1968: Tempers Flare

Once again, politics overshadowed the year. Anger in the project was rising fast and when Condon and Low learned that the infamous memo had been discovered a battle commenced. On February 9th, Dr David Sounders and Dr Norman Levine, the two Colorado team members who had found the memo (but never publicized it), were fired from the team for "incompetence".

Saunders and Levine planned devastating revenge. They wrote their own alternative report, UFOs? Yes!: Where the Condon committee went wrong and published it just before the official findings were released. They also handed the "trick memo" to John Fuller, who ensured the full scandal was made public on 14th May in an article called Flying Saucer Fiasco printed in Look magazine. Other team members quit in protest and spoke in defense of their colleagues. The project had fallen apart. 

On June 1st, what was left of the Colorado team closed down and Condon set about preparing the 1,000 page final report. This won approval of the USAF on October 31st and the National Academy of Sciences (who approved its methods, not its results) on November 15th. The world awaited the verdict - fearing the worst.

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