So recently, I read three books by Donald Keyhoe, Frank Scully's book, and Gray Barker's book.
Of the five, I found Keyhoe's to be overall the most informative. Scully talks a LOT more about the guy from Denver who claimed knowledge of downed saucers and goes into detail as to how they operate, but ultimately the story in unconvincing. Barker's book is mostly about the emergence of the MIB phenomenon although they were not yet referred to as "MIBs".
One thing that jumps out is how early the people in DC started lying about the saucers and how eager they were to paint witnesses as crazed, fools, mistaken, or under the influence of something. What it looks like to me is that the intel community used propaganda and counter-intel techniques developed to fight truly dangerous enemies like the Germans of World War II ... against ordinary Americans, some of whom, at least, were making reports in good faith. And IMO, later down the road, the intel community saw what they called "UFOs" as a great cover to disguise U.S. testing and development of advanced aircraft.
I have to wonder about the claims of reverse-engineered saucers. -If- it has happened, I can only believe the group that understands the tech is practically a breakaway civilization now that maintains liaison of some kind with the ordinary DC bureaucracy. Any knowledge of that kind sure as sh** hasn't trickled into the mainstream, although, one might be able to make a case for that regarding the development of transistors in 1947.
There are endless wrinkles and rabbit holes associated with the phenomenon, so it was refreshing to read works from the early days when the situation was relatively less complex.
Of the five, I found Keyhoe's to be overall the most informative. Scully talks a LOT more about the guy from Denver who claimed knowledge of downed saucers and goes into detail as to how they operate, but ultimately the story in unconvincing. Barker's book is mostly about the emergence of the MIB phenomenon although they were not yet referred to as "MIBs".
One thing that jumps out is how early the people in DC started lying about the saucers and how eager they were to paint witnesses as crazed, fools, mistaken, or under the influence of something. What it looks like to me is that the intel community used propaganda and counter-intel techniques developed to fight truly dangerous enemies like the Germans of World War II ... against ordinary Americans, some of whom, at least, were making reports in good faith. And IMO, later down the road, the intel community saw what they called "UFOs" as a great cover to disguise U.S. testing and development of advanced aircraft.
I have to wonder about the claims of reverse-engineered saucers. -If- it has happened, I can only believe the group that understands the tech is practically a breakaway civilization now that maintains liaison of some kind with the ordinary DC bureaucracy. Any knowledge of that kind sure as sh** hasn't trickled into the mainstream, although, one might be able to make a case for that regarding the development of transistors in 1947.
There are endless wrinkles and rabbit holes associated with the phenomenon, so it was refreshing to read works from the early days when the situation was relatively less complex.
Fire In The Hole