Ancillary Mercy полностью

Ruppelt’s book shocked the UFO researchers who knew him. Was it really possible that he had changed his mind on the subject in an unforced, honest way? Matters are complicated greatly by the fact that Ruppelt was dead less than a year later, of a second heart attack, while living in Long Beach, California, at the age of thirty-seven. As with Morris Jessup, rumors of suspicious death circulated. We might add, for good reason. First, it must be stated that Ruppelt’s conversion to the air force point of view shows all the signs of undue pressure. He worked for Northrop, a major defense contractor, and was therefore subject to pressure from both his current and past employer. Rumors of such pressure had been circulating for years; certainly not proof, but then again, who was starting the rumors? Observe the following scenario: (1) Ruppelt actively working against UFO secrecy from 1954 through the end of 1957, by which time he had made himself a positive nuisance to the air force, and was considering membership in NICAP; (2) a period in early 1958 when he removed himself from the Armstrong Theater program on UFOs, amid rumors of general air force pressure on other participants; (3) strongly debunking statements in private by mid-1958; (4) burned bridges with former colleagues by 1959; (5) death a year later.

Jerome Clark thought little of this sequence. “Ever since [Ruppelt’s death],” he wrote, “rumors have circulated that he was forced to recant his earlier more-or-less pro-UFO sympathies. But no evidence to this effect has ever surfaced.” With that statement, all is dismissed. Ruppelt’s widow, continued Clark, told interviewers that the reasons for this change had nothing to do with pressure. Rather, her husband’s continuing association with Blue Book personnel, plus exposure to the Contactee movement in southern California “soured him.” And Ruppelt’s widow is supposed to be a detached witness for what reason? We are to believe that his “exposure” to the Contactees prompted him publicly to insult Keyhoe, a man whom Ruppelt knew despised Contactees? Ruppelt, who had written such a detached and mature work three years prior, now wrote this sophomoric diatribe because he “soured”? The key lies in Ruppelt’s “continuing association” with Blue Book and air force personnel. No doubt, that was a crucial factor, but certainly not the kind implied by Clark. In the context of Ruppelt’s recent stance toward the air force on UFOs, his rapid and total conversion, and his death at such a young age, matters ought to look suspicious, particularly in the light of the capabilities that existed within the American national security apparatus by this time. Whether he actually was killed, or whether he died from the stress brought on by what he had gone through (the belief of Edwards and Keyhoe), there seems little reason to doubt that Ruppelt was coerced.¹⁰⁷

1960: SERIOUS BUSINESS

On December 24, 1959, the inspector general of the air force issued the following warning regarding UFOs to every air base commander in the continental U.S.:

Unidentified flying objects—sometimes treated lightly by the press and referred to as “flying saucers”—must be rapidly and accurately identified as serious USAF business in the ZI [Interior Zone].... Technical and defense considerations will continue to exist in this area.

It also noted that UFO investigators sent out from air bases “should be equipped with binoculars, camera, Geiger counter, magnifying glass, and a source for containers in which to store samples.” Samples of what? Once again, it appeared that air force policy on UFOs was inconsistent. Actually, it was not. The air force leadership, we know, always considered UFOs of great importance; it was for that reason that it had gone out of its way for years to ridicule the phenomenon in public. The problem had always been, how to track UFOs without it seeming to be important. This included deciding how most air force and military personnel were to deal with the matter. Generally, it was considered best to keep them away from such matters, and ridicule worked well for this. But some response to the problem was needed, and the ridicule policy had caused reporting to become lax. Hence, the “serious business” memo.¹⁰⁸

The year 1960 brought no shortage of serious business in other realms of secrecy. That year, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) was formed. Essentially, the NRO is America’s spy satellite department, a Pentagon-CIA-NSA central office that determines surveillance targets. Its existence was not revealed publicly until 1973, and even into the 1990s its name could not be mentioned in Congress or in any unclassified government document. Already in 1960, optics capabilities had become quite advanced. An optics expert that year wrote that it soon should be possible to develop satellite cameras capable of “resolving two objects three inches apart from 125 miles up.”¹⁰⁹