Ancillary Mercy полностью

On February 22, Mary Lou Armstrong, for some time secretary to both Condon and the project, told her boss that the staff had no confidence in Low as project coordinator, that he had no interest in UFO sightings or reports, and that “the entire working staff had arrived at a radically different conclusion about UFOs than Low had.” Two days later, she resigned from her dual roles. Four days later, Condon suffered a mild heart attack. The day after that, project member Jim Wadsworth was arrested for possession of marijuana; he soon resigned from the project. February 1968 had not been a good month for the University of Colorado UFO Project.

An interesting commentary on the progress, or lack thereof, that the project had made: when John Fuller arrived on March 1 to prepare an article, he spoke with the project members, most of whom felt they learned more from him about UFOs than the reverse.⁷⁷

AIRING THE DIRTY LAUNDRY

Fuller’s article hit the newsstands on April 27, 1967. It was titled, “The Flying Saucer Fiasco: The Half-million Dollar Cover-up on Whether UFOs Really Exist.” As Fuller put it:

A strange series of incidents in the University of Colorado Unidentified Flying Objects study has led to a near mutiny by several of the staff scientists, the dismissal of two Ph.D.’s on the staff, and the resignation of the project’s administrative assistant.

In discomforting detail, Fuller described the Low memorandum, the firing of project scientists, and NICAP’s complete break with the project. The latter was announced by Keyhoe himself:

After seventeen months, NICAP has broken with the University of Colorado UFO Project. We join Look and John G. Fuller in disclosing the facts as a public service.... NICAP will submit plans to the president and Congress for a new official investigation.... Meantime, to offset the Colorado failure, our investigations will be intensified.

The effect on public opinion was devastating. Look’s circulation, after all, was 8 million. Low spent the morning of Monday, April 29, doing damage control before the press, claiming to have been quoted out of context. He maintained that the word “trick” from the 1966 memorandum did not carry the meaning Fuller implied. For the rest of the morning, Low was in Condon’s office, conferring with legal counsel. There could now be no question that Robert Low had to go for the project to retain any credibility.⁷⁸

Condon protested to Look’s publisher that the article contained falsehoods and misrepresentations, but failed to specify them. Look stood by the article, and on April 30, the project was denounced in Congress by Rep. J. Edward Roush, a member of the House Science and Astronautics Committee. The Look story, said Roush, raised “grave doubts as to the scientific profundity and objectivity of the project.” Roush wrote to Air Force Secretary Robert B. Seamans to ask for his comments “on this deplorable situation,” and then to the comptroller general to investigate the use of public money for the project. The Colorado Project, Roush said, was rigged from the start.

Keyhoe followed up with a letter to President Lyndon Johnson (attaching the now-infamous memorandum) and urged a new, impartial investigation. He received a reply from the air force secretary’s office: “[W]e expect Dr. Condon will fulfill the terms of the agreement.” Through May and June, NICAP worked with Roush, assembling, in Keyhoe’s words, its “most powerful evidence” in anticipation of a full-scale investigation.

Back at Boulder, Condon was concerned over the loss of so many people from the project. On May 15, the announcement was made that Low would be relieved of “90 percent” of his duties from the project, effective May 24, and would return to his previous job as special assistant to Thurston E. Manning. Moreover, although the project had received an extension to complete its work, the project members nevertheless were anxious to get on with their careers. Roy Craig was among these, but Condon pleaded with Craig not to leave the project on June 30, 1968, as planned. Ever the loyalist, Craig stayed on, if for no other reason than to assist the editor of the final report—who had yet to be selected!