1969: Ufology Reaches The End of its Early Heydays

On January 9th release of the Condon Report hit headlines around the world. Its conclusions (UFOs were a waste of time) were at the front of the book and were all that most journalists had time to read.

Two days later - on January llth - David Saunders joined ufologists in a Washington press conference to point out the real value of the report. Over a quarter of the cases under study were unex­plained. Conclusions published often left little room for doubt that the case was a major scientific riddle. Condon's findings clashed with his own report - but he went on to urge that UFO authors should be publicly horsewhipped.

Soon after the report was released, Allen Hynek was told that his position with Blue Book was over and the project would close on the advice of Condon. Yet no announcement was made. A memo (released much later thanks to freedom of informa­tion) was dated October 20th and signed by Brigadier General Bolender. It explained that when Blue Book closed, only the public pretence of inves­tigating UFOs would be ended. All serious reports would continue to be followed through via the top secret "procedure designed for this purpose". All the best military cases (such as that at Lakenheath) had seemingly never even entered the Blue Book files. 

Many were unhappy with the failure of the US government to fulfill its promises after the 1966 commission. Dr Carl Sagan (of that commission) and Dr Thornton Page (a member of the CIA panel in 1953) set up the first scientific conference on UFOs across five days - between the 26th and 30th December at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston. Condon tried to get the conference cancelled. He urged vice-president Spiro Agnew (a personal friend) to inter­vene. Agnew refused. 

Coincidentally, the USAF chose the week before the symposium to announce it was closing down Blue Book (but there was no mention, of course, of Bolender's secret memo). It said - with one eye clearly on Boston - that UFO study could not be jus­tified "either on the grounds of national security or in the interests of science". 

Thirteen scientists presented papers to the AAAS. These were later edited by Sagan and Page into an excellent book, UFOs: A Scientific Debate . Aside from these men, known UFO supporters such as Hynek and McDonald, plus a defector from Condon (William Hartmann - his chief photographic ana­lyst) all took part. On December 27th, the scientists all signed a petition to the US Government urging that the Blue Book and Condon files be lodged with a research institute to allow further study. Their plea was ignored.

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