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Introduction History of Events Summary and Conclusions Summary of Tactics Footnotes |
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For approximately ten years prior to McDonald's arrival on the
UFO scene there were attempts to get Congressional Hearings on
the UFO problem in the hope that Congress could coerce the Air
Force out of its unconcerned posture toward the phenomenon.
The most persevering force behind this effort was NICAP under
the leadership of Donald Keyhoe.
As a result Speaker McCormack's House Subcommittee on
Atmospheric Phenomena, a part of the House Select Committee on
Astronautics and Space Exploration, held closed hearings in
1958. Also there were several aborted efforts in the early
1960s, most notably on the part of Representative Joseph Karth
of the House Science and Astronautics Committee. The only
public hearing occurred before Mendel Rivers House Armed
Services Committee in April 1966. However, from the
standpoint of those who wanted hearings, it proved
unproductive because only the Air Force position was heard.
As we have seen, by early 1967 McDonald was uneasy about the
situation in Boulder. Moreover, he favored a many pronged
assault on the UFO problem to avoid putting all his eggs in
one basket. It was at this time, for instance, that he began
his approaches to the NAS and initiated a campaign to
influence Representative J. Edward Roush of Indiana who sat on
the House Committee on Science and Astronautics.
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Initial Contacts Roush Speaks Out Preparing for Hearings The Symposium |
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For reasons which are not clear, but are probably related to
some federally funded program at the UA, Congressman Roush
went to Tucson in late February 1967. Somehow McDonald
contacted him and they engaged in
a lengthy session on UFOs. Apparently Roush already had an
interest in the matter because McDonald commended him in a
note for his "fresh examination of the problem of the
UFOs."
McDonald went on to criticize the Air Force and forwarded a
critical statement on Blue Book which he recently gave to the
Tucson Daily Citizen. He further offered his assistance to
Roush and his staff along with a list of UFO references.
Since he would be in Washington to address the ONR and
possibly NSF and the NAS on the UFO problem April 17-19 he
suggested to Roush that they get together.
Lastly, McDonald stated that his ten months of intensive
investigation had convinced him that the UFO issue was a
problem of highest scientific importance. He urged Roush to
push for Congressional Hearings which would listen to more
than just the official position.
[1]
While in Tucson, Roush also met with Gerard Kuiper, an
internationally known member of the UA's Department of
Astronomy, and asked him for his opinions on UFOs. Kuiper
sent him a letter deprecating the subject and forwarded a
carbon to McDonald.
[2]
To this McDonald replied with a note
to Kuiper. He told Kuiper that his letter to Roush put him in
the camp of those scientists who dismissed the problem without
studying it. He suggested that if Kuiper were to apply
himself to the matter he would change his mind. He further
stated that Kuiper's aid in obtaining his NASA intramural
grant and his call for study of the UFO issue were helpful,
but did not balance out the kind of statement made to Roush
which, backed by the full weight of Kuiper's prestige,
[3]
could prove damaging.
A few days later McDonald again wrote Roush reminding him of
the upcoming Washington trip and reiterating the desire for
hearings through
the House Committee on Science and Astronautics. In this
communication McDonald presented a schedule with which he no
doubt intended to impress Roush. While in Washington he
planned to speak at the ONR, the Naval Research Laboratory
(NRL), and the American Society of Newspaper Editors
convention. He had a tentative appointment with the president
of the NAS and had not yet heard from the AFOSR and NSF where
he also wanted to speak. In addition, he intended to go over
to NASA on an informal basis, and on his way back to Tucson
would talk at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and see
Lloyd Berkner, a member of the 1953 CIA-convened Robertson
Panel on UFOs, at the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies in
Dallas. In closing he included Roush in this impressive
itinerary by asking if he might stop in and see him.
[4]
For the remainder of 1967 there is very little interaction, at
least as reflected in McDonald's correspondence, between
himself and Roush. In June Dr. Phyllis O'Callaghan, Roush's
administrative assistant, told McDonald that Roush was out of
the country, but interested in McDonald's work on UFOs and in
particular the outcome of his UN talk. She closed by saying,
"We remain very interested."
[5]
McDonald replied almost two months later because O'Callaghan's
letter arrived while he was on his ONR sponsored Australia
trip which will be discussed in the next chapter. He enclosed
his statement to the UN Outer Space Affairs Group which he
sent to all members of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses
of Outer Space and to sixty or seventy scientific attaches at
embassies in Washington. Lastly, he outlined his efforts to
convince various NASA bureaucrats of the seriousness of the
UFO problem and again asked that Roush open hearings.
[6]
In October Representative Wyman submitted a resolution to the
Committee on Science and Astronautics calling for hearings on
the UFO question.
[7]
McDonald wrote Roush endorsing the
resolution and urging Roush to bring it before the
Committee.
[8]
Roush answered by saying that he too favored
the hearings, but it seemed a poor time. He felt the best
witnesses would be those scientists on the Colorado Project,
yet he did not think it appropriate to call on them before
their research reached completion.
[9]
Therefore, it appears that McDonald made contact in 1967, but
was unable to do much more than get in the good graces of
Roush. Nevertheless, this proved very important in 1968 as
the situation in Boulder, in McDonald's opinion, worsened and
the need, again in McDonald's opinion, for Congressional
Hearings prior to the termination of the Project increased.
As previously indicated in the chapter on the Condon Study,
the fur flew in early 1968. McDonald forced the confrontation
at Boulder which resulted in the termination of Saunders and
Levine, lawsuits, Look and Science articles, and the
resignation of Mary Lou Armstrong.
By the end of April, however, it seemed to McDonald that it
was time to concentrate his attention on Roush. He told Hall
that he now agreed with him that the only real hope lay with
Congress. He intended to send Roush a copy of the Look
article and planned to see him in Washington the following
week.
[10]
The same day he wrote Roush enclosing the Look
expose and a copy of his 1/31/68 letter to Low which ignited
the confrontation. He told Roush that it no longer seemed
reasonable to "wait for Colorado," a by-word in
Washington in 1966 and 1967 whenever the subject of UFOs arose.
Congressional Hearings were necessary as soon
as possible. He claimed that for "those of us who knew its
shortcomings waiting for Colorado was never adequate for the
Look article represented only a partial disclosure of the
scientific shortcomings of the project. He concluded that a
Congressional inquiry could serve to put the matter "in a
context amenable to scientific progress."
[11]
Three days later Roush took to the floor of the House to ask
for Hearings. He criticized the Air Force handling of the
problem and also cited the Look article entitled the
"Half Million Dollar Trick," which referred to the
phrasing of the Low memo and the $500,000 budget of the
Condon Study. Roush argued that the article raised questions
of scientific profundity and objectivity. He said that as a
result of his talks to, and correspondence with, most serious UFO
researchers he proposed inviting them to Hearings conducted by
the House Committee on Science and Astronautics.
[12]
The following day Roush took the floor again. He explained
that if the Look article were incorrect it needed correcting
and if it were correct it raised questions about the
University of Colorado's approach to the federal contract
process. To get some answers to these questions he said he
wrote Secretary of the Air Force Seamans asking for comments
and also the Comptroller General requesting an investigation
of the use of public money at CU. Roush asserted that he was
an agnostic with respect to UFOs, but wanted to get to the
bottom of the riddle through the use of the scientific
process.
[13]
This brought the pot to a boil again both for NICAP and
McDonald. Don Berliner, an NICAP staffer, wrote Julian
Hennessey, a subcommittee chairman in England, that McDonald's
talks with several members of the
Science and Astronautics Committee indicated they were very
upset over CU. He said, "We are sending over (to the Hill)
gobs of material."
[14]
McDonald confirmed this in a note to Malone in which he said
he spent May 3 talking with Roush's staff, William Ryan of New
York, and D'Addario's assistant Tom E. J. Keena. He said he
pushed for an investigation going back to 1947 with Roush and
asked Malone to write D'Addario urging the same approach. He
mentioned that he spoke with the assistants to Congressman
Brotzman from the Boulder area who will ask the president of
CU for a full accounting.
[15]
Although he recognized it was a poor year (election year) for
trying to get a Congressional inquiry off the ground McDonald
felt that the attempt should be made. He asked Hall to put
the full weight of NICAP's 10,500-person membership behind a
letter-writing campaign directed at Congressmen Roush, Ryan,
D'Addario and Karth urging hearings.
[16]
McDonald considered the remarks made by Roush on the House
floor sufficiently important that he sent copies of them to
"concerned people and scientific agencies inside and outside
of the United States." He assured Roush that he would write to
all of the members of Congress with whom he had spoken and had
already asked Morris Udall of his own district to do whatever
he could. He felt the best thing he could do was begin
informal discussions with members of the Committee on Science
and Astronautics and he wanted to know if the Subcommittee on
Science, Research and Development would be the appropriate
place to hold the hearings. If so, he would get colleagues
from around the country to write the subcommittee letters of
encouragement.
[17]
Dick Olsen, an aide to Udall suggested to McDonald that he
prepare a letter which Udall might show other Congressmen when
button-holing
them on the UFO question. After writing it McDonald told
Udall he purposely composed it in a low-key fashion because he
knew from experience that this was the best way to present the
subject. In closing he said that he doubted anything short of
a Congressional Hearing could get the issue out into the open.
He had given up on his colleagues in the scientific
community.
[18]
Several days later O'Callaghan began giving McDonald
instructions. She told him to write Congressman George P.
Miller, Chairman of the Science and Astronautics Committee
with a carbon to D'Addario. She said that the other
scientists who McDonald mentioned were to do the same.
Apparently Roush recommended hearings to Miller before, but
Miller proved uninterested. Now interest existed, but he
feared jurisdictional problems with the House Armed Services
Committee. O'Callaghan felt the letter-writing campaign might
make the difference.
[19]
She wrote again to tell McDonald that D'Addario's Science and
Astronautics Subcommittee would be the body to hold the
hearing. Somehow McDonald had failed to write Miller and she
told him to do so, with the objective of impressing Miller
with the urgency of the matter and McDonald's own professional
competence and seriousness. She emphasized that McDonald
needed to persist without becoming a nuisance and in this
regard recommended that he personally visit Miller and
D'Addario when in Washington. McDonald could feel free to use
Roush's office to make appointments and get organized.
[20]
In another note the same day O'Callaghan told McDonald that
she assured two men from the Government Accounting Office that
he could provide them with quotes from Condon's speeches
illustrating his position in the early stages of the
project.
[21]
When McDonald eventually got around to the letter to Miller,
he wrote that as a scientist with two years of experience in
the UFO field he wanted to support Roush's plea for hearings.
The Look article suggested that it was no longer wise to
"wait for Colorado" as the NAS, NASA, NSF, et al., argued.
Furthermore, he told Miller that the UFO matter was
essentially a scientific question and as such belonged under
his committee and not the House Armed Services Committee. He
said he intended to visit Miller while in Washington and
enclosed several of his UFO talks.
[22]
In an effort to convince Miller that there existed a
widespread interest within the scientific community in the UFO
problem McDonald forwarded:
In addition, he
mentioned Robert Baker's UFO article in the Journal of the
Astronautical Sciences and assured Miller that there would be
no shortage of participants if hearings were held.
[23]
McDonald followed the letter with a very similar one to
D'Addario who replied with a note saying that he would contact
Tom Malone for advice as McDonald suggested.
[24]
This in turn was followed by a letter to Miller from Levine in which
he claimed that some UFO reports were of great scientific but
not military interest. He
said the Air Force did a poor job analyzing sightings, the
Look article raised doubts about the objectivity of the Condon
Study and consequently he believed congressional hearings were
in order.
[25]
From the last chapter we know that McDonald wanted ONR funding
for those aspects of his UFO work which he believed related to
his atmospheric physics research and, if possible, also for
pure UFO studies. Roush, it would appear, attempted to do
McDonald a favor by writing the ONR. He used Hynek for
leverage in the discussion by prefacing his remarks with the
statement that Hynek wrote to him to express concern over the
significance of unexplained UFO reports. It would seem more
than coincidence that Roush asked Admiral T. B. Owen, Chief of
the ONR, what, in light of the lack of scientific concern for
UFOs, ONR had done to research the problem? And, in
anticipation of future hearings what research did ONR support
on astronomical and meteorological hypotheses which might
explain UFO observations?
[26]
The latter was, in fact, what McDonald often claimed he did.
Owen referred the inquiry to James Hughes, McDonald's contract
monitor, who explained that the ONR did not sponsor a program
to investigate UFOs, but did look at the problem in terms of
how it might affect aerial or surface reconnaissance. He went
on to say that the ONR asked McDonald to look at extreme
refraction and electrical phenomena invoked to explain some
sighting reports, but the research remained in progress.
[27]
Congressman Miller received a late letter of encouragement
from Roger N. Shepherd, noted psychometrician from Stanford.
Shepherd said that he wanted to add his voice to those of his
colleagues calling for hearings. In the past he had awaited
the CU report but the seemingly
reliable reports of prejudice and gaps in the study had made
him change his mind.
[28]
At this point Roush wrote Seitz at the NAS asking him to look into:
As it turned out Morris Udall eventually got McDonald an appointment to see Miller. On June 3 McDonald spoke to the Capitol Hill Burro Club made up of Democratic staff assistants. He so impressed Udall's staff that they convinced Udall to do a local Tucson TV spot on UFOs with McDonald. Then on June 19 Udall obtained an appointment for McDonald with Miller who gave tentative agreement for hearings. As McDonald put it to Saunders, "It went so easy a reversal would not surprise me." Remembering how Representative Karth withdrew his support for hearings in 1961 when Keyhoe made a premature announcement McDonald told Saunders to keep it quiet until Roush or Miller made a formal statement.
Through Roush, McDonald found that the GAO staff of lawyers
and CPAs assessing the technical aspects of the CD study
wanted to turn the problem over to the NAS. McDonald told
Roush that he was of mixed emotions on the matter. The NAS
was better equipped to do the scientific job but if it came to
a fight in the Fall the financial data would be good to have.
He suggested to Roush that GAO do the latter for purposes of
Roush's own evaluation and leave the former for the NAS.
[30]
On June 28 O'Callaghan phoned McDonald to ask him for his
thoughts on a UFO seminar. Apparently McDonald discussed this
idea with Roush as a precursor to actual hearings thinking
that the issue could be
privately sanitized, while the event itself could serve to put
the NAS on notice. McDonald provided O'Callaghan with the
following list of possible participants.
He then discussed the pros and cons of each man and
recommended that the publicity should be handled by Robert C.
Cowen of the Christian Science Monitor who would "push
the whole problem along more constructively and more energetically
than would Sullivan of the New York Times."
[31]
Two weeks later McDonald received an invitation from Roush's office
to appear at a July 29 Symposium on UFOs to be held under the auspices
of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics. The participants
were not to touch upon the past Air Force investigatory efforts or the
situation at Boulder. "Our emphasis is to understand the
technical and scientific facts surrounding these phenomena as the
facts are understood by competent researchers in the field. Your
presentation should reflect these views."
[32]
A week later Bob Wood of Douglas Aircraft canceled his
appearance at the symposium. To illustrate the degree to
which McDonald orchestrated the hearing he told O'Callaghan
that Jim Harder of Berkeley's Engineering Department would be
an effective substitute, wrote Harder telling him about it and
prepared the wording of the invitation he wanted O'Callaghan
to send. He noted that Congressman Miller represented the
Berkeley area and hoped, therefore, that Harder's Berkeley
affiliation might be able to sway him.
[33]
Further orchestration evidence is furnished in a note from McDonald to
O'Callaghan in which he stated that he had completed the bulk
of telephoning on Roush's credit card to Hall, Baker, Wood,
Sagan, Hynek and Harder. Moreover, because the participants
did not have much time to prepare their papers he feared they
had possibly neglected recommendations for future
Congressional action. Therefore, he felt that Roush should
take it upon himself to prepare a summary of the talks and in
so doing infer from them the kinds of actions the Committee
might see fit to take in the future.
[34]
The Symposium (which it was called rather than a hearing) took
place on July 29 as scheduled. The speakers were McDonald, Hynek, Hall,
Baker, Harder and Sagan. McDonald expressed satisfaction with the
proceedings in general, although he found Hynek's remarks said very
little and Sagan, by contributing his Encyclopedia
Americana statement, provided a negative note.
[35]
Nevertheless, McDonald managed to obtain a Congressional
Hearing on UFOs which presented a pro-UFO bias, an
unprecedented and unreplicated feat in the history of the UFO
controversy.
The strategy which McDonald adopted with respect to the Roush
Hearings is now a familiar one. He intended the Hearings as a
tactic to obtain legitimacy for the study of UFO data. He
wanted hearings from as early as September 1966, but he would
not take action until the Colorado confrontation of February
1968, with the concomitant firings of Saunders and Levine,
convinced him of the low probability of a positive Condon
Report. Once he reached this conclusion he turned most of his
energy toward the House Science and Astronautics Committee as
a means of laying bare the substance of the phenomenon to
Congressmen who could eventually conduct an investigation of
their own which, he hoped, would catapult UFOs from obscurity
to national prominence.
Throughout this episode in the politics of science McDonald
depended on a number of different tactics. First he convinced
Roush of the efficacy of the Hearing, then he presented his
case to other influential Congressman, along the way he used
various Congressmen for his own ends, and finally he
orchestrated the symposium itself.
Between March 1967 and April 1968 McDonald made several
attempts to convince Roush that UFO Hearings were in order.
He used his usual discussion of past investigative
experiences, the significance of the problem and his
credentials in an initial letter to Roush. In a second letter
he tried to counteract the negative influence of a
communication from Gerard Kuiper to Roush. In a third note,
while setting up a Washington meeting, he conveniently
scheduled Roush amongst numerous scientific agencies and
luminaries he intended to visit, to impress the Congressmen
with the importance of the problem. In late 1967 McDonald
endorsed Congressman Wyman's resolution for Hearings and when
they did not materialize waited for the Boulder confrontation
to develop before taking further action. When it did, in
April 1968, he forwarded Roush the Look article and his
1/31/68 letter to Low which ignited the confrontation. Three
days later Roush asked for UFO Hearings on the House floor.
This did not end the lobbying effort, however, for McDonald
needed to convince other Congressmen of the efficacy of the
Hearings. He spoke with Congressman William Ryan of New York
and D'Addario's assistant in early May. To increase the
pressure he asked Hall to get the NICAP membership to start
writing to the House Science and Astronautics Committee,
particularly Roush, Ryan, D'Addario and Karth. Then at the
insistence of Roush's assistant O'Callaghan, McDonald wrote
the committee chairman George Miller supporting Roush's plea
for hearings and enlisted other scientists to do likewise.
Moreover, he enclosed several articles intended to give Miller
the impression that widespread interest in UFOs existed within
the scientific community. Lastly, he spoke to the Burro Club,
a group made up of assistants to Democratic Congressmen, in a
further attempt to spread the UFO word in Congress.
He also urged other Congressmen to aid him. He encouraged
Congressman Brotzman from the Boulder district, who already
asked for an accounting from the CU president with respect to
the UFO project, to continue his efforts. Morris Udall,
McDonald's representative, also agreed to help. For this
purpose McDonald wrote him a low-key letter on the UFO problem
which Udall could show to any Congressman whom he could
button-hole. Finally, Udall obtained McDonald an appointment
to see Chairman Miller, who then agreed to hold the Hearing.
In several instances McDonald's guidance in the planning of
the Hearing is evident. He provided O'Callaghan with the
names of the speakers and alternates. He also proposed that
Robert Cowen of the Christian Science Monitor be used for
publicity. When Robert Wood of Douglas Aircraft could not
participate McDonald first recommended Jim Harder, and then
invited him to take part, arguing that it could prove useful
in swaying Miller to have the testimony of one of his
constituents. And a week prior to the Hearing, when McDonald
realized that no provisions existed for future more intensive
investigations, he wrote O'Callaghan explaining how Roush
could summarize the papers in his closing remarks which
McDonald thought should point toward further Hearings.
Persuasion of Roush
Persuasion of Others
Manipulation of Others
Symposium Orchestration
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