On January 22, 1958, Donald Keyhoe appeared on the popular CBS television show
Keyhoe’s notes juxtaposed key UFO cases with implausible air force claims and added statements from William Lear and Hermann Oberth. His main thrust, however, struck at the heart of UFO secrecy: he planned to refer openly to four key documents and events still officially denied. These were the 1947 ATIC (Twining) letter, the 1948 Estimate of the Situation, the 1952 air force intelligence analysis of UFO maneuvers (led by Dewey Fournet), and the Robertson Panel of January 1953. Keyhoe submitted his script, expecting “minor editing.” Instead, CBS edited out his key points, with the explanation that the script was too long. After Keyhoe threatened to bolt from the program, CBS appeared to give in and said he could tighten the script himself, then phone in the changes.
When Keyhoe arrived at the studio for rehearsals, he saw that all his efforts were wasted: his changes had not been made, and his statements about hidden documents were still absent. He angrily told the show’s producer, Robert Costello, that “the air force is censoring this program!” “No,” said Costello, “but they deny there ever were any such conclusions. If we let you say it, they’ll stand up and deny it.” “Let them,” said Keyhoe. But Costello’s answer remained no. Keyhoe then tried a different tactic: he now wanted to use the cases that the air force had officially cleared for him in 1952. This made Tunick unhappy. “Even if the cases were cleared,” Tunick said, “the air force will try to refute them now. We’d never get a final script.” Keyhoe by now was thoroughly exasperated. He was down to six items CBS agreed to: statements by Goldwater, Oberth, and Lear, plus three UFO cases not involving the U.S. Air Force. One was a 1954 U.S. Marine Corps sighting, another involved the RAF, and the third was a November 1954 Brazilian airliner case. Now, even these sightings became a problem. Whereas Tunick had earlier agreed to use them, he now shook his head. It was “too much to cover.” Keyhoe prodded and got the real reason from Tunick: “the Armstrong Company won’t stand for an open battle with the air force.”
Kenneth Arnold was on the set and overheard the exchange. “It’s a raw deal,” he told Keyhoe. “I’m having trouble too; they won’t let me make any changes.” Two days later, Arnold pulled out of the program and advised Keyhoe to do the same. “The way it’s rigged,” he said, “the air force will make you look like a fool.” By then, Ruppelt and Chiles had also backed out of the program—in Chiles’s case, specifically due to pressure from his employer, Eastern Air Lines. In Ruppelt’s case, no reason was offered. With all these vacancies opening up, Keyhoe tried to get Hillenkoetter on the show, but the show’s management said no.
During the show itself, Colonel Whedon denied air force censorship over UFOs and gave the standard explanations. Keyhoe then presented his piece—“a skeleton of a story,” as he put it later, forcing himself to read the lines of the teleprompter. Suddenly, on the air nationwide, his frustration vented. He stated, “And now, I’m going to reveal something that has never been disclosed before.” That was the end of Keyhoe’s announcement. Without his knowledge, the main microphone switch was turned off. Keyhoe continued:
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 control.
A more distant microphone did transmit this statement, but television listeners could hear Keyhoe only by turning up their volume controls. Most did not. Minutes after Keyhoe was cut off, Air Force Assistant Secretary Richard Horner stated on television that
there has been a mistaken belief that the air force has been hiding from the public information concerning unidentified flying objects. Nothing could be further from the truth. And I do not qualify this in any way.... There is no evidence at hand that objects popularly known as “flying saucers” actually exist.
