
more diverse: there was no one explanation for what the saucers were, where they came 
from, and what their purpose was. The people involved in saucer research during this 
time went to great lengths to promulgate their various views of what was happening in 
the skies above the United States. In doing so, they also sought to spread their beliefs 
about aspects of American which they felt needed reform or improvement. 
The differences between strands of saucer belief and the ways in which these 
beliefs developed demonstrate that as the 1950s and '60s wore on, saucer believers 
refined their arguments into forms that would have the most impact on the public. These 
developments culminated in a major government-funded scientific investigation into the 
validity of saucer claims. Ironically, this proved to be the undoing of the saucer 
movement in the United States. The investigations and debates of the saucer believers 
1 I am using the terms "flying saucer", "saucer belief' and "saucer mystery" rather than the more 
commonly accepted term UFO. My reasoning for this is that, during the 1950s and 1960s, "Flying Saucer" 
was the term used most extensively (if not exclusively) among believers. By its very nature, "UFO" 
connotes a sense of uncertainty, of doubt, and of reasonably scientific investigation. Very few true 
believers felt any uncertainty of doubt. What they saw were saucers, which probably originated on another 
planet. For most believers, the craft were not unidentified. 
23 
did not, however, occur in a vacuum. The actions of the American military 
establishment, particularly the Air Force, served to fuel speculation about the nature of 
the saucer phenomenon thus feeding the saucer believers' views and giving them 
longevity. 
Most UFO researchers, if pressed for an actual start -date for flying saucer 
fanaticism in the United States, will point to June 24, 1947. On this day, Idaho 
businessman Kenneth Arnold was flying a private plane from Chehalis to Yakima, 
Washington. Arnold claimed, as he flew toward Mount Rainier, that he saw, "a chain of 
nine peculiar looking aircraft flying from north to south at approximately 9,500 feet 
elevation and going, seemingly, in a definite direction of about 170 degrees." Since the 
local FBI office was closed, Arnold reported his sighting instead to the East Oregonian 
newspaper. The story found its way to the Associated Press news wire. Within days, the 
story of the strange objects that "flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the 
water" flashed across headlines throughout the United States.2 Though some had claimed 
to see unexplained aerial phenomena before this date, June 14, 194 7 marked the 
beginning of the United States ' popular reaction to and interaction with those who made 
claims of encountering these phenomena. 
The remainder of the summer of 1947 carried with it a number of further "flying 
disk" claims from witnesses such as police officers, harbor patrolmen, and airline pilots. 
Subsequent to the first few instances of unexplained activity, the Army Air Force (AAF) 
issued a statement denying that any of their current projects were responsible for 
2 Brad Steiger, ed. Project Blue Book (New York: Ballentine, 1976), 26-36. 
24 
sightings and that the sightings that had been reported did not warrant investigation. This 
attitude would quickly change. In July of 1947, several AAF pilots allegedly chased 
unidentifiable disk-shaped aircraft and proved unable to match their speed or 
maneuverability. The experiences of these pilots caused concern in the upper echelons of 
the AAF. 
At the Technical Intelligence Division of Air Materiel Command, headquartered 
at Wright-Patterson Field in Dayton, Ohio, opinion was split as to the origins of the 
strange craft. One leading theory was that the craft were extraterrestrial, piloted by 
beings from another planet. The second theory was that they were experimental craft 
developed by the Soviet Union and secretly being tested in the United States. Since the 
U.S. Navy had also been developing a disk-shaped aircraft (the XFSU-1), this 
explanation seemed the most plausible and by the end of 194 7, it had become the 
prevailing opinion of the AAF.3 
By the end of the summer of 194 7, the Pentagon had reorganized the AAF into 
the independent U.S. Air Force. Along with this change came the institution of project 
Sign. Sign was a permanent flying saucer investigation program with orders to "collect, 
collate, evaluate, and distribute to interested government agencies and contractors all 
information concerning sightings and phenomena in the atmosphere which can be 
construed to be of concern to the national security."4 With Sign in place, the USAF took 
official, concerted action on the question of flying saucers. 
Throughout 1948, saucer sightings continued. The most spectacular event 
3 Curtis Peebles, Watch The Skies! A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth (Washington, D.C.: 
Smithsonian Insitution Press, 1992), 12. 
4 David Jacobs. The UFO Controversy in America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975) 
270. 
25 
occurred in January of that year. On the i\ Thomas F. Mantell, Jr., a captain in the 
Kentucky Air National Guard's 165th Fighter Squadron, was flying from Marietta, 
Georgia to Standiford Air Force Base in Kentucky. As Mantell and his three wingmen 
approached Standiford in their F-51D fighters, they spotted an immense metallic object 
that did not resemble any aircraft with which they were familiar. The four fighters 
pursued the object but as they approached 25,000 feet, all of them broke off except 
Mantell. Mantell continued pursuing the object until he ran out of oxygen. His fighter 
went into a sharp dive and crashed on a farm in Franklin, Kentucky. Although Air Force 
officials found no evidence that the crash was anything more than an accident, the 
Louisville Courier dramatized the story with the headline "F-51 and Capt. Mantell 
Destroyed Chasing Flying Saucer."5 
The sensationalist headlines introduced the idea that saucers might not only be 
interacting with humanity but also might prove dangerous. It also indicated to the public 
that the American military had an interest in discovering the identity of the visitors. After 
the Mantell incident, Sign personnel began to view saucers as an extraterrestrial 
phenomenon and issued an "Estimate of the Situation" which concluded that the flying 
saucers were real and that they came from outer space. USAF Chief of Staff Hoyt S. 
Vandenberg rejected this estimate. He did not think that the evidence gathered by the Air 
Force justified such a radical explanation.6 This verdict somewhat deflated the members 
of Sign, who felt they no longer had any real incentive to rigorously investigate saucer 
reports. Vandenberg ordered that the USAF saucer project to shift to a more scientific 
5 Ibid. 
6 Edward J. Ruppelt. The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 
1956), 41-25. Ruppelt was an Air Force officer who, for a time, was in command of Project Blue Book 
26 
basis, with an emphasis on explaining sightings in terms that could be easily conveyed to 
the public. 
According to J. Allen Hynek, scientific advisor to project Sign, the Air Force now 
"entered upon a long period of unfortunate, amateurish public relations. The issuance of 
propaganda and public relations handouts, which were often ill-considered and 
contradictory, ushered in an era of confusion from 1950-1970." Hynek would remain the 
Air Force's advisor on UFO matters from 1947 through 1969. He summed up what he 
saw as the Air Force's flawed handling of the saucer situation with one question: "if there 
was nothing whatever to the UFO phenomenon other than misperceptions, hoaxes, etc., 
why continue a UFO program?"7 
The USAF changed the name of project Sign to project Grudge on February 11 , 
1949. There exists no firm reason for the name change. One explanation was that the 
name "Sign" had been compromised in someway, which necessitated the name change 
for security reasons. 8 The changeover to the new name was so subtle that USAF ofticials 
did not see a need to inform even their scientific advisor. Hynek stated that "code names 
were not supposed to have any special significance" but he also reported "The change to 
Project Grudge signaled the adoption of the strict brush-off attitude to the UFO problem. 
Now the public relations statements on specific UFO cases bore little resemblance to the 
facts of the case."9 The Air Force dismissed complex cases with simple explanations. 
For example, multiple lights, moving at high speed in different directions were explained 
(the organizational successor to Projects Sign and Grudge). His account provides valuable " insider" 
knowledge of USAF procedure and attitudes of the rime. 
7 J. Allen Hynek. The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry (New York: Marlowe & Company, 
1998) 173. 
8 Tim Printy. "Project Grudge" (http://members.aol.com!fPrinty/Grudge.html: 200 1) I. 
9 Hynek, 1, 174. 
27 
away as being a sighting of the planet Venus. 10 This growing disparity between the 
sightings reported to the USAF and their subsequent explanations of those sightings led 
to the growth of civilian saucer research organizations. 
These changes encompassed both the way that saucer believers presented their 
views and the ways in which American society and government accepted these views. 
Three major developments occurred: increased government scrutiny, increased reports of 
UFO sightings which often got attention in the popular press, and the advent of a group 
of UFO experiencers known as Contactees. These years also began to see a splintering of 
saucer belief into different factions. Each of these factions had different explanations for 
sightings and wildly divergent interpretations oftheir meaning. By the end ofthe 1960s, 
flying saucer belief had grown in both scale and complexity. 
Government response to the saucer question escalated during the 1950s and 
1960s. One manifestation of this was the changeover, in the summer of 1951, of project 
Grudge to project Blue Book. Blue Book would be the primary means by which the 
government and military dealt with the saucer phenomenon until1969. Although faced 
with a similar mission as Sign and Grudge, the USAF wanted Blue Book to provide more 
solid explanations of saucer sightings and events. They wanted the solution to the flying 
saucer question to be mundane and attributable to natural phenomenon. 
A prime example ofthis occurred in 1966. Two sheriffs deputies in eastern Ohio 
spotted a strange object in the night sky. They pursued it over 60 miles into western 
Pennsylvania. Other witnesses in Pennsylvania also saw the object. When the witnesses 
reported their sighting to the Air Force, they received a perfunctory five-minute 
10 Ibid., 186. 
28 
telephone interview. The commander of Blue Book at the time, Major Hector 
Quintanilla, dismissed the sighting as being a particularly bright satellite. The witnesses, 
believing that the Air Force was not taking their claims seriously, contacted their 
members of Congress. The Congressmen put pressure on Quintanilla to come up with a 
more convincing explanation. This time, Quintanilla traveled to Ravenna, Ohio to 
interview the witnesses in person. The final explanation arrived at by the Air Force was 
that the witnesses had seen and pursued the planet Venus, even though the witnesses 
clearly stated that they saw Venus in addition to the mysterious object. 11 
The Blue Book reports and explanations gained credibility with the press and the 
public largely due to the efforts of Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Blue Book's scientific advisor. 
His calm, soft-spoken appearances on radio and television programs lent an air of rational 
assurance to the Air Force explanations of sightings. 12 He seemed to acknowledge that a 
genuine mystery or important discovery might lie at the heart of the sightings. 
Unfortunately, due to the volume of cases and the USAF's pressure to provide an 
explanation, Hynek was never able to investigate sightings deeply enough to know for 
sure if anything might be behind them. 13 
Increased sightings, especially in 1952, led to increased government scrutiny of 
the mystery. The summer of that year saw Blue Book personnel inundated with sightings 
from all over the country, including a so-called "Saucer-fly-over" of Washington, D. C. 
which radar operators were powerless to explain. As mysterious lights flashed in the 
night over the Pentagon, White House, and Capitol Hill, the Air Force scrambled fighters 
11 Hynek, 100-107. 
12 Peebles, 21-22. 
13 Hynek, 108. 
29 
to intercept. By the time the planes were airborne, the lights had disappeared from the 
skies and the radar screens. 14 This incident convinced many in the government that 
whatever was going on, it was vital to determine whether or not there existed a threat to 
national security. By early 1953, one of the newest governmental creations of the Cold 
War would try its hand at understanding the situation. 
On January 14-17, 1953, the Central Intelligence Agency convened the "Scientific 
Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects." Chaired by physicist E. P. Robertson of the 
California Institute of Technology, the panel concluded, much like the Air Force, that 
there existed no evidence that "these phenomena constitute a direct physical threat to 
national security." While no "physical threat" existed, the panel acknowledged "that the 
continued emphasis on the reporting of these phenomena does, in these parlous [sic] 
times result in a threat to the orderly functioning of the protective organs of the body 
politic." The panel suggested that the media be used to "strip the Unidentified Flying 
Objects of the ... aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired."15 The findings of 
the Robertson Panel, though initially classified and not reported to the public was 
significant for two reasons. First, it helped established that the government saw flying 
saucers as a threat- not because they were invading craft from outer space but because 
the public's perception of them could derail the government efforts to convince 
Americans that the Soviet Union was greatest threat imaginable. Second, and more far-
reaching, was the effect that the Robertson findings had on flying saucer believers when 
its existence was eventually leaked to the public. To many saucer believers, the report 
14 Gerald K. Haynes, "A Die-Hard Issue: CIA's Role in the Study ofUFOs, 1947-90." Studies in 
Intelligence Vol.l , No. l , 1997:2. 
15 Report of the Scientific Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, January 17, 1953: 2, 3. 
30 
confirmed that the government did, despite its previous public statements, have a strong 
interest in flying saucers. What was more, the agency involved was not the Air Force, 
but the CIA: a new, secretive creation of the Cold War. Knowledge of the scrutiny given 
to the question of flying saucers by the military and intelligence organs of the U.S. 
government fueled believers' desire for governmental disclosure of any UFO information 
they might have had and reinforced the notion that the government was being unduly 
secretive about the topic. 
Discussion of flying saucers was not confined to private researchers and 
government committees. Prominent national media outlets also posited theories and 
presented the views of the Air Force to the public. The prevailing approach that the 
national media took was to minimize and marginalize fringe views, preferring instead to 
focus on Air Force responses to saucer reports and on more plausible sightings. As 
saucers became more of a mainstream topic, however, some media outlets called into 
question the honesty and thoroughness of Air Force investigations. A useful point of 
comparison is the treatment given the saucer question by Life magazine at two key points 
in the saucer story. These two stories not only demonstrate the attention that the national 
press paid to saucer sightings but also illustrate the degree to which the focus of coverage 
changed between 1947 and 1952. 
The first is a short article in the July 21, 194 7 issue of Life, shortly after Kenneth 
Arnold's initial saucer sighting. The article recaps the Arnold sighting, and mentions a 
few others that happened during that first "UFO wave." The article then segues into 
various theories of the saucers' origins. For example, "San Franciscan Ole J. Sneide, 
explained that the saucers were sent out by 'The Great Master' who left earth in disks 
31 
after the fall of the Roman Empire and now resides on the dark side of the Moon." 
Another explanation came from Boris Artzybasheff who opined that "obviously the 
residents of the planet Neptune, having attained a civilization far in advance of what is 
now enjoyed on earth, are shelling the universe with crockery saucers." 16 
While the 194 7 article was less than a page long and largely dismissive of saucer 
sightings and their proponents, Life's April 7, 1952 article entitled "Have We Visitors 
From Space?" took the subject much more seriously. The focus of this article was the 
Air Force's new initiative to investigate saucer sightings. 17 Whereas the earlier article 
was distinctly tongue-in-cheek, this article had a darker tone. Contributing to this tone 
was the relation of the Captain Mantell's fighter crash while pursuing a perceived flying 
saucer, and other frightening encounters with saucers that either resulted-or easily could 
have resulted-in loss of life. The Life reporter also criticizes previous Air Force 
investigations into the phenomenon: 
These occurrences, jarring though they must have been to the participants, left the 
official calm of the Air Force unruffled. The operations set up to investigate the 
saucers ... seemed to have been fashioned more as a sedative to public 
controversy than as a serious inquiry into the facts. 18 
Thus, in the 1952 article, Life's writer acknowledged that a mystery existed, that it was 
possibly threatening, and that the government had not taken the proactive role that the 
mystery demanded. 
16 "Speaking Pictures ... A Rash ofFlying Saucers Breaks Out Over the Country," Life July 21, 
1947: 14. 
17 Given the date of the article, and given that Projet:t Grudge is referred to by name, it's 
reasonable to assume that the outline of new USAF policy in the article refers to Project Blue Book, even 
though that name had not yet been made public. 
18 "Have We Visitors From Space?" Life, April 7, 1952: 82. 
32 
Major broadcasting systems ABC and CBS also looked at the new flying saucer 
phenomenon in the late 1940s. ABC broadcast Search for the Fly ing Saucers on July 10, 
1947, only weeks after Kenneth Arnold' s initial Mount Rainier sighting. This fifteen-
minute program focused on the many saucer sightings that witnesses reported in the 
weeks following Arnold's encounter. Witnesses presented serious theories as well as 
humorous ones. Calling flying saucers "the biggest whosit, whatsit story of the year," 
narrator Walter Kleman admitted that there were, at the time, no solutions as to the 
origins or meaning of the saucers. They had, however, "taken our minds off of taxes, 
toil, and trouble for a little while, and that' s not bad."19 Two years later, in May of 1949, 
CBS presented Case for the Fly ing Saucer, a thirty-minute program hosted by respected 
broadcaster Edward R. Murrow. Unlike the 1947 program, this show' s tone was 
decidedly less whimsical. Murrow asserted, "Sane and reliable people have been 
involved in this flying saucer business." This was not a show about crackpots or lunatics 
but people to whom the audience could relate. When discussing possible origins of the 
saucers, the show placed a good deal of emphasis on the theory that the craft were 
creations of the U.S. government, generally top-secret aircraft or new types of guided 
missiles.20 Like the articles in Life, these radio programs illustrate the presence flying 
saucers had in the late 1940s and the shift in the way the media handled them. 
Subsequent to their first appearances, journalists treated the subject lightly. Later articles 
and broadcasts treated the subject much more seriously, focusing on the reliability of the 
witnesses rather than more outrageous tales. In the 1950s, however, some saucer stories 
would appear which were too outrageous to ignore. 
19 Search f or the Fly ing Saucers, ABC radio, originally broadcast July 10, 1947. 
2° Case for the Flying Saucers, CBS radio, originally broadcast May 14, 1949. 
33 
In 1953, within a few months ofthe Robertson Panel voicing its desire to 
demystify the flying saucer question and amidst increased popular press coverage of the 
phenomenon, some enthusiasts added a new level to saucer belief. Called Contactees, 
their stories centered on physical and psychic encounters with the occupants of the 
saucers. These stories not only introduced elements of mysticism to saucer research but 
also lodged concrete complaints about contemporary social and political problems. The 
stories of the Contactees polarized saucer belief into those who accepted these tales with 
blind faith and those who still searched for a rational, scientific solution to the question of 
the saucers. Flying saucer discourse, which many had considered based-however 
loosely--on apolitical, conventional science would soon change drastically. Unlike 
many turning points in history, one individual carried almost total responsibility. 
The child of Polish immigrants, George Adamski would become one of the most 
influential and controversial figures in flying saucer lore. Born in 1891, he traveled the 
United States doing odd jobs and educating himself in a number of philosophical 
systems, including the teachings of the Theosophical Society of Madame Helena 
Blavatsky. He settled in California sometime in the 1920s and founded the Royal 
Academy of Tibet. The Academy served as a soapbox for Adamski's teachings on the 
Cosmic Law and his interpretations of various Theosophical and mystical themes. 
According to some cynics, its main purpose was to manufacture and sell "sacramental" 
wine during the prohibition years. 21 
Adamski's headquarters was Palomar Gardens, a four-stool hamburger stand, 
where he worked as a handyman. By the end of the 1930s, Adamski ' s fame as a teacher 
21 Douglas Curran, In Advance of the Landing (New York: Abbeville Press, 1985) 43-44, 71-72. 
34 
had spread and he regularly held courses on the Cosmic (sometimes called the Universal) 
Law. This was Adamski's somewhat vague term for a system of beliefs centered on 
principles of love for one's fellow people, humility, and a rejection of materialism. 
Like many others in the United States, Adamski became interested in the question 
of extraterrestrial life after Kenneth Arnold's 194 7 sighting. While the Air Force and 
others approached the phenomenon from a scientific perspective, asking questions like 
"what are the saucers?" or "where do they come from?" Adamski's was more interest in 
finding out what the visitors were trying to communicate to humanity. Just as he used the 
vocabulary of mysticism to spread the message of his Cosmic Law in the 1930s and 40s, 
in the 1950s Adamski used the phenomenon of flying saucers to convey the same 
message. Adamski had an interest in astronomy, fed by the proximity of the Palomar 
Observatory to Palomar Gardens. He purchased several telescopes and began taking 
photographs through them. In time, he would claim that he was photographing flying 
saucers through the telescopes, laying the groundwork for the saucer myth through which 
he would promulgate the cosmic law. A turning point in Adamski's career came in 1949 
when he wrote Pioneers of Space, a science fiction novel in which American astronauts 
travel to many of the planets in the solar system, interacting with humanoid space aliens 
and learning of their ways and philosophies. Adamski based these alien philosophies on 
his own Cosmic Law, using the medium of science fiction to convey his ideas. Pioneers 
of Space was a commercial flop, but in 1953 Adamski struck upon a plan to spread his 
philosophy and make a name for himself at the same time. 
In early 1953 Adamski contacted British writer Desmond Leslie who was close to 
publishing a book on the saucer question. Adamski conveyed to Leslie an experience 
35 
that allegedly occurred on November 20, 1952. On that day, Adamski and several friends 
drove to Desert Center, California. Adamski told his friends that he had a feeling he 
would be able to get some very good pictures of flying saucers. The group saw several 
strange craft in the sky from their car. Adamski had them stop the car. He said that they 
should wait for him and he jogged off into the distance. After a while, he returned, 
saying that a flying saucer had landed. Adamski claimed that he met with the sole 
occupant of the saucer-a young man with flowing blond hair who was completely 
human in appearance. Through a combination of sign language and telepathy, Adamski 
determined that the saucer pilot hailed from Venus and that his saucer was only a scout-
ship dispatched from the mother ship, which remained high in orbit. Adamski further 
learned that the Venusians had grave concerns about the continued atomic testing which 
endangered the entire solar system. After his meeting with the Venusian, Adamski took 
some plaster casts of the alien's footprints, which revealed strange, undecipherable 
hieroglyphs. Several of Adamski's friends swore affidavits that they not only saw what 
appeared to be a spaceship but that they also saw Adamski speaking with someone.22 
Leslie thought the story had merit and convinced his publisher to add Adamski's 
account to the end of his own forthcoming book, Flying Sauces Have Landed. Leslie' s 
book was a dry recitation of unexplained sightings and objects throughout history from 
Biblical times to the present. Adamski's unique tale of his encounter livened up the 
volume and almost immediately overshadowed Leslie's own work. Soon, Adamski 
became one of the most controversial and discussed figures in flying saucer circles. 
22 Desmond Leslie and George Adamski, Fly ing Saucers Have Landed (London: British Book 
Centre, 1953), 195-216. 
36 
In this way, Adamski created a new genre of flying saucer belief. The Contactees 
were unlike others who had been studying the saucer question in that they offered no 
proof, no evidence for their claims. One either believed the Contactees or one did not. 
They offered nothing except their stories. Once Adamski's story hit the presses, others 
came forward with their own tales of extraterrestrial visitors. Some, such as that of 
British ornithologist Cedric Allingham, resembled nothing more than a retelling of 
Adamski's story with Mars as the visitor's planet of origin rather than Venus. Other 
Contactees, such as George Hunt Williamson, claimed that extraterrestrials 
communicated through psychic channeling and automatic writing rather than through 
face-to-face contact. The Contactee movement split saucer belief. Individual 
researchers and organizations which were searching for physical proof of the saucers ' 
existence and extraterrestrial origins found their efforts undermined by these upstarts who 
had no convincing proof and who, through their outrageous stories, threatened to 
discredit all of saucer research. 
Despite the lack of proof offered, the Contactees enjoyed enormous popularity. 
And many people took their encounters as fact. Adamski would author two books on his 
own which built on the contact experience in Flying Saucers Have Landed. His 1955 
book Inside the Spaceships dealt extensively with the beliefs and lifestyles of the various 
races of the solar system. Like Pioneers of Space, this book mirrored the philosophical 
beliefs that Adamski had promoted since the 1930s. After Inside the Spaceships was 
published, Adamski became the object of an extensive investigation and debunking. This 
would have an effect on -the way in which Adamski would convey his message in the 
future. 
37 
Key to the debunking of Adamski was James W. Moseley, one of the most 
enduring figures in American saucer research. Born in 1931, Moseley was the son of a 
US Army general and a wealthy steamship line heiress. After dropping out of Princeton 
and, almost simultaneously, inheriting a large amount of money, Moseley found himself 
free to indulge his two great interests: pre-Columbian antiquities and the burgeoning 
mystery of flying saucers. He began his investigation of the phenomenon in 1953, taking 
a months long trek across the United States, interviewing every saucer researcher he 
could find. His interviews crossed the boundaries of different beliefs, and he interviewed 
straight-laced scientific investigators as well as the king of the Contactees, George 
Adamski. 
Upon returning to his home in Fort Lee, New Jersey, Moseley formed an 
organization called S.A.U.C.E.R.S. (Saucers And Unexplained Celestial Events Research 
Society) and began publishing a flying saucer magazine called Nexus (later changed to 
Saucer News). From the very beginning, Moseley's approach was unique among saucer 
investigators. In the first issue, he explained the position ofS.A.U.C.E.R.S: 
We feel that flying saucers exist and are probably interplanetary, and we also feel 
that we are as serious-minded about the subject as anybody. However, we cannot 
persue [sic] our interest in saucers with a continued deadpan expression, and for 
that reason NEXUS is particularly slanted for those who, like us, can get a laugh 
out of a rather serious subject.23 
This is not to say that Moseley did not take the subject of saucers seriously, only 
that he openly acknowledged the humorous nature of some aspects of it, particularly 
some of the personalities involved. According to Moseley, "Saucer fans of all stripes 
needed a journal where they could read the latest sighting reports and insider dope, 
23 James W. Mosley and Karl T. Pflock, Shockingly Close to the Truth! Confessions of a Grave­
Robbing UFO!ogist (Amhearst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2002), 106. 
38 
trumpet their views to their associates, and enjoy a chuckle or two."24 Nexus filled that 
need. For the first fifteen years of its existence, Nexus and its successor Saucer News had 
a paid subscription of around 2500, higher during times of increased saucer activity.25 
Unlike newsstand magazines which touched on the saucer mystery such as Fate and 
True, Moseley aimed his subscription-only publications at an audience which already had 
their minds made up-one way or the other- about the nature of the saucers. Thus, the 
Nexus/Saucer News publication carried very little in the way of material that tried to 
persuade readers to think in one way or another about the saucers. Rather, their goal was 
to bridge the gap between the different strands of saucer belief in the 1950s and sixties. 
Moseley's most lasting contribution to the field of saucer investigation was an 
investigation that exposed many of George Adamski 's claims as outright fabrications. 
Moseley' s first impressions about Adamski were almost charitable. In his journal, 
recording his experiences interviewing Adamski, Moseley wrote: 
There is a very, very small possibility that Adamski ' s account is a deliberate and 
unscrupulous hoax; there is a much greater chance that it was a psychological or 
so-called 'psychic' experience, in which case there are two possibilities: (1) This 
represents a normal operation of the mind, an operation that we do not 
understand; (2) Adamski is crazy. There is also a good chance that Adamski may 
in all good faith be lying in order to expound doctrines and ideas that he sincerely 
feels to be true. 26 
Moseley continued to feel that Adamski was sincere about his underlying message, if not 
his experiences. By 1954, however, testimony from Adamski ' s witnesses in which they 
24 Ibid. , 108. 
25 Ibid. , 109. 
39 
claimed to be lying and careful analysis of Adamski's saucer photographs provided 
abundant proof for Moseley's expose. 
While Adamski shrugged off the efforts to debunk his claims, seemingly 
unaffected by the expose, his works after 1955 had a defensive quality that not only 
attempted to prove his claims but also detracted from his philosophical message. His 
third and final book exemplified this shift in tone away from the philosophical 
meanderings of Inside the Spaceships. In Fly ing Saucers Farewell (1960) Adamski spent 
a great deal of time explaining the ways in which current scientific knowledge supported 
his claims about the space visitors, their technology, and the possibility for life on Venus, 
Mars, and Saturn. Though Adamski claimed not to be troubled by Moseley's expose, his 
panicky and often illogical "proofs" told a different story. 
One piece of proof Adamski used was a 1957 letter from one R. E. Straith of the 
State Department Cultural Exchange Committee. The letter indicated that, unofficially, 
the State Department felt that the Air Force secrecy was misguided and, "while certainly 
the Department cannot publicly confirm your experiences, it can, I believe, with 
propriety, encourage your work and your communication of what you sincerely believe 
should be told to our American public.',n Adamski paraded the letter as proof that the 
government not only knew the saucers existed but that they endorsed his vision of what 
the saucers meant and his message from the space people. 
Unfortunately for Adamski, the Straith Letter sprung from the minds of James 
Moseley and his friend and fellow saucer researcher Gray Barker. Barker had received 
from a friend several dozen samples of letterhead from various government departments. 
26 Ibid. , 68. 
27 Ibid. , 332. 
40 
One weekend at Barker's home in Clarksburg, West Virginia, he and Moseley drafted the 
hoax letter to Adamski, simply to see if he would tout it as proof of his claims. When he 
did, saucer researchers almost universally condemned the letter as a hoax. Some, through 
careful analysis ofthe typestyle used, even correctly identified Barker as the source. 
Adamski and his followers, however, continued to hold up the letter as validation of their 
beliefs. More than just a prank on a gullible saucer believer, the Straith Letter hoax 
reveals important truths about the nature of saucer belief in the late 1950s. At the time, 
project Blue Book was in full-swing, and groups such as the National Investigations 
Committee on Aerial Phenomenon (NICAP) pushed the government for open, public 
investigations into the saucer question. In perpetrating the hoax, Moseley and Barker 
were able to take advantage of the credibility which government involvement lent to 
saucer research. Likewise, the letter gave Adamski's claims of his theories' importance 
considerable weight. 
While some saucer researchers revered Adamski, other loathed him and all others 
who would claim physical or psychic contact with the visitors. The Flying Saucer field 
suffered several major schisms in a very short time. Those researchers who believed they 
were taking a careful, scientific approach to the saucer question despised the popular 
ridicule brought down upon the field by the outlandish stories of the Contactees. In the 
same way, these serious researchers were put off by the gossip and hoaxes of James 
Moseley and Gray Barker. Thus, by the mid-1950s, saucer research had a tripartite 
structure. On the left wing lay the Contactees, with their wild claims of conversations 
with the aliens. In the center were Moseley and Barker, freely criticizing and satirizing 
41 
believers of all stripes. National saucer organizations, searching for solid, physical proof 
of the saucers, occupied the right wing. 
The national saucer organizations, those with the least sensational, most scientific 
approach, rose to prominence in the late 1950s and 1960s. Clara L. John and T. 
Townsend Brown founded The National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomenon 
(NICAP) in August of 1956. The group's stated goal was to "direct a united scientific 
investigation of aerial phenomena."28 From its very beginning, NICAP aimed to be as 
serious as possible about the saucer question. Its board of directors included retired 
generals and admirals, physicists, and free-lance saucer writer Donald Keyhoe. Born in 
1897, Keyhoe served as a Marine Corps pilot until an injury forced his retirement in 
1923. In 1927, while working as chief of information for the U.S. Department of 
Commerce, he was the official government envoy accompanying Charles Lindbergh on 
his nationwide tour following his historic trans-Atlantic flight. During the 1930s and 40s, 
after leaving the Commerce Department, he became a freelance aviation writer. 
Keyhoe's first foray into the realm of the saucers was an article in the January, 1950 issue 
of True magazine entitled, "The Flying Saucers are Real! " Within a year, Keyhoe 
expanded this article into a 1953 book, Fly ing Saucers From Outer Space. This in-depth, 
book firmly established Keyhoe as an authority on flying saucers.29 In this early work, 
Keyhoe's focus was on sighting reports and hypothesizing on the reason for saucer visits, 
rather than on the government cover-up theories he would later develop. Unlike many 
saucer writers, Keyhoe had a great deal of experience in both the military and the federal 
government. This experience and the fact that he always used his full title of "Major 
28 Peebles, 114. 
29 Peebles, 39. 
42 
Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC, Ret." on his books, lent Keyhoe's credibility that other 
writers did not have. 
By early 1956, Keyhoe had taken control ofNICAP and drastically changed its 
focus. No longer would the organization concentrate on individual saucer sightings. 
Rather, NICAP focused on pressuring Congress to hold open, televised hearings on the 
saucer problem and, in doing so, force the USAF to release secret documents about the 
saucers, which Keyhoe was convinced existed.30 
NICAP's new goal of ending the saucer cover-up led to rifts between it and other 
saucer organizations, particularly Corel Lorenzen's Aerial Phenomenon Research 
Organization (APRO). The key difference between these two organizations was that 
APRO, while engaging in serious, scientific investigation of saucers, did not believe that 
there was a government cover-up nor that an organization like NICAP should spend its 
time encouraging their members to lobby their Congressional representatives for 
government involvement in the saucer issue. Rather, believers would find the truth about 
the saucers from careful investigation and observation of the phenomenon. Key hoe also 
alienated the Contactee branch of saucer belief, by refusing to even report their stories in 
NICAP publications. This further widened the dichotomy between "serious" and 
"frivolous" UFO research. 
The end result of these rifts and arguments between saucer research factions was 
that, due to the public nature of its work, NICAP became synonymous with "serious" 
saucer research in the 1950s and 60s. This marginalized other, smaller, organizations 
which limited their efforts to reporting saucer sightings and trying to solve the mystery on 
30 David M. Jacobs, The UFO Controversy in America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 
1975), 130-132. 
43 
their own, without Congressional help. Thus, when a congressional inquiry did 
eventually materialize, NICAP would find its fortunes tied to the outcome. 
That inquiry would take place in 1967, fulfilling NICAP's efforts and reflecting 
the fact that-at least in the eyes of the public-the saucer question was too big for the 
government to ignore. Congress commissioned the Condon Committee, a group of 
scientists under the direction of Edward U. Condon, to determine whether or not the issue 
of flying saucers deserved further government study and expense. Throughout 1967, the 
Committee investigated saucer sightings and after numerous internal personnel shakeups 
delivered a verdict. The Committee determined that the vast majority of sightings were 
of explainable objects. They recommended that the government spend no more time 
investigating the mystery.31 
The effects of the Condon Report were immediate. The USAF decided to disband 
project Blue Book in March of 1969, with the final shutdown to come in December. In 
the year following the release of the report, sightings reported to the USAF fell to 146, 
the lowest number since 1947.32 Saucer believers attempted to rebound from the 
overwhelming negative effects of the report. They argued that the Committee had never 
been objective to begin with, and that the committee's report admitted that they could not 
explain over 1/3 of the sightings addressed. Despite these arguments, many in America 
took the Condon Report as the final word on the existence of flying saucers. Saucer 
research, of course, did not disappear after the release of the Condon Report. The nature 
of the research, however, did change in some ways. NICAP experienced the biggest 
31 Peebles, 190. 
32 Ibid. , 191. 
44 
changes. Being tied in the public mind most closely to the Condon Committee, NICAP 
saw its membership (which had a mid-60s peak of 12,000) fall to 7,800 by mid-1969.33 
The only groups not really affected by the Report were the Contactee enclaves-
which throughout the 1970s increasingly became more cult-like and isolated- and the 
centrist saucer buffs like Gray Barker and James Moseley. In a letter to Saucer News34 
readers, Barker admitted that the was "not greatly disappointed .. .in that I never expected 
too much from it anyhow." He explained that the "complexities of the UFO mystery far 
transcend the scope of a half-million dollar project."35 Moseley was less sanguine. In a 
1969 issue of Saucer News, Moseley expressed what he thought to be the most troubling 
aspect of the Condon Report. 
We were worried and sad. What if Condon were RIGHT! What if he could 
convince US! What if there WERE no saucers! What would we talk about? 
What would we do with all that leisure time if we stopped slaving at our saucer 
research on weekend? ... . Probably we would be reduced to having cookouts, 
perusing the Reader' s Digest, showing up at Rotary Club, and Making Money.36 
If, as the Condon Report asserted, flying saucers were not worth the government' s time 
and expense to investigate, what further relevance would flying saucer researchers have? 
For groups such as NICAP, the Condon Report led to a reinvention and simplification of 
the organization's goals: investigation rather than lobbying. For Moseley, there must 
have been some question in his mind of whether or not saucer researchers had wasted the 
past two decades tilting at windmills the government now said didn ' t exist. With the 
reduced number of sightings and depressed subscription rates, Moseley suspended 
publication of Saucer News for about six years, from 1970 to 1976 and concentrated on 
33 Ibid. , 192. 
34 Saucer News was, at this rime, co-owned and published with Moseley. 
35 Barker, "The Condon Report," no date, Gray Barker Collection 
36 Moseley, "A Lively Corpse," Saucer News, Vol. 16, No. 4, 1969: 1-2. 
45 
his pre-Columbian antique business and real estate ventures.37 The saucer field, however, 
would rise again in the mid 1970s and Moseley would be back on board, providing his 
unique brand of commentary. 
Kenneth Arnold's 1947 saucer sighting and the 1969 Condon Committee report 
served as bookends to the incredibly varied, prolific, and outspoken Cold War subculture 
of flying saucer belief. The many ups, downs and turning points in the saucer story 
during these years, as well as the personalities that brought these about, show that saucer 
research was not a dogmatic monolith. Like religion and politics, saucer research 
comprised a number of different beliefs. These schisms often led to bitter rivalries 
between groups with similar goals and incredible eruptions of animosity when groups 
with different views or goals crossed paths. The Contactees and serious scientific 
organizations both made statements, often expressing dissatisfaction with the way in 
which government related to the people of the United States during these years. Whether 
it was George Adamski proclaiming the humanity will never get to where it needs to be 
unless it abandoned war and materialism or Donald Keyhoe asserting that government 
had a responsibility to investigate saucers, UFO believers had important messages for the 
political and social hierarchy ofthe day. 
37 Moseley and Pflock, 218. 
46 
Chapter Three 
"The Brothers will not fail us if we follow their Guidance " 
Saucer Believers Urging Societal Change 
Saucer believers used their beliefs to influence the world around them. Through 
their arguments about saucers they called for reform in individuals, nations, and the 
world. The most strident of saucer believers' calls for reform during the Cold War 
addressed American society and culture. Many prominent saucer writers asserted that 
militarism, materialism, and spiritual emptiness all characterized American culture ofthe 
1950s and 60s. Although calls for changes in America came from different areas ofthe 
saucer spectrum, the Contactees remained prominent and outspoken in their warnings of 
doom if America did not abandon its path of military buildup and mistrust of other 
nations. The Contactees also placed a burden on individual Americans to be more 
understanding and tolerant of each other, and to rely less on material gain for happiness. 
Writers such as Donald Keyhoe, Corel Lorenzen and others who led national saucer 
research organizations generally did not share in the Contactees' florid predictions and 
warnings, preferring instead to work toward effecting more moderate-but still 
significant-change in the areas of government and the scientific establishment. To a 
certain extent, these nationally prominent exponents of saucer belief ignored the 
Contactees' beliefs and teachings, focusing instead on the unbelievable nature of their 
stories. This dichotomy not only emphasized the conflict within the saucer community 
but also helped undermine the Contactees' efforts to influence society. 
The Contactee movement began in late 1952 with George Adamski's alleged 
encounter with a man from Venus. Adamski's interest in otherworldly topics and his 
desire for reform in the United States began long before that November day. Adamski 
47 
spent his early years as a US cavalryman, Yellowstone park maintenance worker, 
flounnill worker, and concrete contractor. In 1926, after moving to California, he 
founded a monastery in Laguna Beach called "The Royal Order of Tibet." The order had 
obtained a license to manufacture wine for religious purposes and selling the wine was 
Adamski's main funding source through the end of prohibition. 1 Adamski rarely spoke 
of the Royal Order after he attained recognition as a Contactee. In his first published 
work, he simply described himself as a "philosopher, student, teacher, saucer researcher" 
making no mention of a specific organization.2 By not explicitly acknowledging his past 
as head of the Royal Order (aside from his label of"philosopher"), Adamski was able to 
portray himself as a saucer researcher who was spreading the space visitors' messages 
rather than his own. Adamski had several students who listened to him lecture on Eastern 
philosophies and the Cosmic Law-his somewhat vague term for a system of beliefs 
centered on principles of love for one's fellow people, humility, and a rejection of 
materialism. One of these students was Alice Wells, who owned the hamburger stand 
that would serve as Adamski's base of operations once his Contactee fame took hold.3 
Adamski's activities during these pre-contact days were not confined to bootlegging wine 
and informal philosophizing. He authored a number of pamphlets and a science fiction 
novel, which addressed many ofthe themes he would later incorporate into his Contactee 
writings. Two writings in particular, both from 1937, highlight the philosophical view 
that would resurface in his saucer books. 
1 Douglas Curran, In Advance of the Landing (New York: Abbeville Press, 1985), 43-44, 71-72. 
2 Desmond Leslie and George Adamski, Flying Saucers Have Landed (London: British Book 
Centre, 1953), 171. 
3 Curtis Peebles, Watch the Skies! A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth (Washington, D. C.: 
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994 ), 93. 
48 
"The Kingdom ofHeaven on Earth" conveyed both Adamski's frustration with 
the condition ofhumanity and his solution for Earth's problems. Adamski claimed that 
the "kingdom of Heaven" was a condition that would one day occur on Earth and that it 
was not someplace people went when they died. The creation of this paradise depended 
upon the degree to which humanity would embrace peace, cooperation and liberty. 
"Such is the heavenly state," he said, "peace and brotherhood of man, which is something 
that must be evolved gradually out of chaos." In 193 7, he observed, "Freedom is 
becoming an unknown quantity in life and peace is little understood." Adamski 
cautioned against relying upon governments or organized religion to solve the world's 
problems. "Looking to the outer things for heaven is vain," he said, "seeking peace or 
joy from the effective world is useless. Ifthere is to be peace among nations there must 
first be peace in the hearts of the individuals making up those nations." He used Jesus as 
an example who tried to achieve these standards: "He did not discriminate between races, 
colors, creeds, or theories .... His law was not hate, but love."4 In the late 1930s, it 
might have seemed to Adamski that humanity might never bring about heaven on earth. 
Hitler and Mussolini had seized power in Europe, racial oppression was rampant in the 
United States, and the Great Depression continued. To Adamski, the oppression of 
dictatorial governments and the hostility of political and religious discrimination 
prevented humanity from reaching its potential and unnecessarily delayed this kingdom 
of heaven. 
Adamski took this idea of equality and looking within for answers and brought 
them down to a more personal level in "Satan, Man ofthe Hour," also written in 1937. In 
4 George Adamski, "The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth", 1937 (published online by the George 
Adamski Foundation: http://www.gafintl-adamski.com/html/heaven.html), 1-2. 
49 
this story, five men (a "great captain of industry", an Army officer, a "well-known" 
minister, a scientist, and a bookkeeper) talked among themselves about who--in terms of 
power and influence-was the "man ofthe hour." A stranger enters and declares that 
Satan is, in fact, the man of the hour. The men laugh, explaining that Satan is merely a 
"picturesque figure of a somewhat ancient mythology," no longer applicable to any 
modem discussions. The stranger smiles and informs the men that he refers not to the 
traditional representation of the Devil, but rather "the power of selfishness and greed 
which Satan represents." The five men-of-the-world each protest in tum. The minister, 
scientist, and the others all explain that their particular contributions would make the 
world a better place. The stranger argues against them all and offers them a way out: 
abandon their self-centered religions and systems of commerce and instead rely upon the 
Cosmic Law, which "asks nothing of man except a perfect balance in all phases of life." 
The five men refuse the offer and leave. The stranger stands alone, hearing the mocking 
laugh of Satan all around him.5 For Adamski, no one- not even ministers or others seen 
as wholesome-were free from the taint of selfishness in American society. 
These two pamphlets establish that Adamski held concerns about several aspects 
of American society long before he started to tell tales of flying saucers. By pointing out 
current events such as the rise of militarism and highlighting the dangers of material 
greed, Adamski demonstrated to readers that he had his finger on the pulse of current 
happenings such as the growth of fascism and the economic depression. A link between 
militarism and materialistic greed had already been established in the public's mind 
through the work of the Nye Commission in 1936. This committee of the U.S. Congress 
5 Ibid., "Satan, Man of the Hour," reprinted in Adamski, Behind the Fly ing Saucer Mystery (New 
York: Warner Paperback Library, 1960), 149-158. 
50 
found a causal link between the munitions industry's lust for higher profits, the 
devastation of the First World War, and the failure of peace efforts around the world.6 
Acknowledgement of this connection was not confined to the halls of Congress. The first 
Superman comic book, published in June 1938, featured the Man of Steel confounding 
the efforts of Greer, an arms manufacturer and Senator Barrows to embroil the U.S. in a 
European war to increase profits from weapons sales.7 Americans were familiar with the 
dangers of greed and its implications for provoking deadly conflict. Adamski addressed 
concerns that Americans had at the time, and provided a solution that allowed the chance 
for change in the nation, and the world. 
The next steps in Adamski's public life, however, show that he was casting about 
for ways to spread his message of love, peace, and cooperation to more people than he 
could speak to at his Royal Order of Tibet meetings. The first of these was a 1946 
pamphlet entitled "The Possibility of Life on Other Planets."8 Here, Adamski outlined 
his reasons for believing that life on other worlds not only existed, but that the odds were 
very good that extraterrestrial life was similar to life on Earth. More significantly, he 
identified belief in extraterrestrial life with forward thinking and social improvement. 
The aliens could teach us, according to Adamski, "the logical theory of inter-planetary 
education and evolvement."9 The next step in humanity's development was to make 
contact with extraterrestrial beings. Adamski's pamphlets, however, did not reach an 
6 Report of the Special Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry (The Nye Report), 
U.S. Congress, Senate, 741h Congress, 2"d sess., February 24, 1936, 2. 
7 Action Comics, # 1, June 1938, 11. 
8 The origins of this article are unclear. It does not appear in George M. Eberhart's UFOS and the 
Extraterrestrial Contact Movement: A Bibliography that lists several of Adamski's other writings. It is 
likely that it is include in one of several general collections of Adamski's writings published by small UFO­
oriented publishers. This article is published on the Adamski Foundation website: http://www.gafintl­
adamski.com/html/GAArt.htm. 
9 Ibid., 4. 
51 
audience much beyond his Royal Order ofTibet meetings. He sold his pamphlets 
through the mail and at Palomar Gardens but that could not have reached enough people 
to truly spread his message. 
After the first saucer sightings in 194 7, it would be two years before Adamski 
issued another public writing. This was a science fiction novel entitled Pioneers of 
Space: A Trip to the Moon, Mars, and Venus and it was Adamski's first nationally 
published work. Though Adamski never claimed that the novel held literal truth, his 
foreword made it clear that he saw Pioneers of Space as more than escapist fantasy. He 
stated, "Man upon earth is progressive ... [and] could be taken as a good measuring stick 
of the vast university within which he lives. Even though he makes many mistakes which 
are against himself, we still see nothing but steady progress."10 While his 193 7 essays 
told readers how they could make the world a better place, the message here was a 
reassurance that humanity would indeed be able to achieve goals of peace, love, and 
selflessness. The human characters in this novel had not yet reached that kingdom of 
heaven on Earth, and journeyed to other planets to observe societies who had. Adamski 
ended his foreword by saying that he was "endeavoring to reasonably speculate" about 
what scientific advances might be just around the corner. He encouraged readers to 
establish community roundtables for discussion using Pioneers of Space as their textbook 
and invited readers to write him with any questions they might have. 11 Clearly, Adamski 
meant for the novel ' s vision of humanity' s technological advancement and contact with 
enlightened, advanced alien civilizations to resonate among readers at a level deeper than 
10 Ibid. , Pioneers of Space: A Trip to the Moon, Mars, and Venus (Los Angeles: Leonard-Freefield 
Co., 1949), 1. 
II Ibid., 3. 
52 
that of a mere work of fantasy. 
Pioneers of Space reads less like a science fiction novel than it does a travelogue. 
The rocket ship crew traveled to the moon (where they meet the Moonalites), Mars, and 
Venus. While on each planet, they questioned the natives about their lifestyles, culture 
and beliefs. All three civilizations were humanoid, Caucasian, worshiped a nameless 
supreme intelligence, and obeyed the strictures of the Cosmic Law. 12 Members of all 
three civilizations explained that they once lived as the earth people, caring more for 
material possessions and power than they did for love and cooperation. They explained 
Earth's condition as that of a small child, still learning its way in the world. Certain 
ancient Earth civilizations such as those of the Triterions, Lemurians, and Atlanteans 
came close to reaching that higher level of consciousness and spiritual harmony. 
Unfortunately, they were not sufficiently advanced to avoid destruction by the greedy, 
warmongering elements oftheir societies. Since their fall, "destruction of the Earth by 
the hand of civilization has been taking place." 13 For modem human civilization to 
escape that destruction, society must imitate these alien cultures. 
But Earth might never achieve that higher level, for atomic blasts had thrown off 
the planet's "balance." The extraterrestrials warned that humans should exercise care 
when performing future experiments. If such weapons were used in a war, the effects on 
humanity would be devastating. Such a war was probable because of peoples' greed and 
selfishness-such qualities led to conflict and with the advent of atomic weapons, 
conflict would be much more devastating than in previous years. The space people had 
avoided such a devastating conflict by overcoming materialism and greed-by observing 
12 Ibid., 48. 
13 Ibid., 90. 
53 
the principles of the Cosmic Law propounded by Adamski in his pamphlets of the 1930s. 
In Pioneers of Space, Adamski showed these principles being used by civilizations that, 
on the surface, were not too different from humanity. They had the same physiology, the 
same language, and had overcome the problems with which Earth, at the time, was 
1° 14 strugg mg. 
If someone were looking for a gripping novel, Pioneers of Space would 
disappoint them. The novel contains no real plot. Instead it presents a series of set pieces 
with the different alien cultures, which are nearly identical. Adamski's development of 
the characters who make these travels is not much better. The four members of the crew 
are indistinguishable from each other, and serve only as vehicles to ask the Moonalites, 
Martians, and Venusians questions. Not surprisingly, the navigator, whose name is 
"George," always seems to ask the most insightful questions. Eventually, the rocket ship 
returned to earth after its journey. The story's narrator reported "the government has 
requested us to give a world-wide broadcast in the next few days and tell the world what 
we have actually seen and done. This will be done." 15 The astronauts needed to tell the 
world about the enlightened civilizations they met and of the lessons that those people 
taught them. Just as Adamski tried to do with his pamphlets and novels, the people in 
Pioneers of Space knew ifhumanity were to evolve to a more enlightened level, that the 
lessons had to be spread to reach as many people as possible. 
Placed in the context of Adamski's earlier urgings that the people of Earth obey 
the cosmic Jaw, Pioneers of Space works as a utopian novel, albeit a poorly written one. 
Pioneers of Space doesn't tell a story. Rather, Adamski used the popular and recognized 
14 Ibid. , 235. 
15 Ibid., 260. 
54 
medium of science fiction to convey his view of what the Earth could and should 
become. By taking themes of pamphlets like "Satan, Man of the Hour" and "The 
Kingdom of Heaven on Earth" and placing them in a fictional, narrative context, 
Adamski tried to reach a larger audience than he could with pamphlets and lectures. In 
1949, the possibilities of flying saucers and travel to other worlds were not foreign to the 
American people. A story based around such familiar and popular elements was more 
likely to make an impact on the reader than Adamski's pamphlets ofthe 1930s. 
Moreover, groups existed which opposed continued testing of atomic weapons, just as did 
the Moonalites and other aliens. These groups, composed mainly of scientists, received a 
good deal ofrecognition in the early years ofthe Cold War. Thus, just as in the 1930s, 
Adamski's goals and concerns were not foreign to readers. Adamski simply placed them 
in a context that was more accessible to many readers. 
In November 1952, however, Adamski moved on from writing science fiction and 
embarked on a career as a flying saucer Contactee. Since 1949, he had been lecturing to 
local groups about flying saucers. His expertise on the subject stemmed from a number 
of photographs he claimed to have taken with the help of several telescopes. Then in 
1953, Adamski published his account of meeting a saucer pilot in the California desert. 
British writer Desmond Leslie's Flying Saucers Have Landed was an extensive survey of 
mysterious aircraft throughout human history. Drawing heavily from ancient myths, 
Leslie contended that otherworldly beings had been visiting Earth from antiquity and that 
most major religions supported the idea of extraterrestrial life. Adamski's story made up 
the last fifth of the book and expanded upon the story he had told his friends the previous 
November. 
55 
Like his earlier pamphlets and Pioneers of Space, in Flying Saucers Have Landed 
Adamski used a narrative story to convey to the reader the lesson that humanity needs to 
ascend to a higher spiritual plane. He began by explaining his idea of the solar system as 
being akin to a classroom, with Earth stuck in the cosmic equivalent ofkindergarten. 16 
He went on to describe his meeting with the man form Venus. Like the aliens in 
Pioneers from Space, the man looked "like any other man," except for his ski suit-like 
clothing and long hair reaching to his shoulders. Through a combination of hand signals 
and mental telepathy, the Venusian conveyed that his people were concerned over the 
danger that nuclear warfare represented, not just to humanity, but to the other peoples of 
the solar system as well. Adamski was not surprised that the Venusian had concerns. He 
was, however, surprised that "on his face there was not trace of resentment or judgment. 
His expression was one of understanding and great compassion; as one would have 
toward a much loved child who had erred through ignorance and lack of 
understanding." 17 The Venusian's attitude indicates that he felt humanity could grow 
beyond its warlike state. Adamski characterized the Venusian as nonjudgmental, caring, 
and compassionate so the reader would look on the visitors as teachers, rather than 
prosecutors. They came here to save us, not to destroy us. 
Adamski also learned that the craft was merely a scout ship and that the mother 
ship remained high in orbit above the Earth. Both were powered by magnetic power. 
After these technical details were out of the way, Adamski asked the Venusian if he 
believed in God. The Venusian did, but convinced Adamski that 
16 Leslie and Adamski, 171. 
17 Ibid., 198. 
56 
We on Earth really know very little about this Creator. In other words, our 
understanding is shallow. Theirs is much broader, and they adhere to the laws of 
the Creator instead of laws of materialism as Earth men do .... He conveyed the 
thought to me that there they live according to the Will of the Creator, not by their 
own personal will as we do here on Earth. 18 
Adamski closed their conversation by asking why the saucers didn't simply land on the 
White House lawn or other similarly visible places. The Venusian replied that his people 
feared the response they would receive from a humanity that was full of fear and so ready 
to fight rather than understand. 19 
Despite the brevity of Adamski's initial contact story, the thematic similarities to 
his earlier works are clear. The aliens obey the Cosmic Law, the will of the creator. 
They are concerned about humanity's atomic experimentation, and fear the danger to the 
entire solar system. Despite the lack of believable facts in Adamski's story, this contact 
story served the same purpose as did Pioneers of Space. Adamski took a popular 
subject-flying saucers-and used it to convey the same message of spiritual renewal 
and social cooperation that he had pushed since the 1930s. This message, however, 
existed in a different context. By the early 1950s, Adamski's focused more on 
international peace and cooperation than he did in the 1930s. In 1953, the superpowers 
teetered on the brink of nuclear annihilation. Those desperate times led to Adamski 
giving his space visitor a more direct and forceful message: stop the atomic testing. 
Reaction to Adamski's story was immediate. Flying Saucers Have Landed went 
through eleven printings in its first two years of publication. The Flying Saucer 
18 Ibid., 201. 
19 Ibid. , 205. 
57 
community found itself split over Adamski's experience. Although he had many 
supporters among saucer researchers, he also had vociferous critics. The most outspoken 
was James Moseley. While Moseley was critical of Adamski's story, he also sensed that 
there was a deeper agenda to Adamski 's work. On his initial saucer investigation trek 
across the US, Moseley visited Adamski at his cafe/headquarters in California. He came 
away from the meeting with the impression that Adamski was "a very kind, intelligent, 
and sincere man."20 Moseley doubted that his story was true, but had no conclusive 
evidence that would disprove it. Over the next two years, however, Moseley would talk 
to those who witnessed Adamski's encounter and by early 1955 he felt that he had 
enough ammunition to ground Adamski's saucer tales. 
Figure 1- One of Adamski's saucer photographs 
In what he would later call his "only major contribution to the field as a Serious 
UFOlogist,"21 Moseley wrote a stunning expose on the Adamski encounter for the 
January 1955 issue of Nexus. He began by demonstrating that the saucer in Adamski's 
photographs could be easily replicated with a Chrysler hubcap, a coffee can, and three 
20 James W. Moseley and Karl T. Pflock, Shockingly Close to the Truth! Confessions of a Grave­
Robbing UFO/ogist (Amhearst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2002), 67. 
21 Ibid., 68. 
58 
ping pong balls. He went on to explain that through interviews with several of 
Adamski's witnesses, it was easy to see that none of them actually witnessed the things 
they had claimed. Moseley learned that all of Adamski 's witnesses were already saucer 
believers (a point not mentioned in the book) and that none of their stories agreed with 
22 
each other. 
Another damning piece of evidence was the story of Jerrold Baker, an amateur 
photographer and saucer researcher. Baker claimed that Adamski attached Baker' s name 
to several the saucer photographs that Adamski took, making it appear that many 
different people were taking these fantastic pictures. Baker objected to this, but Adamski 
induced him to stay quiet, saying "With people knowing that you are interested in flying 
saucers .. . you could do yourself a lot of good." Adamski went on to advise Baker to 
use the fraudulent photos for evening lectures, which people would pay good money to 
hear.23 
Moseley concluded that, at the very least, substantial parts of Adamski ' s story had 
been fabricated and that "Adamski's narrative contains enough flaws to place in very 
serious doubt both his veracity and sincerity." While Moseley's investigation shattered 
the probability that Adamski's story was literal truth, he went on to discuss Adamski and 
his convictions on a personal level, aside from any saucer visitation claims. Moseley 
said, "I have been convinced that he is a kindly man who would do harm to no one. If he 
has written a fraudulent book, I believe that he did so, not so much for his own personal 
profit, but to put across, in dramatic form, philosophical principles in which he sincerely 
22 James W. Moseley, "Some New Facts About 'Flying Saucers Have Landed"' Nexus, January, 
1955, Vol. 2, No. 1, 7, 12-13. 
23 Ibid. , 16. 
59 
believes."24 This caveat creates a distinction between Adamski's outlandish stories and 
the message he was attempting to convey. Moseley was the only saucer writer of the 
time who made this distinction. Although he thought Adamski a rogue, he recognized 
that Adamski held his beliefs very strongly and sincerely. 
Moseley's expose and the doubts of other saucer researchers did not call into 
question the philosophical foundations of Adamski's writings but the saucer stories 
through which he conveyed them. Nevertheless, he reacted defensively. He responded 
to Moseley's accusations in the spring, 1955 issue of The Saucerian Bulletin, edited by 
Moseley's friend Gray Barker. In the rebuttal, entitled "Time Will Tell," Adamski 
declared that "the truth needs neither exposure nor defense. Time itself proves all truth." 
Adamski asserted that he would never tell a lie about meeting with the space people 
because "the Brother, who themselves are honest, would never stand for deceit of any 
kind. Should I ever indulge in a single act of falseness I would there by [sic] forfeit the 
privilege of ever again meeting them and learning from them."25 Adamski did not 
present any further "proof' that his tales were true. Just as many of Adamski's desires 
for the people of Earth were spiritual rather than material, it follows that acceptance of 
his stories and experiences rely more on faith than on proof. Adamski's second Contact-
related book would depend on more of that faith to gain the acceptance of saucer readers. 
Adamski's next book, Inside the Spaceships, appeared in 1955, shortly after the 
firestorm of criticism erupted over Flying Saucers Have Landed. The new book 
described Adamski's adventures aboard the saucers of the Venusians and Saturnians. 
This book owes much of its structure and ideas to Pioneers of Space in that it consisted of 
24 Ibid., 17. 
25 George Adamski, "Time Will Tell" Saucerian Bulletin, No. 6, Spring, 1955, 33. 
60 
a series of set pieces that served to explicate alien beliefs and culture rather than form a 
cohesive narrative?6 
While Adamski spent much of the book describing otherworldly customs, food , 
and furniture, he also described conversations with the Great Master-an elderly 
appearing man, not described as being from any particular planet. The Master was "a 
greatly evolved being" and "in his present body" over a thousand years old. 
Conversations with the Master echo the themes that had been Adamski's hallmark since 
the 1930s. Primary among these themes was that the Earth was at the lowest stage of 
development of all the planets in the solar system. Because of this lack of development, 
the space beings did not wish for humans to possess the technology to travel to the stars. 
The Great Master explained to Adamski that they "would gladly give you this knowledge 
which has served us so well, except that you have not yet learned to live with one another 
in peace and brotherhood." Because of this, it is probable that humanity would seek to 
use this technology to subjugate other worlds in the solar system.27 But things did not 
have to be this way. The Master further explained to Adamski that "Understanding of the 
universal [cosmic] laws both uplifts and restricts. As it is now with us, so it could be on 
your Earth. Lifted up by your knowledge, this same understanding would make it 
impossible for you to move against your brothers. "28 Throughout this book- and all of 
Adamski's writing- there exists a parallel between admonition and hope. For every 
chiding comment about violence and materialism there is a reassurance that humanity can 
improve itself and rise to the next level of spiritual evolution. This idea dates back to 
26 Ibid., Inside the Spaceships (New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1955) 
27 Ibid., 83, 90. 
28 Ibid., 93. 
61 
"The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth" and is carried through to Adamski's analogy of the 
solar system as a school with progressively higher grades through which humanity must 
progress. 
Inside the Spaceships was a logical extension of the Adamski belief system. All 
the conversations with the master are along the same lines: humanity must learn to obey 
the Universal Law and preserve peace around the world. The book contains only two 
photographs of alleged spaceships and two drawings by Adamski, rather than the more 
numerous photos that appeared in the first book. Adamski lists no witnesses, no friends 
who could corroborate his story. Even more than Flying Saucers Have Landed, this book 
requires the reader to believe Adamski's story on complete faith. Adamski's point, 
however, is not to convince the reader that he literally flew on a flying saucer. Rather, 
his ideas about peace and cooperation take center stage. 
Adamski's third and final Contactee book, pub! ished in 1960, was Fly ing Saucers 
Farewell (published in paperback as Behind the Flying Saucer Myste1y ). This book 
represented a departure from Adamski's formula of imparting wisdom and lessons on the 
Cosmic Law couched in terms of flying saucer adventures. Flying Saucers Farewell 
consisted of two distinct parts. In the first part, Adamski responded to criticisms of his 
saucer tales. Utilizing formulas of"cosmic mathematics" and ill-explained theories of 
gravity propulsion, Adamski attempted to prove that the technologies he discussed in his 
previous books were more science fact than science fiction.29 He mixed this with 
reiterations of messages from the Great Master from Inside the Spaceships, providing 
more lessons and teachings on the universal law and further instructions that would help 
29 George Adamski, Behind the Flying Saucer M)1s/e1y (New York: Warner, 1960), 19-25. 
62 
humanity move up the ladder of spiritual evolution. 
Another aspect of Adamski's attempts to convince readers of the saucers' 
existence was a reliance on ancient myths and religious texts to demonstrate that visits by 
the space people did not just begin in the 1940s. Adamski devoted an entire chapter to 
looking back to the Bible and other ancient writings. He pointed out different lights, 
stars, and other aerial phenomena and explained that they were actually ancient space 
ships. He also pulled verses from the New Testament and explained how the holy 
writings of Christianity and Judaism were completely compatible with the Cosmic Law.30 
Adamski wanted to show readers that the principles he promoted were not necessarily 
that far off from what they might already believe. In this way, he demystified his 
teachings and attempted to gain access to an even larger audience than saucer believers: 
members of mainstream American Christian and Jewish communities. 
The second part of Fly ing Saucers Farewell details some of the UFO lectures 
Adamski gave in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, England, the Netherlands, 
Italy, and India between 1955 and 1960. In all these nations he met with loyal followers 
who hung on his every word. His proudest moment, however, was when Queen Juliana 
of the Netherlands invited him for a private audience to discuss flying saucers. This 
invitation led Adamski to believe that she "[had] the welfare of her people at heart. 
Therefore she [had] an open mind that permits her to look at all facets of life, not bowing 
to the dictates ofthe few."31 
While his meeting with the Queen proved successful and he met with support 
from most audiences, other troubles seemed to dog Adamski's every step. In New 
30 Ibid., 79-100. 
31 Ibid. , 128. 
63 
Zealand, problems with his visa delayed the start of his lectures.32 In England, he faced a 
similar problem when he was prohibited from lecturing due to his lack of a work 
perrnit.33 The greatest problem occurred in Zurich where Adamski was laughed off the 
stage. Adamski termed this disturbance "our first warning of organized resistance. "34 It 
was at this point in the narrative that Adamski began to tie together all the misfortunes 
that occurred on his lecture tour. He interpreted these occurrences not as the unfortunate 
coincidences that plague many travelers, but as a concerted effort to stifle his message 
and destroy his mission. To Adamski's mind, the only reason for this would be the core 
of his message: that rampant materialism and greed were the root of violence and 
destruction. For humanity to survive and thrive it must abandon those things. But there 
existed some who did not want to rise above greed and materialism or were too deeply 
entrenched in their selfish ways to welcome these revelations. To Adamski's mind, it 
was logical to assume that he should hold these people responsible for his troubles. 
Adamski called these people "The Silence Group." 
"The Silence Group" was a term first used and popularized by NICAP Chief 
Donald Keyhoe in the early 1950s. Keyhoe used it to describe those elements of the US 
government that wanted to keep secret the reality of flying saucer visitation from the 
public. In Adamski's flying saucer universe, the focus of the Silence Group was 
different. Their conspiracy was worldwide and centered in Zurich: "What happened to 
the money-changers Christ drove out of the temple? It seems as though they have 
gathered over the centuries in Zurich . ... The invisible reins of financial influence extend 
32 Ibid. , I 07. 
33 Ibid. , 123. 
34 Ibid. , 138. 
64 
from Zurich to puppet organizations in every nation."35 Given Adamski's identification 
of materialism and greed being humanity ' s greatest enemies, it made sense that the 
international cabal seeking to stifle him was financial in nature. In Adamski's 
worldview, the denizens of high finance would have had the most to lose from people 
adopting Adamski's philosophy on a large scale. This was the first time Adamski used a 
conspiracy theory to explain resistance to his ideas. He twisted the conspiracy in a 
typically Adamskian way, however, placing the blame at the feet of commerce and 
abstract greed rather than framing the conspiracy in a political context. His focus 
remained on improving the social and spiritual conditions of the United States and the 
rest of the world through application of the Cosmic Law. Thus, even considering this 
shift to a more paranoid style of narrative Adamski remained centered on that Cosmic 
Law and the improvement of humanity. By presenting elaborate proofs of the physical 
reality of interplanetary craft and hints of worldly conspiracies, Fly ing Saucers Farewell 
echoed those UFO writings which dealt less and less with the message of the Space 
beings and more on proving the existence of the saucers to skeptical readers. While, 
superficially, Adamski's proofs and claims of international cabals seem forced and 
unlikely, they served the same purpose as his initial flying saucer stories. The original 
tale of meeting the Venusian in the desert encapsulated Adamski's long-standing views 
on needed changes in society. In the same way, the new stories of scientific validation 
and multinational conspiracy might have convinced the reader that Adamski's ideas were 
worthy of cover-up. 
Adamski's intro_duction of an international conspiracy was not surprising given 
35 Ibid. , 141. 
65 
what other saucer writers of the time promulgated. When Adamski introduced the 
conspiracy angle to his story, he echoed the views of his contemporaries. Donald Keyhoe 
of NICAP had claimed since the early 1950s that there existed a cover-up at the highest 
levels of government regarding the origins and mission of the saucers. In 1955, Gray 
Barker wrote They Knew Too Much About Fly ing Saucers36, which introduced the 
concept of the "Men in Black"-mysterious men who visited saucer witnesses and 
threatened them with harm if they shared their encounters. Even one of Adamski ' s 
alleged witnesses from the 1952 sighting, George Hunt Williamson37 claimed that 
international financiers worked to keep the truth about saucers away from the public. 
Thus, the framework for a saucer-oriented conspiracy was not Adamski 's invention at all. 
Rather, as he did with saucers, Adamski co-opted an existing mythology and used it to 
further shore up his message of peace, love, and cooperation. 
Although Flying Saucers Farewell was the last saucer book that Adamski 
published, he continued to write and lecture until his death in 1965. Throughout his later 
years, Adamski ' s approach focused more on spreading his philosophical message rather 
than proving the space visitors ' reality. Indeed, it was his philosophies that many of his 
followers remembered about him after his death. A good measuring stick for saucer 
contact believers' views of Adamski and the significance of his career is the March, 1966 
issue of Probe magazine. Published a few months after Adamski's death, this issue 
consisted of readers' remembrances of Adamski and some reprints ofhis writings. Editor 
Joseph F erriere, in "George Adamski ' s Appeal to the Future Leaders," said: 
36 Gray Barker, They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers (Lilburn, Georgia: Illuminet Press, 
1997). 
37 George Hunt Williamson, The Saucers Speak (London: Neville Spearman, 1963). 
66 
George Adamski was a man with a purpose. He, most of all, realized that if ever 
we are to straighten out the mess we have created on this planet, we must take the 
youngsters into our confidence and impress upon them not only the need to work 
towards the goal of making this earth a better place in which to live, but also to 
guide their steps toward the achievement of that goal. 
Ferriere went on to describe a lecture Adamski gave to a group of elementary school 
children in Boston. The theme of this lecture was the "the importance of learning about 
ourselves ... so that we may then know how to coordinate our senses, thereby achieving a 
harmonious relationship with nature and the universe."38 Ferriere makes no mention in 
this article about Adamski's saucer beliefs, only that his philosophies, if passed on to the 
younger generation, would have a positive impact on their lives, and on humanity as a 
whole. 
In addition to giving large public lectures, Adamski also met with saucer believers 
in small groups. People's impressions of Adamski in this setting are significant because 
at these small groups, Adamski would respond to spontaneous questions from those 
present. On April 1, 1965, Adamski met with several followers at the home ofMr. & 
Mrs. Ovila Larochelle in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. One of those present was Lionel 
Renaud. Renaud found that Adamski's stories held more than tales of saucers. Rather, 
"the telling of a better way of life can be told in diverse ways, or inter-related to things 
that are new or strange, but that does not detract from the true facts, and the true facts lie 
in the goodness of the words spoken and the sincerity of the man himself." Whether or 
not Adamski's stories came from star visitors or elsewhere, Renaud concluded, "They 
should be adhered to and practiced by all. The world is in dire need of constructive 
practices, and has been .for too long." Renaud believed Adamski ' s contact stories to be, 
38 Joseph Ferriere, "George Adamski 's Appeal to the Future Leaders" Probe No. 14, March/April, 
1966, 2. 
67 
at most, "of a nature practicable." 39 Despite this half-hearted acceptance of the saucer 
aspect of Adamski's story, Renaud recognized the sincerity and importance oftheir 
philosophical messages-the same messages that had remained constant since the 1930s. 
A major aspect of Adamski's significance to saucer belief was his influence on 
other believers. Other Contactees, no matter what their similarities or differences to 
Adamski and his adventures, all owe a great deal to his example. Despite all other 
Contactees claiming that their contacts took place before his, none of them told anyone 
about these contacts until after Adamski ' s story had hit the streets. Most of these other 
Contactees' stories were more spectacular and, amazingly, less believable than 
Adamski's. Contactees such as Orfeo Angelucci and George Hunt Williamson claimed 
that their contacts with the space people took place purely on the psychic level; hence no 
one could expect them to have any proof of their claims.40 Others claimed to have 
experienced physical contacts, like Adamski. Whether the contacts were physical or 
mental, Contactees often shared with followers philosophical messages similar to 
Adamski's. 
George Hunt Williamson, one ofthose who allegedly witnessed Adamski's initial 
1952 contact, published his own book of messages from the space visitors in 1954. 
Williamson claimed that he received the content of his book, entitled The Saucers Speak, 
from aliens on all planets of the solar system. These aliens communicated through 
automatic writing: psychic transmissions from the aliens controlled his hand and recorded 
messages. Williamson, like Adamski, was involved with occult beliefs before the saucer 
phenomenon began. He did not, however, publish or release writings publicly as did 
39 Ibid., untitled article, 8. 
40 Moseley and Pflock, 75. 
68 
Adamski. Rather, he conversed with other occultists and edited Valor, the newsletter of a 
Noblesville, Indiana based organization called Soulcraft. Soulcraft was founded and run 
by William Dudley Pelley, a former fascist who was imprisoned for sedition during the 
Second World War. Williamson also had an interest in archeology and visited ruins 
throughout central and South America. He claimed to be a renowned anthropologist, but 
his academic credentials were largely self-conferred or from unaccredited institutions.41 
In The Saucers Speak, Williamson claimed that most of the aliens ' messages came to him 
in the summer of 1952, months before Adamski's encounter. Williamson, not content 
with being a mere witness to Adamski ' s initial contact, wished to set himself up as pre-
eminent among the Contactees. Since his message, in many ways, mirrored Adamski ' s 
this attempt to establish primacy would seem to have been motivated more by 
professional jealousy than anything else. 
Williamson's contact stories shared some thematic similarities with Adamski's. 
His first contact was with Nah-9 of the Solar X Group. Nah-9 confirmed that it was 
Martian saucers that had been seen over California and urged the people of Earth to come 
together as one and join the union of planets in the solar system. There were restrictions, 
however, on which Earthlings the space people would assist: 
We are friends of those interested, but we are not interested in those of the carnal 
mind. By that we mean the stupid preservation of self; disregarding the will of 
the Creative Spirit and His Sons. 
Williamson described the "Creative Spirit" as being analogous to humanity's conception 
of God. Nah-9 also revealed that "Evil planetary men" of Earth would destroy humanity 
with the new hydroge11 bomb. Other revelations included the fact that the sun is, in fact, 
41 Alec Hide!, "George Hunt Williamson and the Genesis of the Contactees" The Excluded Middle, 
No. 3, 3. 
69 
cold and that the representative from Uranus disapproved of the Martians contacting 
Earth.42 Williamson's stories had similarities to Adamski's encounters. Both warned of 
the dangers of new atomic weapons technology and suggested that humanity would find a 
solution if they became united in purpose, seeking peace and cooperation instead of war. 
George Van Tassel was another saucer writer who had psychic and physical 
contact with otherworldly beings, but his goals differed from those of Adamski and 
Williamson. Van Tassel was a flight test engineer in California who lived near Giant 
Rock, a seven-story boulder in the desert. Having an interest in both saucers and 
meditation, he led a group of believers in transcendental meditation sessions in the cavern 
beneath the boulder in early 1953. In August of that year (a few months after Adamski's 
first Contactee story was published) Van Tassel claimed to have ridden in a Venusian 
spaceship and wrote several books about his experiences including I Rode in a Flying 
Saucer. He claimed that the Venusians gave him plans for something called the 
Integretron. This device-a 16-sided dome built of wood and concrete, held together by 
glue-reportedly would rejuvenate the user, eliminating disease, and allowing for a very 
long life. The radiological effects of nuclear war would be negligible, as long as one 
reached the safety of the Integretron in time. Van Tassel received monetary donations 
from supporters and appeared on numerous talk shows sharing news about the invention. 
He also founded the College of Universal Wisdom, a non-profit organization focused on 
scientific and spiritual learning. At the time of Van Tassel's death in 1978, the 
42 George Hunt Williamson, The Saucers Speak in Jay David, ed., The Flying Saucer Reader (New 
York: Signet Books, 1967), 82-83. 
70 
Integretron was reportedly 90% complete and almost ready for testing.43 Adamski and 
Williamson's writings focused on the necessity of people changing not only themselves 
but the world as well. Van Tassel, offering spiritual meditation and the physical safety of 
the Integretron, provided an escape from the frightening realities of the Cold War. No 
matter what new disease or radiation might be in the air, the Integretron would protect 
those who accepted the truth of Van Tassel's alien contacts. 
Other Contactees appeared in the 1950s, sharing messages similar to Adamski ' s. 
Truman Bethurum, who wrote Aboard a Flying Saucer in 1954, claimed to have visited 
the planet Clarion. Clarion was an idyllic place without poverty, hunger, politicians, 
taxes, or atomic weapons. Aura Rhanes, the female captain of the Clarionite saucer was, 
according to Bethurum, "tops in shapeliness and beauty" and warned him that unless 
Earthlings eliminated nuclear weapons, Earth would be destroyed, causing "much 
confusion" in space.44 Upon returning to Earth, Bethurum's wife left him after becoming 
convinced that Aura Rhanes wasn't an alien at all, but simply a human woman with 
whom Truman was carrying on an affair.45 
Daniel Fry was a mechanic for the Aerojet General Corporation. One day, while 
working, he saw a saucer approach and land. He examined the saucer and met the pilots 
(from Mars) who flew him from White Sands, New Mexico to New York and back. Fry 
published The White Sands Incident in 1955. This book contained mostly technical 
43 "Aliens: An Ashtabula County Man had Close Encounter, Topic ofNew Book," Ashtabula 
(Ohio) Star Beacon, June 20, 1998. Reprinted at 
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~vantasselfamilyhistoryhomepage/GeorgeVT.html 
44 Peebles, 99. 
45 Moseley and Pflock, 166. 
71 
information about the saucers, and argued that if humanity were to learn the control of 
gravity and magnetic power, like the Martians, then political and social problems would 
disappear. One problem that Fry discussed extensively in The White Sands Incident was 
juvenile delinquency, a major concern for Americans in the 1950s. Children were the 
future, Fry explained, and their engaging in criminal activities reflected poorly on 
American society. Customary for the Contactees of the time, Fry also wrote that the 
Martians did not want Earth to experience a nuclear war. Alan, the Martian who 
contacted Fry, said humanity has "a personal duty and responsibility to cooperate in the 
efforts our people are making to help you people on earth to alter their present flow of 
events, and avert the holocaust which is otherwise inevitable." 46 Fry's message seems 
less optimistic than Adamski's. Fry presents a scenario in which the fiery destruction of 
the Earth is a certainty unless humanity turns from its path. Adamski, on the other hand, 
offered possibilities for the future. Later Fry, like Van Tassel, founded an organization 
dedicated to spreading these stories and beliefs. Called Understanding, by 1961 , it had 
1500 members. Fry was popular on the saucer lecture circuit, despite focusing more on 
new technologies of space travel more than his stories of visiting the Martians.47 
The Contactees whose contact experiences came after Adamski shared his 
concern about the dangers of warfare and atomic weapons and the need for cooperation 
and understanding among the people of Earth. None of them, however, gave any 
indication of holding these views before they published their contact stories. This fact 
does not diminish the significance of their calls for change. Rather, it bolsters the 
significance of Adam~ki: Other saucer believers, seeing that Adamski had found a 
46 Daniel Fry, The White Sands Incident (Louisville: Best Books, 1966), 81 , 63-64. 
47 Moseley and Pflock, 166. 
72 
workable means to evangelize his message of peace and cooperation, decided to do so for 
themselves. Adamski's writings not only established a template that other Contactees 
used to spread their messages about how humanity needed to change but also created a 
mutual forum through which they could agree with Adamski's initial calls for change. 
When evaluating the Contactees, one cannot disregard the profit motive. In the 
1950s and 60s, being a Contactee meant that one sold books, was paid for lectures and 
public appearances and, like Van Tassel and Fry, had the opportunity to start 
organizations which would continue to bring in money from members. The Contactees ' 
critics have used this profit motive to cast aspersions on the message the Contactees 
spread. Logically, however, a Contactee could have made the same money and sold the 
same number of books without the moral messages about peace and cooperation. Stories 
about otherworldly visitors and their advanced ships would have intrigued Americans 
anyway. The fact that the Contactees included moral and philosophical lessons anyway, 
indicates a degree of sincerity on their part. 
Adamski and the other Contactees used their stories as a tool in their attempt to 
change American society for the better. Though their stories were unbelievable to many 
and easily disproved, they succeeded in reaching many people who might never have 
heard their messages any other way. The Contactees took messages of cooperation, 
peace and warnings about the dangers of materialism and militarism and wove them 
together with stories that capitalized on a mystery that had captured the public' s attention. 
Tales of flying saucers held the interest of many Americans from their advent in 194 7. 
George Adamski saw this, and adapted his beliefs and messages to mythology of this new 
phenomenon. Other Contactees, who appeared after Adamski, mimicked not only his 
73 
style of story telling but also many of the same messages. Whether this mimicry 
stemmed from agreement with his beliefs or an attempt to glom on to a popular genre was 
not as significant as the Contactees' power to spread messages that challenged the Cold 
War paradigm of material consumption, military antagonism and the development of 
cataclysmically destructive weapon systems. 
74 
Chapter Four 
"Actually, The Air Force is not the Only Agency Involved" 
Flying Saucer Believers Urging Change in Science and the Government 
At the same time the Contactees shared their messages of peace, cooperation and 
understanding, other approaches to the UFO mystery also came into prominence. These 
large national organizations rejected the Contactees' stories, believing that scientific 
investigation, not personal contact, would reveal the origins and intentions of the flying 
saucers. Groups such as the National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomenon 
(NICAP) and the Aerial Phenomenon Research Organization (APRO) took a media-
savvy approach to saucer research, working to solve the mystery of the saucers while, at 
the same time, calling into question aspects of the American government and the 
scientific establishment. NICAP head Donald Keyhoe appeared on numerous television 
and radio shows and, to many of the public, was the person most associated with the call 
for further investigation of the saucers. 1 Key hoe and APRO founder Corel Lorenzen both 
wrote several books that documented hundreds of saucer sightings from around the 
world. These books and the newsletters published by NICAP and APRO reached 
thousand of saucer believers in the United States. 
While NICAP and APRO both held that careful scientific investigation would 
solve the mystery of the saucers, significant differences existed between them, centered 
on the proper role of the government in the saucer issue. Corel Lorenzen's APRO denied 
that the government or military had any secret knowledge of the flying saucers. Donald 
Keyhoe, however, insisted that a cover-up existed at the highest levels of the government 
and military. This insistence that the government actively hid information that could 
1 Moseley and Ptlock, 140. 
75 
solve the saucer issue sparked public debate about the Government' s policy towards the 
flying saucer issue and eventually led to an open, government-sanctioned scientific 
investigation of the phenomenon. Keyhoe ' s suspicions about the cover-up represented a 
significant effort to break down the walls of Cold War military-scientific-government 
collusion. APRO and Corel Lorenzen' s approach, though different from Keyhoe ' s, also 
made strong statements about the relationship between government and science. For 
Lorenzen, the scientific truth of flying saucers lay outside of governmental control. The 
truth behind the saucers, however, would remain hidden unless investigators pushed the 
mainstream scientific community to consider the possibility of life on other planets. In 
the minds of APRO members and leadership, many scientists were trapped in a limited 
paradigm that did not allow them to acknowledge the possibility of life on other planets. 
Keyhoe ' s insistence that the government of the United States concealed 
information about flying saucers from the eyes of the public was a constant in his 
writings from the very beginning. While he did claim a cover-up existed, he was careful 
to not attribute malicious motives to the conspirators. In the foreword to 1955 ' s The 
Fly ing Saucer Conspiracy , he said 
In revealing this censorship, I am not attacking the Air Force as a whole. Most of 
the officers and officials I have encountered are simply obeying orders. Nor do I 
attribute unpatriotic motives to the "silence group" members who originate these 
orders. Undoubtedly they are actuated by a high motive- the need, as they see it, 
to protect the public from possible hysteria . .. .If the public is not informed of the 
facts, fear of the unknown may prevail. 
Despite its noble motives, Keyhoe considered the cover-up dangerous to the United 
States. Continual denial, Keyhoe wrote, "only heightens the possibility of hysteria." 2 
Thus, with this reasoning, Keyhoe both acknowledged appropriate motives on the part of 
2 Donald Keyhoe, The Fly ing Saucer Conspiracy (New York: Henry Holt, 1955), 7 
76 
the conspirators and argued that continued secrecy would do more harm than good. 
Openness on the part of the government would not cause hysteria-rather openness 
would reassure Americans that their government was, in fact, in control of the situation. 
At the heart ofKeyhoe's claims throughout the 1950s was the assumption that Air 
Force officials had standing orders (Air Force Regulation 200-2) that restricted the kinds 
of information on saucers that officials could release to the public, and that only "hoaxes, 
practical jokes, and erroneous UFO reports ... be given to the public." Keyhoe 
considered "this hidden order ... a revelation in its apparent distrust of the American 
people. "3 The cover-up, he claimed, took the form not only of these denials of saucer 
sightings but of outright censorship. One incident that The Flying Saucer Conspiracy 
detailed was that ofNICAP member Frank Edwards. Edwards was a prominent radio 
and print journalist who worked as a news commentator for the American Federation of 
Labor. During the summer of 1954, Edward had persuaded AFL president George 
Meany to let him broadcast a nationwide special on the existence of AFR 200-2 and 
report on some extraordinary sightings that began in Wilmington, Delaware and had 
spread across the country. Keyhoe and Edwards both felt that this report would force the 
USAF to reveal the hidden details about the saucers. Then, a few days before the 
broadcast, Edwards called Keyhoe and informed him that George Meany had ordered 
Edwards to scrap all mention of saucers and told him that there would be a censor in the 
studio prepared to end the broadcast if Edwards failed to comply. Edwards resigned 
rather than go on the air with those conditions.4 Edwards discussed this, and other 
instances of censorship, in his first book Flying Saucers- Serious Business. In a chapter 
3 Ibid. , 24. 
4 Ibid. , 189-194. 
77 
entitled "Muzzles for Americans?" Edwards acknowledged that the government might 
have had good reasons for saucer censorship. But he also charged that such censorship 
was not confined to the realm of UFOs-that any "falsification was all right if the results 
were good." Edwards then went even farther, stating that 
It was simply another way of repeating the old Nazi line that it's all right to lie to 
the public if it is for their own good. Whether it was justified would be decided 
by those who did the lying, of course. 5 
Keyhoe, who certainly opposed saucer censorship, never went so far as to compare the 
government to the Nazis. They did, however, agree that the perceived government cover-
up of saucer information was dangerous. Frank Edwards was on the NICAP board and 
Keyhoe featured him prominently in all of his books throughout the '50s and ' 60s. Thus, 
Edwards's views on government censorship could not have varied too much from the 
NICAP party line. Edwards's comments, like Keyhoe's, frame the question of flying 
saucers in a political context rather than a scientific or spiritual one. Establishing a 
political framework for UFO secrecy would, in later years, serve to give Keyhoe and 
NICAP a visible, high profile adversary, making their quest more accessible to the public. 
Keyhoe experienced similar censorship when he appeared on an Armstrong Circle 
Theatre television program about UFOs in 1958. Here, Keyhoe was upset that he only 
received seven minutes of airtime (the Air Force received 25) and was required to clear 
his comments with the producers and the USAF before he was allowed on the air. 
Keyhoe's script went through three revisions before producers cleared it for broadcast. 
The program, entitled, UFOs: Enigma of the Skies, was broadcast January 22, 1958. A 
few minutes into his segment, Keyhoe deviated from the approved script: 
5 Frank Edwards, Flying Saucers: Serious Business (New York: Bantam, 1966), 135. 
78 
And now I'm going to reveal something that has never been disclosed before. For 
the last six months, we have been working with a Congressional committee 
investigating official secrecy about UFOs. If all the evidence we have given this 
committee is made public in open hearings, it will absolutely prove that the UFOs 
are real machines under intelligent contro1.6 
The show's producer, Robert Costello, silenced Keyhoe's microphone before he finished 
his first sentence. This incident led many to believe that CBS and the Air Force were 
attempting to silence Keyhoe. It followed that the government was trying to hide 
something; perhaps Keyhoe was right about government saucer secrecy. NICAP 
membership rose significantly after this appearance.7 Government secrecy was rapidly 
becoming a fact of life in the America of the 1950s. Though most Americans had little 
knowledge of CIA operations in Central America and the Middle East, the government 
made clear the need for covert means to ensure national security and the defensive value 
of secrecy. The Rosenberg trial, Senator McCarthy ' s HUAC hearings, the launch of 
Sputnik, and U-2 spy plane crash and subsequent capture of Gary Francis Powers 
convinced many Americans that the stakes in the Cold War were high, and that the 
government may have to take extraordinary measures to ensure security. Conversely, 
however, the self-destruction of McCarthy's anti-communist crusade raised doubts in 
American's minds about whether the government was going too far to protect its secrets 
from the menace of the international Communist conspiracy. Thus, Keyhoe had two 
obstacles to overcome. First, he had to convince the public that a flying saucer cover-up 
existed. Second, he had to persuade those people that the cover-up was wrong and that 
NICAP was the best organization to end that cover-up. 
6 Donald Keyhoe, Fly ing Saucers: Top Secret (New York: Putnam, 1960), 160. 
7 Peebles, 128-130. 
79 
In light of Air Force resistance to discussing the saucer issue with the public, 
Keyhoe felt that the best way for the truth to reach the public was to push for 
Congressional hearings. Throughout the 1950s, Keyhoe had met with frustration when 
dealing with the USAF. Members of Congress, being sensitive to the need for re-
election, proved a more attainable target for NICAP's efforts. Beginning in 1957, 
NICAP published The UFO Investigator. This newsletter not only carried sighting 
reports but also updates about efforts to persuade Congress to hold open hearings. The 
first issue of The UFO Investigator, from July 1957, laid out a number ofNICAP's 
policies, including Keyhoe's personal policy statement about flying saucers. He said, 
"The evidence that the UFO' s [sic] are real, and are interplanetary machines, is 
conclusive." He also noted "very few members ofNICAP have questioned my ability to 
remain impartial in evaluating reports. I am making every effort to be neutral in my 
approach to new evidence."8 Hints of military conspiracy appeared, however, in a 
statement by retired Rear Adm. Herbert B. Knowles, a member of the NICAP Board. 
Knowles said, "I shall be very glad to accept appointment as a member of the Board of 
Governors and be listed as a ' believer' in the reality ofUFO's [sic], with the 
understanding that I shall resign if it appears at any time that your group is being used to 
cover up for the top brass."9 Clearly, the leadership ofNICAP hoped that the presence of 
retired military officials like Knowles would convince both the public and Congress that 
the saucer issue was a serious one. Whereas other saucer organizations filled their 
newsletters with sighting reports from around the world, interviews with other 
investigators, book reyiews, and the like, UFO Investigator often contained nothing but 
8 Donald Keyhoe, NICAP UFO Investigator, Vol. I, No. I (July, 1957), 29. 
9 "Statement By Rear Adm. Herbert B. Knowles USN Retired; Member of the NICAP Board", 
Ibid, 17. 
80 
reports of how the Air Force stifled various saucer investigations and continually urged 
members to write their representatives, asking them to initiate official, independent, and 
scientific investigations into the saucer question. This style of saucer research positioned 
NICAP as a force for change on the political as well as the scientific level. Most saucer 
research organizations considered the UFO issue to be, if nothing else, a scientific puzzle 
that scientists should investigate. By urging readers to become personally involved in 
persuading their representatives to examine the question of flying saucers, Key hoe 
mobilized the thousands ofNICAP members into a force for openness and change, 
breaking down the barriers between the government and the people. 
By 1960, with the release of Flying Saucers: Top Secret, Keyhoe had further 
refined his cover-up theory. During the late 1950s, Keyhoe became convinced that the 
Air Force was getting its orders to continue the cover-up from a source higher up the 
executive branch. Keyhoe recounted a conversation with fellow NICAP investigator 
Henry Brennard in which he revealed the identity of the Silence Group: 
"I'm convinced it's the CIA that sets the policy. I suppose they think 
people should be kept from worrying, until it's certain there's nothing to worry 
about." 
"Sure- Big Papa," growled Brennard. "Personally, I don't want 
anybody-or any government agency--deciding what's safe for me to know." 10 
That Keyhoe would focus his frustration at the CIA rather than the military indicated that 
he placed the blame for the cover-up on an entity that was solely a creation of the Cold 
War. Thus, the cover-up was rooted in the new national security state dictated by the 
American government's policy of containment. To Keyhoe and followers ofNICAP it 
must have seemed th~t a policy of containment was behind the saucer secrecy. The 
government "contained" evidence of the saucers, compartmentalizing it, and hiding it 
1° Keyhoe, Flying Saucers: Top Secret, 154. 
81 
from the American people. The concept of "Containment," first expressed in the 
Truman Doctrine, applied to all aspects of American society, not just foreign policy. 
Suburban homes contained housewives; suburbs contained houses and families, the goal 
being to create strong American communities that could withstand the assaults of 
international communism. Along with physical containment went intellectual and 
political containment. Leftist ideologies or suspicion of American leadership, goals or 
values could brand one an un-American radical. 11 Just as the metaphorical Iron Curtain 
separated eastern Communist nations from western capitalist ones, Keyhoe contended 
that a "paper curtain" existed which separated government UFO secrets from a curious 
public. 
Figure 1- NICAP presents itself as the bringer of enlightenment 
11 Elaine Tyler May discusses the idea of domestic containment in Homeward Bound: American 
Families in the Cold War Era (New York: Basic, 1988). Alan Nadel takes a wider look at American 
culture in an age of containment in Containment Culture: American Narratives, Postmodernism, and the 
Atomic Age (Durham: Duke University Press, 1995). 
82 
This cartoon, from the first issue ofNICAP's UFO Investigator, shows NICAP as a small 
civilian who carries enlightenment to the Air Force figure who guards the Air Force's 
secrets on UFOs from the prying eyes of the public. The artist makes use of Cold War 
imagery though the use of a Paper Curtain-a barrier to enlightenment which the forces 
ofNICAP must overcome. Not only does the Paper Curtain keep the public out, it 
contains and barricades the secrets behind itself. 12 
Keyhoe believed there existed scientific information that held unimaginable 
consequences for the human race and that this information languished in some 
government vault. The Cold War military-intelligence complex, in its fervor to protect 
the citizens of the United States, had gone too far. That barrier between government and 
the people, as well intentioned as it might have been, was what NICAP saw as the enemy. 
The conversation between Keyhoe and Brennard is reminiscent of Orwell's 1984, 
published in 1949. Keyhoe used the parallel between that book's Big Brother and 
Brennard's reference to "Big Papa" to convince his readers that, if UFO secrecy 
continued, the U.S. might become like the England of 1984. 
One ofNICAP's public relations tactics was to distance themselves from the 
colorful stories of the Contactees. Keyhoe admitted that NICAP officials had "seen no 
evidence but also [have] not investigated any claims of contact or communication with 
the saucer people." Keyhoe's editorial went on to say that NICAP felt contact stories 
should be avoided because the press used them to ridicule all saucer investigations. 13 The 
only way Contactees could gain credence in the eyes ofNICAP, and have their stories 
endorsed by the organ~zation, was to submit notarized statements from witnesses. 
12 UFO Investigator, 1, July 1957: 2. 
13 "Policy on Contact Claims Announced," UFO Investigator, 1, July 1957: 19, 28. 
83 
Contactees also had to provide evidence that they initiated slander suits against anyone 
who called them a liar or hoaxter. Additionally, they had to appear before and be 
questioned by the NICAP board, and agree to take a polygraph test. NICAP required 
these draconian steps from no other types of saucer witnesses. 14 This treatment of those 
claiming to have had contact experiences widened the gulf between NICAP and what 
Keyhoe considered fringe elements of saucer research. Unfortunately, it also alienated a 
large number of saucer believers whom Key hoe might have better utilized as allies in his 
quest for reform. 
Increasingly, the differences between saucer investigation organizations grew 
beyond quarrels over the exact origin of the saucers. Saucer researchers and 
organizations began to attack each other with regularity, launching accusations of 
retarding progress in getting truth about saucers to the public. A clear illustration of this 
deepening divide is the rift between Keyhoe's NICAP and the Aerial Phenomenon 
Research Organization (APRO) founded and run by Wisconsin housewife Corel 
Lorenzen. Lorenzen and numerous APRO correspondents reported on all manner of 
saucer sightings from around the world. APRO did not accept the claims of Adamski or 
the other Contactees, but did report other types of encounters with alleged beings from 
space. APRO also assiduously avoided making any accusations that the U.S. Air Force 
engaged in hiding information from the public about UF0s. 15 In an editorial from July 
1962, entitled, "Support NICAP?" Lorenzen explained 
The major difference between NICAP and APRO is that NICAP concentrates on 
lobbying while APRO is primarily concerned with research. We do not 
14 "Contactees Respond to NICAP Request," UFO Investigator, 2, August 1957: 18. 
15 Corel Lorenzen, Fly ing Saucers: The Startling Evidence of the Invasion from Outer Space (New 
York: Signet Books, 1962), vii. 
84 
participate in lobbying efforts for 2 reasons: (1) we would lose our tax-exempt 
status (2) we feel that we are more effective in other areas; that, in fact, lobbying 
would lessen this effectiveness. 
As evidence of that effectiveness, Lorenzen stated that her books on saucer encounters 
have drawn "the endorsements of the scientific community." 16 For Lorenzen, the saucer 
question would be solved by careful, scientific investigation. The answers were all 
contained in the sightings and encounters themselves. The USAF didn't have any secret 
knowledge that couldn't be discovered by scientists and civilians who studied saucer 
events. 
NICAP opposed what it saw as unwillingness on the part of the Air Force to 
investigate the saucer mystery. Coral Lorenzen held similar views about the scientific 
establishment of the time. To Lorenzen, the advent of the flying saucers represented 
Intelligent beings from outside our own planet, fully capable of getting at us and 
implicitly superior to us in development . .. .I feel strongly this must underlie the 
unwillingness of most scientists, who are supposed to be open-minded, to admit 
that [Kenneth] Arnold and his successors actually saw something. There also was 
the implication that we were doing a certain amount of floundering and muddling 
in our laboratories. 
Lorenzen went on to detail the different aspects of society-religion, politics, the concept 
of nations and race-which would change ifthe saucer visitors made themselves known 
to humanity. It was this, Lorenzen said, and not a government cover-up that bore 
responsibility for the scientific and media establishment dragging their feet in finding the 
16 Lorenzen, "Support NICAP?", APRO Bulletin, July, 1962: 1. 
85 
solution to the UFO problem. 17 Like Adamski, Lorenzen believed that the space visitors 
would be able to teach humanity valuable lessons. She recognized that acceptance of 
extraterrestrial life would carry with it powerful social and cultural consequences. By not 
allowing themselves to accept the possibility of space visitors, mainstream scientists were 
falling prey to human pride and arrogance. 
Despite disagreement over the role of the government in the saucer cover-up, both 
APRO and NICAP operated from the same premise: science would ultimately provide the 
answer to the origin and purpose of the flying saucers. The difference between APRO 
and NICAP lay in their methods. Lorenzen and APRO asserted that amateur 
investigators providing observations to qualified scientists was the most promising 
method. Keyhoe and NICAP believed that the truth about the saucers would not come to 
light while the government and military sat on vital clues and information. Only an open, 
televised Congressional investigation could force the "Silence Group" to give up that 
information to the scientists who would then find the answers. 
The rift in saucer research was not confined to the large national organizations. 
An extreme example was independent researcher G. Patrick Wyllie, who believed that 
NICAP was a "secretly sponsored Government mouthpiece to leak out official UFO 
data," demonstrating that Keyhoe's paradigm of government cover-ups and duplicity had 
not only taken hold in saucer research but was even being used against him. 18 NICAP 
a\so a\ienated those moderates on the saucer issue who were more interested in reports of 
sightings than in congressional lobbying efforts. Even luminary James Moseley was, as 
late as 1970, rejected for membership. NICAP's reasoning was that Moseley was 
17 Lorenzen, Fly ing Saucers, 87. 
18 G. Patrick Wyllie to Gray Barker, 8, 16, February 1960, Gray Barker Collection, Clarksburg­
Harrison Public Library, Clarksburg, West Virginia (Hereafter Gray Barker Collection). 
86 
unsuitable for membership because, "It is apparent that your interests and activities .. 
. are, to a considerable extent, incompatible with the purposes and policies ofNICAP." 
Moseley's main work in the flying saucer field consisted mostly of providing a forum for 
researchers to publicly air their grievances with each other. The gossiping and sniping 
that took place in the pages of Saucer News provided more insight into the minds of 
saucer researchers than it did into the mystery of the saucers themselves. NICAP also 
cited Moseley's involvement with "individuals such as Gray Barker" as good reasons for 
rejection. 19 Moseley personally felt that the rejection was due more to his embarrassment 
ofKeyhoe back during his pre-NICAP days in 1954. Moseley had pointed out in Nexus 
that many ofKeyhoe's "confidential" sources were Pentagon public information officers 
who gave Keyhoe information that was not, in fact, in any way secret or confidential. 
Keyhoe embarrassed by this revelation and with an eye to guarding his book sales and 
reputation, suspected Moseley of constantly trying to scoop his sighting reports.20 
Whatever the reason, NICAP's rejection ofMoseley illustrated the organization's desire 
to cast saucer research in its own image: serious rather than light-hearted. 
One way to gauge the degree to which Donald Keyhoe and NICAP alienated 
other branches of saucer research during the years between the publication of The Fly ing 
Saucer Conspiracy (1955) and Flying Saucers: Top Secret (1960) is to examine the 
forewords of the two books. In The Flying Saucer Conspiracy, Keyhoe acknowledged 
the help and work of dozens of other UFO researchers, including the heads of other 
saucer organizations such as Corel Lorenzen. In the later book, published well after 
Keyhoe took control ofNICAP, he acknowledged only members of his own organization, 
19 Stuart Nixon to James Moseley, 29 July 1970, Gray Barker Collection. 
20 Moseley & Pflock, 44-48. 
87 
reporting that the NICAP board had voted to "publicly [confirm] Air Force censorship 
and withholding of UFO reports." They then declared this policy to be "inherently 
dangerous."21 The scenario that this foreword set out was one in which NICAP was not 
only at the forefront of fighting government secrecy, but that they are the only ones 
attempting to do so. Saucer books which focused exclusively on NICAP operations, 
combined with Keyhoe's numerous appearances on radio and television talk shows 
helped establish NICAP as the major saucer research organization in the United States. 
The rise ofNICAP as the main saucer organization in the country had the effect of 
marginalizing other groups and researchers, giving the impression that their views were 
somehow not as important or solid as those ofNICAP. Thus, the fortunes of American 
saucer research became, in large part, tied to the fortunes ofNICAP 
In 1966 years of public curiosity about flying saucers came to a head. In April, 
several widely reported sightings took place throughout eastern Michigan. One object 
was sighted by dozens of witnesses at Hillsdale College. The Air Force's project Blue 
Book investigated and after a week of interviews, scientific advisor J. Allen Hynek went 
before the press and suggested that the object might have been nothing more than 
luminescent marsh gas. Many in the media and public scoffed at this explanation. 
Michigan representatives Gerald Ford and Weston Vivian opened hearings into the 
question of just what was up there. An editorial in America: The National Catholic 
Weekly Review, a news magazine for American Roman Catholics, called the explanation 
"a whitewash" and concluded 
Before the Michigan UFO is quietly buried in the pages of the Air Force Blue 
Book as just another "unidentified flying object," we hope Congressman Ford, or 
21 Keyhoe, Flying Saucers: Top Secret, 10. 
88 
somebody, can force a wholesale review of the who UFO phenomenon. It's been 
around a long time?2 
This moment was the culmination ofNICAP's efforts-the saucer question had received 
enough attention from the public that Congress was forced to investigate the phenomenon 
independently of the Air Force. Within weeks of the Michigan sightings, the House 
armed services committee was interviewing former heads of project Blue Book and 
several scientists. At the suggestion of Air Force Secretary Harold D. Brown, the 
decision of Congress was that an extensive research project, conducted by a major 
research university, had the most promise of success in lifting the veil of military and 
intelligence secrecy.23 
By mid-1967, the USAF had chosen physicist Edward U. Condon to head the 
committee, which consisted of chemists, engineers, meteorologists, and scientists of other 
disciplines. The Committee, though civilian and based at the University of Colorado, 
was administered and funded by the Air Force. Their goal was to determine whether or 
not Unidentified Flying Objects deserved further scientific study, that the "Work will be 
conducted under condition of strictest objectivity by investigators who have no ... 
. Preconceived positions on the UFO question."24 This development thrilled Keyhoe and 
NICAP and they offered the use of their extensive case files to the Committee. APRO 
was similarly enthusiastic, since they had long been clamoring for scientists to take the 
question of saucers more seriously?5 
22 "Marsh Gas in Michigan," America: The National Catholic Weekly Review, April9, 1966 in 
David, 2 11-212. 
23 Peebles, 171. 
24 Peebles, 1 79. 
25 Since the early 1960s, the Contactees had moved further away from the saucer mainstream, and 
none of the major Contactees who were still active held opinions on the development. 
89 
Almost from the beginning, the Committee was plagued with troubles. One of the 
most fundamental was the confusion among the Committee's staff over what their goal 
actually was. Some of the scientists thought that their goal was to explain away or 
debunk saucer sightings. Others, such as electrical engineer David Saunders thought 
their goal was to test the hypothesis that UFOs were extraterrestrial, thus acknowledging 
that the witnesses were seeing something. The fact that members of the Committee 
already had strong feelings about saucers one way or the other seemingly violated the 
previously stated principle of disinterested, objective investigators. Despite this apparent 
conflict, the Committee went ahead. 
The next major crisis occurred in 1968 when David Saunders, one of the saucer-
sympathetic members of the committee, leaked to the press a memo to the staff from 
project coordinator Robert Low. Low said of the Committee's goals that: 
The trick would be, I think, to describe the project so that, to the public, it would 
appear a totally objective study but, to the scientific community, would present 
the image of a group of nonbelievers trying their best to be objective but having 
an almost zero expectation of finding a saucer.26 
Saunders and several other members of the Committee, sympathetic to saucers being 
worthy of research and believing that their views would not be taken into account, 
resigned. NICAP publicly denounced the Committee and ceased all cooperation with 
them. John Fuller, a journalist and author of several saucer books, wrote a scathing 
26 David R. Saunders and R. Roger Harkins, UFOs? Yes! Where the Condon Committee Went 
Wrong (New York: World Publishing, 1969), 129. 
90 
article in Look magazine castigating the Committee and questioning its true purpose, 
since the leaked memo cast strong doubt on their ability to be objective? 7 
The Condon Committee shrugged off the scandal and issued its findings on 
January 9, 1969. The report was published in a widely available 963 page paperback 
from Bantam Books. Articles summarizing the findings appeared in periodicals as 
widely divergent as Book Worlcf8, Popular Scienci9, and The Nation30. The gist of the 
report was that 
Nothing has come from the study ofUFOs in the past 21 years that has added to 
scientific knowledge .... Further extensive study ofUFOs probably cannot be 
justified in the expectation that science will be advanced thereby.31 
Thus, after 18 months of research, establishment science determined not only that not 
only was there was no proof that the sightings were extraterrestrial, but neither was there 
any scientific value to be gained from continued study of the topic. 
The aftermath of the Condon Report had a drastic impact on the way in which 
NICAP conducted their investigations. From the mid 1950s through 1967, the 
organization's raison d'etre was to convince Congress to commission an independent 
scientific investigation. That investigation took place and those in charge found 
NICAP's hypothesis of the saucers' extraterrestrial origins to be untenable. NICAP 
survived as an organization but shifted its emphasis. In May 1969, NICAP released this 
statement: 
27 John Fuller, "Flying Saucer Fiasco," Look, 14 May 1968: 58-63. 
28 28 February and 4 May, 1969. 
29 April, 1969. 
30 27 January, 1969. 
31 Edward U. Condon, Scientific Study of Unidentified Fly ing Objects (New York: Bantam Books, 
1969), 1. 
91 
The purpose ofNICAP is to investigate, study, research, and report on aerial, 
atmospheric, and space phenomenon ... it being NICAP's object to secure 
reliable, scientific information and data on said phenomena, to subject such 
information and data to systematic and objective examination and evaluation and 
to make such information, data, and examination and evaluation results generally 
available. 32 
This statement makes no claims as to the interplanetary origin of the saucers. This stands 
in stark contrast to Keyhoe's personal position statement-made during the halcyon days 
of 1957-in which he claimed, "the evidence that the UFOs are real , and are 
interplanetary machines, is conclusive."33 In the face of dwindling membership and 
accusations of financial mismanagement, the NICAP board forced Donald Key hoe out of 
the directorship in December 1969. By 1971, NICAP's membership dropped to 4000 
from a mid-60s high of 12,000. The organization lingered on until the early 1980s but 
never again held a position as the primary voice of serious saucer study.34 
The Condon Committee's failure to vindicate the claims ofNICAP, APRO, and 
other scientifically oriented saucer organizations did not deter them from continuing to 
seek a scientific explanation for the saucers. Indeed, NICAP's 1969 Statement of Policy 
emphasized the scientific aspect of the search for UFOs, rather than the political or social 
aspects of the question. Just because those particular scientists did not produce the 
results that the UFO community wanted to hear did not mean that science itself was an 
enemy of saucer researchers. Rather, Keyhoe determined that just as the Cold War 
military-intelligence complex worked to keep details of sightings from investigators and 
32 "Report ofNICAP Board Meeting," UFO Investigator, Vol. 4, No. 11 , May, 1969: 2. 
33 "Statement ofPolicy," UFO Investigator, 1, July, 1957: 29. 
34 Peebles, 191-194. 
92 
the public, so too did the CIA and the military improperly influence the Condon 
Committee, stacking the deck with anti-saucer scientists.35 
Even after his ouster as head ofNICAP, Keyhoe continued writing on the saucer 
topic. In several important ways, Keyhoe's message had not changed since the late 
1950s. His final book, Aliens From Space, was published in 1973. In this volume, 
Key hoe discussed the many events of the 1960s and cast the CIA as the main culprit 
behind the saucer cover-up. Additionally, in the wake of the Condon Committee ruling, 
Keyhoe spent a great deal of time discussing qualified scientists who did not accept the 
government's explanations and dismissals of saucer reports. Indeed, one appendix of the 
book listed scientists who rejected the Condon Committee report. The other appendix 
was a list of retired and reserve military personnel who opposed the government's policy 
of keeping important saucer information out of the hands of the public.36 Besides 
reporting on the cover-up, Keyhoe wrote Aliens From Space to "arouse public and 
congressional support for an end to the secrecy- without recriminations- and for a new, 
practical program to learn the answers to the UFO problem."37 Despite the disappointing 
results of the Condon Committee report, Key hoe persisted in encouraging readers to 
write, asking their members of Congress to help in "ending the secrecy and revealing the 
truth. You have a right to know-whatever the answers may prove to be."38 For 
Keyhoe, the wall of secrecy and official denial still stood, and still needed to be 
demolished. 
35 Donald Keyhoe, Aliens From Space (New York: Signet, 1973), 110 
36 Ibid., 255-264. 
37 Ibid., ix. 
38 Ibid., 254. 
93 
Large, national flying saucer research organizations such as NICAP and APRO 
had a similar goal than that of the Contactees. The Contactees wanted to reform society 
along the same lines as those of their celestial visitors. Researchers like Keyhoe and 
Lorenzen set their sights lower: convincing the American government and the scientific 
establishment that the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life existed and deserved 
careful consideration. Both groups-Contactees and "serious" saucer believers­
recognized that there were aspects of Cold War society that needed reform. For people 
like Keyhoe and Lorenzen, the scope of their reforms was narrower and less radical. 
Nonetheless, their efforts represented an important example of resistance to the official 
secret-keeping and political restriction of American Cold War society. Keyhoe's 
demands were not revolutionary. He did not seek the overthrow of capitalism, or a 
complete change in the way people related to each other. He had no dreams of world 
peace, international cooperation or any of the other desires of the Contactees. He simply 
wanted his government to tell the truth-to share what it knew about flying saucers with 
the American public. Coral Lorenzen wanted even less. She argued for people in all 
segments of American society to simply keep an open mind about the possibility of other 
civilizations visiting ours. 
But the fact that their demands were not as drastic as the Contactees' does not 
render them less significant. Keyhoe's questioning of the government's secrecy on the 
flying saucer issue served to open the door for other questions. Was the government, 
through its Cold War creation, the CIA, truly becoming "Big Papa" as Keyhoe wrote in 
Flying Saucers: Top Secret? Keyhoe spent most of his adult life in service to the United 
States government, either in the military or civil service. He consistently went out of his 
94 
way to avoid questioning the patriotism of the government officials involved in the 
perceived UFO cover-up. Despite that underlying faith, he disapproved of such 
overarching secrecy and he spent more than twenty years of his life fighting to restore 
complete integrity to a system which he believed to be infested by a few individuals with 
misguided-not malicious-intentions. 
From the tenacity and determination shown by Keyhoe and other members of 
NICAP and APRO, it is not difficult to imagine them pursuing the remedy of any 
injustice with the same drive with which they attacked the UFO question. Like the 
Contactees, saucer researchers like Keyhoe and Lorenzen worked to change systems they 
thought corrupt but ultimately capable of redemption. For both Key hoe and Lorenzen, 
their efforts concentrated on returning power to the people of the United States, giving 
them ownership of the saucer problem, and taking this problem out of the hands of those 
in government and scientific establishments who would keep that knowledge for 
themselves. 
95 
Chapter Five 
"So let us carry on seriously, but not too seriously, groping for The Truth. " 
Conclusions 
Despite their differences, all varieties of saucer belief had important things to say 
about American politics, culture, and society. The Contactees, the "serious" researchers, 
as well as the moderates such as James Moseley all used the medium of saucer belief to 
convey political and cultural ideals to the American public. Whether these ideals focused 
on the need for world peace and international cooperation or attacked the American 
government for its increasing secrecy on the flying saucer issue, the fact that they were 
wrapped up in the lore of flying saucers ensured that thousands of Americans would take 
notice. 
The gulf between different types of saucer believer sometimes seem so vast that 
one might be hard pressed to find any solid common ground. There is, however, one 
over-riding theme to saucer belief during the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. That theme is the 
search for enlightenment, and the belief that this enlightenment would make the United 
States a stronger, better nation and the world a better place. For the Contactees, 
enlightenment came from above; it came from star visitors who had gone through the 
same growing pains that humanity felt at the dawn of the atomic age. The enlightenment 
they brought would raise the people of Earth to a higher level of spiritual development, 
forcing them to leave behind all materialistic trappings and lust for power. For other 
saucer researchers and organizations, enlightenment came from below. It came from the 
people who spent their lives trying to determine the truth about flying saucers. Some 
believed this enlightening from below could tear down the wall of secrecy between the 
96 
government and its people. Others believed that their efforts to solve the puzzle of the 
flying saucers would emancipate the hidebound and reactionary scientific community 
from a quagmire of close-mindedness and bondage to the national defense structure. 
During the Cold War, the need for enlightenment grew stronger by the day. Two 
superpowers teetered on the brink of annihilation-the weapons humanity had developed 
left no room for diplomatic blunders or trigger-happy politicians. For George Adamski , 
enlightenment was something about which he had evangelized for years before flying 
saucers entered the public eye. In the 1920s and '30s, enlightenment meant abandoning 
material greed and diverting the course of humankind from militarism to peaceful 
cooperation. In the '40s, '50s, and '60s enlightenment involved turning away from the 
path of atomic warfare. The end result of this transformation would be a society akin to 
the utopias that existed on Adamski's Venus and Saturn. After the horrors of a half­
century of wars, totalitarianism, and economic travails, Adamski and the Contactees gave 
Americans a glimpse of what America could become. The world they presented to 
Americans was a world without fear or want-it was truly the utopia for which so many 
had searched for centuries. Most Americans, however, could not look past the hubcap 
flying saucer models and the rest of Adamski's outlandish stories. Those who came after 
Adamski made matters worse-their stories were even more unbelievable; their evidence 
(if they offered any) was flimsy and easily debunked. With Adamski's death in 1965, the 
hope for enlightenment from the stars faded away. 
Donald Key hoe sought enlightenment also. The cartoon in the first issue of The 
UFO Investigator conveyed that clearly. For Keyhoe, enlightenment could, with the 
right leadership and organization, come through the American people. Keyhoe believed 
97 
in the power of the American republic to repair itself, to solve its own problems. He 
repeatedly urged NICAP members to contact their Congressional representatives. He 
consistently pleaded for the government to cooperate with civilian saucer research 
organizations. The government, in the forms of the Air Force and CIA had initiated the 
problem of flying saucer secrecy. Despite this, Key hoe believed that the solution to the 
UFO question could, and should, come about through traditional democratic processes: 
the American people seeking justice and satisfaction from their elected officials. 
Corel Lorenzen, and others like her, sought enlightenment through the 
reformation of mainstream science. Like Keyhoe, they felt that both individual 
researchers and large organizations had the ability and the responsibility to bring the 
enlightenment of flying saucer reality to the people of Earth. Lorenzen believed that 
fear held scientists back from closely examining UFO phenomenon because to do so 
might expose the ignorance of Human science and technology. Lorenzen urged scientists 
to embrace the enlightenment that a truly open-minded scientific investigation would 
bring. 
Key hoe and Lorenzen got their wish in 1967 with the creation of the Condon 
Committee. The government had decided to let science have a crack at solving the 
mystery of the flying saucers. For the first few months saucer believers were 
optimistic-perhaps enlightenment would come to humanity after all. As we have seen, 
the results of the Condon study let saucer researchers down badly. In the eyes of the 
public, their demands, assertions and wishes were just as disreputable and unproven as 
the Contactees. Enljghtenment, it seemed, would not come from the U.S. government. 
So the Contactees and the major research oriented saucer groups not only shared in 
98 
common their desire for enlightenment to envelope humanity but also shared in the 
despair of having their dreams deflated and ridiculed by the people they sought to help 
and empower. Followers left Contactee groups and membership dropped in APRO and 
NICAP, ending the dream of enlightenment and change for the Cold War world. 
The different strands of flying saucer belief would continue to evolve and develop 
through the 1970s, '80s, ' 90s and into the new millennium. The effects of the Condon 
committee report led to a downturn in saucer sighting reports during the early 1970s. 
Organizations such as NICAP and APRO found their memberships declining throughout 
the decade. Some members disappeared from saucer research altogether. Others joined 
the upstart MUFON organization. APRO member Walter Andrus founded the Mutual 
UFO Network on a basis of careful scientific investigation. MUFON specialized in 
examining and analyzing photographs, physical evidence from UFO sightings, and other 
trappings of"real" science. Within five years, it was the largest UFO organization in the 
US. Within fifteen years, it would be the only major organization in the country. 
The Contactees were also going through some significant changes during the 
1970s. Since the mid-'60s, Contactee groups had been growing more and more isolated 
from the mainstream of UFO research. Exposes of most of the major Contactees 
destroyed much of their credibility with the general public and by the 1970s most 
Contactee groups had evolved into cults which concentrated on individual spiritual 
evolution and receiving personal messages from the space visitors almost exclusively 
through psychic means rather than physical contact. Some of the groups that appeared 
during this time w~re the Raelian cult in Quebec (which sought to perfect human cloning) 
99 
and Marshall Applewhite 's Heaven's Gate group which made the headlines in April of 
1997 following a ritualistic mass suicide. 
During the 1970s the seeds of UFO myths were sown which would become very 
important in the 1980s and '90s. Primary among these was the phenomenon of 
"abductions." During an abduction experience, victims would be taken, often against 
their will, to an alien spaceship. Here, the aliens (now non-humanoid, as opposed to the 
visitors described by Contactees) performed various medical procedures and tests. 
Accounts of abductions usually arose during deep hypnosis sessions with therapists, 
casting doubt on the whole phenomenon. The abduction phenomenon carried with it 
conflicting messages. Some claimed that the aliens were peaceful, some claimed that 
they were an invading force, sent to infiltrate and subjugate Earth society. 1 Gone, for the 
most part, were concerns over any message or plan the aliens had for humanity. The very 
frightening and traumatic abduction experience overshadowed most attempts at finding 
deeper meaning. 
Two other major incidents that would provide a foundation for '80s and ' 90s 
saucer research were cattle mutilations and the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico saucer crash. 
Mutilations of cattle, horses, and other animals, often showing surgical precision, began 
to appear in the western United States in the Spring of 1973. Originally attributed to 
satanic cults, UFO researchers co-opted the "epidemic" and declared (with no proof) that 
aliens were performing experiments on earth animals? The Roswell Incident referred to 
the alleged crash, and subsequent Army retrieval, of an alien spacecraft. Several 
variations of this s~ory exist-depending on which witnesses were consulted there were 
1 Peebles, 207. 
2 Ibid. , 215-224. 
100 
anywhere from one to four saucers that crashed. Most sources aclmowledge that the 
Army also collected somewhere between zero and twelve alien bodies.3 
In the 1980s, continued reports of abductions and mutilations, combined with the 
publishing of several books about Roswell, led to the establishment of a sort of unified 
field theory of saucer lore referred to by some researchers as the Dark Side Hypothesis.4 
Briefly, the Dark Side Hypothesis proposes that when the alien craft(s) crashed at 
Roswell, the Army captured a live alien pilot. President Truman created a secret cabal of 
government officials, collectively lmown as MJ-12 to deal with the situation and, above 
all, keep alllmowledge about alien craft and interaction from reaching the public. MJ-12 
then negotiated a secret treaty with the alien and his people. In exchange for amazing 
technological advances, the US government would tum a blind eye to the (generally 
hostile) aliens' abductions of humans and mutilations of animals. The alien race (which 
was dying) was using humanity to create a clone-able human/alien hybrid that they would 
then use to subdue the Earth and conquer it.5 The US government lmew this and was 
secretly developing weapons to fight the aliens. There exist some variations to this story. 
Some researchers contend that there were good aliens helping humanity. Others claimed 
that there were no aliens and that the government used the stories about alien 
3 Ibid., 242-255. 
4 Most UFO researchers credit John Lear with coining the phrase Dark Side Hypothesis. Originally, it 
applied only to Lear' s specific claims about the UFO cover up 
(see http://www.worldofthestrange.com/documents/d/dark_side_hypothesis.htm for more information). 
Increasingly, however; it is used to describe any UFO theory which presents extraterrestrials as invaders or 
conquerors. 
5 This theory is most succinctly stated in "The Krill Papers," an anonymously written, unpublished 
document which circulates on the Internet (and before the Internet, through computer Bulletin Board 
Systems). A complete copy resides at http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pageslkrill.html. 
101 
malevolence as an excuse to impose dictatorship upon us.6 A third theory is that the 
aliens were not evil, just misunderstood and that they only wanted to help us.7 The Dark 
Side Hypothesis served as the basis for many television shows throughout the 1990s, 
including The X-Files, Dark Skies, and Roswell. 
As the 21 st century dawned, much of the furor from the Dark Side Hypothesis 
died down due to a total lack of credible proof. The state of UFO logy today is once again 
a dual stranded world containing the political activism ofNICAP and the social messages 
of the Contactees. An important difference between the UFO world of the Cold War and 
now is that there is more cooperation between different strands of saucer research. 
Primary among the political lobbying effort is Steven Greer, MD and his organization 
The Disclosure Project. Greer began his UFO logical career leading groups of followers 
into empty fields to "signal" any passing saucers with high-powered flashlights. 8 Thus, 
the legacy of the Contactee era, in a way, lived on into the 1990s. Today, however, 
Greer's efforts are largely confined to soliciting former military officials to act as 
"witnesses" to all manner of secret technology the government has "back-engineered" 
from captured alien technology. Much like Coral Lorenzen, Greer and his supporters 
look for scientific and technological enlightenment to come down from the heavens and 
reform our moribund scientific establishment. Greer presents his witnesses to the 
National Press Club and has briefed Congressional staffers. Since the initiative's 
6 This theory was popularized by the late William Cooper, a one-time UFO researcher who abandoned the 
field to devote his energies to the Militia movement in Arizona. He laid out his argument in rus 
"Majestytwelve" document at http://www.williamcooper.com/majestyt.htm. 
7 Popularized mainly by Dr. Richard Boylan. His website http://www.drboylan.com contains several 
articles which elaborate on his theory. 
8 James Moseley and Karl Pflock, Shockingly Close to the Truth! Confessions of a Grave-Robbing 
UFO/ogist (Arnhearst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2002), 324-325. 
102 
beginnings in 1997, there have been no public disclosures of the government's 
knowledge of"UFO reality."9 
One adherent to the neo-Contactee view of human-alien interaction is Richard 
Boylan, a psychologist and (self-proclaimed and trained) counselor of those who claim to 
have been victims of an alien abduction. Boylan insists that there are several benevolent 
races of extraterrestrials that wish humanity to rise about international conflict and war. 
Boylan feels that many of the Contactees of the 1950s and '60s were genuine. In an 
email-interview he said, "George Adamski apparently has realk [sic] encounters with Star 
Visitor craft and their occupants." And that "the Star Visitors held clear views about 
certain follies of Earth societal and political positions, and ... the Contactees of the 50s 
and early 60s were merely repeating what the Visitors had told/shown them."10 
James Moseley is still active in the saucer scene-the sole survivor from the 
1950s era of UFO research. He publishes Saucer Smear, a monthly newsletter which 
features saucer news, gossip about personalities, and heated arguments between saucer 
researchers whose letters to the editor focus less on saucers than they do on personal 
attacks. Moseley's theory about the saucers has evolved over the years. Currently, he 
admits that he has no idea what they are, but that no one else does either. If they are 
anything, he says, they are likely part of the planet around us-a component of our 
environment that we don't have the ability to truly comprehend. 11 
Clearly, many of the same themes exist in saucer research today as did forty years 
ago. Steven Greer is doing many of the same things that Keyhoe did in his quest for 
9 Ibid. , 
10 Richard Boylan, <drboylan@sbcglobal.net> "Re: Questions about Early UFO logy," March 28, 2003, 
personal email (March 28, 2003). 
11 James Moseley, '"Smear' Editor's Personal 'Position Statement"' Saucer Smear, Vol. 46, No.7, July 1, 
1999: 1. 
103 
government disclosure of saucer data and evidence. Richard Boylan claims to have 
talked to aliens and relays their message of peace to all of humanity. Are these modem 
day saucer researchers as significant as Adamski and Keyhoe? I tend to think not. The 
reasons have less to do with the message of the saucer researchers than it does with those 
of us who hear that message. Decades of saturation--Star Trek, Independence Day, The 
X-Files, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.-have dulled the impact that messages from 
the "aliens" might have on the public. We heard messages of peace and love corning 
from quarters much more credible than George Adamski. The American people no 
longer need to be convinced that their government is hiding information from them- the 
effects of Vietnam, Watergate, October Surprise, Iran-Contra, and the ramshackle 
election of 2000 have succeeded in eroding peoples' trust in the American government. 
Who cares if the Air Force has information about the space people? Americans are more 
worried that the government has information about their political affiliations or medical 
history. 
Time and technology have rendered obsolete the flying saucers' efficacy as a 
medium for political and social discourse. We have ships that can travel in space, and 
maneuver the way Adamski 's saucers once did. But once upon a time, visitors from the 
stars and their messengers had an important message for humanity. No evidence ever 
existed that their stories were true but he messages of peace, love, cooperation, honesty, 
and openness resonated with those very few who cared to look deeper than the wild-eyed 
veneer of the true believer. 
But what is the final legacy of these Cold War Americans who often sacrificed all 
hope of a normal life to spread messages of progress and enlightenment? Most have 
104 
forgotten them or, at most, remember only the most outrageous parts of their stories. It 
certainly does not seem that the world in 2003 is any more peaceful, selfless or 
enlightened than the world of 1953. Perhaps, however, we should not judge these people 
on whether or not they changed the world. Let us judge them on how hard they tried; 
judge them on the sacrifices they made to share their message. We should not forget the 
Adamskis, Key hoes, and Lorenzens, for they can still be prophets and teachers if we 
choose to let them. 
105 
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2002. http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/024/S24712.html (12 January, 2003). 
Printy, Tim. "Project Grudge" n.d., http://members.aol.com/Tprinty/Grudge.html (28 
March, 2003). 
Curriculum Vitae 
Aaron}. Gulyas 
aarongulyas@fastmail.frn 
Education 
Master of Arts in United States History, Indiana-Purdue University at Indianapolis, 
Indianapolis, IN, degree expected Spring, 2003. 
Thesis: Mysterious Saucer Sighted, End of World Imminent! Fly ing Saucer Belief and 
Resistance to the Cold War Order: 1947-1970. 
Bachelor of Arts in History, Hanover College, Hanover, IN, 1998, minor: English. 
Teaching and Research Interests 
Modem United States, especially twentieth century cultural, intellectual, and military 
history. 
Early United States political and military history, especially antebellum westward 
expansion and the Mexican War. 
Teaching and Research Experience 
Teaching Assistant, Department of History, Indiana-Purdue University at Indianapolis, 
August 200 !-present. I had sole responsibility for leading four small-group discussion 
sections of course (fall semester, 2002). I was responsible for grading exams and 
research papers, conducting review sessions before exams, holding office hours, and 
giving several lectures. Courses included: 
United States History to 1865 (two semesters) 
United States History since 1865 (two semesters) 
Intern, University Library, Indiana-Purdue University at Indianapolis, May-July, 2002. I 
was responsible for organizing and filing newly acquired material and creating an off-line 
database of the websites of non-profit organizations. 
Presentations 
Grants 
Gulyas, A. "The Man From Venus Meets the Man From California: George Adamski 
and the UFO Contactees in the 1950s," Mid-America Conference on History, 
Fayetteville, Arkansas, September 19, 2002. 
Gulyas, A. "Next Stop Venus! UFO Belief in the Cold War," Graduate Showcase, 
Indiana-Purdue University, Indianapolis, November 2001. 
Indiana-Purdue University Graduate Student Organization Educational Enhancement 
Grant, November 2002. Applied for and received $500 to research primary sources in 
Columbus, Ohio and Clarksburg, West Virginia. 
Institutional Service 
School of Liberal Arts representative to Indiana-Purdue University Graduate Student 
Organization, August 200 1-May 2002.